Nancy shook her head. “I hope so,” she said.
“Hey, I know,” Bess continued. “There’s going to be a square dance tomorrow night here at the hotel. Jack asked me to go with him. Why don’t you and Ned come, too? We’ll have a great time!”
“Good idea,” Nancy said, feeling uncomfortable. That was the same dance that Jack had offered to take her to just a few hours before. Sure, he had been fooling around, but still . . . Was Jack one of those guys who had to charm every girl he met? If so, Bess was letting herself in for grief. Judging by the gleam in her eye, this was not the time to give her any warnings.
• • •
As Nancy and Bess were finishing their breakfast the next morning, Edith Turkower came over to their table. “We’re doing a ranger-guided tour of Upper Geyser Basin,” she announced. “Gerald and I thought you might like to come along.”
Nancy gave Bess a gentle kick on the ankle and said, “I can’t, but I know Bess would love to.”
As Edith walked away, Nancy said softly, “Keep a close eye on them, Bess. It’s important.”
“No problem,” Bess replied.
Once Bess left the table, Nancy decided to go to the Gardiner hospital to see Brad again. She headed for her car.
• • •
Lost in thought, she was already climbing a steep grade on the mountain road that led to Gardiner when she noticed a van close behind her—too close. It seemed to be tailgating her. She pressed harder on the gas pedal, but the van kept pace with her.
The road wound between a sheer wall of rock on the left and a deep ravine on the right. As they came around a long curve, the van pulled out to pass. Nancy edged over toward the ravine to give it more room, but instead of going ahead, the van stayed next to her.
Alarmed, Nancy hit the brakes to let the other vehicle move ahead. Instead, the van slowed.
Then without warning it swerved toward her, its front bumper banging into Nancy’s door. She struggled to control the wheel, but the van slammed into her again, forcing her car toward the edge of the ravine.
She glanced to her right, and her stomach twisted. The drop was endless, and she was just about to go over!
Chapter
Six
ALL THAT SEPARATED Nancy from a drop into the ravine was a couple of feet of shoulder, and the van was continuing to nudge her over.
Nancy accelerated, attempting to pull ahead of her pursuer. She knew she couldn’t keep driving at this speed—the road was too treacherous.
In seconds the van was behind her again, moving up to slam into her from the rear. She rounded a curve and spotted a sign for a scenic overlook. As she approached it, she took a deep breath and jerked the wheel sharply to the right. The wheels skidded on the gravel.
The van followed and was just about to ram into her again when Nancy saw a tall lodgepole pine at the far end of the overlook parking area. She steered her car straight at it. She was just about to hit it when she swerved left and shot back onto the highway.
In the rearview mirror, she saw the van graze the tree she had just missed. Then, to her astonishment, the driver of the van backed up, turned, and roared off in the other direction.
Puzzled, Nancy stopped her car. When she looked ahead of her, she saw a park service vehicle pulling into the parking area and understood why the driver of the van had headed off in such a hurry. He’d seen the ranger, too.
The ranger stopped his car next to hers and jumped out. He was about forty and had a crewcut and neat mustache. “Are you all right?” he asked.
Nancy nodded, even though she felt shaken. “A van tried to run me off the road.”
“Did you see who was driving?” The ranger leaned his elbows on the edge of her window. Nancy noted the name on the plate pinned to his breast pocket: Martin Robbins.
She shook her head.
“Will you come to my office to make a report? It’s near the north entrance,” he continued.
Nancy followed him back up the road to the ranger station.
Once inside and settled in a chair, she watched while Robbins filled out a report. “I don’t suppose you got the license number?”
Nancy shook her head ruefully. “Sorry, things happened too fast. I did notice the words Minden Linen painted on the door of the van. Does that mean anything to you?”
“It’s the biggest linen service in this area. All the hotels in Yellowstone get their sheets and towels from there. I know their chief dispatcher. I’ll call him,” Martin suggested.
Even though she only heard Martin’s half of the conversation, Nancy could tell that something was wrong.
“Well?” she asked eagerly once he had hung up.
“One of their drivers, Bert Heckleby, missed a couple of deliveries this morning,” Martin replied. “He’s not answering calls on his radio either.”
Could someone have paid Heckleby to attack her? Or stolen his van?
“I get the feeling that there’s more to this than you’re telling me,” Martin said.
Taking a deep breath, Nancy explained everything, including the propane stove explosion and the missing marmots.
Martin nodded. “Jack’s kept me up to date on the problems, but he’s not convinced the marmots are being poached. He thinks someone may be trying to sabotage the study.”
“That’s a possibility,” Nancy replied. “But traps and tranquilizers have been stolen. That points to poaching.”
The ranger frowned. “I did pass on word of this to the people at the Fish and Wildlife Service,” he said. “But there’s no telling what they’ll do about it. I wish I could help more, but I simply don’t have the staff.”
After Nancy told Martin that she was a detective, he grinned and nodded appreciatively. “I’d welcome any help you can give, but be careful. Poaching is dangerous business—especially when big money is at stake.”
