The Stolen Bones Read Free Page A

was finished, we burned the paper plates in the fire. Felix washed the silverware in a little water from a bucket. The bottles and soda cans went into special bags for recycling later.
    It was still pretty early, but people started drifting off to their tents.
    George stretched and yawned. “You guys ready? We still have a tent to set up.”
    Bess made a face. “I’d forgotten.”
    “At least we’ll be able to see by the moon,” George said. “It’s full tonight.”
    “How do you know?” I asked. George picks up all kinds of trivia on the Internet, so I figured she’d checked a site with moon data.
    “It’s rising right over there.”
    I turned. A huge golden moon seemed to float above the eastern horizon. “Wow. It’s beautiful!”
    We watched for a minute. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker a movement. When I turned, I saw Steffi and Kyle heading back to the Land Rover and poking around in the back. “Just a minute,” I told my friends. “I want to ask Steffi and Kyle about those bones again. Something tells me they’re more concerned than they’re letting on.”
    When I reached them, Steffi turned with a small plastic tub in her arms. “These will be safe, anyway. I’ll keep them in my tent tonight.” She gave me a smile and walked off.
    “Oh, hi,” Kyle said. “Do you need something?”
    “I just wanted to ask about these missing bones,” I said. “Were they something important?”
    “We had some very nice phytosaur vertebrae. Not the most important thing we found, but good specimens.”
    “Valuable?”
    “Sure, but—” His eyes darted around at the people entering their tents. “No one here would take them. It has to be an accident.”
    Steffi must disagree, I thought, if she was taking the other fossils to bed with her. “Is fossil theft a big problem?”
    Kyle scowled. “You wouldn’t believe it. Peoplepull off some pretty brazen thefts. There’s been a rash of them in the Southwest lately—” He stopped suddenly. “It’s nothing for you to worry about. It’s perfectly safe here. I promise.”
    “I wasn’t worried about our safety—”
    He cut me off. “You had a long drive today. Get some sleep.” He put a hand on my arm to turn me away.
    I sighed and left him to close up the Land Rover. I could ask more questions in the morning, when we were both rested.
    I joined Bess and George. “Anything interesting?” George whispered.
    I shrugged. “I didn’t get much information. Kyle probably doesn’t want to sound suspicious of his volunteers. But from the way he and Steffi are acting, I’d say the bones were stolen, not just lost. Keep your eyes open tomorrow.”
    Bess grinned. “So you found a real mystery after all. And if you don’t count the long drive out here, it came up within the first five minutes of our vacation. This may be a record.”
    I laughed along with their good-natured teasing. We got our tent and flashlights from the car and scouted out a flat place. It didn’t take long to put up the tent.
    At home I can be ready for bed in ten minutes.Out there it took more like half an hour. We had to find everything in our luggage, brush our teeth with bottled water, and trot off into the darkness to go to the bathroom. Finally we settled down in our sleeping bags. I shivered despite my flannel pajamas, and snuggled deeper.
    “Should I set an alarm?” Bess asked.
    George groaned.
    “I expect we’ll hear everyone else getting up,” I said.
    “Still, I could set one just to be safe,” Bess offered.
    “No thanks!” George said. “Besides, we don’t even know what time they want to start.”
    I tried to change the subject. “This is kind of like a slumber party.”
    Bess giggled. “Who brought the popcorn?”
    George said, “If I had my laptop, we could watch movies.”
    “We could watch one movie, before the batteries ran out.” I yawned. “Anyway, I’m tired, and it sounds like we’re going to be working hard tomorrow.”
    They