“You must be the River Heights crew,” he said. “We were starting to worry about you.”
“You’re not the only one,” George muttered.
I held out my hand. “I’m Nancy Drew. This is Bess Marvin and George Fayne.”
He shook hands with each of us. “I’m Kyle, the dig leader for this trip. It’s great to have you here.”
“We’re excited,” I said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get here earlier, but my dad needed help at his law office, and George and her mother had a big catering job to do.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kyle said. “We still have plenty of work to do!”
“Have you found anything interesting so far?” George asked.
Even in the dark I could see his face light up. “You bet! Our best find is still over at the dig site. We can’t take it out until it’s encased in plaster for protection, so you’ll see that tomorrow. We also picked up some loose pieces that are really cool. Come on; I’ll show you.”
I glanced over at the group sitting around the fire. I was more interested in getting some food, but Kyle wanted to share his find. We followed him to the back of the Land Rover, where he pulled out a plastic tub.
As he pried off the lid, Kyle said, “These vertebrae are from a creature sort of like a crocodile—” He stopped mid-sentence and his jaw dropped open. He looked around, as if searching for someone. “Steffi!”
George, Bess, and I exchanged looks and shrugged. A petite young woman—Steffi, we assumed—strode over to us. “What’s wrong?”
Kyle held out the plastic tub. It was empty. “The bones are gone!”
2
Noise in the Night
Steffi’s pretty face puckered in confusion. “But I didn’t move them. I labeled them, wrapped them in paper towels, and put them in the box.”
Kyle looked worried. “And you brought the box back to camp yourself?”
Steffi shook her head. “Tom carried it back to camp for me.” She ran her hand through her short dark hair and, without turning around, called, “Tom!”
A young man walked toward us. “Something wrong?”
Kyle and the woman turned to him. “Where are the bones we found yesterday?”
He glanced at the open tub Kyle still held. “I have no idea. You mean they’re not there?” His face went hard. “You’re not suggesting I—”
“No, no,” Kyle said quickly. “We just wondered if you took them out to study them or something.” He looked at us and seemed to suddenly remember that three strangers were witnessing their exchange. “I’m sorry. This isn’t much of a welcome for you.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “If something’s wrong, we’d like to help.”
Kyle shrugged. “I’m sure it’s nothing. The bones will turn up.” His unhappy face didn’t match his confident words.
Steffi smiled at us and held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Steffi.” She barely came up to my shoulder but she had a strong handshake and moved like a gymnast.
“Steffi is my assistant here,” Kyle said.
“You’re a paleontologist?” I asked. She looked only a couple of years older than us.
“I’m a student, working toward my master’s degree. So is Tom.”
The young man managed a smile and shook hands. He was medium height and medium build, with brown hair and tan skin. Bess glanced between him and Kyle, and I could almost see her mind working. Tom wasn’t bad-looking, but Kyle was definitely Bess’s type, with close-cropped blond hair and a strong jaw. I smiled. Bess could have her pick; I was perfectly happy with my boyfriend Ned back home.
Kyle turned toward the fire. “Come meet the rest of the team.”
We joined the cozy circle. A man shifted with a groan, getting ready to rise. I said, “Please, you don’t have to get up. You must have all had a long day.”
“Thanks,” the man said. “I think my leg muscles have seized up. Kyle, next time why don’t you get a hot tub out here?”
Kyle smiled. “That’s Grayson. This is his first time with us.”
“Hi, Grayson,” I said. He was an older man, with white hair, but he looked like he was in pretty good shape despite his complaints.
The woman next to him gave a small wave. She was about forty, with silvery blond hair that hung over her shoulder in a thick braid. “I’m Abby. They’ll tell you I’m the flaky one.”
“We’ve never said that,” Grayson protested. “At least not within your range of hearing!”
Abby just laughed. “Don’t worry; I’m used to it.”
“I’m Russell,” the next man said. He was probably in his fifties, with a stocky build and a thick brown beard. “Just another volunteer here. I’ve gone on these digs all around the country, but this is my first time with this group.”
“Russell really knows his bones,” Kyle said. “Some of our volunteers know more than Steffi and I do. And that brings us to Felix.”
The last one of the group stood up, despite my protest. He was easily the oldest person there, perhaps over seventy, with hunched shoulders but a firm handshake.
“Felix has been coming to these digs for almost forty years,” Kyle said. “What he doesn’t know about fossils probably isn’t worth knowing.”
“I don’t have any formal training,” Felix said. “I’m just an interested amateur, but I’ve been around a long time. Unfortunately, I can’t dig anymore, with my bad heart. But they let me come along anyway. Now I’m the camp cook.” He grinned around at all of us. “Speaking of which, who’s ready for dinner?”
Bess, George, and I had gotten a warm enough welcome, but everyone greeted food with cheers. Felix dished out sloppy joes, the thick meat sauce spilling over hamburger buns. Steffi offered sodas from a big cooler. Then she and Kyle sat together on the cooler and gave us their chairs. Tom insisted that Bess take his chair, and he sat cross-legged on the ground.
“This place is dangerous,” Bess said, eyeing her plate. She usually tries to be careful about what she eats.
