Читать книгу Into the Badlands - Caron Todd, Caron Todd - Страница 9

ALEX ROLLED OUT OF BED and tugged the top sheet more or less straight before heading to the kitchen. The one-bedroom suite, with its discolored linoleum and chipped porcelain kitchen sink, had been the only place he could find to rent on short notice. It was luxurious compared to his last home. During the months he spent at a quarry in Mongolia, he’d cooked over a camp stove, washed from a metal basin and shared a tent with a variety of six-legged roommates. Sometimes, especially after a few months in the city, he thought that was the best way to live.

He shook some Cheerios into a bowl and sloshed in some milk. The kitchen window faced north, so rather than enjoying a view of the foothills or the badlands while he ate, Alex looked out at a line of beige brick buildings. In the distance, he could see deciduous woods and rolling meadows. A herd of Charolais cattle, as small as plastic toys, grazed in one of the fields, white splotches against the green.

It was nothing like Susannah Robb’s view. Her place was small and comfortable, but sprouting on the edge of the badlands the way it did, it had a feeling of wildness, too. Maybe he could stay put and work in one place for as long as Bruce Simpson had if he lived in a house that didn’t crush him. Or maybe not.

The sun was still low when Alex headed to the museum, fifteen minutes from town. It had been a short night, but he had too much adrenaline in his bloodstream to feel tired. He was glad to see that the staff parking lot was empty. Aware that he might not be alone for long, Alex quickly let himself into the museum, then into the prep lab.

Labeled cupboards ringed the main room, and heavy metal shelves holding bones and rock stood in rows at one end. Most of the space was filled by wide worktables with overhead lamps the technicians could raise and lower as needed. A second room, where skeletons were put together, branched off from the first.

Surprised that more advanced technology hadn’t found its way onto such an important door, Alex sorted through a ring of jangling keys to find the one that would unlock the fossil storage room. This room was larger than the other two. It had to be, when a single bone could be as large as an average human. On the other hand, some of the fossils could fit in his pocket.

Security cameras recorded traffic in and out. The door was kept locked at all times. Individual drawers inside the room were locked and a locked mesh protected specimens stored on shelves. Stealing from this room wouldn’t be a casual affair, but Bruce Simpson thought someone had managed it. The board was clinging to a hope that the discrepancies in the collection were due to honest mistakes.

Alex decided to double-check Bruce’s findings first. He opened one of the drawers of Diane McKay’s samples. They came from a black shale deposit in the Rockies, an area that had been under water millions of years ago, before the earth’s plates had crunched together, forcing it into the sky. Boneless organisms weren’t usually preserved. These gave a rare glimpse into ancient invertebrate life.

The label on the outside said the drawer contained pieces of shale with thirty-five one-inch-long Marella imprints. The drawer looked full. Handling the specimens carefully, Alex counted. Just as Bruce had said, there were only thirty-one. He checked the next drawer, which was supposed to hold eleven Hallucigenia, a cylindrical creature with seven pairs of tentacles.

There were nine.

The Opabinia was the rarest of the Burgess Shale fossils. Seven specimens should be here. Aware of tension he hadn’t noticed earlier, Alex unlocked the drawer and pulled it open.

Six.

It was the same in several drawers that held groups of small fossils. Instead of ten oyster-laden pieces of shale, there were eight. Instead of thirty small brachiopods, there were twenty-five. Someone had been confident that a casual glimpse in the drawers wouldn’t reveal the loss of a few specimens. The brachiopods wouldn’t fill anybody’s bank account, but the Burgess Shale fossils were well worth the risk.

Alex paced away, too angry to continue counting. He’d spent his adult life finding and studying fossils, trying to build an image of a very different world through keyhole glimpses and guesses. Most of the people he knew did the same thing. He couldn’t imagine the greed that let someone destroy that work. Not just anyone. Someone on staff, who understood the harm he or she was doing.

He flipped through the circulation log, checking who had signed specimens in and out of the storage room. He went back days, then weeks. There was no record of the brachiopods or oysters being borrowed, but three people had recently taken out Burgess Shale specimens. Diane, of course, someone called C.W. Adams from the University of Alberta, and one of the lab technicians, who had only signed her first name—Marie. Diane and Marie had signed the fossils back in the same day they looked at them. C.W. Adams, whoever he or she was, had taken several specimens to the university. Would it help to watch security tapes from the days in question? If the images were clear enough to show the actual number of specimens being removed from, and returned to, the drawers—

“What in the hell are you doing?” The voice was loud and angry.

Alex looked calmly toward the open door. “Morning, Charlie.”

“What are you doing, skulking in here—”

“Skulking?”

