Dinosaur Lake Read Online Free PDF Page A

here, hasn’t it?”
    Their laughter mingled and, arm in arm, they went in to bed.

Chapter 2

    The next morning Ann received an early wake-up call from Zeke at the newspaper, something about the final computer layout of that week’s edition being wrong, and she had to get into the office right away. She had to help Zeke fix it or the newspaper wouldn’t get to the printers on time.
    Reluctantly, Ann postponed her trek with Henry to take pictures of the bones. People who work at small town newspapers wear many hats. Ann wasn’t only a reporter; she helped sell the advertising, design the ads, help put the paper together every week and send it off to the printers. It was always a delicate balancing act, especially since the Klamath Falls Journal was, as with many small newspapers these days, in financial trouble. Ann did everything she could to help keep it off its death bed. After all, it was her job on the line.
    “I’ll get that layout fixed and to the printer’s quick as a bunny,” Ann quipped, crawling out of their warm bed and into her robe, “and return as fast as I can. If you check here later this afternoon, I should be back. Then you can show me that fossil bed, all right?”
    “Sure, honey, I’ll swing by after lunch, and take you up there,” Henry murmured, sticking his head under the covers, wanting nothing more than to recapture sleep. The alarm clock hadn’t even gone off yet. It was barely dawn. Zeke and that crazy newspaper. Didn’t the old guy ever go home anymore?
    Then the image of those monstrous white bones up on the rim came back to haunt him. He jumped out of bed and fought his wife for the bathroom. In the end, they shared it, and were both dressed and on the move within the hour, going separate ways after a hug and a kiss. No time for breakfast, just a quick cup of coffee.
    Henry drove alone to ranger headquarters in a dawn’s light which reflected off the frost that covered everything. There were dirty mounds of leftover snow in patches that wouldn’t be completely gone until midsummer. It’d taken Henry a long time to get used to the unbelievably long winters in Oregon. Now he didn’t mind them.
    He figured he’d get another cup of coffee or two while he was checking on his men and his messages. He played with the thought of going up to the lodge later for a real breakfast, but ended up stopping at a place inside the park and bought a large box of donuts for everyone. He did that once and a while as a treat. As he did, his men loved pastries; even though they were bad for the waistlines.
    Munching on a glazed donut, he pulled into park headquarters. He strode through the door, opened his office and hung up his coat. Before he could grab a cup of coffee and his third donut, one of his rangers strolled in and took him by the arm.
    “Boss, I need to talk to you,” his friend, George Redcrow said, shutting the door.
    “Well, good morning to you, too, George,” Henry announced. His eyes wistfully glanced through the glass window towards the perking coffee pot. “You could have at least let me get my coffee. I was this close.” He waved two fingers an inch apart in the air between them.
    George grunted, “Time for coffee after I tell you what I’ve got to tell you.”
    Redcrow was half Indian, on his father’s side, and he looked it. He possessed sharp features in a hawkish face, soul-reading unnerving dark eyes and an earthy wit to match. Nearly as tall as Henry, he was heavier set, his gray-streaked hair longer, wilder, like his eyes and his nature. An excellent park ranger, he had an uncanny wisdom about the land Henry could only attribute to the fact he’d spent most of his life in the woods.
    But he was the most superstitious human being Henry had ever known. George actually believed in ghosts, monsters, and U.F.O.s. In every other way, though, he was level-headed, intelligent and intuitive. He was a good man to have on your side or at your back in a tough spot. Henry had