A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
Chapter 1
"Everybody stay together now!" Amanda King shouted over the cacophony as she herded her pack of Junior Trailblazers into the Mongolian dinosaur exhibit. "It was nice of Dr. Baatar to offer to give us a personal visit. We're a little early, so you fellas think about what questions you'd like to ask him. You can look around while we wait, but don't touch anything that isn't supposed to be touched!"
Eight excited boys swarmed enthusiastically around the room, admiring the displays of dinosaurs in detailed replicas of their ancient habitats. There were Oviraptors, a Heyuannia, and of course a rendition of the famous "Two Fighting Dinosaurs" based on the fossilized bones of a Velociraptor locked in mortal combat with a Protoceratops. The main attraction, a massive Tarbosaurus skeleton, towered regally in the center of the room. Unlike many of the dinosaurs on display, this one was over half actual bone, not cast plastic. While smaller than it's notorious American cousin the Tyrannosaurus Rex, at ten feet high at the hip and close to thirty feet long, it soon commanded the attention of the rambunctious group.
"I bet this guy could eat all of us for lunch and still be hungry!" the smallest boy observed.
"I bet it could eat you in one bite, Short Stuff!" another teased. "You would barely even be a snack!"
"Yeah, I'm like a fun size Snickers, but more satisfying!" Short Stuff, whose real name was Tim Davenport, countered.
"Hey! It looks like some caveman took a few bites out of this guy!" Amanda's oldest son Phillip was looking rather intently at the great beast's comically short right arm.
"Cavemen didn't live at the same time as dinosaurs, dummy!" countered another.
"Jamie, don't call your brother a dummy." Amanda scolded lightly. "I don't think those bite marks were made by a caveman, Sweetie."
"But it looks just like when I had to bite that gross clay stuff at the dentist!"
Just then, two men walked into the room. "You're right, young man. Dinosaurs were extinct long before the first cavemen came along. I am Dr. Battsetseg Baatar of the Paleontology department at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. This is my graduate assistant Temuulen Nergui. And you, I assume, are Junior Trailblazers." the older man said, surprising the nearest boy with the secret Junior Trailblazer handshake.
Amanda recognized Dr. Baatar from the photo accompanying the article in the morning newspaper's Saturday Supplement about the dinosaur exhibit. Medium height, early 50s, glasses, graying temples, with a muscular build and deep tan that spoke of countless hours in the field. He was much more handsome in person, she thought. Or that could just be the obvious joy he took in meeting his enthusiastic young audience. Learning the handshake had immediately endeared him to the boys. And to her too, truth be told. Mr. Nergui looked less comfortable, hanging back and shuffling his feet uncertainly.
"We have an exciting program for you today." Dr. Baatar continued. "In a few moments, we will head into the theater to begin our adventure with a trip back in time, to 140 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. After the film, we will go into the next hall where you will be able to conduct your own dig for dinosaur bones. We're just waiting for a special guest to arrive. Mr. Stedman from a local film company is interested in doing a short documentary on our field work next summer, in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. I'm sure your questions will help him make an interesting movie, so think of some good ones for him! While we wait, does anyone know what a paleontologist does?"
As several boys started speaking at once, a tall, well-dressed man walked into the room. The apology for being stuck in traffic died on his lips. Oh no, he thought. Not her. Not here. Not now.
Amanda's heart jumped as she recognized him. She saw the quickly suppressed flash in his eyes of—what? Surprise? Dismay? Anger? Whatever it was, he obviously hadn't expected to see her here, and he wasn't exactly happy about it.
Well she hadn't expected to see him either! He'd developed an annoying -but admittedly exhilarating- habit of popping up in her life unexpectedly, sometimes even outside her kitchen window, but she instinctively understood that this time she was the one on the outside looking in. But in to what? "Fellas, don't talk over each other please!" she hastened to break their brief uncomfortable moment. "I'm sure it will be easier for Dr. Baatar to answer your questions if he can hear them one at a time."
Lee Stetson, current alias Stedman of International Federal Film, let go of the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, willing his pounding heartbeat to return to normal. "Dr. B, sorry I'm late. Had to detour around an accident."
A few minutes later, he followed the group into the small theater. As the lights dimmed, he passed behind Amanda, gently touching the small of her back. "Later." he whispered, relieved to feel her relax after initially tensing at his touch. He found a seat a few benches away. As far away as possible, if he wanted to be honest with himself. Film guy. Cool. Aloof. Nothing to do with this little flock of children. He sighed. It was going to be a long morning.
Running into Amanda here was unexpected to say the least, but he quickly realized that she and her Boy Scouts or whatever they were would keep Dr. Baatar and Mr. Nergui occupied thoroughly enough for him to take a look around. But what was he looking for, exactly?
Chapter 2
"Later." The whisper and tingling memory of Lee's hand on her back stuck with Amanda all afternoon. The last time she had seen him had been...awkward. They'd spent a few days posing as a married couple, even sharing a small house in Betsy Ross Estates. Living there. Spending the night under the same roof. Boy did she have to get creative explaining that absence when she finally got home!
