Death by Dinosaur: A Sam Stellar Mystery

by Jacqueline Guest

  In the summer, Drumheller could reach off-the-charts temperatures, and today had been a hot one. Agent D had left the window open enough so that Sam could slide her arm in and undo the lock on the door, which she did in a heartbeat. Pulling the door open, she spied the hood release button located down by the steering column.

  One of the few things she knew about cars was they had to have spark plugs to run, and where there were spark plugs, there were spark-plug wires. Flipping the release button, she ran to the hood, opened it and reached into the engine cavity. Sam pulled on the rubbery cables with all her strength and was rewarded as they popped off quite nicely. Clutching the bundle, she jumped on her bike and sped out of the lot as fast as her legs could spin the pedals.

  Rounding the last corner before reaching the main road, Sam heard a very satisfying sound drifting to her on the warm evening breeze. It was the repeated whine of an unwilling engine trying to start.

  Chapter 13

  Stashing the Goods

  Sam stowed her bike in the garage and went as calmly as possible into the boarding house. Everyone was enjoying a noisy game of PS4 bowling on the wide-screen TV. Sam enjoyed watching the LaSalle sisters and nodded enthusiastically as Clarisse pulled down a strike. You didn’t think of ‘frail’ when you saw them play.

  Doing a quick head count, Sam noted Jackson was nowhere to be seen, then remembered how, at coffee break, he’d mentioned something about leaving tomorrow for the weekend. Maybe he changed his mind and left tonight, she thought. Paige wasn’t there either and Sam decided she must be waiting in their room to hear if the treasure hunt had been a success. She hurried upstairs, anxious to inspect the fossil that had caused so much trouble and show it to her cousin.

  The room was empty. Sam wanted to wait but for her, waiting was impossible. Emptying her pack, she peered at the white blob of plaster lying on the bed. Looking at it now, she could hardly believe it had caused all this fuss. She picked it up. The shape was right, but it weighed a lot less than the other pieces from that portion of the shipment. It was probably due to the poor wrapping job done by the Colombian bone smuggler. Gently, she rattled the plaster-jacketed fossil.

  One thing was for sure, Agent D knew she had it and would undoubtedly try to get it back. She had to put it somewhere safe. Somewhere no one, not even Jackson, who knew the boarding house, could find it.

  With a bang, the door burst open, and Paige rushed into the room.

  Sam squeaked loudly. It was an unprofessional but totally understandable reaction. “Holy jalapeños, Paige! You nearly gave me a double coronary!” She clutched her chest dramatically. “Come in and close the door.”

  Paige kicked the door shut and sat on Sam’s bed. “I was in the kitchen getting a snack when I saw you slink in. Is this the famous fossil?”

  “Yes. I told you I could find it.” Sam leaned back on the bed, lacing her hands behind her head. “And it was no easy feat,” she added, tossing out the hook, juicy bait attached.

  “This is so next-level exciting! I need details.” Paige was all ears. “Oh, and I made up some excuse about you working late, then going for a ride on your bike. Mrs. O’Reilly bought it, but I don’t think Jack swallowed one word. He put his coat on and said he was going to the movies. Well?” She rushed on. “You didn’t find this in Jack’s locker, did you?”

  Sam’s ears perked up. “You said he went to the movies? That’s odd. Yesterday, I asked Mrs. O’Reilly what was playing and she said the theatre was closed for renovations.” Sam added this to her mental mix. Jackson must not know this tidbit of neighbourhood info because it blew his cover story out of the water. Was he at another mystery meeting? Or was he on his way to pick up the fossil? And when he found it gone, then what? Agent D would be able to fill him in on who got there first.

  Paige jumped to Jackson’s defence. “I know what you’re thinking and you can cut it out. Of course, he didn’t know the theatre was closed but he’s not the bad guy in all this, Sam. So, tell me, was the old bone in Jack’s locker?”

  “Not in anyone’s locker,” Sam answered cryptically.

  “I knew it!” Paige said smugly. “You still don’t have any hard evidence against my super dude.”

