Death by Dinosaur: A Sam Stellar Mystery Read online

  Contents

  Book & Copyright Information

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  If You Dig: The Royal Tyrrell Museum

  If You Dig: Emeralds

  Acknowledgements

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  © Jacqueline Guest, 2018

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

  a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll-free to 1-800-893-5777.

  In this book, names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the

  author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Edited by Kathryn Cole

  Designed by Jamie Olson

  Photographs courtesy of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, Canada

  Printed and bound in Canada

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Guest, Jacqueline, author

  Death by dinosaur : a Sam Stellar mystery / Jacqueline Guest.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-55050-943-4 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-55050-944-1

  (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-55050-945-8 (HTML).--ISBN 978-1-55050-946-5 (Kindle)

  I. Title.

  PS8563.U365D43 2018 jC813’.54 C2017-907477-6

  C2017-907478-4

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017962855

  Available in Canada from:

  Coteau Books

  2517 Victoria Avenue

  Regina, SaskatchewanCanada

  www.coteaubooks.com

  Coteau Books gratefully acknowledges the financial support of its publishing program by: the Saskatchewan Arts Board, The Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Saskatchewan through Creative Saskatchewan, the City of Regina. We further acknow-ledge the [financial] support of the Government of Canada. Nous reconnaissons l’appui [financier] du gouvernement du Canada.

  For Mary – forever friends

  from alpha to omega

  Chapter 1

  New Case

  GUARD MURDERED IN DINOSAUR BONE THEFT!

  Police Baffled

  Samantha Stellar couldn’t tear her eyes away from the newspaper article. The headline screamed for attention, especially the ‘police baffled’ part. It was all there in black and white – an unexplained, unsolved theft with a deadly twist. She pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose and smiled. It was exactly what an aspiring spy such as herself dreamed of – a mystery suitable for James Bond, code name 007.

  Sam nudged her cousin, Paige Carlson, who was sleeping in the seat beside her. “Wake up.”

  “What? Are we finally there?” Paige mumbled groggily.

  “Nope, still rollin’ across the Alberta prairie in our trusty Greyhound. But, on a cooler subject, did you know that a couple of months ago there was a South American dinosaur fossil stolen from a museum in Ontario? During the theft a guard was killed with the fossilized horn from a Triceratops. Can you believe it? It’s the mysterious case of…da-da-da-dum: Death by Dinosaur.” She used her best theatrical voice for drama on the last part.

  Sam could imagine the gruesome scene the police had found. The dead body, its sightless eyes staring into infinity, the massive horn protruding from the hapless victim’s back. Or front, the article hadn’t said. And blood! She was sure there’d been enough to keep any Count from Transylvania positively gorged.

  “That’s messed up!” Paige said sympathetically. “Truly a brutal way to go. What I don’t get is why you woke me up to give me this really, really old news flash.”

  Sam heard the irritation in her cousin’s voice but went on anyway. “It wasn’t the only theft. The string of targets stretches right across Canada into every museum with so much as a chunk of coprolite. That’s fossilized dino dung in case you aren’t up on all things Jurassic. Of course, I’ve been tracking these dinosaur bone heists from the beginning and have information from every web page, blog, twitter and tweet.”

  “Yeah, so, what does any of this have to do with us?”

  Paige had gone from irritated to confused, and Sam knew she had only seconds before she lost her cousin completely. “Connect the dots, Paige. Dinosaur bones are being stolen. Every dino museum in Canada except one has been hit. And where are we going to work this summer?”

  Her cousin blinked, not connecting a single dot. “Um, don’t tell me…the Tyrrell Museum of Thingamabob.”

  “It’s the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and it’s filled with dinosaur bits and bones. It`s also the only one not on the hit list. You know what this means?” Sam tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.

  “Uh…our museum isn’t as popular with murdering thieves as the others?”

  Sam ignored her cousin’s comment. “It means the Tyrrell will probably be next. This museum is a huge deal in the Dino ‘Verse, and it doesn’t make sense to skip it.”