“I understand that whistling marmots can bring as much as five hundred dollars apiece on the black market,” Nancy remarked. “If fifty of them really were stolen, the poachers stand to make twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Martin glanced above Nancy’s shoulder. She turned to see Jack Billings at the open door of the office.
He grinned at her and put a slide projector on the table in the corner of the room. “That ought to work now, Martin. Hey, Nancy. What brings you here?”
“You’d better look after this girl, Jack,” Martin cautioned. “Somebody doesn’t like her. A guy in a van just tried to run her off the road.”
“What? Are you serious?” Jack moved closer to Nancy and put his hand on her shoulder solicitously. “Are you okay? You want me to drive you back to the hotel?”
“No need,” Nancy replied. “I’m on my way to visit Brad, anyway.”
She thanked Martin and then walked outside with Jack. The morning sun glinted against the dent in the side of the white rental car.
“You need to be more careful, Nancy. I’d feel terrible if anything happened to you.”
“So would I,” she joked. She couldn’t help feeling attracted to him, but the warmth and concern she saw in his eyes made her feel awkward. “I’ll tell Bess I saw you,” she added pointedly.
“Please do. She’s a great girl,” Jack said, smiling. “I’ll see both of you later, right?”
Nancy got into her car and drove off with only a wave for an answer. On the way to the hospital, she kept thinking about Jack. She hoped Bess wasn’t getting into something she’d regret.
• • •
Brad’s face broke into a welcoming smile when he saw Nancy. “Hi. It’s great to see you.”
“Hi yourself,” she replied, dropping into a chair by the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Great! The doctor said I’ll be out of this place in a day or two.”
“I’m glad.” Nancy leaned forward. “Listen, Brad, I want to talk about the problems the study’s been having. Did you find out anything while you were investigating?”
“The professor is in real financial trouble,”
Brad replied reluctantly. “I found lots of overdue bills in his tent. You know he’s put his own money into this study.”
“Yes,” Nancy said. “But once the extension comes through, he’ll be reimbursed.”
“That’s just it,” Brad said unhappily. “I found a letter from the Department of Interior in his tent. There won’t be any extension. Trainey’s application was turned down.”
“What!” Nancy exclaimed. “That’s terrible. That means the professor’s out all that money.”
Brad nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“Wow!” Nancy thought for a moment. “You know Professor Trainey pretty well, don’t you?”
Brad nodded. “I think so. I’ve worked with him pretty closely for a couple of years.”
“Could he be desperate enough to try to get his money back by selling marmots?” Nancy asked.
Brad hesitated for a long time. “I guess he could try to recoup his losses,” he said, sighing.
“Does everyone know that you drink a lot of coffee?” Nancy went on.
Brad grinned, glad to change the subject. “Sure. Everybody kids me about always having a cup of the stuff glued to my hand.”
“So it would have been a safe assumption that at some point in the evening you would light the stove to boil water?”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“What time did you get to the hut that night?”
“About seven-thirty,” Brad replied.
Nancy nodded thoughtfully. The daily assignments were posted outside the command post shed, so everyone would have known that Brad was monitoring feeding station 1. Alicia left the hut around six-thirty. That left the place empty for an hour—plenty of time to sabotage the stove.
“I understand that you and Professor Trainey have the only keys to the command post,” Nancy said, turning her thoughts to how the poachers could have gained access to the computer that monitored the marmots’ signals.
“Technically, I guess that’s true.”
Nancy was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“We had a spare that we kept hidden under a rock near the door—in case we lost the others.” Brad laughed. “I guess it wasn’t such a great place to hide it, because one morning about two weeks ago we couldn’t find it.”
Nancy’s eyes widened.
Just then a nurse came in to change Brad’s bandages. Nancy got up and said, “Well, I guess I’d better go. You’ve been a great help.”
As she drove back to the inn, Nancy’s mind was spinning. Who’d taken the key to the command post? Was it someone unconnected to the study group—like the two maintenance men, Piker and Richard?
She felt uneasy every time she thought of them, especially since she’d caught them in the parking lot at the hotel with the Turkowers. Was it possible that the professor, Piker and Richard, and the Turkowers were all involved somehow? It seemed a strange group of people to be working together. Still, she needed to keep her eye on them all.
When Nancy opened the door to her room, she found Bess, bubbling over with enthusiasm. “I had a fabulous morning! Upper Geyser Basin was amazing. Did you know that Yellowstone sits in the middle of the crater of a gigantic volcano?” She paused and glanced around. “You don’t suppose it could erupt again, do you?”
“I doubt it, Bess.” Nancy laughed. “What did you find out about the Turkowers?”
Bess wrinkled her forehead. “Gerald must have shot about a hundred pictures, and Edith never stopped talking about her neighbors back in California. But I don’t think they’re tourists at all. In fact, I’m now betting they’re in charge of kidnapping the marmots.”
Nancy turned that around in her mind. She had been thinking of the Turkowers as buyers who might lead her to the poaching ring. What if Bess was right, though, and they were the sellers instead?
“But wait,” Bess added. “I haven’t told you my most exciting news. Guess who’s coming to Yellowstone Park?”
“Smokey the Bear?” Nancy suggested.
Bess threw a pillow at her.
“Okay,” she said. “I give up.”