  “All I said was I didn’t find it in his locker. He could easily have been the one who stole, then stashed the thing. I’ll figure it out eventually.” Sam was still reluctant to drop him as her prime suspect. He and Agent D were in cahoots somehow, she was sure.

  “Not gonna happen.” Paige sat down on the edge of the bed. “Okay, okay, back to the museum search and I want every dusty, dirty dinosaur detail.”

  There was a sharp knock at the door. Startled, Sam dived for the fossil, knocking Paige off the bed and onto her butt on the floor in the process. “Quick! I’ll hide the evidence!” she whispered hoarsely. “You stall them!”

  “Right! I’ll stall them.” Paige hastily picked herself up and slammed her body against the door. “One minute,” she trilled in a high, sing-song voice.

  Sam hopped from her bed to Paige’s in one huge leap and grabbed her cousin’s Timmy Turtle pyjama bag. Yanking open the zipper, she pulled Paige’s PJs out of the bag – then an old T-shirt, three dirty socks, a half-eaten jar of peanut butter and a hoodie. “Hey, it’s my missing hoodie!” Sam threw the grungy pullover onto her own bed.

  Grabbing the scrunched up T-shirt, she wrapped the fossil in it and stuffed it back into Timmy, then replaced him on her cousin’s bed. In one deft movement, she bounded onto her own bed, grabbed a magazine and lay back as though she’d been reading for hours.

  Paige opened the door and grinned idiotically.

  “What are you two up to?” Rose pushed her way in.

  “Us?” Sam asked innocently. “Why, nothing. Nothing at all.”

  “Then why are you reading your copy of Field and Stream upside down?” Rose asked pointedly.

  “Busted,” Paige giggled. “You’ll have to forgive her, Rose. Sam flunked Spy Basics 101.”

  “So what’s all the mystery about?” Rose started to sit on Paige’s bed.

  “No!” Sam screeched as she rolled off her own bed and grabbed the limp turtle by the neck. “Ah, I mean…please don’t sit on Timmy. He doesn’t enjoy being squished.”

  Suspicion leapt onto Rose’s face. “I think you should give old Auntie Rose the full scoop. Starting with your little green buddy.” She lifted her chin in Timmy’s direction.

  Sam knew the jig was up. She unzipped the pyjama bag. “This is the fossil everyone is smuggling, stealing, hiding, finding, chasing.” She tossed the piece to Rose. “And I have a story worthy of Commander Bond about what happened while I was tracking it down.” She recounted the harrowing adventure at the museum as her small audience sat speechless, listening.

  When she finished, Rose stood up and paced. “This is getting dangerous. If this Agent D of yours knows where you live, he’ll come here after you.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going to hide it. He’ll never be able to find it – even with Jackson’s help.” Sam sat back on the bed.

  Paige shot her an acid glance, which Sam ignored.

  Rose shook her head. “It’s still hard to believe Jackson’s mixed up in this. He’s always been so nice.”

  “He’s been so clever,” Sam corrected. “I know it’s harsh, but you can’t ignore all the evidence like the little ten-thousand-dollar slip and the fact I found the fossil at the museum, as I had deduced, plus, the pièce de résistance – he was out tonight maybe waiting to rendezvous with his accomplice, who happens to be having a little car trouble.”

  “You have to tell the police,” Rose told Sam, her concern obvious.

  “No. At least, not yet.” Sam stood up. “I still don’t have any concrete proof as to who stole it. I’ve got to have an airtight case before going to the police, or I’ll be tagged as one of those crackpot teenagers we’re always reading about. Maybe there’s a logical explanation why Jackson’s mixed up in this. Please, Rose…”

>   Rose considered a moment. “Oh, all right – under one condition. You must tell someone in authority about all this. It’s getting dangerous.”

  “I will,” Sam promised. “Cut my throat and hope to choke.”

  Paige groaned.

  “For crying out loud, it’s just an expression.” Sam sat back down on the bed and relaxed. Everything was falling into place, sort of. “And speaking of promises, Rosie, have you asked John out yet?”

  Rose blushed and quickly changed the subject. “I think I’ll pop down and make us a nice cup of tea. I know I could use one.”

  “You can always use one,” Paige added.