She wondered what had happened to the massive Buffalo head her mother had donated to the hastily improvised "rummage sale" she'd used as an excuse for leaving the house with a big stack of clothing. Lee had been so proud of himself, hanging that silly trophy in "their" living room! Amanda hadn't been able to help laughing, quickly forgetting her aggravation about doing the bulk of their "moving in" and setting up house. That had been quite an adventure, and not just because they had busted up a major Central American gun smuggling operation, and incidentally put Connie Beth Cosmetics out of business. They smuggled guns AND tested on animals, so good riddance!
But why on earth was The Agency interested in an exhibit of dinosaurs from Mongolia? Like her Junior Trailblazers, she had so many question in her head, all demanding answers at the same time.
"Amanda!" Her mother's voice cut through her reverie. "Darling, since the boys are staying over at Mrs. Davenport's tonight and you and Dean have dinner reservations before the movie, I thought I would invite Dr. Bain over for drinks. Try not to rush home, would you dear?"
Dean! Amanda had forgotten all about their date tonight!Truthfully, she hadn't thought too much about Dean since the weekend he went to New York last month. Sure, the bookends he brought her back as a gift were quite nice, as far as bookends go. She smiled slightly, remembering how earnestly pleased he'd been to present them to her. They were a thoughtful, non-touristy gift, and they certainly helped the boys keep their encyclopedia shelf less chaotic than usual. Yes, a nice, solid, reliable, practical gift. Not real exciting, though. Just like Dean. Who would be here in a little more than an hour to pick her up.
"Okay Mother!" With a last wistful glance out the kitchen window, she went upstairs to shower and figure out what to wear.
Chapter 3
Lee was cursing himself for at least the twentieth time in the past hour and a half. Why? WHY had he mentioned to his boss that he'd run into Amanda and her gaggle of boys at the museum? He'd told himself at the time that it was just a normal and appropriate thing to include in his daily report. Proper procedure even, when an agent encountered something or someone that might complicate an investigation or compromise their cover.
He should have known what was coming by the sudden twinkle in Billy Melrose's shrewd brown eyes.
What he couldn't have known –and frankly wouldn't have guessed- was that Amanda wouldn't be home on a Saturday night. Her car was in the driveway, but when Lee peered in through the kitchen window, he'd narrowly avoided coming face to face with a handsome older man smiling as he poured two glasses of wine. A very respectable wine at that! It must have been the near discovery that brought the momentary freezing lump to the pit of his stomach. And surely the relief wasn't from realizing that the gentleman was taking the wine to Amanda's mother in the living room. Right? Right.
He'd quickly assessed the situation. No sign of the boys, although it was far too early for a weekend bedtime. There had been no lights on when he drove past before parking his Porsche, other than in the kitchen and the flickering glow of the television in the living room window. Maybe she'd gone to pick the boys up from one of the numerous activities they were involved in? No. That would mean taking the car. Asleep early? Again, not likely. He couldn't imagine her mother getting cozy on the couch if her daughter or grandsons were home. So, Amanda was obviously not home. So... So he'd just have to wait!
And wait.
And wait.
And then the rain started. Just terrific.
Where the hell was she? Had something happened to her? His mind flashed back to Amanda being maneuvered upstairs after the Connie Beth salesgirl meeting the last time Billy had involved her in an operation. How responsible he'd felt for not being able to keep her out of a bad situation. How she'd kept her wits about her and picked up on his cues after he'd allowed himself to be captured and brought upstairs. How she's sprayed that pompous jerk Bobby Bouchard square in the face with hairspray, giving them a few precious seconds to escape! How she'd—No. There had to be a perfectly innocent explanation. Her mother had a man over, so maybe she went to a movie. Maybe with a friend. Or maybe-
He heard the car pull in. Heard the car door open. Heard her saying goodnight.
Heard the man's voice telling her he'd had a wonderful evening and would call her Wednesday night when he got back from his conference.
Chapter 4
Lee was caught off guard at first to hear Amanda's shoes clicking on the driveway, walking in his direction. Low heels, judging by the sound. Had she noticed his car parked at the corner of a side street and known he was here? No, he thought it was more likely that she'd seen the light from the television in the window and decided it would be more tactful to come in through the kitchen in case her mother was still entertaining her gentleman friend. He'd noticed she had an almost instinctive consideration about that sort of thing, like some mysterious suburban housewife superpower. Of course he had to remind himself of how instinctively INconsiderate she'd been showing up at Mrs. Welch's house that time, given how hard he been trying up until that point to terminate their unlikely acquaintance!
He heard the jingle of keys as she came around the back of the house. "Lee!" she hissed, seeing him before he could decide it might be better to talk to her in the morning. "What are you doing here?" As if she hadn't been half willing him to show up all day! "You're soaked! How long have you been waiting?"
Lee suddenly felt every raindrop that had fallen during his long vigil. "Amanda, I have to talk to you about this morning. Did you-"
"Listen, it's late and my mother is awake. I can't invite you in to warm up, but you stay right here. Don't move! I'll be back in a few minutes." Without waiting for a reply, she opened the door and went inside. "Mother, I'm home!" he heard her call out as the door swung closed.