“The lights are off, there’s nobody here to see what you’re up to—”

“The cameras can see.”

Charlie stopped quivering at the door and stalked into the room. “There’s a system here, Dr. Blake, a rather intricate cataloguing system. Until you understand it, you shouldn’t be here alone. It’s very easy to mess things up and then the whole thing falls apart—”

Surprised by the conservator’s rudeness, Alex said mildly, “I’ve put everything back the way I found it.”

“As far as you know.” Charlie started pulling drawer handles. “Have you locked up after yourself? We have a security system in place—”

“I’m acquainted with the security system.”

Something in Alex’s voice caught Charlie’s attention. He took a deep breath, then spoke more calmly. “Everything seems to be locked.”

“I made sure of it. The board has asked me to do an inventory—”

That set Charlie off again. “Why didn’t they ask me? It’s my system. I don’t want people in the lab when it’s not open. That’s asking for trouble.” He tilted his head toward the door. “Ready to go?”

Bruce had warned Alex that Charlie tended to be territorial. He’d been running the lab for so long he seemed to forget it wasn’t his personal property. For now, Alex was willing to keep the peace. “I’ll have to continue the inventory, though, so prepare yourself for regular company.”

As he stepped out of the storage room, Alex nearly bumped into a woman just outside the door. His hands reached out to steady her. He took in, at a glance, blond hair twisted into a chignon, smooth, tanned skin and curves apparent even under a lab coat.

“My fault,” she said, a little breathlessly. “I was eavesdropping. What a horrible job they’ve given you. Can I help?”

“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to take you from your work.” Alex realized he was still steadying the woman, even though it was no longer necessary. He dropped his hands and took a step back. “I saw you at the staff meeting yesterday. I’m afraid I don’t remember your name.”

She held out a slender hand. “Carol Hughes. I’m a technician here in the lab.”

“Would you have time for coffee this afternoon?”

She smiled. “I’ve got lots of time. For coffee, for a sandwich, for a few days in Bermuda.”

SUSANNAH’S EYES JERKED OPEN. Bright hot midmorning sunlight filled the house. She wasn’t in the loft—she was on the living room sofa bed. She lay still and sifted through jumbled impressions, trying to sort out what had happened.

Blake. Alexander Blake had happened. He’d pulled her out of the sinkhole, he’d brought her home, and he’d tucked her in. She groaned softly at the memory. Never let the competition tuck you in.

While she’d slept, Susannah’s bruised shoulder had set like cement. Painfully she pulled herself up in the bed. Sand sprinkled from her hair onto the sheet when she moved. Under the bandages, scabs had formed on her palms, stiffening her hands. She edged her legs over the side of the bed and flicked off the metal clips fastening the tensor. Her ankle was vividly colored. Shades of purple, blue and red spread out like a sunrise.

“I made a mess of yesterday,” she muttered to her toes. “Why did I let him get to me?” She knew how to get along with colleagues and employers, even if they were difficult. She never acted on impulse. Maybe never was pushing it. She rarely acted on impulse, precisely because she messed things up when she did.

Her clock radio sat on the end table, calmly beaming the time—ten-fifteen. The alarm hadn’t gone off. She was more than two hours late for work, she could hardly move, and she had enough sand in her hair to bury a brontosaurus.

She saw the note first, then the water and the open bottle of pills. Thankfully, she shook two tablets into her hand and transferred them to her mouth, lips against gauze. She needed both hands to manage the glass. Even then, she nearly dropped it.

The note was next. Large sprawling letters covered the page.

Dr. Robb,

You were sound asleep before I put away your dinner tray. I took the liberty of leaving the alarm off in the belief that sleep is in your best interests. Please take some time off—let those injuries heal. I’ll tell James you won’t be at the quarry for a while.

Alex Blake

Susannah let the paper drop onto the bed. She would have to disappoint him. Taking time off was out of the question. She wanted to check on Matt, and she had a quarry to run. More importantly, she had to behave noticeably like a grown-up in Blake’s presence.

It was nearly noon by the time she was able to get to the museum. When she stepped off the elevator on the second floor, she heard animated voices coming from Diane’s office. Grasping her crutch, she made her way toward the sound.

“How about Coprolites Incorporated?” she heard Diane suggest. “It has an almost poetic ring.”

“Nah, nobody’ll know what we’re about. We need something catchy and to the point, like We Do Dinosaur Doo-Doo.”

“That’s awful, James. I want something with a little dignity.”

“Who needs dignity? We’re going to make our fortunes here.” James broke off, looking toward the door. “Sue!” He reached her side in one giant step. “What are you doing out of bed? Look at you!”