  “So why have they?” Paige pushed herself semi-upright in the sagging seat.

  Sam thought about this. “That, cousin, is a very good question. Maybe the crooks are working their way down some kind of heist list and the Tyrrell is last. You know, kind of like keeping dessert as a reward for eating your Brussels sprouts. It’s a good thing we’re going to be there.”

  This got Paige’s attention. “What aren’t you telling me and what are you plotting? Samantha Stellar, have you conned me into being on this bus to Drumheller with you?”

  Sam ignored her cousin’s rather accurate accusation. “It all started when my weirdometer went off. Remember I told you about the odd feeling I get when I’m onto something important? Well, when I saw the first article on the museum thefts I got a particularly high reading.”

  Paige scowled. “Don’t start with the hocus-pocus stuff, Sam. And you still haven’t told me what any of this has to do with us.”

  “You are so-o-o-o suspicious. All I meant was, you know, if the Tyrrell were to acquire, say, an exotic South American dinosaur fossil, things could get exciting.”

  “Fine,” Paige said, managing to work a big helping of suspicion into this word too. “As long as you’re not conjuring up some government conspiracy fantasy.” She pulled a small hot- pink mirror out of her purse and scrutinized her face. “Crap on a cracker! I drooled in my sleep and washed away my perfect pout.” She hastily repaired her smudged makeup then shook her bright-red hair back into perfect curls that framed her heart-shaped face.

  Sam’s cousin was the “early bloomer” in the family. She was all glam – tall, slim and with killer cheekbones.

  Sam, on the other hand, was what you called “healthy.” She was on the short side and her body type screamed “athlete” with muscles that went way past toned and no hint of curves. Add to this pencil-straight auburn hair and campfire-smoke grey eyes behind black-framed glasses and you clearly had a girl who’d never willingly be on a fashion shoot. She was happy with the way she looked and didn�
�t bother with makeup, even when there was a new hot “student body” at school.

  As Sam watched her cousin’s toilette, she decided not to add how she’d kept up with all things Tyrrell, and if what she’d read was correct, she was sure this museum would be targeted next. A perfect case for Sam Stellar, Super Sleuth! (She’d decided this was the title she’d have on her business cards when she actually had…well…a business.)

  This carefully collected intel meant she needed to be behind the scenes at the famous palaeontology centre in order to foil the upcoming crime.

  Actually, being on-site when the thieves struck had presented a real challenge. Then – a miraculous sign from the heavens! Sam’s school counsellor told her about the Summer Studies and Work Experience program.

  The program was available to students who wanted to learn about a profession they were interested in. As an added bonus, the lucky ones chosen earned extra school credits while doing it. Sam had needed to bring her marks up to get in, which meant studying harder than she ever had in all of her fourteen years on this particular planet, and it had paid off big time.

  Convincing her family she was thinking of being a palaeontologist had been the tricky part. Her unexpected career choice was news to them, but when she persuaded Paige (a girl with a rep for being down-to-earth) to sign on, the deal was clinched.

  Sam thoughtfully tapped the article she was holding, then decided to tell her cousin everything she had deduced. “Paige, I’ve got a hunch we won’t have to wait long for the next theft.” She pulled another clipping out of her backpack and held it up with a flourish. “Read this.”

  Finally happy with her appearance, Paige dropped the mirror back into her bag and then read out loud. “Royal Tyrrell To Receive Unique Colombian Dinosaur Find. Yeah, so what?”

  “Last time I played Where’s Waldo, Colombia was in South America. Refer back to previous article.” She waved the other piece of newspaper, Chinese fan style. “It’s as though the Tyrrell is supplying the perps with mighty tasty bait.”

  “Perps?” Paige cocked one perfect brow at Sam.

  “You know – the dirty rats, the low life, the perpetrators…” Sam enthusiastically wiggled both her eyebrows at her cousin.