Well thank goodness for the warning, her mother thought as she quickly removed her bare foot from Dr. Bain's firmly massaging hands. "How was your movie, Dear?"
"Oh, it was alright. Mother, I forgot all about the PTA bake sale at the church tomorrow so I'm going to run down to the all night convenience store for a few things. I'll be back soon!"
Without waiting for a reply, Amanda ran lightly up the stairs. She quickly exchanged her skirt and sweater for comfy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Good, she thought, reaching for the box on the top shelf of her closet, I remembered where I put this. She'd bought a tracksuit for the boys' father last Christmas, but he'd gotten himself off to some far-flung corner of the world and left an emergency contact number but no mailing address. As usual. Slipping her feet gratefully into sneakers and putting her jacket back on, she slipped the bulky garments underneath and hurried back downstairs. She was out the kitchen door before her mother had time to say anything.
"Here." she said, thrusting the warm, dry clothes at Lee. "The garage side door is unlocked. These might be a little small but I think they'll fit. Go get out of those wet clothes and meet me in the car."
Instinctively considerate, Lee half smiled to himself as he dutifully went to change. Five minutes later, the heater was helping him finally shake the chill. "Um, Amanda, where are we going?" He was concerned as she unexpectedly shifted the vehicle into reverse.
"We can't just sit in the driveway. I told Mother I needed a few things for a bake sale tomorrow, so we're going to get them. Now, what's so important that it couldn't wait until morning?"
Lee had to admit that sometimes she showed unexpected promise for this kind of work. "Did you see anything unusual at the museum this morning? Anything at all out of the ordinary?"
"Other than you posing as a film maker?"
Oh no, he was NOT taking that bait! "Obviously other than that."
"No." Amanda thought back, trying to replay the entire visit in her mind. "That grad student, Mr. Nergui looked a little suspicious, but that's the only thing that stood out. And he disappeared for a few minutes after the movie."
"Anything else? Think, Amanda. This is important."
"Well you were there looking around too! Didn't you notice anything?"
"No." Obviously I wouldn't be doing my best drowned rat impression in your back yard if I had, he added silently.
"What's this about, Lee? Why did The Agency send an important agent like you to a dinosaur exhibit?"
An important agent like me? She'd said it with no hint of sarcasm or irony. Unexpectedly, it warmed him to depths that the station wagon's heater couldn't touch.
He considered his next words carefully. Some aspects of the case had been widely publicized, but nothing had been mentioned to connect them. "There's an old saying that when something happens twice, maybe it's a coincidence, but if it happens a third time, it's a pattern. Do you remember hearing about the theft of the 16th-century Italian armor from the Louvre in May, and the watch collection stolen from the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem in April?"
"Didn't that include a watch made for Marie Antoinette?"
"That watch alone was valued at 30 million dollars. There were over a hundred watches and clocks stolen in that heist. And do you know what exhibit was on loan to those museums when the robberies occurred?"
Understanding dawned quickly. "Mongolian Dinosaurs?"
"Yes. Mongolian Dinosaurs. And the exhibit closes here in two days. If this is a pattern rather than a coincidence, we need to find out how they're planning to do it, and prevent it from happening. If they're going to make a move, it's going to be soon. We've had agents in and out of there all month and we still don't know how they're going to move anything, or what they're going to be after, or even if they're after anything. So think, Amanda. THINK. Nothing seemed off? Nothing at all?"
Amanda thought, and thought, and thought some more. She thought about it through the eyes of her Junior Trailblazers. Kids noticed a lot that adults missed. "You know what? There was one thing." Lee looked ready to pounce on any kernel of a possible lead. His sudden aggressive energy was something she didn't think she'd ever get used to. It flustered her.
"Phillip—that's my oldest, he saw some marks on that big dinosaur's arm. He said it looked like someone bit him. But then my younger son Jamie said no, well actually he said 'no dummy' but I told him not to call his brother a dummy, but he said it looked liked it was made by a caveman because it looked like the impression the dentist took of his teeth last month and then Dr. Baatar came in and said-"
"That's it?" He cut her off before she gave a complete recounting of the entire day.
"Lee, the dinosaurs weren't around when early people came along. They would have already been fossils. You can't make bite marks on fossils. They're too hard." She turned to look at him as another though surfaced. "And why would they make a fake dinosaur bone with bite marks unless it was from another dinosaur? Why make bite marks at all?"
It might not be much, he thought. But it was something, and none of the agents had noticed it. "We need to get back to that museum! If you turn left up here we can-"
"Now? We need to go back to the museum RIGHT NOW?" She felt ridiculous pointing out the obvious. "They're closed! And Mother will expect me home soon with baking supplies."
"Amanda, we don't have much time! We'll stop at the store. You can run in and get what you need, and I'll use the pay phone to call Billy."
Amanda had a feeling that it was going to be a very long night.
Chapter 5
Billy Melrose was looking forward to heading home and enjoying a quiet evening, hopefully leading into an uninterrupted day off. Jeannie and the kids had gone to visit her sister for the weekend, and Billy had cold beer and a thick steak at home waiting to be cooked. He had just finished reviewing the department's weekly reports and only had to finalize next week's duty roster when the phone rang. Phone calls after 9 at night were rarely good news in this business.