  After Rose left, Sam retrieved the fossil and wrapped it in brown paper.

  “What are you doing?” Paige watched as her cousin taped up the package.

  “I’m hiding this so no one will be able to get at it,” Sam explained.

  “How? By disguising it in a plain brown wrapper? Why didn’t I think of that?” Paige smacked her forehead. “What a great idea! Right out of the pages of Spy Monthly. No self-respecting crook would ever think of looking for it wrapped, especially when it’s wrapped so tackily.”

  “Knock it off, Paige.” Sam smoothed a section of the wrinkled paper covering the fossil, then rummaged in a drawer for a pen.

  “Now what?” Paige asked. “Are you going to put a label on it that says, ‘I am not a smuggled, stolen dinosaur bone. Please ignore me’?”

  “Very funny,” Sam retorted. “Actually, I’m going to make sure no one can find it.”

  Paige didn’t follow her. “How? Where? There are only so many places to hide something in a boarding house.”

  Sam finished writing on the bundle and inspected her work. “That’s right. So, it won’t be in the boarding house. I’m mailing it to myself. It will be away for at least three days and lost deep within Canada Post.” She hefted the well-taped package. “How much do you think this will cost to mail…parcel rate?”

  •••

  Saturday arrived, sunny and perfect. Even though Sam felt safe with the fossil tucked in the corner mailbox, she was still going to keep her word to Rose. The question was who could she trust to tell?

  The black marks in Jackson’s guilty column were mounting up, and she had to do something to turn up the heat on this case. She wanted to know whether Jackson Lunde was dirty, to use a technical spy term. Hopping on her trusty bike, she rode over to Professor Caine’s house.

  Although the gruff man didn’t have a warm fuzzy molecule in his body, he was probably her best ally. She was sure the professor would want to help solve this mystery, especially if his protégé, Jackson, was involved.

  “What can I do for you Samantha?” Professor Caine asked after they were seated in his study.

  Sam cleared her throat. “It’s about the missing fossil.”

  “The alleged missing fossil,” he corrected her. “We have yet to establish it was, in fact, a real fossil. No one else, except you, thinks it was.”

  “True,” Sam took a deep breath. “The thing is, I know for a fact the piece really exists and is probably a fossil, a very valuable fossil.” The professor raised his unruly eyebrows. They reminded Sam of wiry grey caterpillars inching across his brow.

  “Really? How do you know that?”

  “Because…” She took another steadying breath. Her voice was a fluttering bird when she spoke. “I have the missing piece.”

  “You have it!” He shot to his feet. “Explain yourself, young lady.”

  The large man towered over Sam as she shrank back into the padded wing chair. She felt those tall, dark wings enfold her like some giant leathery bat.

  “I meant to say…I had the fossil,” she stammered. “I don’t have it now, I mean, I will... soon.”

  Professor Caine paced up and down. The ticking of the large grandfather clock in the corner seemed to grow louder and louder until the room was filled with its thundering beat.

  At last he spoke. “Samantha, I’m going to take you into my confidence.”

  He gave her a painful smile, as though he were unused to making his lips form that particular gesture. It did little to lessen Sam’s unease.

  “Not forty-five minutes ago, I received a phone call from someone who wanted to know about Jackson. This…person also hinted Jackson may be involved in something illegal, something that has to do with his trip to South America.” He leaned against his desk. “It may have to do with the missing piece. I want you to bring the fossil to me so I can examine it. I’ll talk to Jackson and see if he is involved in anything, shall we say – shady, and if he is, perhaps I’ll be able to help him.”

  “That might not be a good idea,” Sam protested, not wanting Jackson alerted to what she suspected.

  He abruptly cut her off. “First, we must return the item to the museum as quickly as possible. Even if it does turn out to be only a fragment of plaster, it is the property of the museum and its speedy recovery would be in Jackson’s favour.”

  Sam traced a little X on the smooth leather arm of the chair. “As I said, I don’t have the fossil with me. I’ll have it within a day or two. Plus, there’s something else you should know. Jackson recently had ten thousand dollars deposited to his bank account, and when he first spoke to me about the South American dinosaur project, he hinted he might not be around for its completion.”