“I’d rather you didn’t. Not today.”

“You look better wearing bruises and bandages than most women look wearing silk,” James assured her. He kicked a basket of toys out of the way and guided her to a chair. “How’d you get here without your car? Don’t tell me you hopped.”

“Taxi. The driver acted like it was an international trip—all the way from town to my place, then here. I’ll have to make the payments in installments. A year should do it.”

Diane scooped a pile of textbooks from an extra chair and eased Susannah’s foot onto it. “Shouldn’t your ankle be bandaged?”

“Could you help me with it, Di? I couldn’t get the tensor back on after I showered, if you can call it showering. I stood there with my hands outside the curtain like a zombie, hoping the force of the water would be enough to get the grit out of my hair. What’s all this about coprolites?”

Diane took the bandage and started a couple of turns around the instep of Susannah’s foot. “Sophisticated collectors are paying big bucks for the stuff.”

“Really? What do people want them for? Bookends?”

“Or paperweights, maybe. Organic decor is in.” The tensor, just wound, was already coming undone. Diane sighed and started over.

“So we’ve decided the amateur bone hunters have the right idea,” James said earnestly. “Why spend all those years in university so we can make a living working with fossils when we can do better selling dung?”

“Can I join? I’d love to get rid of the last of my student loans.”

“You know I’d do anything for you, Sue, but this is my pet project and my loans come first.” James looked at his watch and jumped up. “Gotta go. I have a meeting with Alex.”

“Is it about Matt? Wait, I’ll come with you.”

“Thanks, Sue, but he asked for me. If I’m not back in half an hour, come looking for me.” James hurried out the door.

Susannah looked after him worriedly. “Poor James. It’s not the way you hope to start out with a new boss…in the middle of your biggest screwup.”

“Sounds like the voice of experience.” Finally Diane fastened the end of the tensor. “There!” She sat back to admire her handiwork. “Don’t ever take it off, Sue. I worked too hard to see it thrown away, as if it were nothing but a disgusting bandage.”

“Agreed. It feels great.” Susannah looked at Diane more closely. “You still look tired. What’s up?”

“I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. There’s too much going on around here.”

“I guess I didn’t help, dragging you out to the quarry.”

“You didn’t drag me.”

Cradling her arm, Susannah said, “I can’t believe I stalked off like that. Blake must think I’m a complete idiot.”

Diane shook her head. “He wasn’t even annoyed when he found out you’d gone to the quarry instead of the meeting. He just accepted that you were busy. Maybe you don’t have anything to worry about with him, after all.” She hesitated, then added, “Actually, I thought he was a sweetheart yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. He seems to have mellowed, though. So I’m going to apologize, and thank him, and be my usual professional self. The next thing you know we’ll be working together just like any two sensible people.”

SUSANNAH KNOCKED on Alex’s office door. After a moment it swung open, and he stood before her, only inches away.

“Dr. Robb,” he said lightly. “You’re never where I expect you to be.”

Her good intentions evaporated. She forgot she’d ever had any. “Don’t you mean I’m never where you’ve told me to be?”

He looked surprised, then cautious. “I suppose you could put it like that.”

“Wouldn’t it make your life easier if you just stopped telling me?”

“You might be right.” His voice had cooled. “In any case, I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to come to work. Would you like to sit down? It’s just a suggestion. You’re free to do whatever you like. I have a guest who’s been worried about you.”

Susannah craned her neck to look past him. Sitting on a hard chair in front of Alex’s desk was Matt, happily examining a plastic triceratops model. He didn’t look like someone who’d been called on the carpet, but Susannah’s protective instincts flooded through her anyway. “You have a list of people to deal with today, I see. I know James was here earlier. Flexing your authoritarian muscle?”

“I was going to leave you until you were feeling better.”

He was close enough that Susannah could feel his breath on her ear when he spoke. Eager to put some distance between them, she made her way to his desk and sank thankfully into a chair near Matt’s.

“Have you seen this, Dr. Robb?” Matt held up the triceratops model.

“Not that particular model, but in my office I have a wooden hadrosaur skeleton that I made myself.”

He nodded without much interest. “Look at this one. It’s really cool. You can take the skin off to see the bones. And Dr. Blake’s got a sand table where you can see how dead dinosaurs got covered up, and you can practice digging them up. Dr. Blake says the current in the river washes them downstream, and then they get caught where the river turns a corner, so that’s a good place to dig.”

