Conard County Watch. Rachel Lee
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can do that,” Renee answered, although she didn’t jump to it. She was growing mesmerized again as the morning light painted the shadows that revealed darn near everything.
“My tablet will get the coordinates,” Denise said. “Just enjoy.”
Renee found a place to settle beside Denise and just drink in the wonder before her.
“It’s amazing,” Denise murmured. “Has there ever been a fossil bed like this?”
“Yeah, there are some good ones. The whole area of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas is loaded with fossils, and there are some parks devoted to them.”
“So what is it about this one?”
“It’s there?”
Denise laughed. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. The fact that it’s here would be enough. But the density of the fossils makes it especially interesting. So many packed in like this raises a bunch of interesting questions.”
And that egg, Renee thought. That egg. If there were more of them, if most of the fossils appeared to be the same species...well.
While Denise worked, Renee continued her study of the rock face and the fall around it. Soon, unable to hold still for long, she began moving along the ledge, studying the spoil beneath her feet. Every so often she spotted what appeared to be some bone poking out of a rock, but she left it alone.
Then, as she stood staring down at it, she remembered the hundred pin flags poking out of her backpack. Hurrying over to it, she pulled a handful out and made her way cautiously back to the bones she had noted. A bright orange pin flag soon marked each spot. There would be plenty of others, she was sure, and now that she had spotted these, she realized she’d better get to it before the team started arriving and important things might inadvertently get stepped on or buried before they were noticed.
The richness of the fossil bed probably extended to the rubble at the bottom of the rock face. They’d need to take extra care so as not to crush something.
The dynamics of this dig were beginning to sink in. They wouldn’t only be removing the large fossils from the rock, but they’d have to scour every inch of this ledge for items they’d never want to miss. In her initial bliss at the big find, she’d forgotten to think about all the minor details.
She almost laughed at herself. This wasn’t her first rodeo. She’d let her enthusiasm override her sense, but that had to stop immediately.
“Give it a rest,” Denise said eventually. “You’ve covered the whole ledge and you’re distracting me by moving.”
So Renee plopped down behind her on a larger boulder and waited patiently.
“And don’t look over my shoulder. It drives me nuts for some reason.”
“I’m not.” Nor was she. The shifting shadows on the fossil bed entranced her. She kept picking out new shadows that suggested great wonders. If this proved at all as productive as it appeared now, she’d probably work this site for the rest of her career. Happy thought.
* * *
The rest of the team arrived around nine. Renee had begun helping Denise measure out the area and place red pin flags for each point there would be a vertical line in the grid.
Before long, she’d sent most of the students below to hunt through the rubble beside the river. Fortunately, getting down there proved to be reasonably easy. A short way up the gorge, there was a narrow path leading down to the stream. The team went ahead with flag pins and soon their excited voices could be heard rising up from the stream.
Cope remained on the ledge with her and Denise. For a few minutes, Renee allowed herself to be distracted, thinking that he drew her interest almost as much as the fossils. Almost. Grinning inwardly, she decided to enjoy the unusual attraction.
She noted, however, that he seemed to be extremely alert, and his gaze never stopped wandering the woods around them, above them and below them.
Finally, she stepped over beside him, speaking in a voice that couldn’t easily be overheard because of the rush of the stream below.
“Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know.” His blue eyes snapped to her face. “Did you feel strange coming up here?”
“Like someone was hiking along with us?”
“That’s what you felt? Close enough. There are eyes on us, Renee. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to just watch. That Butler guy wasn’t shy about coming forward to ask what we were doing, after all.”
She had believed she was feeling weird when the thought crossed her mind that the mountain was aware of them. But now, for the first time, there was an icy trickle down her spine. “You’re sure someone is there?”
“No, I’m not. I didn’t see anyone, but I learned not to disregard this sensation.” All of a sudden, he smiled at her. “Ignore me and go back to what you were doing. I’ll play sentry for a while just to ease my mind.”
She nodded and returned to a rock where she’d been sitting with her large tablet, using a stylus to overlay outlines on some of the photos she’d taken yesterday. The egg continued to grab her attention, and it amused her to note how many photos she had taken of it yesterday morning. Carried away.
But as she outlined it, using the setting to give her fine lines resembling a sharp black pen, she pulled more detail out of it. She was definitely not losing her curiosity about it.
She lifted her head after a bit, noticing that the stream was louder today than yesterday. Much louder. It nearly swamped the voices of her team below. Had it rained up higher on the mountain? She could still faintly hear the voices. They called to one another and sounded as if they were having a good time poring through the rubble.
She lifted her gaze to Cope, and found him walking slowly around, his attention fixed on the dark places beneath the trees. The same dark places that had bothered her earlier.
He moved with remarkable grace considering the surface was rough and unstable, but his feet came down lightly and didn’t seem to disturb much when they landed. He was wearing desert boots, she realized. Probably left over from the Marine Corps days that he’d briefly mentioned. The limestone and sandstone dust that seemed to be everywhere disappeared on those boots.
She looked down at her jeans and wished they had the same ability. But mostly she wished Cope hadn’t confirmed her uneasiness by saying he felt there was a watcher.
In the first place, she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. In the second, she didn’t need to be on guard all the time. Every bit of her mind needed to focus on the job at hand. Even a small mistake could cause problems down the road if something was overlooked.
Cope’s voice interrupted her rambling thoughts as her hand continued to sketch. He squatted down beside her. “Why are you sketching over your photos?”
“To bring out some of the details, the stuff the shadows didn’t pull out from the rock. Did you see anything?”
“Not a soul.” The corners of his eyes creased a little, a hint of a smile. “I don’t usually get unnerved this easily.”
“Frankly, I was unnerved all the way up here. I kind of wish I’d been the only one.”
She blew dust off the screen of her tablet and tucked it into its case. “I need to see how they’re getting on down below.”
“They sound like they’re having a good time.” He straightened and offered a hand to help pull her to her feet. “Let’s go see?”
Along with the heap of items the team had brought up here, they had a couple of empty five-gallon water jugs. Cope grabbed both of them before leading the way to the steep path down to the stream. “I’ll bring you some water, Denise,” he said as he walked