Jurassic Heart (5 page)

After the intense week of excavating and documenting my find, I was exhausted. Ten-hour days with not enough breaks had taken their toll on my body.

“Are you coming out to dinner tonight?” Brad asked as we trudged back up the hill toward the trailer to file our find sheets. “The whole team is going.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I did hear about it….” The team had talked about nothing else for days. “I’ve got a headache coming on. I might miss it tonight. Next time, I promise.”

He nodded and gave me a smile before wandering off to find the rest of the team. I made sure my paperwork was signed and filed, and was washing out coffee cups when I felt Boner’s arms snake around my waist.

“Not going out?” he asked.

I shook my aching head. “You go, though.”

“Nah. I’ll stick with you. Wanna get dirty takeout for dinner?”

I laughed and leaned back against him. “Yeah. I really do.”

Suddenly the prospect of a lazy night in front of the TV was much more appealing than having to be sociable with the rest of the team. That thought made me feel pretty shitty, but I intended to hang around for a little while longer yet. There would be other opportunities to socialize.

T
HE
LOUD
banging on the motel room door woke me out of a groggy sleep. It was still dark. Next to me, Boner grumbled and rolled over, covering his eyes with his arm. The banging started again, and I called out to make them stop, for fuck’s sake, stop.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Boner mumbled.

I pulled on loose pajama pants and stumbled to the door, rubbing my eyes. The pills I’d taken before I’d gone to sleep had really knocked me out.

There was police at the door. They flashed their badges and looked disapprovingly at my lack of clothes. Well, fuck them. They woke me up.

“Can I help you?” I asked

One of them regarded me sternly. “Are you Dr. Nick Eisenberg?” he demanded.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

I heard Boner stirring behind me, sensing that something was wrong. I hoped he’d get dressed if he came to the door, but I doubted it. He was more comfortable being naked than he was wearing clothes, and didn’t stand by any societal rules of etiquette that said he should cover his naked ass if he was going to talk to the police.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Officer,” I added, in an attempt at showing deference.

“We’re here following up an incident that occurred earlier tonight,” the officer said. “Can I ask if there’s anyone else here with you?”

“Yes,” I said, all hopes of Boner staying hidden and covered up now gone. I heard him roll out of bed and pad over to us. One of the officers was a woman, and I watched her eyes widen.
You have no idea, sweetheart
, I thought.
And he’s a grower too.
“This is my… er… colleague. Bo—”

“Dr. George Tsakoumis,” Boner offered from just behind my left shoulder. “What incident are you following up on?”

“One of your colleagues was attacked and hospitalized.”

Horrified, I started mentally flicking through different members of the team, thinking
no, no, no
as each face passed through my mind.

“Eric White.”

“Eric?” I repeated faintly. Somehow it was much, much worse because I hated the guy.

“Yes.”

“What happened?” Boner asked.

“We’re still trying to find that out,” the woman said. “Could you tell me about your movements after five o’clock this afternoon, please?”

I tried to shake the fog from my head to answer her. “We finished up work about five thirty, and I worked on some paperwork at the site for a little while,” I said.

“On your own?” she prompted.

“No,” I said. “There were a couple of the kids hanging around. I was writing a report. Or trying to.”

“We were supposed to meet people for dinner,” Boner offered. “But Nick had a bad headache, so we came back here instead. I ordered takeout about seven, and he went to sleep not long after that. He’s been asleep all night, ma’am. Until now.”

The officer nodded and jotted down some notes. “I’ll take the name of the takeout company,” she said. “If you don’t mind.”

“Sure,” Boner said and gave her the details. “I’m sure you’ll be able to get security tapes from the lobby if you want them. Neither of us have left all night.”

“That’s fine,” the male officer said. “We may be in touch with further questions.”

I nodded. “Do you know who did it? Is Eric going to be okay?”

“We’ll let you know more when we have that information,” he said. “Thank you for your time tonight. And sorry for waking you.”

The woman blushed a little, Boner leered at her, and I shut the door before anything worse happened. Like her arresting him for indecent exposure.

“Fuck,” I said as Boner’s leer slipped from his face.

“Yeah,” he said. “Fuck. What happens now?”

“I’ve got no idea,” I said. “I’ll call Sam in the morning.”

Even though there was little chance of me getting back to sleep, I returned to the bed and slipped under the covers. A few moments later, Boner’s warm body curled around my back and he pulled me close.

“I didn’t know you were Greek,” I mumbled.

He was silent for a moment, then let out a bark of a laugh. “After all that, you’re concerned about my surname?”

I shrugged. “Not concerned. Curious.”

“I took my stepdad’s name when my mom married him,” Boner said. “I was only two at the time, and he’s been like my dad ever since.”

“Oh. That makes sense.”

“My mom’s maiden name was Wilson. For a long time I wanted to change it to that.”

I smiled and snuggled back into him. “George Tsa—”

“Tsakoumis.”

I repeated it, learning the pronunciation. “It’s a nice name. Bit weird to think that your mom doesn’t call you Boner, though.”

“She does.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope,” he said, skimming his nose over my shoulder. “She overheard it somewhere and thought it was hilarious. She’s called me Boner for years.”

“That’s nice. I should go see her again sometime.”