Dr. Blake says…? She and James had said the same thing on the first day of science camp. She looked from the sand table to Alex, lounging against his desk. Her eyes followed the long line of his body, from the sandy hair and broad shoulders to the firm stomach and casually crossed legs. Strong, tanned arms were folded across his chest, seeming to cuddle a bloodthirsty tyrannosaur that glared out of a silk-screened subtropical forest. The shirt was more appropriate for a kid like Matt than a man in his late thirties. It suited him, though.

Alex’s attention was on the boy. “Where were we?”

Matt shifted uncomfortably. “You were talking about a…contract.” He clearly didn’t like the word. “For me to remember the rules.”

“How far did we get?”

“I’m supposed to stay off the hills and stay with the other kids.”

“Two things to remember,” Alex agreed. “Tough things, but I think you can do it. Now, my part of the contract is the consequences.”

His expression mutinous, Matt stared at the floor.

“Here’s the hard part. If you break the rules, I’ll send you home.” Alex waited for that to sink in. “But the flip side is that if you follow the rules, you can earn a reward. Would you be interested in spending an afternoon in the prep lab putting together a dinosaur skeleton?”

Matt looked up. “A real one?”

“As real as it usually gets. The technicians have been working on a triceratops—just like that model. They’ve made fiberglass replicas of the fossil bones. Would you like to help put them together?”

Face glowing, Matt nodded.

“Then it’s a deal. We both sign the contract, and we shake on it.” Together, they walked to the door. “Amy’s just down the hall. She’ll take you back to camp. Good luck, Matt.”

Alex closed the door and turned to face Susannah.

“A contract?” she said. “Isn’t that a bit cold?”

He didn’t answer until he returned to his desk and sat down. “I suppose it could sound cold. My sister’s a teacher and she swears by contracts. She says they help kids stay focused and grown-ups stay consistent. The stakes are too high at the quarry. Matt won’t be safe there unless he remembers the rules.”

Susannah nodded, thinking of the rocks on the sinkhole floor. “I’m concerned about your offer to take him into the lab.”

“Oh?”

“We’ve all learned what he’s like. There are tools and chemicals he could get into, and specimens he could break.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Alex’s attitude was frustrating but not unexpected. “Despite that disagreement, I appreciate the way you handled Matt. It’s easy to get mad at him. Your approach gives him a chance to learn.”

“I know the type—from experience.”

“Do you have kids?” She hadn’t noticed any family pictures around the office, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a family.

He shook his head. “I was a lot like Matt—full of energy and enthusiasm. Rules were mere speed bumps. They just slowed me down a little as I ran over them.”

Susannah didn’t have any trouble believing that. “You probably climbed a few hoodoos in your time, too.”

“I couldn’t find any in North Vancouver, or I would have. There were other things to do, though, like jump into rivers from canyon walls.”

She stared at him. “Lynn Canyon, you mean? But people die doing that.”

He nodded. “That’s what my parents kept saying.”

“But it’s illegal, isn’t it?”

“They said that, too.”

She tried not to smile. “You’re telling me you were bad.”

“I was never bad. I just liked having fun.”

The conversation had strayed far from the direction Susannah had intended to take it. “I came here to apologize—”

“For the meeting? You already have. And I’ve accepted.”

“All right.” He was making it too easy. “I wanted to thank you again for helping me yesterday. Taking me to the hospital and home, fixing dinner. The pills, too, and leaving the bottle open…” She paused, then continued with a trace of embarrassment. “And I saw this morning that you cleaned up after me…the sand, and the clothes. I’m really very grateful.”

“But?”

“But…I’d prefer a more professional relationship. I’d like you to stop deciding what I need when I haven’t asked for help. I didn’t want to sleep in today, and I don’t need to take time off.”

Alex gave a brisk nod. “You’re right. We met in a strange way. I guess the sense of emergency blurred the usual boundaries.”

“The situation with Matt…”

“Yes?”

“Nothing like that has ever happened before. I take full responsibility.”

“So did James.”

“I knew what Matt was like. I should have arranged to have him partnered with an adult.”

“That’s a good idea. You don’t have to rake yourself over the coals about this, Dr. Robb. Accidents happen. James will step up supervision at the quarry, and the contract should help.”

“Good. That’s settled, then.” She smiled uneasily. It was hard to reestablish control when he was so reasonable.

“There’s one other thing,” Alex said. “The next time you go out to the quarry—I understand it’ll be a while before you’re up to the rigors of that kind of day—I want to go along. Since you weren’t able to meet with me yesterday, and I don’t have your report, I’m not familiar with your project. You can walk me through it.”

Susannah’s neck stiffened. It was a reasonable request from the head of dinosaur research, but she’d seen his sense of ownership in Australia. “Do you plan to visit all the current projects?”

“Eventually.”

“You want to put your stamp on all the work?”