"Melrose."
"Billy, it's Lee. I need a favor. Two favors."
Francine Desmond flounced into the office with the stack of current case files he'd asked her to drop off before she headed out for the night. Billy held up a finger, instructing her to wait a moment. Judging by the overwhelming scent of freshly applied perfume, Billy surmised that she was heading out to meet the subject of next week's steno pool gossip. "Hang on a minute, Francine. Scarecrow, I'm putting you on speaker."
"This isn't a secure line, Billy. I'm at a pay phone outside a convenience store." Francine smirked, imagining Lee at one of the seedier all-night places. SO not his style. "We're heading to the museum. I need you to make a couple calls so we can get in to look around. And we may need backup. If anything's going to happen, it has to be tonight or tomorrow."
"We?" Billy had a feeling he knew who the rest of "we" was. "You have Amanda with you?"
"Look, she had a date so I had to wait —Never mind. Just make those calls. We should be there in half an hour."
Francine rolled her eyes. "My, my. Amanda had a date. You must be shattered. How heartbreaking."
"And how heartbreaking for whomever you freshened your perfume for. I'm going to need extra eyes with me on this one. Just a hunch, but Lee sounded like he might be onto something."
"But everyone has gone home except switchboard and security."
"And US, which is why I'm taking YOU."
"Billy, I have plans! I'm supposed to meet-"
"Correction. You HAD plans. And now you have an excuse to cut him off before he tries talking you into going home with him."
They both heard Lee unsuccessfully try to stifle a chuckle. Lately Francine's goal in life seemed to be to make dates and break hearts, and the entire office knew it. Billy secretly thought he deserved at least a few karma points for saving Francine from herself.
"Alright Lee, I'll make a few calls and we'll catch up to you at the museum. Francine, go change into something a little less comfortable." There was an upside to Francine keeping several outfits at the office, he thought.
Lee hung up the phone and caught his reflection in the grimy plate glass window. He was suddenly very aware of the too-short gray track pants ending well above his damp socks and loafers. He thought of his clothing, including his holstered gun and Agency ID, safely back on a shelf in Amanda's garage. Francine would be merciless. It would be months before she'd let him live this down.
Was it too much to hope that Billy would make her wait in the car?
Chapter 6
While Lee and Amanda were talking, Dr. Baatar and Mr. Nergui were working late at the museum, matching invoices to shipping crates in preparation for the exhibit's move to the Ontario Science Center. Another of Dr. Baatar's graduate students had arrived in Toronto earlier in the week to determine how to best stage the exhibit when it arrived. Baatar would be traveling with the artifacts, but Mr. Nergui would be returning to his university in Ulaanbaatar. It was good that he rotated his students, Baatar thought. Nergui was a willing assistant, and according to his transcript a respectable researcher who had a good eye for differentiating bone from rock in the field, but he showed no promise in either the grant writing or public relations skills necessary for funding a traveling educational program. This was the last time he would do Dr. Minjin from the National University the courtesy of allowing one of his students a place in the museum outreach course.
There was still much to be done tonight. The older man stretched, stifling a yawn. "Temuu, how would you like to take a break and go get us some coffee? The good coffee, not the convenience store swill."
"From Georgetown?"
"Oh yes. Make sure they brew it fresh, extra strong. Perhaps pick up half a dozen donuts, as well, if they've started baking for the morning. None of the leftover ones from the rack." Dr. Baatar had a very particular sweet tooth. The all night coffee shop catered mainly to university students, but it was worth the 15 minute drive. Unlike many of the closer places, they ground their beans right before brewing and made their delectable treats in-house rather than simply glazing and filling reheated donut bases. "Ask Mr. Adams at the security desk if he would like anything as well."
He handed the younger man a twenty dollar bill and watched as he left, knowing that he would insist on fresh coffee and wait for a new batch of donuts. At times like this that was more valuable than a flair for writing grants.
Chapter 7
Lee and Amanda pulled into the nearly deserted parking lot as Temuu Nergui was getting into his rental car. Both recognized him, but in the glare of their headlights, Lee knew it was unlikely that he would have been able to identify them had he given the station wagon more than a cursory glance. Amanda wondered aloud if they should follow him, but Lee thought it was reasonable to suppose he was just going home for the night. Besides, Billy would be here soon. He wondered if Dr. Baatar was still working.
"So what do we do now?" she asked.
"We wait for Billy. My ID is back in your garage."
"What do we do while we're waiting?"
Lee considered for a moment. "Let's drive around the building, see if there's anything going on at the loading dock." Lee had done enough waiting tonight, and the idea of sitting idly in the car with Amanda made him a little uncomfortable. She would either talk his ear off or, even worse, get him to reveal some little detail about himself. She had an uncanny knack for making him feel, what? Exposed? Vulnerable? Ridiculous? Scarecrow was okay with ridiculous, but despised feeling exposed or vulnerable. Especially now, knowing he had to steel himself for Francine's inevitable derision.