George shoveled food into her mouth. “You’ll work it off tomorrow.”
Steffi laughed. “It’s not health food, but after a long day of work, nothing beats Felix’s culinary creations. We’re lucky. On most digs the volunteers have to bring and fix their own food. This is a real treat!”
Felix gave a dismissive wave. “So who’s ready for seconds?”
I was stuffed after firsts, but everyone who’d been working that day went back for more. I studied their faces, reminding myself of the names. It seemed like a nice bunch, and they teased one another like old friends. Even the first-timers had had two days to get to know each other.
When everyone was finished, we burned the paper plates in the fire. Felix washed the silverware in a little water from a bucket. The bottles and soda cans went into special bags for recycling later.
It was still pretty early, but people started drifting off to their tents.
George stretched and yawned. “You guys ready? We still have a tent to set up.”
Bess made a face. “I’d forgotten.”
“At least we’ll be able to see by the moon,” George said. “It’s full tonight.”
“How do you know?” I asked. George picks up all kinds of trivia on the Internet, so I figured she’d checked a site with moon data.
“It’s rising right over there.”
I turned. A huge golden moon seemed to float above the eastern horizon. “Wow. It’s beautiful!”
We watched for a minute. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker a movement. When I turned, I saw Steffi and Kyle heading back to the Land Rover and poking around in the back. “Just a minute,” I told my friends. “I want to ask Steffi and Kyle about those bones again. Something tells me they’re more concerned than they’re letting on.”
When I reached them, Steffi turned with a small plastic tub in her arms. “These will be safe, anyway. I’ll keep them in my tent tonight.” She gave me a smile and walked off.
“Oh, hi,” Kyle
said. “Do you need something?”
“I just wanted to ask about these missing bones,” I said. “Were they something important?”
“We had some very nice phytosaur vertebrae. Not the most important thing we found, but good specimens.”
“Valuable?”
“Sure, but—” His eyes darted around at the people entering their tents. “No one here would take them. It has to be an accident.”
Steffi must disagree, I thought, if she was taking the other fossils to bed with her. “Is fossil theft a big problem?”
Kyle scowled. “You wouldn’t believe it. People pull off some pretty brazen thefts. There’s been a rash of them in the Southwest lately—” He stopped suddenly. “It’s nothing for you to worry about. It’s perfectly safe here. I promise.”
“I wasn’t worried about our safety—”
He cut me off. “You had a long drive today. Get some sleep.” He put a hand on my arm to turn me away.
I sighed and left him to close up the Land Rover. I could ask more questions in the morning, when we were both rested.
I joined Bess and George. “Anything interesting?” George whispered.
I shrugged. “I didn’t get much information. Kyle probably doesn’t want to sound suspicious of his volunteers. But from the way he and Steffi are acting, I’d say the bones were stolen, not just lost. Keep your eyes open tomorrow.”
Bess grinned. “So you found a real mystery after all. And if you don’t count the long drive out here, it came up within the first five minutes of our vacation. This may be a record.”
I laughed along with their good-natured teasing. We got our tent and flashlights from the car and scouted out a flat place. It didn’t take long to put up the tent.
At home I can be ready for bed in ten minutes. Out there it took more like half an hour. We had to find everything in our luggage, brush our teeth with bottled water, and trot off into the darkness to go to the bathroom. Finally we settled down in our sleeping bags. I shivered despite my flannel pajamas, and snuggled deeper.
“Should I set an alarm?” Bess asked.
George groaned.
“I expect we’ll hear everyone else getting up,” I said.
“Still, I could set one just to be safe,” Bess offered.
“No thanks!” George said. “Besides, we don’t even know what time they want to start.”
I tried to change the subject. “This is kind of like a slumber party.”
Bess giggled. “Who brought the popcorn?”
George said, “If I had my laptop, we could watch movies.”
“We could watch one movie, before the batteries ran out.” I yawned. “Anyway, I’m tired, and it sounds like we’re going to be working hard tomorrow.”
They mumbled their agreement. The night was filled with the chirping of crickets. It was hardly quiet, but made a nice change from city noises. I felt myself sinking into sleep.
Until someone screamed.
3
Footprints in the Dark
I tried to jump up, but I hit my head on the tent and stumbled in my sleeping bag. I collapsed back. Bess squealed and pushed me off of her. I fumbled for my sleeping bag zipper, but by that point I was tangled and disoriented. I started wiggling out the top.
A light flashed in my face. It danced around the tent, then settled as George hooked a big flashlight to a loop in the roof.
“That was a scream, right?” George asked.
“That was me,” Bess said. “Nancy sat on me.”
I shoved my sleeping bag aside and unzipped the tent. “Before that. Someone definitely screamed out there.” I found my shoes just outside the tent and slid my feet into them.
George and I crawled out of the tent together. Someone ran past, and I thought I recognized Kyle.
“Kyle!” I called. “What’s going on?”
He yelled, “That was Steffi,” and kept running.
George and I followed, stumbling in the darkness. It was a good thing Kyle knew where Steffi had pitched her tent. She was pretty far from the camp, hidden between a rock outcropping and one of the few small trees. She was crouched in the tent opening when we arrived.
