Chapter 9

Looking for Clues

Stepping inside his son's room, Paul Alexander Kirby took in everything he saw, noticing to himself that the room looked very similar to how Eric had kept his old room.

"Creature of habit," Paul said, shaking his head.

Amanda moved in. "What?'

Paul barely glanced at her before he began scrutinizing everything in sight. "Eric doesn't like change."

"He's like you in that way," Amanda commented, a hint of disgust clearly in the words.

Paul only grunted to her clear and present attitude. "His bedroom looks like it did back in Oklahoma City."

"Trust me," Amanda began, "I tried to get him to change things up, but he wouldn't listen."

"Not even with the posters?" Paul asked. "He has dinosaur memorabilia all over the place, but those pop boy bands really set off a different feel."

"I happen to like his music," Amanda commented with a shrug before leaning against the doorframe.

Paul looked to her fully, finally. "You would. N'SYNC? Backstreet Boys? 98 Degrees?"

"What are you getting at, Paul?" Amanda asked.

"You think they're attractive," Paul observed. "I never understood why you married me. Isn't Dr. Hildebrand ten years younger than you?"

Amanda shook her head. "Are we here to talk about me? I don't even know why we drove to Enid. We should be on a plane to Costa Rica."

"We will be," Paul said. "But I'm not going into this blind." He finally turned around and moved to the bed, taking a seat on the dinosaur comforter.

Amanda sighed, taking in Paul for a moment before finally moving over and taking a seat next to him. "I married you, because we were high school sweethearts."

"I remember."

"And it had nothing to do with age. Ben has nothing to do with age either. And sure, I think the guys on Eric's wall are attractive, but can you honestly tell me I'd stand a chance with any of them?"

Paul allowed a partial smile to cross his lips. "You know… I didn't divorce you because I fell out of love with you."

Amanda stood up. "Of course not. You just love your board of executives more." She moved toward the closet, opening the door and looking at the clothes.

"You were destroying the brand image," Paul told her, standing as well. "Kirby Enterprises' stock was dropping. They were losing faith in my ability to lead. The Board could see how much you were stressing me out, and…" He stopped talking, hearing the sobs coming from Amanda, her back turned to him. He moved forward.

Amanda had been sniffing one of Eric's tee-shirts, a green one with a Tyrannosaur on the front. Tears fell down her face.

Paul placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"We have to find them, Paul," Amanda said between tears. She pulled the shirt off of the hanger and held it close to her.

"We know where he is," Paul reminded her. "We just have to understand why."

"I should've explained this on the drive," Amanda said.

"Yeah, we did just drive a hundred miles," Paul commented. "I couldn't get you to talk."

"There's too much on my mind," Amanda confessed as she stepped past him, moving toward the bookcase. "I've been trying to piece it all together." She finally looked back. "Ben and I lost track of Eric in the marketplace. Ben was the one that found him, and right after he did, they were both suddenly excited about this idea of traveling to one of the offshore islands."

"Isla Sorna," Paul stated.

Amanda nodded. "They didn't tell me why. I didn't even think to ask. Eric was beaming at the notion of going."

Something caught Paul's eye behind Amanda, on the bookcase. He stepped forward and moved past her.

"What is it?" Amanda asked.

"I recognize this book," Paul said, picking it up off the top of the shelf where another one also sat.

"It's his favorite Paleontology book," Amanda said. "He never shuts up about Dr. Alan Grant… well, if he has his headphones off, that is. Otherwise, he has the boy bands playing."

Paul flipped through the book. "He has a lot of notes in here."

"The other book on top is Grant's second book," Amanda told him.

Paul looked back to the top of the bookshelf and took that book down as well. He flipped through pages again. "More notes." He sighed. "I'm guessing we're not ever getting Eric to the moon."

A light smile crossed Amanada's face. "You were the one that wanted him to be an Astronaut. I think he's going to follow in Grant's footsteps." She shook her head. "When he does mention Grant, most of it is excitement from the first book instead of that second one. Apparently dinosaurs aren't as popular with Grant now. Eric said once or twice that Grant just wasn't really into what he was talking about anymore."

Paul handed out the book, open to a current page, to Amanda. "What was the reason for a trip to Costa Rica, anyway?"

Amanda shrugged, accepting the book. "Believe it or not, Eric wanted to go there. I was more into the idea of Hawaii, personally. I didn't want to deal with passports. Ben already had his because of his travels, but -"

"Look at the page I just handed you," Paul interrupted.

Amanda looked at the book for a moment, reading the notes that Eric had made and the stuff that he'd highlighted. "Alan Grant's been to Costa Rica before." Amanda looked up. "So what? A lot of people go out of the country."

"It says he went to consult an American company called InGen," Paul said. "You wouldn't remember, but Kirby Enterprises did some exporting for them a few times back in the early eighties. We didn't do all of their business, which I found odd back then, but they had several companies delivering stuff down to… Costa Rica. The only reason Grant even listed InGen in there is because InGen had to file for Chapter 11. They couldn't stop him by then."

Amanda nodded. "Dad represented them. I remember he lost a lot of investment a few years ago. The law firm would've been shut down if Mr. Cowen and Mr. Swain hadn't had so many backup investments."

Paul nodded as well. "InGen was a genetics company. What would they want with a Paleontologist?"

"I feel like you're reaching, Paul," Amanda commented.

Paul shrugged. "Maybe, but we don't have anything to go off of, and we're going to need to hire some guidance. Eric's notes say that Grant stopped caring about dinosaurs with that second book. He wrote the second book after his consultation. InGen is the reason he stopped caring." He cleared his throat. "I can't pretend to know much about Genetics, but I'm a businessman, and if I look at the evidence, it makes me question a few things. A lot of what Kirby Enterprises was exporting down there was food and cleaning supplies. You know? Stuff that we would send to Zoos."

Amanda shook her head. "I don't know if I even want to know where you're going with this."

Paul took the book back from Amanda and held both of Grant's books at his side. "I'm going to locate Alan Grant, and then we're making a trip to see him. In the meantime, I need you to call your father and get a few facts straightened out. Make sure he knows his grandson is in jeopardy. I think that'll loosen his lips."