Alex looked puzzled, then a little angry. “That’s an odd thing to say. Is there something more going on here than you told me last night? You’re not just miffed about the job. Is it something about me in particular you distrust, or are you just paranoid?”

Paranoid? How many judgments did he intend on throwing around? “It’s something about you, Dr. Blake.”

“I see. I put your hostility yesterday down to shock. Is that still the problem?” When Susannah didn’t reply, he continued, “I can take a certain amount of unpleasantness, but you’re part of a team. This kind of behavior could sabotage the museum’s work if it goes on too long. Care to have it out?”

That would be some conversation—make that some outburst. “There’s nothing to have out.”

“Then I suggest you hold your bitterness toward me in check. I wouldn’t want it to be a barrier to the museum’s functioning.”

It was a threat. How on earth had she gone from being Bruce’s anointed successor to being seen as an expendable liability?

She stood up, as straight as she could. “I’m not confident that you have this museum’s best interests at heart, Dr. Blake. If you don’t, you can expect a lot more than a few hostile words from me. It’s really up to you how well the museum functions.” She wished she could stalk out of his office, but lopsided hopping was the best she could do.

More than anything Susannah wanted to go home, but she was determined not to leave before closing. Or later. She was up to the rigors of her job, whether it was lying in the sand with a chisel or sitting at a desk with a keyboard.

Slowly and painfully, she made her way to the preparation lab. She detoured around a crowd of visitors pressed shoulder to shoulder at the observation window. Another group was inside the lab, being shepherded around by a public education staffer. Charlie wouldn’t be happy. He didn’t like sight-seers taking up elbow room, getting perilously close to the fossils under his care.

As she searched the long rows of metal shelves for specimens from the quarry, she couldn’t help overhearing a snippet of conversation between Marie and Carol, lab technicians who had been at the museum nearly as long as Susannah.

“Did you notice his eyes?”

“Mmm. So blue—so kind and amused.”

“He’s got all that muscle and intensity of purpose and he just gleams with intelligence. I never could resist a brainy guy with a tan.”

Marie raised her voice. “I hear Dr. Blake pulled you out of a sinkhole, Susannah. That must have made your day! Those strong arms wrapped around you. That broad, muscled chest—”

And that broad, muscled ego. “I’m afraid it was wasted on me. All I noticed was light and fresh air.”

“Too bad.” With pitying expressions barely hidden, the women pulled on their gear—gloves, masks, earplugs and goggles. Carol bent over a large chunk of rock. A quiet roar filled the air as she turned on a power drill.

“Susannah!” Charlie made his way through the rows of worktables toward her. They moved away from the noise. “You don’t look much the worse for wear. Adventure must agree with you.”

She gestured at the storage shelves. “I’m looking for my stuff.”

He indicated one of the tables. “We’ve just unpacked the most recent specimens. Cretaceous flotsam and jetsam, most likely.”

“I thought we crated some great specimens.”

“At this point you’ve had a better look at them than I have,” he admitted. “We’ll see, once we get the plaster off and the rest of the rock chipped away.”

“Is my skull ready yet?”

“Carol’s been working on it. It should be ready sometime next week, I think. Unless Dr. Blake has lost it.”

Susannah smiled at Charlie’s aggrieved tone. “How would he have done that?”

“You can smile, but I’m serious. I found him in the storage room early this morning. He claimed to be doing an inventory. He left quite a mess.”

“That’s odd.” Whatever she thought of him, she had trouble believing Alex would be careless with specimens. On the other hand, it hadn’t bothered him at all to drive through the gully, probably crunching fossils as he went. Only half-joking, she asked, “My skull’s still there, isn’t it?”

“It’s there.” Charlie gave a sheepish shrug. “I’m exaggerating.”

“Is it holding together all right?”

“So far, so good. It’s fragile in places. You’re lucky it got safely past your herd of dinosaur fanatics. How can you stand having all those kids milling around?”

“They slow down the work a bit, but they’re lots of fun. They think we’re an exciting bunch, you know.”

“Naive little things.”

“I don’t mean to rush you with the skull. It would be awful if it broke—I’m beginning to think we might find a complete skeleton. That doesn’t happen all that often.”

Charlie smiled reassuringly. “We’ll be extra careful.”

THAT EVENING, Charlie drove Susannah home. “You going to do this to yourself again tomorrow?”

“I don’t think I can.” She was throbbing from head to foot. “I’ll probably have to take some time off, like it or not. I hate to look weak in front of Blake, though.”

“To tell you the truth, Sue, you don’t come across as all that strong, wobbling around covered with bandages, looking like you’re going to cry.”