  The professor actually winced at this. “I should speak to Jackson immediately. I think you’re right Samantha; it seems he is in some kind of serious trouble.” Sam could hear the regret in his voice. He probably thought of Jackson as more of a son than an assistant. “That will have to wait,” she said. “He’s gone away on one of his mysterious trips and isn’t expected back till tomorrow evening. No one knows where to contact him.” Even to Sam this sounded bad for the guy.

  “Will you have the fossil by then?”

  She thought of her clever hiding spot. “Not even Merlin could get it over the weekend, sir.”

  The professor’s eyes narrowed and he folded his arms when he spoke. “I think it would be best if I confront Jackson with the missing fossil instead of you. We don’t know what lengths he’d go to in order to retrieve it.”

  Sam thought of the falling crates and Agent D, the accomplice. Had he killed the security guard in the robbery in Ontario? Jackson was the in-house man, which made Agent D the out-house man. Hmm, maybe that wasn’t the best way to refer to him in her report. “Perhaps you’re right, Professor, especially after the brushes I’ve had with Agent D.”

  “Is that the man you saw at the museum?” The professor moved back to the chair across from Sam.

  “Yes, he was there again when I found the fossil. Perhaps he’s the one who telephoned you about Jackson. Did the man who called have an accent?”

  “Accent?” Professor Caine asked, apparently unsure of what Sam meant.

  “Yes, a Spanish accent,” She explained.

  The professor’s caterpillar brows knit together as he recalled the conversation. “As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, you’re right. He did speak oddly. He may have been trying to disguise an accent.”

  “Maybe he planned on double-crossing Jackson and taking the fossil for himself. This guy is really dangerous. Rose, a lady who lives at my boarding house, thinks I should contact the police.” Sam knew if they did tell the police, it would seriously hamper her own investigation.

  Professor Caine stood and started pacing again. “I think that would be premature. We don’t want to tarnish the reputation of the museum by involving it unnecessarily in a scandal, and if there is any way we can save Jackson, we owe it to him to try. Up until this, this…mistake, he had a bright future. I had such high hopes for him.” Professor Caine hesitated and then shook his head in resignation. “The police will have to be involved eventually. However, I think it would be prudent to wait until I talk to Jackson first.”

  “That’s what I tried to tell Rose,” Sam heartily agreed. “There are too many loose ends.”
She was glad the professor was being reasonable. Adults usually loved to call in the cops; it made them feel like good citizens.

  She got up to leave. “I’ll contact you if anything new develops.”

  “Good idea, Samantha. I’ll give you my phone number at work and home; that way you can call me as soon as you have the fossil, or if anything else…untoward happens. I’m sure this will all be cleared up once I see that accursed piece of plaster. In the meantime, I want you to be very careful, young lady. We’ll work together to get to the bottom of this.”

  He jotted the numbers on a piece of paper, and Sam stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans. She was sad and glad at the same time. Sad that it was looking even worse for Jackson and glad there was now a big gun on her team.

  As she rode back to the boarding house, Sam couldn’t seem to shake the feeling she’d put her shoes on the wrong feet. She’d missed something, something humongous. Sam replayed her conversations with Jackson in her mind, trying to find the clue she’d missed.

  This spy business was more complicated than she’d imagined. There were so many details to keep straight and too many mixed-up pieces to the puzzle to get a clear picture. She hoped Professor Caine would be able to fill in the blanks when he spoke to Jackson.

  Chapter 14

  Making the Suspect List

  “Hurry up, Paige,” Sam called as she and Rose headed for Mrs. O’Reilly’s car early Sunday morning.

  “I have to finish packing my low-fat, high-fibre, no-carb, vitamin-enriched simulated-chocolate snack,” Paige yelled back from the kitchen.

  After several more delays, including a search and rescue for the sunscreen, they were finally on their way. They were heading out to take pictures of the unusual rock formations called hoodoos, which were located not far from Drumheller. These tall columns of weathered sandstone had eroded in such a way as to leave boulders of a harder material precariously perched on top, and each one was a masterpiece of Mother Nature’s ingenuity.