Kate and the Wyoming Fossil Fiasco (6 page)

Later that evening, the campers headed into the dining hall. Something smelled really good!

“What’s for dinner?” Kate asked as they sat down at the table.

“Just as I predicted.” Joel held up a chicken leg. “Dinosaur bones.
Tyrannosaurus rex!”

McKenzie shook her head as she picked up the piece of chicken. “Doesn’t look like any
Tyrannosaurus rex
I’ve ever seen!”

“Exactly.” Joel slapped himself in the head and Kate laughed.

“Well, the cook has a great sense of humor, anyway!” she said.

She got into the line to get her food but something caught her eye. “McKenzie!” She elbowed her friend.

“Ouch!” McKenzie rubbed her side. “What is it, Kate?”

“Look.” She pointed at Gus, who carried a large bag of brown sugar.

“Ooo.” McKenzie nodded. “And look, Kate … he’s headed away from the kitchen, not toward it. Isn’t that strange?”

“Very.”

“What are you girls talking about?” Lauren stepped into line behind them and started chatting about the fossil she had found. Before long, as they talked, Kate almost forgot about Gus. Almost.

When she got back to the table with her food, Kate joined a fun conversation with Joel and the other campers, laughing and talking about their adventures at the camp. Someone in the room started clapping, so she looked up, curious.

“We have a wonderful treat for you kids tonight,” Megan said, getting everyone’s attention. “I want to introduce someone very special to me.”

An older man entered the room. He had soft white hair and wore blue jeans and a button-up cowboy shirt. His long white moustache and beard reminded Kate of someone from an old movie. And his leathery, tanned skin surely proved that he spent a lot of time in the sun.

“This is my father, Gerald Jenkins,” Megan said proudly. “He is the owner of Stone’s Throw Quarry.”

“Wow.” So this was Megan’s dad.

Mr. Jenkins joined the campers, answering many of their questions. Kate finally worked up the courage to ask her question, but waited until the others were distracted, so they wouldn’t hear her.

“Mr. Jenkins?” She spoke softly and he looked her way. “My name is Kate Oliver. I live in Philadelphia and my teacher works for the Museum of Natural Science as a curator.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “I can guess what you’re about to ask.”

Kate bit her lip, trying to decide how much to share. Finally she could take it no longer and blurted out her question. “Do you know about the fake fossils that my teacher and I found? If so, do you have any idea who forged them?”

“Yes, I know all about it,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Your teacher called last week. I contacted the police and they’ve been out to take a report. But I can’t figure out who is doing this to us. We’ve been sabotaged, for sure.”

“You haven’t seen anyone with brown sugar? Or anyone acting strangely?”
Like Grumpy Gus, for instance?

“Not on the property. And I’ve looked, trust me.” He shook his head. “I’m here all day every day and haven’t seen anything suspicious.”

She thought about telling Mr. Jenkins that she and McKenzie had just seen Gus carrying a large bag of brown sugar, but didn’t. Not yet, anyway. She had to be sure she could trust him first.

He shook his head and his eyes grew misty. “I feel terrible about what happened,” Mr. Jenkins said. “But I feel even worse when I think about the fact that someone stole the original fossil plates from us. They’re worth a lot of money.”

“What would a person do with stolen fossils, anyway?” Kate asked.

“Oh, all sorts of things. They’re valued all over the world, so maybe they sold them to an underground ring of fossil thieves.”

“Ooo, sounds scary.”

“Another theory is that they are holding them for ransom. Maybe to try to bribe me in some way.”

“Why would someone do that?” Kate asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I can only tell you that I’ve been praying about this all week, ever since I got the call from your teacher.” He smiled at Kate. “We’ll figure out who did this … with the Lord’s help. Those fossils will return home to Stone’s Throw, and I’ll send them to your teacher for the exhibit. You just wait and see.”

“I hope you’re right.” She paused a moment, then looked into his kind eyes. “Can I ask you one more question?”

“Sure.”

“Joel is a great camper and he knows so much.”

“Oh yes, he’s one of the best,” Mr. Jenkins agreed.

Kate bit her lip as she tried to decide how much to say next. “He’s worried he won’t get the internship because his stingray fossil is gone.”

“What?” Mr. Jenkins looked stunned. “The stingray is missing, too?”

Kate nodded. “We don’t know that it’s officially missing. I was hoping you loaned it to another museum.”

“No.” He shook his head. “We often loan out fossils, as you know, but everything is written on a schedule. I don’t remember anything about the stingray being loaned out. Very strange.”

“Well if you go into the museum, you’ll see that it’s missing,” Kate said.

“I’ll do that right now,” he said. He nodded. “Thank you for the information, Kate.”

“You’re welcome, sir. Thanks for letting us come to your great quarry!”

After she finished eating, Kate headed back to the cabin with McKenzie at her side.

“So what did Mr. Jenkins say?” McKenzie asked.

“He knows all about the fake fossils,” she said. “And he says he’s praying about it.” She paused a moment. “He didn’t seem to know anything about the missing stingray though.”

“Odd, isn’t it?” McKenzie observed. “People who work right here don’t seem to notice much, do they?”

“Wow.” Kate paused to think about that. “You might be on to something there, McKenzie. We saw Grumpy Gus walking across the dining hall with a bag of brown sugar, and yet Mr. Jenkins says he’s been watching, but hasn’t seen anything suspicious. What’s up with that?”