Kyle knelt in front of her and took her arms. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She sounded perfectly calm. “I’m sorry I startled you.”
“You scared me half to death!” Kyle exclaimed. “What happened?”
A light came bobbing up, and I turned to see Bess. Somehow she’d managed to get fully dressed. She handed George and me our coats and we pulled them on gratefully.
Tom and Russell jogged over from the campsite. Grayson trailed behind them. We were missing only Abby and Felix. Maybe they’d slept through the noise.
Steffi stood up. “I’m sorry I frightened everyone. I heard noises outside my tent. Probably just an animal.”
Kyle said, “But you’ve never—”
Steffi shot him a look and he closed his mouth.
Bess wedged herself between George and me and shone the flashlight into the shadows. “What kind of animals do you have here? Anything dangerous?”
“Not really,” Steffi said. “Just rabbits, possums, skunk, maybe deer or coyote.”
Bess’s light jerked. “Coyote?”
Steffi laughed. “I’ve never heard of them attacking a person. Now why don’t you all go back to bed?”
Russell and Tom headed back toward camp. Grayson said, “Save the next wake-up call for nine a.m.,” and gave us a friendly grin as he passed.
“Do you really think it could have been a coyote?” Bess whispered. “Maybe I’ll sleep in the car.”
“Probably just a rabbit,” I said, to comfort her. “Let me see the flashlight.” I examined the ground around Steffi’s tent. I saw tracks all right, but they weren’t animal tracks. I found human footprints, with the thick heel and pointed toe of cowboy boots. They came from the direction of the road, toward the tent, and away again. The return tracks were deeper at the toes, and farther apart, as if the person had been running. And they looked fresh. The wind that afternoon would surely have softened the edges more.
I put my foot next to the track. The footprint was much longer, probably a man’s. I glanced at Kyle’s heavy hiking boots.
He was watching me, and must have seen what I saw, but he didn’t say anything. Steffi spoke sharply. “I said everything’s fine. Why don’t you go back to bed?”
Steffi didn’t sound scared—more like angry. Was she just embarrassed because she had screamed? She didn’t seem like the type who would scream for no reason. But if a man was sneaking around her tent at night, maybe she should be scared. “Steffi, someone was here,” I said. “A man. Don’t you think it would be safer to move your tent closer to the others?
Her teeth flashed in the moonlight. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
Kyle said, “Thanks for your help. I’ll stay with Steffi for a while. You’d better get back to bed.”
They obviously wanted to get rid of us, and I was feeling the cold despite my coat. I handed the flashlight back to Bess, and she led the way to our tent. We didn’t speak until we were tucked away inside.
“Nancy, what did you get us into?” Bess said. “I’m sure you didn’t mention coyotes.”
“Coyotes aren’t what’s worrying me.” I filled them in on the tracks I’d seen.
“Who could it be?” Bess said. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Exactly,” I said. “As far as we know, there are only nine people besides us within a few miles of here.”
George counted on her fingers. “Kyle, Steffi, and five other volunteers. That means you’re counting Jimmy and Erlinda?”
“Yes. Of course, we don’t know if anybody else lives with them. If not, the tracks had to be Jimmy’s.”
“I knew he was creepy,” George said. “But what about Steffi’s reaction? Either she didn’t know it was him, or she doesn’t care.”
“What do you s
uppose it means?” Bess asked.
I could feel my sixth sense tingling. “I don’t know, but add this to the missing bones, and I have a feeling we’re going to have an interesting couple of days ahead of us!”
• • •
I awoke to the sun shining through the blue nylon of the tent. I blinked a few times in the strange light before realizing where I was. My sleeping bag was warm enough, but the air on my face felt cold. From outside I heard voices and the slam of a car door.
George groaned. “What time is it?”
“Almost six o’clock,” Bess said. “I told you we should have set an alarm.”
George grumbled something and snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag.
I yawned and stretched. “I guess they want to start before it gets too hot.”
“So they start when it’s too cold?” George said. “Come back for me in an hour.”
“You’ll miss breakfast,” Bess said. She was already sifting through her clothes. I wriggled into my clothes, then ran a brush through my hair and pulled it into a ponytail.
George sat up with a sigh. “All right, I’m awake.”
“I guess it’s too cold for shorts,” Bess said.
“We’re going to be out in the sun all day,” George said. “Wear long pants and long sleeves.” She frowned at Bess’s pale skin. “And I hope you brought a sun hat. Sunscreen alone isn’t going to do it for a full day.”
Bess pouted prettily. “You take all the fun out of getting dressed.”
I grinned at her. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Kyle will notice you no matter what you wear.”
She grinned back. “All right, you win.” Somehow she still managed to look great, in tan pants and a long-sleeved white shirt, with her blond hair curling over her shoulders. George’s short hair was tousled, and I avoided looking in a mirror. But leave it to Bess—even without a shower she could look like a model from an outdoors catalogue.
We shrugged into our coats and started toward the fire. I glanced around. “Steffi isn’t here yet. I think I’ll check on her.” Bess and George nodded and went forward while I turned back. I didn’t want to be a pest, but I knew I’d feel better after making sure Steffi was fine.