Dinosaur Lake

by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Chapter 4

  Ann enjoyed walking along the rim, peeking out across the circular expanse of Crater Lake’s shimmering blue water, knowing she was treading upon what was once the inner wall of a volcano. She treasured the primeval ambience of the place, untouched by civilization, and the air full of the woodsy pine scent.

  Henry always joked she must be part mountain goat because the heights never bothered her, or the steep climb. Over the years she’d explored all along the rim’s edge and the grounds around it. Each time she found something new, something unique, and was amazed at how much she’d come to love her new home.

  She didn’t miss New York at all. Well, maybe sometimes a little. She missed the hustle and bustle, the vast variety of people and food–what she wouldn’t give for a big fat New York bagel with cream cheese or one of those hand-tossed pizzas they used to get at the corner bistro.

  It was noon and the sun was high above as she picked her way down towards the water. Lunch was a good time to catch the tour boats docked in Cleetwood Cove. Most of them puttered in for the meal, and tours resumed at around two o’clock.

  Dressed in sneakers, a sweater, jeans and a purple jacket; she’d tied a white kerchief around her head to tame her flyaway hair. She traveled light in the rough terrain, with a fanny pack at her waist, a notebook and sketchpad along with her pencils, snuggled in a cloth shoulder bag as she descended toward Cleetwood Trail, the only entrance to the water.

  She’d left Henry and Justin at “the dig”, as they’d started calling it. Probably glad to be rid of her and her endless questions about the fossils and dinosaurs. She’d taken a bunch of pictures, seeing right away how an article on the paleontological discovery might become a front page story, with updated installments ongoing afterwards. What a circulation builder.

  Justin was certainly knowledgeable on his subject. He knew the long dead dinosaur’s ancestors migration and feeding habits, plus their social and sexual structure. Throughout the interview, Henry had chimed in with interesting tidbits Ann had never suspected he knew.

  All in all, she had more than enough to write a fascinating story. Justin and Henry had promised her an exclusive. They wouldn’t talk to anyone else until her story had run.

  With squinted eyes, she scrutinized the docked boats. The Seabird wasn’t among them. It was early yet, so it didn’t worry her. The Seabird would show up.

  Ann plunked her butt down on the wooden dock, her feet swinging out over the water, and pulled out her notebook and sketchbook. She began to jot down ideas and angles for her story, along with questions she’d thought of on the way down to the dock. The sun’s rays were soft on her face, the water glistened below her. It was easy to lounge there and daydream. She switched to her sketchbook and her fingers drew a whimsical drawing of a monster with spots, a big grin, and extra-long lashes over huge expressive eyes.

  Ann wished Henry was with her instead of up on the hill digging around in the dirt. She hoped he was having fun.

  When he’d been shot eight years ago, she hadn’t left his side at the hospital for days until he came out of intensive care and had actually spoken to her. Love you, Ann, was the first words he’d uttered. I’m sorry I hurt you and Laura. If I live through this, it’s going to change. I promise. The memory still made her weep. She’d thought she’d lost him that day. The job, finally, and as she’d always feared, had been the death of him. She’d hated him being a cop; always putting her and his family second behind the job. She’d been sick of it. And the night of the shooting she’d been ready to leave him, even though it would have broken her heart. But since the shooting and moving up here, she’d been the most important thing in his life, along with Laura and now Phoebe, and he’d never let her forget it for a moment. It was good they’d left New York. She was happier than she’d been in many years. She had her husband, her friend and her lover back.

  She watched the boats fill with visitors and head toward Wizard Island, the Phantom Ship, or to chug around the lake itself, tourists peering up at the steep multi-colored lava walls. She and Henry took at least one or two boat tours a summer. The ride was so peaceful, drifting on the water alongside the cliffs, listening to the call of the wild birds swooping above. Exploring the islands was fun, too. The land was mostly untouched by humans and a person could imagine they’d traveled back in time when the mists billowed in from the water and the silence beckoned.

  Ann dawdled on the dock, thinking over what might have happened the night before between her daughter and Justin. Gosh, to have a son-in-law that actually read books, talked in complete sentences and had a real job.

  Hey, Ann, she gently scolded herself, what are you thinking? Justin and Laura have just met, for heaven’s sake. Ah, well, she could dream, couldn’t she?

  Ann didn’t carry the same guilt concerning her daughter as Henry did. She fretted at times over where they’d gone wrong with Laura and what to do about the girl when she up and married Chad at such a young age. She’d known the marriage wouldn’t last; that sooner or later Laura would end up on their doorstep and they’d have another chance to help set her straight. And she’d been right.