“You’ll never believe it,” Bess cried, her eyes wide with excitement. “Randy Dean!”
Chapter
Seven
REALLY? Randy Dean here?” Nancy said. “Are you sure?”
Bess nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh. The ranger told us this morning. He’s coming to make a television special about the importance of leaving animals in their natural environments.”
“Oh? What about all those marmots of his?” Nancy asked.
Bess shrugged. “He must have had a change of heart.” Her face lit up again. “And not only that, he’s going to be staying right in this hotel. We might-even meet him! Wouldn’t that be awesome? George is going to be so jealous when she hears.”
“We haven’t met him yet,” Nancy pointed out. To herself, she wondered about the rock star’s change of heart. Was it for real or simply a good excuse for a TV special? “I had a rather eventful morning myself, Bess.”
She told her friend about what Brad had said and the attempt to run her off the road.
“Nan, that’s terrible!” Bess exclaimed. “You could have been killed!”
“Well, I wasn’t. And the main thing is, this attack shows that we’re on the right track. The poachers are getting desperate.”
“So what’s our next move?” Bess asked.
“Lunch,” Nancy said firmly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”
Downstairs, they found the dining room crowded. As they were waiting by the hostess station, Edith and Gerald Turkower came in.
“Well, hello again,” Edith said with a smile.
Just then the hostess came over. “I have a table for four by the window,” she announced.
“Wonderful,” Edith said brightly. “Why don’t we all eat together?”
“Sure,” Nancy replied. Here was a perfect opportunity to find out more about the Turkowers.
The hostess led them to a round oak table near the window and handed them menus.
“The cutthroat trout caught in the Yellowstone Lake are supposed to be the best in the world,” Gerald told them, placing his cameras on the windowsill.
“Really?” Bess closed her menu. “I’ll try it.”
“So will I,” Nancy said.
“I’ll just have the vegetarian platter,” Edith said. “It’s a little chilly in here, don’t you think?” she added, slipping into a beige sweater with a fur collar.
The waitress came and took their orders. As she left, Nancy asked casually, “How’s the hunt for whistling marmots going?”
Edith made a face. “Not very well. We haven’t even seen one yet.”
“What about you, any luck?” Gerald asked.
“Why, yes,” Nancy replied. “There’s a research group here studying the marmots. I visited their camp yesterday and saw a couple of them at one of the feeding stations. They’re every bit as cute as I expected, too.”
Nancy paused as the waitress placed bowls of green salad in front of everyone.
Nancy picked up her fork and took a bite of salad. Then, leaning forward, she lowered her voice. “A guy from the group told me that some of the marmots are missing.”
She scrutinized the Turkowers and thought she saw an uneasy expression in Gerald’s eyes.
“Do you think someone is stealing them?” he asked.
Nancy shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Gerald put down his fork. “I suppose it’s possible that someone on the Emerson team might be stealing marmots,” he mused. “College students are always short of cash.”
Nancy’s breath caught in her throat. She had never mentioned Emerson College!
Had Gerald noticed her reaction? With a wary expression, he added, “I think I saw an article about that research project. Maybe we should pay them a visit. Edith won’t be happy until she’s had a chance to watch the little critters in action.” He beamed fondly at his wife and winked.
; Edith smiled back at him. “In some ways,” she began, “a marmot would be better off with us than in the wild. We’d give it such a good home,” she cooed. “Gerald and I are staunch animal rights supporters. Why, I’ve even become a vegetarian.”
Nancy noticed the startled expression on Bess’s face, but before she could figure out what caused it, their broiled trout had arrived.
• • •
After lunch the Turkowers excused themselves, saying they planned to drive to Yellowstone Lake.
“That couple is definitely phony,” Bess said in the main lobby.
“What makes you say that?” Nancy asked.
Bess rolled her eyes. “If Edith is so into animal rights,” she demanded, “why was she wearing a sweater with a mink collar?”
“Maybe it was fake fur,” Nancy suggested.
“No way!” Bess scoffed. “I can tell the difference, believe me.”
“Come on, Bess. I just saw the Turkowers head out the front door. I want to check out their room.”
Nancy led the way to the house phones and asked the switchboard for the Turkowers. After half a dozen rings, the operator said, “Sorry, Room three twenty-six doesn’t answer.”
Nancy and Bess climbed the stairs to the third floor. At the Turkowers’ door, Nancy rapped lightly, then tried the knob. It was locked. After a quick glance up and down the hall, she pulled a small case of lockpicks from her shoulder bag and went to work. A few moments later the door sprang open.
“Bess, you stand guard while I search the room,” Nancy said. Bess nodded and Nancy slipped inside.
Like the room Nancy and Bess were sharing, this one had rough-hewn plank walls, brass beds, and an old-fashioned washstand complete with porcelain bowl and pitcher. The window looked out onto a steaming geyser field.
Nancy opened the oak wardrobe in the corner. The right side held women’s clothes. To her amazement, there were only three outfits hanging there. Nancy had expected Edith to be like Bess and bring virtually everything she owned.
She moved to the dresser and started pulling drawers open. Quickly, she riffled through a pile of men’s shirts and sweaters. She came up empty-handed.