Into the Badlands

WHY HAD HE THOUGHT he was the obvious person to help a strange woman get ready for bed? He hadn’t thought about it, that was the problem. He’d just swooped in on his jungle vine. That was Heather’s phrase, from the early days, when she’d still liked his tendency to do that.

At least he knew why Dr. Robb hadn’t made it to his meeting, or prepared a project report. In a way, her obvious resentment was refreshing. Some people would have hidden their anger behind cold eyes and a tight smile, and waited for a good chance to trip him.

The confusing thing was, when they’d talked on the phone last week, Bruce Simpson had told him Susannah was reliable, the person Alex could count on most for any help he needed. How could he count on someone who was so mad she couldn’t stand to be anywhere near him?

He knocked on the bathroom door and heard a startled splash. “Dr. Robb? I’ve pulled out the sofa bed. Can you tell me where to find sheets?”

“In the cupboard upstairs.” Her voice sounded strained. “Fourth shelf.”

He found the cupboard easily, tucked between the sleeping area and a computer nook. His hand hovered over a plain white sheet set, then moved to a pair with pink rosebuds. His mother liked flowery things. Maybe they’d cheer up Dr. Robb.

Now for a blanket—the sinkhole had chilled her, and the nights could get surprisingly cool. There were two deep drawers under the shelves. One was full of scarves, mitts and hats; the other held blankets. He felt his way through the pile and chose one that was relatively lightweight. As he pushed the drawer shut, something not quite covered by the blankets caught his eye. He crouched to look closer.

Reaching into the drawer, he picked up a stonelike object. It was a coiled ammonite, about twelve inches in diameter, a common fossil whose presence in a rock sample could help date it. Other fossils sat at the bottom of the drawer: a trilobite, a cluster of clam shells imprinted in limestone, a fern leaf in a flat slab of coal, another piece of limestone bearing a rough pattern that looked like fish scales.

An odd collection for a Cretaceous herbivore specialist, and an odd place to keep it. One by one, Alex lifted the pieces to get a better look. They were real, not copies. Not rare, not particularly valuable. He pushed the drawer shut and stood frowning at it. Most paleontologists kept a few fossils around. They probably weren’t important.

Grabbing a couple of pillows from the bed, he returned to the living room. He could hear the bathtub water draining, so he made the sofa bed quickly, leaving the top sheet and blanket untucked so they wouldn’t be tight against her injured ankle. He was fluffing the pillows when Susannah hobbled into the living room.

The sight of a blanket that had shared space with hidden fossils didn’t seem to worry her. She looked vulnerable—exhausted, struggling to keep her composure, her hair still full of sand and a soft, blue nightgown draping her body. She brought a faint scent of bubble bath into the room with her. Alex felt an unexpected surge of desire, complicated by an even less expected tug of tenderness. Surprised at himself, he shut the feeling down.

Avoiding his eyes, she eased herself onto the bed and leaned back against the raised pillows. She’d slipped the sling back on, but she hadn’t been able to manage the bandage around her ankle. Alex found it in a pile of sandy clothes on the bathroom counter. He shook most of the sand into the sink, then returned to the living room.

“That’s really not necessary,” she said, as he approached the bed. “I’ll have to shower in the morning to get the sand out of my hair, and I’ll just have to take it off again.”

She seemed flustered, and she was blushing again. There was something familiar about her, but Alex was sure they hadn’t met before. “Your ankle will swell more overnight without support. If that happens, you’ll have to wait even longer before you can get back to the quarry.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“It won’t hurt to put it on, you know. It’ll feel better.” He lifted the covers away from her ankle and began rolling the bandage around her foot. When his hand brushed her toes, she shivered.

“Cold? I’m almost done.” He kept his eyes on her ankle, away from the curve of her leg above her knee, and the flimsy nightgown that didn’t cover her all that well. Halfway up her calf, he fastened the end of the bandage with two thin metal clips, then pulled the covers back in place. “Comfortable?”

“Yes. Thanks.” She lifted a bandaged hand to cover a yawn.

“Think you can stay awake to eat your dinner, such as it is?”

“I’m starving.”

“It’ll just be a minute.”

A peeled and sectioned orange, and a raisin scone cut in half and spread with butter and strawberry jam already waited on a tray in the kitchen. Alex poured simmering soup into a mug and carried the tray to the living room.

“I strained the noodles out of the soup, so you could drink it. A spoon seemed a bit much for you right now.”

“Thank you.” Holding the mug awkwardly, she sipped the warm broth. “You’ve been very nice, Dr. Blake.” She sounded grateful, but surprised, as if the big bad wolf had declined to gobble her up on the way to her grandmother’s.

“I’m glad to help.” Alex relaxed in an armchair near the sofa bed. He was tempted to mention the fossils in her cupboard drawer. Almost certainly, she’d have an innocent explanation and he could forget about them. The trouble was, her explanation could be a lie, and then he’d have warned her of his suspicions.

“Why did you go out to my quarry this evening?” she asked. “Were you looking for me because of the meeting?”

“Someone from your team called the museum for help. Amy, I think? When you didn’t get back to the bonebed after looking for Matt, she went out to the road, away from the gully, where her cell phone would work.”

“I guess we should have done that earlier.”

“You rescued Matt. That’s the main thing. I just wish it hadn’t taken us so long to find you.”

Susannah yawned and the mug tilted. Alex jumped up and caught it, then lifted the tray to the end table. She slid down in the bed and curled up on her uninjured side.

“I can’t stay awake anymore,” she muttered. “Could you bring my alarm clock down, and set it? For seven?” Her eyes closed. In seconds, she was asleep.

Quickly Alex did a few chores. He shook her clothes out the back door to get rid of the worst of the sand, then put them in the laundry room. He swept the bathroom floor and rinsed away the sand he’d left in the sink. She hadn’t managed to eat much of her meal. He put the leftover food in the fridge and washed the dishes.

Was there anything else she needed? Painkillers. He found a bottle of acetaminophen and set it on the table beside the sofa bed, along with a glass of water. Remembering how weak her left arm was, he removed the bottle’s childproof lid. There was a pen and some paper by the phone. He scribbled a quick note and propped it against the water glass. Gently, careful not to wake her, he pulled the blanket around her shoulders.

The blanket rose and fell slightly as she breathed. She looked soft and unprotected, as if she didn’t have an angry or defensive bone in her body. Tangled, sand-filled hair had escaped here and there from her braid. Alex was surprised by an almost overwhelming urge to trace the pattern of freckles over her nose.

There was no way she was a fossil poacher.

CHAPTER FOUR

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?”