  Ann sighed, her eyelashes descending softly, eyes closing. Only so much you could do to help your children, the rest was up to them. Laura had to learn to find her own way in the world.

  She opened her eyes and let in the bright sunlight. Laura sped out of her mind, replaced by what she should fix for supper that night.

  Ann didn’t suspect something was wrong until the fleet of boats began returning from their first two-hour tour of the afternoon. Still no Seabird. Stretching like a lazy cat, she got up off the dock and headed for Willie Sander’s boat, the Mermaid, which had just drifted in.

  Henry had mentioned that Willie and Sam Cutler were poker pals. They played in the weekly poker game every Friday night at the lodge; everyone knew them. Willie had all the luck and Sam usually lost.

  Waiting until after the passengers left, she climbed aboard. A man was busy preparing for the next group of landlubbers. He was in the foredeck cleaning up the litter from the last trip when she strode up to him.

  “Willie Sander?” She’d seen him around the lake, like most of the other captains, but hadn’t done more than said hi to him before that.

  The man, short and muscular wearing blue work pants and a black T-shirt, swung around and winked at her. His arms were loaded with empty Pepsi bottles and crumpled waxed paper. A red ball cap perched on his head of frizzy gray hair, and thin tight lips locked around a dangling cigarette. “Aye, that’s me. What can I do for ya, Mrs. Chief Park Ranger?” He dumped the trash into a plastic bag, circled it with a tie, and edging past her, jumping neatly to the dock. Tossing the bag into a trash barrel, he was back again in a matter of moments.

  When he was close enough so she didn’t have to yell, she explained, “I’m looking for the Seabird and Sam Cutler. Would you know where I might find him?”

  Willie Sander’s eyes displayed an emotion she couldn’t define. Caution? Fear? She wasn’t sure. Certainly mistrust. The lake folk were private people. Though most of them knew she was Henry’s wife by sight, she was still considered an outsider, even after all this time.

  “What you want him for?” Sander stepped further back on his boat and Ann followed.

  “Well–” It was best to be truthful. He seemed the kind of man who’d appreciate that. “You know, I work for the Klamath Falls Journal and Sam called the office yesterday morning with some information he thought we might be interested in. I’m here to interview him. He’s sort of expecting me.”

  “Really? That’s awful strange, then. I don’t know where he is and I’m getting mighty worried. Last I saw him or his boat was yesterday afternoon and, come to think about it, he was acting pretty squirrelly to boot, if I do say so, even for him.” His bushy eyebrows shot up, the cynical look returned.

  “He was acting squirrelly?” A tiny smile curled Ann’s lips.

  Sander snorted, gesturing dismissively. “Ah, Sa
m’s been obsessing about some weird creature in the lake for weeks. Said it’d been dogging his boat, playing with and taunting him. Said it only came out at night and was as big as two houses put together, that’s his exact words, and it had a long neck, huge teeth and was strong as hell.”

  He paused, as if to measure Ann’s response, then, seeing encouragement in her manner, went on, “He was scared of the damn thing, but wanted to capture it something dreadful, like it was a damn trophy or something.” He grunted. “That’s why he never told the rangers. He wanted to bag it for himself. Make a load of money.”

  “You didn’t believe him?”

  Willie chuckled. “Do I look like a nut to you? Nah. I thought he’d been hitting the sauce a little too hard. Started doing that a few months ago. He’s gone on some real binges. Not like him at all. I told him he shouldn’t be on a boat, much less captain one with people in his care, if he was going to drink like that and was seeing things to boot. He got furious at me and went off in a huff. The old coot. Now I wish I would’ve taken his problem a little more seriously. I feel something’s terrible wrong.” Regret softened his words.

  He yanked off his cap, wiped his brow, and leveled his eyes at her. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Which is unusual because he always comes in every morning to pick up passengers. Not like him to miss a beautiful day like this.” The cap went back on his head and he sent his gaze away and out over the rippling water. “I’m beginning to worry. I didn’t see him anywhere out on the lake today. Nor did anybody else I asked. Mighty peculiar that. There are lots of boats and we get around, but no one’s seen him.”

  Ann stared at the grizzled captain. The first flicker of doubt awakened. She could sometimes sense when something wasn’t right with a situation. At that moment, her inner voice was getting louder.

  “Could he have packed up and left? Gone on vacation and not told anyone?” Modern day adventurers, the captains and their boats came and went on the lake. They got tired of the same waters or the tourists and moved on. That’s just the way it was.

