Free Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston Page B

hand through his thinning hair. "Won't be the first time. We're getting DNA on it, see if it matches the blood. Might need to get some hair from your guys for elimination purposes."
    "Broadbent, the guy who found the body? He's got light brown, straight hair."
    "Might need a sample from him, too."
    Wilier thanked Calhoun, turned to his deputy. "Hernandez?"
    "I checked out Broadbent's story. Seems he rides around a lot in the high mesas."
    "So what was he doing in the Maze?" Wilier asked.
    "He says he was taking a shortcut up
Joaquin
Canyon
."
    "A long cut, you mean."
    "Says he likes the ride. Says it's nice country."
    Wilier grunted. "I thought he was a vet. Vets are supposed to be busy."
    "He's got a partner, a guy named Shane McBride."
    Wilier grunted again. He hadn't liked Broadbent from the beginning and he had a feeling that the guy was holding out on him. It was asking a lot to believe he just happened to be up there when the man was shot. "Hernandez, I want you to ask around, see if Broadbent's shown any recent interest in that area up there-prospecting, pot hunting, that sort of thing."
    "Yes, sir."
    You consider him a suspect?" asked the D.A. He's what you'd call a 'person of interest.' ' was a guffaw from the D.A. "Yeah, right.
    No wonder they couldn’t   convict, anyone ,these days, with guy’s like that in the D.A’S office. He looked around.   “Any bright ideas"
    Calhoun said, “This is a bit out of my field, but I’m curious - is there any permanent water up in those canyons?
    "I don't know. Why?"
    "It'd be a great place to grow marijuana”
      "Noted. Hernandez?"
    "I'll look into it, Lieutenant."
     
     
    15
     
     
    WEED MADDOX WAS just rising from his hiding place in the chamisa when he heard a sound from the house-the shrill of a telephone.
    He hastily crouched back down and raised his binoculars. She had gotten up from the table and was walking toward the phone in the living room, disappearing around the corner. He waited. She must have answered the phone and was talking.
    At the corner of the house he could see where the phone lines came in. He had rejected the idea of cutting them, because a lot of houses these days had private alarm systems that notified a firm offsite when the phone lines went down. He cursed softly to himself; he couldn't move on her until she was off the phone. He waited, five minutes.. . Ten. The stocking on his head itched, the latex gloves made his hands hot and sticky. She reappeared in the living room, coffee cup in one hand, holding a cordless to her ear with the other, nodding and talking-still on the phone. He felt a rising impatience, which he tried to quell by closing his eyes and reciting his mantra-to no effect. He was already too keyed up.
    He clutched the Clock. The unpleasant smell of latex filled his nostrils. He watched her take two turns around the living room, talking away and laughing, her blond hair swinging. She picked up a brush and began brushing out her long hair, head tilted to one side. Now that was a sight to see, the long golden hair sprung out by static, backlit by the sun as she passed a window. She shifted the phone to the other ear, brushed the other side, her hips swinging with the effort. He felt a tingle of anticipation as she went into the kitchen. From his vantage point he could no longer see her, but he hoped she was hanging up the phone. He was right: she reappeared in the living room without the phone, went toward the front hall, and disappeared again-into a bathroom, it looked like.
    Now.
    He rose, scurried across the lawn to the patio door, flattened himself against the side of the house. He took a long, flexible shim out of his pocket, began working it in between the door and the frame. He couldn't see into the house now, but he would be inside in less than sixty seconds, before she got out of the John. When she emerged, he'd get her.
    The shim was through and he now worked it down, encountered the latch, gave it a sharp downward