“Skunk!” I yelled. I leaped backward, tripping and crashing into Nick and Robyn, who were crouched directly behind me.
“Ooof!” Robyn wheezed as Nick stumbled and I fell on top of them both. That saved us. We tumbled in a heap behind the trash can just as the skunk sprayed.
A cloud of vile stink wafted into the air. We scrambled up and sprinted for the stairs before the skunk could re-aim. He scuttled into the brush bordering the dig.
“Blech!” Nick coughed as we climbed the stairs at top speed. “What a reek!”
“We’re lucky we didn’t actually get hit,” Hailey said as we reached the top. Only a faint odor followed us. “That skunk was probably trying to get at the garbage, and Trevor scared the heck out of it.”
“I scared it?” I said.
“Yeah. If you hadn’t pounced at it, it probably would have just backed away,” Hailey answered. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead and pulled off her fleece jacket. We were all sweating from the climb up the hill and the reaction to the skunk.
“You want to put that in my backpack?” I asked Hailey. I’d brought the backpack along for the camera, which had turned out to be useless. There would be no photos of Mr. Joe planting more fossils that he could take credit for finding. Instead, all I had was a picture—probably blurry—of an extremely ticked-off skunk. I wondered if National Geographic would pay me for that one. It wasn’t much to show for a nighttime trek in the middle of nowhere.
“Sure.” Hailey stuffed her fleece into the zippered pocket and then took the flashlight, shining it on the path ahead.
A few minutes’ hard walking brought us to the path near the road out of the park. Hailey’s house was only another twenty minutes away.
When we reached her gate, she led us around to the backyard, where our flimsy tent swayed in the wind.
“Well, guys. I guess that’s it,” Hailey said, almost cheerfully. “We didn’t bust Mr. Joe. Maybe the discoveries at the dig are legitimate, after all. Mr. Joe could have taken the fossils to sell privately, you know. He’d probably get a lot of money for them.”
I wondered why Hailey didn’t seem disappointed, but then it was obvious. If the finds were real, then there was a good chance the funding would come through and her mom would continue to work out here. But it just didn’t seem probable to me. The Ichthylobuttosaur had never been found in this valley—nowhere else had that dinosaur been discovered except in South Dakota. The coincidence was too much. I just knew it.
“See you in the morning,” Robyn said.
Nick eyed the shabby tent with distaste. “If we survive the night in that thing.”
Bright sunshine shone through the tent’s fabric, waking me from an uncomfortable sleep. The morning cold seeped inside, and the sides of the tent were damp with condensation. Nick had his sleeping bag pulled up around his ears. Only the spikes of his black hair showed through the opening. I nudged him.
“Nick! Get up!” I glanced at my watch. “The press conference starts in less than an hour.”
Nick poked his head out of the sleeping bag, blinked and yawned. “Remind me to choose something else when I start thinking about a career. Detectives never get any sleep.”
I crawled out of the sleeping bag, shivering, and pulled on my clothes. Outside, it was a beautiful fall morning.
Hailey poked her head out the back door. “Hey, sleepyheads,” she sang out. “We’ve been up for ages. Come and have some hot chocolate.”
At the words hot chocolate, Nick bolted out of bed, threw on his clothes and ran barefoot to the house, leaving me holding the tent flap open.
“Leave some for me!” I grabbed my backpack and shoes and followed Nick inside.
After breakfast and the promised hot chocolate, we got cleaned up and waited impatiently for Hailey’s parents. Her mom was driving everyone to the dig. She would be one of the spokespeople meeting with reporters, so she dressed a little more carefully, with her hair pulled back neatly.
We piled into the van, and the short drive took only a few minutes. The parking lot was crowded. Among the cars were a number of news vehicles emblazoned with the logos of their employers. All the major news outlets in the province seemed to be here. There were trucks, vans and suvs from Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Drumheller. A bunch of rental vehicles piled with equipment showed that some reporters came from farther away.
Hailey turned to her mom in alarm. “Where did all these people come from?”
“Some from as far away as the States. This is a big deal,” Hailey’s mom answered. She smoothed her hair and got out of the car. “Let’s go.”
We made yet another trip down the plywood stairs. A large crowd had gathered at the bottom and was fighting for the best vantage point to take pictures and live video. Mr. Joe was already there, looking nervous but pleased.
“Hi Jamie,” he said to Hailey’s mom. “This has been a huge success. There’s even a news crew here from South Dakota. They were very interested in the Ichthylobuttosaur fossils.”
“Good,” Hailey’s mom answered. “You kids go stand off to the side, where you’ll be out of the way.” She wrinkled her nose. “What is that gosh-awful stink? We must have had a skunk visit last night.”
Nick, Robyn and I exchanged guilty glances. Hailey was too busy eyeing the reporters to pay attention. She kept rubbing her hands over the goose bumps on her bare arms.
“Hailey, you want your jacket?” I asked. “It’s still in my backpack.” We moved to the side, to give Mr. Joe and Hailey’s mom a small section where they could discuss the discovery. The reporters began asking questions, and Hailey’s mom had to raise her voice to be heard among the whirring and clicking of cameras.
“Sure.” Hailey didn’t even glance at me. A thickset man with short legs bounced forward, waving his hand at Hailey’s mom.
“Ma’am!” he called out. “I’m from the Argus Leader, in South Dakota. Can you tell me how it is that Ichthylobuttosaur has never yet been discovered here in Alberta? What is it about this site that is so significant for this particular dinosaur?”
Hailey’s mom launched into a complicated speech about the habitat of the Ichthylobuttosaur, while I pulled Hailey’s jacket out of the bag and handed it to her. A small piece of paper that had been stuck to the jacket fell to the ground. I picked it up and took a closer look. It was blue and white and scrunched together, with adhesive coating on one side. Fuzz from Hailey’s jacket clung to the exposed sticky surfaces.
It looked familiar. As I untwisted it, I recognized it.
Hailey’s eyes widened when she saw what was in my hands.
It was the label from the bag of fossils from the University of South Dakota.