“Right.” McKenzie paused. “What if Mr. Jenkins is only pretending to be concerned? What if he’s really the one who did all of this?”

“Why would he sabotage his own quarry?” Kate asked.

“Doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sure it does.” McKenzie nodded. “It’s a great scam. He makes money by selling the real fossils to the bad guys and makes money by selling the fakes to legitimate businesses. That’s a lot of money!”

“I don’t know, McKenzie.” Kate shook her head as they entered the cabin, then paused to give her a serious look. “It would break Megan’s heart to find out that her dad was doing something illegal.”

“True.” McKenzie sighed.

Kate walked over to her bunk and sat down, whispering so the other girls wouldn’t hear. “I’m not really accusing Mr. Jenkins. I’m just thinking out loud. Trying to figure out who did this.”

“I know. And the suspects are piling up.” McKenzie reached for a rubber band and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. “But that’s why we’re meeting with the other Camp Club Girls tonight in the chat room, right?” She paused. “I can’t wait to tell them what we found out today.”

“Before we talk to them, can I ask you a question?” Kate asked.

“Sure.”

“Remember you said there was something suspicious about Gus? What did you mean?”

“Oh …” McKenzie’s brow wrinkled. “I just noticed his clothes were really wrinkled, like maybe he slept in them or something.”

“I noticed that, too!” Kate said. “It was a little strange, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. What kind of a person is so busy that he can’t even change into pajamas to sleep?” McKenzie said. “It makes me think he’s up to something in the middle of the night.”

“Ooo, I see.” Kate nodded.

“Maybe.” McKenzie nodded. “The wrinkles in his clothes make me wonder.”

“Well, we can ask the other girls their opinion.”

“What other girls?” Patti asked, plopping on Kate’s bed. “What are you girls whispering about, anyway?”

“Yes, what’s up with you two?” Lauren asked, joining them. “You’ve been acting mighty suspicious!”

“Oh, I, um …” Kate paused and looked at McKenzie. She didn’t know how much she should share with these girls. After all, she barely knew them!

“Kate and I are on a secret adventure,” McKenzie said. “We’ll tell you all about it tomorrow or the next day.”

“But we leave day after tomorrow,” Patti argued. “I don’t want to wait till then to find out your secret! Tell me now.”

Kate shook her head. “What’s the point in calling it a secret if I tell it? But I will give you a clue. We’re trying to solve a mystery. Trying to figure something out.”

“Hmm. A mystery.” Patti sighed. “How can I help you if I don’t know what it is?”

Kate shrugged. Thankfully, her phone rang at that very moment, interrupting their conversation. She was

surprised to hear Alexis’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Kate, I know we’re meeting with the others online in a few minutes, but I wanted to talk to you first. This is important.”

“Sure.” Kate rose from the bunk and went outside the cabin so that she could speak to Alexis privately. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been doing some research on the staff at Stone’s Throw,” Alexis said. “I got the idea after watching that Paleo-World documentary again.”

“What did you find out?”

“All of their pictures are on the Web site, along with their names. There’s a fellow name Gerald Jenkins who owns the place.”

“That’s Megan’s father,” Kate said. “Megan is our counselor.”

“Right. Megan Jenkins. She was practically raised at the quarry. And there’s a guy named Conner who has all sorts of degrees. He’s a paleontologist.”

“He’s really young,” Kate said. “Probably just twenty-five or so.”

“From what I can gather, he’s really smart. He started as an intern at the quarry a long time ago, and now he’s back, working as a counselor.”

“Right,” Kate said. “Anything else?”

“Yes.” Alexis’s voice grew more serious. “There’s a guy named Gus who seemed a little suspicious to me.”

Kate’s heart began to thump. “He seems odd to us, too!” she said. “What did you find out about him?”

“Well, I don’t want to scare you, but he used to work for another quarry and he got fired. I read about it online. There was a big write-up in the paper a couple of years back. I had to dig deep to find it.”

“Dig deep?” Kate couldn’t help but smile as Alexis used the words she’d been hearing so much. “Do you know why he was fired?”

“Something to do with some fossils that were accidentally destroyed. Just promise me you’ll be careful around him, okay? I would feel terrible if something happened to you girls.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Kate said. “But we’ll be extra careful, just in case. And Alex … thank you for calling and telling me that.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll keep researching online to see if I can find out anything else about him.”

“Thanks. See you online in a few minutes,” Kate said. As she clicked the E
ND
button on her phone, Megan walked by.

“Well hello, Kate. Everything okay?”

“Y—yes.” She forced a smile. She didn’t want Megan to know she suspected anyone just yet. “I was talking to my friend Alex.”

“Friends are an important part of our lives, aren’t they?” Megan smiled. “God has blessed me with such great friends over the years.”

She began to talk about her best friend—someone named Julia—and Kate sighed in relief. At least Megan

hadn’t asked about the case!

A few minutes later, Kate and McKenzie sat on Kate’s bed with the laptop open.

“I sure hope the wireless Internet signal is strong,” Kate mumbled. “The other girls are probably already in the chat room waiting on us.”

Thankfully, she signed on with no problem at all. Less than a minute later, she was in the chat room and could see that all of the others were already there, just as she predicted. Kate typed while McKenzie looked on.

She quickly uploaded the picture of the tiny stingray sign.