  “Not likely. Sam doesn’t take time off, says being here in the park is like an everyday vacation. He’s been here going on sixteen years now, longer than me. He loved it…until about three weeks ago.”

  “Let me guess,” she interjected, “that’s when he started seeing the creature in the lake?”

  “Yep. You got it.”

  Her obvious concern about the missing captain and the way she was smiling so friendly like must have made him want to confide in her further. “Like I said, I thought he was imagining things. Stress as well as the booze. Ya know, his only son died last spring.” He hesitated.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

  “Ah, yep. The boy lived down in Illinois. Sam had a lot of guilt over that kid seeing as he divorced the boy’s mama years ago and never got around to being the kind of daddy he’d wanted to be. Then time was up and he was grieving.”

  “So you think this ‘monster’ of his was a figment of his stress? Like his guilt chasing after and tormenting him?”

  Sander hesitated long enough to make Ann wonder. “Colorful way of putting it, but yes. No such things as monsters, lady. We all know that. I even know that and I’m not a clever man. There ain’t nothing in this lake but water and fish. Take my word for it.”

  After that he didn’t want to talk any more. Clammed up. She thanked him for his help, handed him her card in case he remembered anything else or if Sam Cutler reappeared, and left. Looked like Zeke would keep his twenty bucks.

  Ann made her way up to the rim and along the path to where she’d left Henry and Justin earlier, digging around in the dirt like two ecstatic kids.

  “You got a whole dinosaur yet?” she kidded as she snuck up behind them.

  “Three of them. Each as big as a baseball field.” Henry, dirty-faced, played along, winking. He lifted one of his muddy hands to swipe his hair back. When he grinned, there was dirt on his teeth.

  Justin looked as bad. Mudballs both.

  “We’re not disturbing the bones, though,” Justin said, his face respectfully awed. “That wouldn’t be right. They’re fragile. Priceless. We’re just chipping away the matrix, dirt and rocks they’re embedded in so we can see what we’ve got, and taking pictures. This is a bonanza.”

  He pointed to a hunk of white sticking out of the ground. “Looks like this particular beast was caught in a landslide. Mud. Or snow and ice. Maybe glaciers displaced by lava underneath. Violent but instant deaths. That’s why the specimens are so well preserved. It’s remarkable.”

  Ann bobbed her head, trying to stash away everything he talked about in her memory, thinking about how she could use it in her articles.

  Henry motioned at the scientist. “Justin, will you look at this?”

  Ann sat down on a large flat rock and watched.

  “Get your story, honey?” Henry looked over his shoulder at her.

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Sam Cutler’s nowhere to be found. No one’s seen him or his boat since yesterday. Kind of unusual. I called him yesterday and he knew I was coming to talk. It was all set up, at least I thought so. Willie Sander thinks he went off looking for that creature in the lake. He wanted it for a trophy.”

  Henry’s back stiffened. Ann could feel the change in his mood; see it, even from where she sat.

  Justin’s fingers stopped moving along a ledge of white bone.

  Henry turned and looked at her. “Has a missing person’s report been filed?”

  “No. Not that I know of. Not yet.” She recounted everything Willie Sander had told her.

  “Hmm.” Henry had risen to a standing position as she talked, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Maybe I had better do some sleuthing myself. I don’t like the sound of it.” Always the Chief Park Ranger.

  Justin had been observing and listening to them, silently. An uneasiness in his stance. His eyes were on the bones in the earth wall and she didn’t need to guess what he was thinking. Perhaps the creature in the lake got him.

  “You know,” the scientist said, “maybe there is something in the lake. Why not now? The caldera below us is realigning, heaving, shoving up things that haven’t seen the light of day for eons. Could be it’s uncovered something…alive?” He let out a low whistle.

  Henry exchanged a look with him that spoke more than words. “Justin, I’m leaving now. Got something I have to do. See you later for supper?”

  Justin nodded. “Sure thing.” He waved, as she and Henry, hand in hand, headed towards the jeep parked at the bottom of the trail.

  “Did you invite him to supper?” She asked once they were out of earshot.

  Henry seemed preoccupied. “Oh,” he replied after a few seconds, “I didn’t think you’d mind. Since you’re the one who’s playing matchmaker and I figured Laura might show up again. Besides he’s a nice young man. I like him. We have a lot in common.

  “What are we having for supper?”

  “Meatloaf. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Buttered corn. Chocolate pudding with Cool Whip for dessert.” Ann knew better than to ask him outright what was really on his mind. He’d tell her when he was ready.

  “Sounds great.”

  “Glad you approve.”

  He squeezed her hand as they walked toward the jeep.