The Dinosaur Hunter(100)

I ducked as bullets ricocheted off the boulders. I had Tanya’s .22, Ray had his .44, and Amelia her .38 and Edith’s, too. “Jeanette, do you have your pistol on you?”

“No, Mike. I’m sorry.”

So that was it, four pistols and just the ammo that was in them. Amelia silently handed Edith’s pistol to Jeanette. The shooting stopped and Ray peeked around a slab of sandstone. “They’re just standing there, looking up at us.”

“Do you see Cade?”

“Yeah. He’s on his back, pushed up on his elbows, looking around. There’s blood on his jeans. No, wait, he’s getting up and limping over to one of our chairs.”

“Flesh wound,” I said. “I hoped I’d hit bone.”

Laura said, “Pick, what’s all this, anyway?”

Pick was huddled against a boulder. “I’m sorry,” he gulped. “I messed up.”

“No shit!” Laura snapped.

Pick hung his head. “Where do I start?”

“The beginning is always good,” I said.

Everyone was looking at him. He looked back, then shook his head. “When I was in Argentina, Cade sent me an e-mail with just the photographs Ray put in his paper. Cade said they were bones he’d found on his property and he wanted to sell them. He wanted to hire me to come find the rest of the skeleton. I kept telling him that it was the science that was important, but if a baby T. rex skeleton was found, I could raise the money to see that he was paid. He agreed to that so I came. When I got here, he gave me a complete copy of Ray’s paper and started telling me about the complications, that the bones weren’t on his property but maybe on the BLM and I had to get permission to cross the Square C and all that.”

Laura asked, “Why didn’t you leave?”

Pick looked around. “Did anybody bring any water?”

“I’ve got two liters in my backpack,” Laura said.

“Don’t give him any until he tells us the rest of his story,” I said. I also calculated how long eight people could survive on two liters of water in the blazing sun. Nine, counting Edith. The answer was not long.

Pick took a weary breath and said, “I swear I had no idea that Cade would bring men like this after us.”

“How about the mayor?” I asked. “What’s her part in this?”

“I think she was the one who first got hold of Ray’s paper and showed it to Cade.”

That made sense. As mayor, Edith probably checked the high school Internet site occasionally and there would have been the English teacher’s posting of the paper.

Pick went on. “Edith was at Cade’s ranch when I met with him. She gave me the BLM permit and said her husband would let me remove the bones with no problems.”

“And Toby?”

“He was there, too. He was very knowledgeable of paleontology and understood what it meant to find a baby Tyrannosaur. He said he had friends with lots of money who would finance future expeditions. I agreed to go see what I could find and then we’d talk more. That’s all I agreed to. But then something happened. Could I have some water now?”

I nodded to Laura and she handed him a bottle. “Just a swallow,” she warned.

Pick got his swallow and went on. “I spent the night at Cade’s ranch and then drove to the Square C the next day. After I talked to you and Jeanette, I was surprised to find Mayor Brescoe and Cade were waiting for me just inside the BLM fence. They made it clear that, despite what was said the day before, I was working for them. That’s when they killed that black cow. They said that could be me.”

“My bull!” Jeanette gasped.

“Cade had a rifle and shot it. When it didn’t die right away, the mayor went over to their truck, got a shovel and a big knife, came back and hit the cow in the head with the shovel that broke. The cow was still alive so she cut its throat. It was awful. She also cut the fence, saying no one would suspect a local would do such a thing.”

Jeanette stared at Edith who was lying where I’d dropped her. I noticed her head was a bit bloody, seeing as how it had bounced off a sandstone rock. I hadn’t meant to do that. She was occasionally groaning. Otherwise, she seemed to be out cold.

“How could she do that to a poor, dumb animal?” Jeanette demanded.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” Pick said. “I mean she acted crazy. She was laughing the whole time. Cade finally told her to settle down.”

“So you agreed to play ball,” I said.

“It was either that or run away. I really wanted to look for that little T. rex. I figured if I found it, something could be worked out. When we started finding more than I ever imagined and not on the BLM, it got a lot more complicated. I just kept putting Cade off about it.”