Billy and Francine hadn't arrived in the few minutes it had taken them to drive around the building. Amanda parked the car and reached into the back seat for something in the bag from the convenience store.
"Popcorn?" she offered.
"Popcorn?" Why on earth was she offering him popcorn at a time like this?
"Well, I wanted popcorn at the movie, but Dean didn't want popcorn, so I didn't get popcorn. He doesn't like chewing sounds, you know? The when we stopped, I saw the popcorn and realized I still wanted popcorn, but all they had was cheddar and plain, not butter, so-"
"Yes, fine. I'd like some popcorn. Please." At least if they were eating, they might not be talking, or sitting in awkward silence. He wasn't sure which would be worse. "I think the last time I had popcorn was in Switzerland. Chocolate covered. Everything at that diplomatic reception was covered in chocolate. Francine was in her glory."
"Sounds like a pretty nice reception."
"As long as you like chocolate. I prefer my popcorn salty, not sweet." Feeling like he'd somehow revealed something alarmingly personal, he quickly plunged his hand toward the bag, accidentally knocking the handful of pieces Amanda was withdrawing all over the front seat.
"Ow!" they groaned in surprised unison as they bumped heads, each moving to pick up the scattered flakes. "Ladies first." he offered awkwardly after most of them had been retrieved. To his relief, they munched in mostly companionable silence until they saw headlights approaching.
Lee was the last one out of the car once Billy and Francine arrived. He felt Francine's eyes raking him mercilessly from head to toe. "Whatever you're going to say, just say it." Might as well get this part out of the way, especially since Francine smelled like canceled plans. This was going to be worse than he though.
Francine was having trouble choosing between many, many things she'd like to say. Where to begin? The comically short arms and legs? Loafers and argyle socks with track pants? Black socks with the light gray set? The frumpy chauffeur? "Your off duty wardrobe is your own business, Lee. But if you're going for suburban camouflage, perhaps you should find a better consultant." A pointed glance at the faint orange smudges on the left thigh. How on earth..? "And a good dry cleaner."
"I was outside in the-"
"Oh no. Don't even try to explain. It'll only make it worse."
"Children!" Billy observed the damp hair and wet shoes and quickly surmised that Lee had been waiting outside for Amanda for a rather long time. "We have work to do." Saved by the Billy, Lee thought. Thank goodness.
Billy pressed the buzzer beside the door. No response. He gave it a full minute, then pressed again. Still nothing. He tried the door, realizing as he reached for it that of course it would be locked. It wasn't. Neither was the inner door. Inside the mostly darkened lobby, the security desk was unmanned. "I don't like this. I spoke to Adams myself. He knew we were coming."
"Could he be making rounds?"
"This is a museum, Amanda. Not a military base." Lee had sidestepped her scathing observations, but Amanda was fair game. Someone had to pay for the forced change in her evening plans. "Any chance he had to go to the loading dock? The Antarctic exhibit that's replacing the dinosaurs should be arriving this weekend. They usually load in at night." Francine had done her homework on this case. Francine always did her homework.
"No. I had Amanda drive around the building when we got here. There's nothing going on back there."
Amanda had been looking around the desk, not really knowing what she was hoping to see. Or maybe to not see. "Look. I don't know much about security systems, but shouldn't there be some lights lit up on this board?"
"You're right, Amanda." Francine kicked herself inwardly at Billy's acknowledgment. She should have noticed that herself. "It looks like the entire security grid is down. Now I really don't like this." He drew his gun, and handed Lee the pistol from his ankle holster. "Maybe you'd better go wait in the car." Francine's heart rose as she drew her own gun. This was no situation for a … a housewife.
"No," Lee countered. "She's the only one who knows what we might be looking for." But what could bite marks on an artificial dinosaur bone have to do with the security system being down?
Billy looked at the museum map next to the desk and quickly located the security office down a short hall to the left, next to the restrooms. The door was locked. Unlike the entry, this door wasn't controlled by the electronic security system. Or even secured with a very good lock. He had it open in less than five seconds. At least the light switch in this room wasn't connected to the main lighting control panel. As he half expected, the security guard was on the floor, unconscious, bound, and gagged. Billy and Lee knelt to remove the gag and untie the ropes around his wrists and ankles. As they did, they noticed his empty holster.
While they were trying unsuccessfully to revive the guard, Francine was working to revive the monitors. She wasn't able to reboot the security system, but it only took her a minute to find the front entrance monitor and hit playback on the recording. The last image was of a short, wiry, rather unkempt young man talking to Adams at the desk, then static.
"That's Dr. Baatar's assistant, Mr. Nergui" Amanda observed. "We saw him leaving when we pulled in."
With a renewed sense of urgency and the knowledge that there was quite possibly an armed adversary in the building, the four headed toward the dinosaur exhibit. Like the rest of the facility, it was mostly dark, lit only by dim emergency lighting. "Dr. Baatar?" Lee called into the shadowy room. There was no answer. They spread out and searched the area, including the small theater and the gallery where the Junior Trailblazers had searched for plastic bones in the big simulated dig pit that morning. Nothing. Back in the main gallery, Amanda made the discovery. The huge Tarbosaurus was missing its entire right arm.
