The Dinosaur Hunter(94)

Later, I woke up because I think I’d programmed my brain to hear that particular sound. There it was, that strange engine noise, far out in the darkness. I started to wake Tanya to see if she could make sense of it but she looked so peaceful, I left her alone. The next thing I knew, it was morning, and Tanya was in my arms again. She kissed me. “Good morning,” she said. “I love waking up next to you.”

“Any morning with a beautiful Russian woman in bed with me is bound to be a good one,” I answered.

“Just any beautiful Russian woman?” she teased.

“No, dear,” I said. “Just you.” And, what do you know, I meant it.





30




Pick gathered us outside the cook tent. “People,” he said, “I’m an idiot.”

When no one disagreed, either because they were too tired to argue or they thought his assessment was spot on, he continued. “The T. rex family would have gone out to meet the intruder. Therefore, the nest must be somewhere else.”

“What about the little bones we found?” Laura asked. “That indicates a nest.”

“Not necessarily. Those bones could belong to a chick, which followed its mother.”

He spread out the BLM map on a field table and stabbed his finger on the eastern end of Blackie Butte. “I looked over there yesterday. An excellent outcrop of the Hell Creek formation, the right elevation, and on the other side of what was a small stream from the battle.”

“The chick couldn’t have crossed a stream,” Laura pointed out.

“It was just a little stream, not very deep. There were rocks that the chick could have hopped on to cross.” He looked up, squinting at the hill. “The mother T would have gone back to the nest after the battle, leaving the bodies of the dead rogue and the little male, which was probably her mate. It was at least a day later that the rain came and the flooding began that would preserve everything including, if we find it, the nest. Of course, the mother T would have left when the water started to rise but a nest, perhaps with eggs or egg shells, would be an amazing find all by itself.”

When we all just stood around, scratching our bug bites and massaging our sore muscles, Pick said, “The bottom line is we need to move the dig.”

This announcement prompted groans and whining. Laura let them play out, then started organizing everything. I was keeping an eye on Edith. When she walked away from the rest of us, I sneaked between the tents so I could watch her. She went into her tent, came out with a telephone in her hand, and walked over to Ted’s truck and went behind it. In a couple of minutes, she returned to her tent, then came out without the telephone.

As our little army climbed painfully up the hill to fulfill Laura’s plan and Pick’s vision, I pulled Edith over. “I didn’t know cell phones worked out here.”

She hesitated, then said, “It’s a satellite phone. As mayor, I need to be in touch with my office.”

“Who were you talking to?”

“Oh, office personnel.”

“You don’t have any office personnel,” I pointed out. “Did you talk to Cade Morgan? Last night, I’m pretty sure I heard you say his name.” I hadn’t but it was a stab in the dark.

She looked exasperated, and then said, “OK, Cade and I have a thing going. He’s funny and makes me laugh. That’s why I called him. Anyway, with Ted the way he is, what did you expect?”

I ignored that. “Did Cade mention visitors? Say, in a black limo?”

Edith shrugged. “Toby’s relatives came to pick up his body. They needed a place to stay so Cade let them spend a few days at his ranch.”

“Do you mind if I call Cade on your phone?” I asked. “And Ted?” The latter was because I was curious about Ted’s illness, which seemed somehow convenient.

“Yes, I mind very much,” Edith said with some heat. “And I mind that you’re asking me all these questions. It’s like you’re accusing me of something. I think, Mike, you and I are no longer friends.”

“Edith, I’m on your side. I always have been.”

“I know,” she answered, softening. “That’s what makes this all so hard.”

Edith kept climbing after the others and I went back to my tent and got my backpack with the Glock. I told Ray and Amelia to carry their pistols, too. I caught Jeanette drinking her second cup of coffee in the supply tent, told her about Edith and her sat phone, then said, “She and Cade are up to something. I don’t know what it is.” I then told her about the black limo. “My guess is it hauled some of Toby’s friends here.”