“You should.” He kissed me again. “You wanna talk about Eric?”

“No,” I said, and I really didn’t. I couldn’t do anything tonight, and there would be enough to do in the morning when we got back to camp.

“Okay,” he said.

To my complete surprise, I fell back to sleep in his arms.

T
HE
NEXT
morning was crazy. Boner and I made an effort to get to the site before any of the team so we could talk to everyone together, but it seemed the police had gone after everyone in the middle of the night, causing utter chaos.

Some people weren’t sure if they were supposed to turn up at all. Others came in plain clothes, not ready to work. I was desperately trying to get hold of Sam since he always knew everything, but he wasn’t answering his phone, and for some reason the team was looking to me for answers.

“I’m going to suspend work for today unless anyone particularly wants to keep going,” I said to the assembled group. “Until I know anything, I think that’s for the best. Please make sure I’ve got your contact numbers….”

Boner nodded at me in reassurance, then went back to comforting Nancy, whose eyes had once again filled with tears. Two of the students had already told me they were going to leave, and the rumor mill was going crazy. Someone had mentioned Eric was in critical condition, and there were whispers of brain damage, that he might not pull through.

My headache returned.

While the team flowed between the trailer and the picnic tables outside, I found some peace and quiet in my car, hiding in the backseat so I could frantically tap an e-mail to Sam on my phone. When he called a few minutes later, his voice was grim.

“What the fuck’s happening over there, Nick?” he demanded.

“Eric got the shit beaten out of him, and he’s in the hospital in Calgary.”

“I know that,” Sam said. “What’s going on with you?”

“With me? Nothing. I’m waiting to hear from you, you bastard,” I said, allowing some of the desperation I was feeling to creep into my voice. “The whole team is falling apart and for some reason they think I’m in charge.”

“Calm down,” Sam said firmly. “I’ve just made some phone calls, and Eric isn’t getting out of the hospital anytime soon. It sounds like the poor bastard was beaten half to death. They still don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

“Holy shit. How do you know all this?”

“I called the hospital,” he said easily. “I’m a concerned colleague. It’s always surprising what they’ll tell you.”

“Have you called the police too? Do they know who did it?”

“I’m good, sunshine, but I’m not that good,” he said, grim humor coloring his tone. “I’ll keep an ear to the ground.”

“They didn’t seem to know much when they came over last night.”

“It only just happened,” Sam said. “Give them time, Nick. We’ve got another problem to think about—those lab results have come back. You need to keep working.”

“You want me to take over the dig?” I asked, incredulous.

“No,” he said. “Eric’s dig is dead, and his people will make sure he takes his funding with him. And all his notes. The bastard can do that, but you’ve got copies, right?”

“Yeah. Of some stuff, yeah.”

“That you were given legitimately?”

“Yeah,” I said again. “By Brad, the first few days I was here.”

“Is it dated?” he demanded.

Shit.
Shit
. “A lot of it was photocopied or printed from his files. And… and… shit! He sent me stuff by e-mail. As a backup.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Sam said. “Sunshine, we’re in business.”

“Where’s the funding coming from?” I asked.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head with things like that,” Sam said, the sort of answer I got when it was coming out of his own pocket. That didn’t happen very often. Not unless Sam was really fucking sure he was going to get something out of it. “Who do you want on your team?”

“Boner’s already here.”

“Of course he is,” Sam said with a weary sigh.

“I’ll keep Chuck and Nancy,” I said. They were amateurs, but they had good knowledge of the area, they were local so they didn’t need accommodation, and they knew what they were doing. I was happy enough with their work to let them carry on. “Can you get me the Goth Twins?”

He huffed down the phone in a way that told me exactly how much I was asking for. “Get me the Goth Twins,” I said, “and a couple more students, and I’ll run with that.”

“That’s a pretty small team, Nick.”

“I know,” I said, and I did. “But I can handle it.”

“Okay. I’ll call you.”

“Wait—wait!” I demanded before he hung up. “What are the lab results?”

I could almost see his Cheshire cat grin as he paused. “I’ll send them through to you. Look after yourself, Nick.”

And he ended the call.

J
UST
AS
Sam had predicted, someone from Eric’s team arrived the next day to pack up all his kit and notes. I dismissed the team, promising to keep in touch when I could, even though I’d have to go through Eric’s secretary for anything to do with their discoveries and research and results.

Nancy and Chuck decided to take a few days away from the dig to get over the shock, and I hoped they would come back. I’d managed to keep Brad the undergrad but lost more of the other students than I’d expected, meaning if Sam couldn’t get me the Goth Twins, I’d be fucked.

The problem Boner and I faced was the partially exposed finds still in the ground. Eric’s prim secretary, with her crisp white blouse and pencil skirt, wasn’t about to get her hands dirty pulling them out, so she deigned to leave them to us. Suddenly, protecting the dig, which had been the work of fourteen people, came down to just me and Boner until reinforcements arrived.

Fortunately, Sam was dealing with all the paperwork needed for us to keep digging, although I was wary of doing anything until I had the signed, stamped copies in my hand. The last thing I wanted was to be charged with digging illegally. Apart from the costly legal battle that would create, I couldn’t be bothered to deal with the hassle.