Chapter 8
"I have a bad feeling about this." Billy whispered, escalating his concern. "Lee, you and Amanda search the other rooms on this floor. Francine and I will take the rest of the building. I don't know what we're looking for, but hopefully we'll know it if we see it. We'll meet back here. Half an hour, max."
There were two other exhibits on the ground floor. The Native American gallery had stuffed bison, moose, bears, and other animals casting ominous shadows throughout the room. Amanda shuddered and Lee instinctively reached for her hand in the darkness. The centerpiece of the installment was a long, low, lodge-like building with replicas of people engaging in the normal activities of daily life. Lee cautioned Amanda to stay outside while he investigated.
"Here, you might need this." she said, handing him a small flashlight from her purse. "I'm sure yours is back in my garage." she added charitably.
"Thanks." He ducked and stepped cautiously inside the child-scaled structure. There was a large hearth in the center, surrounded by areas where food preparation, sleep, and other activities he couldn't decipher in the dim light would have taken place. It would probably be interesting for kids, he thought, but in the dark it was a bit too cramped and creepy for his liking.
The other hall was a perpetual favorite of young boys everywhere: Bugs. Unlike the other exhibits, there was no central feature, just a maze of displays featuring creepy-crawlies of all body shapes and sizes. They walked through quickly since the acrylic display cases offered no hiding places. Amanda had no qualms about bugs. She also had no qualms about allowing Lee to hold her hand protectively as they made their way through the darkened rooms.
On the way back to the dinosaur exhibit, they noticed a door marked "Staff Only". It was slightly ajar, therefore worthy of investigation. The light switch inside this room worked, illuminating crates stacked neatly against the walls and several stacked next to a small work table in the center. On the table was a small crate, a stack of papers, a few pens and permanent markers, and a large photo album. Amanda lifted the tops off of the crates by the desk as Lee looked through the album, then examined the papers. The crates were empty.
"Looks like they're just preparing to get the exhibit packed up. The pictures show packing arrangements, and these are invoices, marked to match the numbers stamped on the sides of the crates. That's probably what they were working on tonight." Some of the larger crates already had invoices slipped inside plastic holders on the front. The lid was off the crate on the desk, next to the stack of invoices as if whomever was looking for the correct form had been interrupted. Something about the unfinished work didn't feel right to Lee, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
There were many things Lee Stetson was; naturally protective was not on that list. Why, then, did he find himself reaching for Amanda's hand yet again?
Finally back by the Tarbosaurus, Amanda had an idea. "Lee, if you wanted to hide a dinosaur bone, where would you hide it? Because it seems to me that the best place to hide it would be with other dinosaur bones."
"I'm not really up to date on my dinosaur anatomy, but we can check the other skeletons, or maybe it's in one of the displays."
"I was thinking of the pit where they let kids dig. The dinosaur's other arm looks about the same size as the toy bones in there."
"And nobody would think twice about a little damage, or bite marks on bones kids have been playing with. Let's go do a little digging. We can pull everything out first then examine all of them."
"I just wonder where Dr. Baatar is. I hope he's okay." Amanda had visions of that nice older man knocked on the head and tied up somewhere like the security guard. This time she was the one reaching for Lee's hand as they made their way through the pitch-black theater and into the dig room.
Chapter 9
"I think that's everything." Lee said, running his hands through the fake sand in the simulated dig pit. They had removed 3 craniums, 7 jaw bones, 2 femurs, about 15 bones that could be from arms or legs, and finally, one front claw with an articulating wire still attached. They were on the right track. Amanda held the flashlight as Lee held and turned the bones in the light for them to examine.
After looking at about half the bones, they heard a noise from the other room. It sounded like a shopping cart with a squeaky wheel. Lee moved his hand to cover the beam from the small flashlight. Catching on quickly, Amanda turned it off and put it in her front pocket.
"Stay here!" Lee instructed, standing up to go investigate. He had already passed into the theater when Amanda noticed he'd left Billy's pistol on the floor. She quickly picked it up and followed him, but stopped short at the door leading to the main gallery.
"Ah, Mr. Stedman, is it? What could you be doing in here at this hour?" Dr. Baatar did not sound at all like the genial curator from this morning. He had a small, lidless crate on a dolly. One of the wheels squeaked as he approached Lee. "How did you get in?"
Okay, Stetson, think fast. He still thinks you're a filmmaker, and he thinks you're alone. Think! "I set a tape recorder down earlier and my boss isn't very happy that I didn't return it. I bribed the security guy to let me take a quick look around since nobody turned it in at the Lost and Found."
"Now Mr. Stedman, we both know that is a lie." Dr. Baatar replied calmly, drawing a gun, most likely the guard's, from his blazer pocket. "This works out quite well, really."
Lee thought otherwise, realizing he'd left Billy's gun in the other room.
"This is quite heavy, and my assistant will be back soon. Come." He snapped his fingers, commanding Lee to push the dolly across the gallery, toward the room containing the invoices and crates.
