“Well of course it does!” Horner exclaimed. “I’m not here on holiday. I’ve been doing legitimate, hard work. Not that it is any of Lamb’s business, but I was shipping off my collected notes and rubbings before his thugs could steal those away from me, too. That crook has some nerve accusing me of being a thief!”
“No one is calling you a thief, Mr. Horner,” said Charlie.
“I most certainly am!” Lamb declared. “Even if all you sent were rubbings and notes—which I doubt—that would be confession enough! The discoveries at that site, both physical and intellectual, are my property, and not to be disseminated. My contract with Mr. Brisbee is very clear on that point.”
“This is what I’ve been telling you about,” Horner said to the reporter, who was watching the dispute with the detached interest one might reserve for an unexceptional tennis match.
“Officer, arrest that reprobate!” Lamb roared. Charlie took a deep breath.
“You crazy old man,” Horner countered. “I had the whole dinosaur to myself before you plowed in here! Why would I have taken a single tooth?”
“We both know that this is about more than a tooth! I want those fossils you pilfered today, before you conveniently ran off to Gadston, and I want you locked up in a cell where you belong!”
“He’s stolen something new from the dig site?” Charlie asked.
Horner threw up his arms in exasperation. “I haven’t stolen anything!”
I turned to Lamb. “If you would just allow us to visit the dig site . . .”
“Young woman,” he said, cutting me off, “I don’t care who your father is. You’re not welcome on that dig site, and neither are any of your friends—so you really have no reason to keep hanging around.”
The woman in the striped coat stepped out of the carriage at last. “It’s Lewis Lamb, isn’t it?” she asked, not waiting for a reply. “Nellie Fuller with the Chronicle. Enchanté. May I be the first to say that fetching dust-gray suit really brings out the color of your personality. Now then, I’m a bit of a detail girl, so please humor me. What specifically are you accusing Mr. Horner of stealing?”
Lamb scowled. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. If Horner wants to use paleontology to impress yet another vapid female in a pretty dress, then he can take you and your come-hither ringlets and go find his own dig site. He knows what he stole from mine.”
“Why, Mr. Lamb, how kind of you to notice.” Miss Fuller put a hand to the jet-black curls peeking out beneath her hat. “I was hoping for a come-hither look this morning. Of course, if my hair is preventing you from carrying out your work, I would be happy to stuff it up under my hat. Then again, if your opinions on women prevent me from carrying out my work, then I would be more than happy to suggest a place for you to stuff them.” She gave the professor a saccharine smile and a polite nod.
Owen Horner looked at Nellie Fuller as if he might be in love. Lewis Lamb glowered. “How dare you!” he sputtered. “I am an institution in the scientific community . . .” His dark eyes bounced from person to person until they settled on Charlie. “Well? I have important work to do on that site. Are you going to do your job, or just let this criminal wander about freely while his associates harass me?”
“I would love to help you, Professor,” Charlie said, “but if you want to formally accuse Mr. Horner, then you must accept that the site of the excavation is also a crime scene.”
“Well of course it’s a crime scene!”
Charlie continued evenly. “Which would mean that it is within the jurisdiction of the local police and our consulting detectives to investigate.” I perked up.
The professor breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck angrily. “Fine.”
I could feel the smile spreading across my face. It had been a long day of false starts, but the evening was suddenly jumping forward. The unusual dinosaur, the stolen fossils, the unsolved murders, even the ominous pale man—they were all tied to those rocky foothills like frayed threads from the same cord. There were secrets buried behind that canvas wall, and I was resolved to unearth them.