Back in the theater, Amanda wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, she had a gun. On the other hand- or rather IN the other hand, she had the bone that she had instinctively grabbed. Wonder of statistically improbable wonders, she ran her thumb over what felt like tooth marks. It would be a bit awkward to carry both the bone and the gun, but she didn't dare leave either. Thinking quickly, she tried putting the bone in her purse. Much too large! Where, then? Ah-ha! The front pouch of her sweatshirt! It stuck out several inches on both sides, forcing her to keep her arms in front of it, but it was a workable solution.
As she moved cautiously toward the crate room, she had to pass one of the stairwells leading to the upper floors. She saw Francine descending and quickly held her finger to her lips as she crept up to the landing to meet her. "Dr. Baatar has Lee. And he has a gun. They're in the work room down the hall."
Francine looked down, noticing the pistol in Amanda's hand. "And Lee does not have a gun."
"He left it when he went to investigate a squeaky sound. It was Dr. Baatar wheeling a cart and-"
"You stay here and see if they come out. I'm going to find Billy."
"Shouldn't you stay here? You know how to use your gun."
"I also know the search pattern we're using. It could take you too long to find Billy. Now stay put and watch." She disappeared quickly back up the stairs, moving as silently as a cat. Amanda, on the other hand, bumped the handrail with the protruding bone as she turned to go back down to the gallery. Fortunately, it didn't make much noise. Unfortunately, the stairwell didn't offer a good view of the now closed door, so she crept quietly back to the theater.
Back in the work room, Dr. Baatar kept the gun trained on Lee as he was loading several pieces of heavy jewelry into the false bottom of the crate that had been left open on the desk. Lee knew Billy and Francine would be back within the next few minutes, and that his best bet was to keep Baatar talking.
"You know, this would make a great film. Better than one about digging for dinosaurs. More action, more adventure, you know? I bet I could talk the company into doing both. Not using your real name, naturally. And not making them part of the same story. What's this jewelry from, anyway? How much is it worth?"
Lee of course knew that the Byzantine jewelry was on loan from The Met and was worth several million dollars. It was one of the collections they had expected to be targeted. Its small pieces and high value made it ideal for smuggling.
"Much of it dates from the 4th to the 7th century, although several pieces are from as late as the 12th. Some of the more exquisite pieces are valued at over a quarter million U.S. dollars each. And now, Mr. Stedman, you will kindly insert the false bottom." Lee did as requested, nailing it into place with the small hammer and nails that had been left in the crate. "And put the hammer on the desk. Now walk in front of me, back to the gallery."
They returned to the main gallery, Baatar locking the work room door behind them. "So now what?"
"Now it is time for me to fight off an intruder. That's you, Mr. Stedman." He again drew the gun from his jacket pocket. Before he could bring it to bear on Lee, he felt a cold steel muzzle pressed into the base of his skull.
"Drop it!" Francine commanded. "Now! Drop it or you're dead!"
"I'm afraid not." The rough voice behind Francine was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back. Dr. Baatar was relieved to see his assistant, but confused by his sudden assertive demeanor. And of course the gun. When did he get a gun? No matter.
"And I'm afraid so." came the quietly authoritative voice of Billy Melrose as he came down a second stairwell, gun trained on Temuu Nergui.
The standoff was broken by Adams, the security guard rushing in. "I called the police, Mr. Nergui. They should be here any- Who ARE all you people? What's going on here?"
"Federal agents!" Billy and Francine replied in unison. Lee had been too busy looking around for Amanda to join the chorus. Where was she? Had she stayed where he told her, for once?
"And I am Inspector Temuulen Gonzorig. Interpol."
"Arrest this man!" Dr. Baatar insisted. "His name is Lee Stedman. He claimed to be a film maker earlier today, but he attacked me when I discovered him in here a few minutes ago!"
"Scarecrow is one of ours, Inspector." Billy informed Gonzorig before he could adjust his aim. "Give it up, Baatar."
But Battsetseg Baatar was not ready to give it up. He turned and shoved Francine forcefully into his traitorous "assistant" and made a run for the theater in the confusion. Lee grabbed him by his suit jacket, but the older man simple allowed it to be pulled off as he raced for the dark doorway.
He had not counted on Amanda knocking him over the head with the bone as he ran inside. It wasn't heavy enough to do much damage, but hitting his head on one of the wooden benches as he fell did the trick.
Epilogue
The next morning Amanda was up early, debating whether she should bake cupcakes or pretend that she read the date wrong and the imaginary bake sale wasn't until next month. Come to think of it, she probably had two or three events to bake cakes or cupcakes or cookies for in the near future. The holidays would be here before long, and that meant lots of baking. Surely her mother wouldn't notice one less bake sale.
The boys weren't expected home from Mrs. Davenport's until after lunch, and her mother was likely to take advantage of the quiet morning to sleep a little late after her evening with Dr. Bain. Amanda put the coffee on and spent a peaceful few minutes puttering around the kitchen and living room, picking up things here, straightening things there. She spotted a single pink dress sock sticking out from under the couch. She picked it up and absentmindedly put it in the front pouch of her sweatshirt as she continued tidying up. It was a rare luxury to start the day with everything in order.
Back in the kitchen, she noticed the empty wine bottle half hidden behind a flower arrangement. She rinsed it out, then bent down to put it in the trash bin under the counter. When she stood up, she found herself face to face with Lee, looking in from the flowerbed. Billy was expecting them both in to work early tomorrow morning to file their reports on the events at the museum, so she hadn't expected to see him until then. She certainly wouldn't have expected to see him until at least noon after their late night.
She heard her mother shuffling around upstairs, so she quickly tied up the trash bag and scooted outside with it. Lee took the half-full bag from her and handed her a paper bag in its place. The bag was still warm and radiated the intoxicating scent of Lee's expensive laundry soap and fabric softener. "Oh Lee, you could have waited until tomorrow to get this back to me." She couldn't picture Lee doing laundry this early in the morning. Actually, she had a hard time picturing him doing laundry at all.
"The valet laundry in my building opens at 5," he explained, "And I may have left my flashlight in your garage."
"You really did have a flash light last night?"
"No," he admitted with a somewhat sheepish grin. "So it's a good thing that you had one."
"Well, you know I always like to be prepared."
"That was also good work finding the missing bone."
"Oh, that was just dumb luck. I was worried when I saw you didn't take the gun, so I grabbed the gun and a bone and took them both when I followed you. I don't even know why I grabbed the bone. I wonder what's so important about that bone anyway."
"I asked Billy to call me with any information they got from Baatar when he got home from the police station. Those marks turned out to be the key to the robberies. Some of the tooth impressions had tiny marks in them. It was a code for the security system override."
"So Phillip was close to the truth about those bite marks after all." Kids did indeed notice things adults missed.
" Inspector Ganzorig used some modeling clay to make a cast of the bite marks and ran them through a dental database."
"Did he find a match?"
"He did. One of Dr. Baatar's assistants. The one he sends to do advance work before the exhibit arrives. His background is military, not academic. He was a security system expert. A few days after he arrived at a museum, he would create a problem, then help the security team fix it. He earned their trust, and eventually he'd find an opportunity to access the password to override the system. Once he had the password, he would cast a new bone with bite marks and mark it in code. When the Tarbosaurus arrived, the new bone got put in place. The old one would be discarded when the dig pit was set up. The accomplice then returned to the university until it was time to move the exhibit again."
"That's pretty clever. It also explains why there wasn't a robbery over the summer. Dr. Baatar and his students would all be doing fieldwork. The exhibit opened here at the end of August."
"The beginning of the school year. That makes sense."
"So what's going to happen to Dr. Baatar?"
"France has already requested extradition for questioning about the Louvre theft. His assistant in Toronto was picked up earlier this morning.
"So where does Mr. Nergui, I mean the Inspector come into all this?"
"Baatar always uses a student assistant in case he needs a fall guy. He sent Temuu out to Georgetown for coffee and donuts. He did that once or twice a week so it wouldn't seem like he was getting him out of the way. He always made sure to have him stop at the security desk on his way out and ask the security guard if he wanted anything. Tonight while they were talking, he used a back hall to get to the security office so he could shut the monitors down as soon as Temuu walked away. When Adams came to check it out, he was waiting. He used chloroform to knock him out. He's strong enough to subdue someone until it takes effect. It's not instant, like in the movies."
"But wouldn't he have seen Dr. Baatar?"
"When it knocks you out, it interferes with your ability to process and store immediate short-term memories. Temuu is the last person he would have remembered talking to. But he had taken Adams into his confidence before he left. Baatar couldn't have know that."
" He just thought Mr. Nergui was a student, right?"
"Right. He thought he was doing a colleague at another university a favor. It also saved him from expending one of his own students if the need arose."
"That's awful! In my department the worst the thing professors would do to us was give us an F for the class! I mean, not that I ever got and F but-"
"Amanda?" Her mother's voice lilted through the cracked open window.
"Just taking the trash to the bin, Mother!" She thrust the track suit back at Lee. "You can give this back to me at work tomorrow. You don't want Francine thinking it's yours, do you?"
Thinking it was his? He didn't want to give Francine a reason to think about it at all! He wondered how angry Amanda would be if he tossed it into the bin with the trash bag he was still holding.
As she went back into the house, back to her ordinary, pleasant life, something occurred to him. It wasn't that long ago that he'd thrust an unwanted package into her hands, and himself into her life. He didn't believe in fate or signs from the universe or anything like that, but he could appreciate the coincidence. He smiled to himself. Twice may be a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. Somehow he knew there would be a third time.
"Darling, what time did you get home last night?" he heard her mother ask.
"Oh, it was pretty late. I was driving all over trying to find baking powder, then I realized the bake sale isn't until next month. Oh! And I found your sock on the floor by the couch. And the empty wine bottle on the counter."
"You know what dear, I won't ask any more questions about your evening if you don't ask any about mine."
Yes, Lee chuckled quietly to himself as he deposited the trash bag in the bin on the way back to his car, Amanda showed some promise for this line of work.