  Their discussion was interrupted by a raised voice from the row behind theirs.

  “Mom, I had to slug him,” a young boy whined. “He hit me first!”

  “I don’t care who started it. You and your brother are both in trouble, so knock it off.” The harried mother was obviously in no mood for scrappy kids. “Excuse me sir,” she said in a calm controlled voice adults reserved for other adults, “could you tell me the time?”

  “Si, señora, it is nearly six o’clock,” a man with a strong Spanish accent answered.

  Sam froze. Had she heard right?

  A Spanish-speaking man on the bus to Drumheller where the Tyrrell Museum with its soon-to-arrive, South-American dinosaur was located! What were the odds?

  Sam tingled with an electric buzz and knew her weirdometer had jumped off the scale. Was it only some cosmic coincidence, or had her first case just begun?

  “Paige, give me your mirror,” she whispered urgently.

  “You really should get your own beauty gear.” Her exasperated tone said this was covering old ground. “Oh wait, you don’t do the fashionista thing, do you? Instead, you borrow mine…” Grumbling, Paige rummaged in her over-over-sized bag, then handed Samantha the small compact.

  As casually as possible, Sam held the mirror up as she scoped out the mysterious passenger. She spotted him immediately. The dark suit he wore made him very conspicuous. Everyone else sported denim jeans and ball caps. She committed his details to memory: thin black moustache, dark wavy hair, swarthy complexion. Check, check and check! Very Latin, very suspicious!

  In case anyone was watching, Sam smudged her mouth with her finger as though applying lip gloss. She angled the small mirror a little higher and was able to sneak another furtive peek at the man.

  That was when Sam saw the conspicuous bulge in his jacket. She gasped, and her heart sped up a beat, or maybe two.

  Unless she missed her guess, this dark stranger had a gun hidden under his coat. And in an instant, he became more than mysterious; he became menacing.

  Chapter 2

  Clue Número Uno

  As the kilometres rolled by, Sam decided surveillance on a bus was pretty easy (where could the guy hide anyway?), which made it simple for her to keep a covert eye on the dark stranger. She continued periodical observations of her suspect; unfortunately, he did nothing to warrant her super-spy attention.

  Finally, as twilight faded into dusk, the bus started a steep descent into a lush, green river valley, and the town of Drumheller came into view. It was in this valley that a wonderful treasure trove of dinosaur bones had been found, and because of these finds, the Royal Tyrrell Museum had been built. Along with being an amazing museum, it was an important research facility with top scientists from all over the globe working on fossils.

  Even if it hadn’t been the next logical target for the thieves, Sam couldn’t help being excited about working at the museum. One-hundred-million-year-old bones of the biggest creatures that ever roamed the earth! Truly mind boggling. Maybe she would take up dinosaur hunting, between cases.

  Turning to take a last peek at her suspect, Sam’s attention was unexpectedly grabbed by a young man watching her. The cute blond winked. She spun around feeling her face burn.

  He obviously thought she’d been looking at him. Groaning, Sam shrank down into her seat. As soon as she got home, she’d log on to her favourite online academy, The Superior School for Spies, and repeat the class on Undercover Observation Techniques.

  •••

  After a rather bumpy stop, the passengers gathered their belongings and shuffled down the aisle. Sam waited for her suspect, and then, as he moved past, she stood and accidentally brushed against him.

  She was right! There was no mistaking the feel of a semi-automatic in a shoulder holster. “‘Scuse me,” she mumbled, ducking her head as she reached down for her backpack. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he continued moving with the other passengers.

  Sam followed at a discreet distance, which on a crowded rural bus meant two farmers and a cowboy behind her target. Her cunning master plan: trail her suspect and see what he was up to.

  Emerging from the bus, Sam winced as her cousin abruptly changed the master plan.

  “Yo! Sam, over here!” Paige yelled in her best hockey-rink voice. “I’m almost positive I put tags on all four of my suitcases but one bag seems to be missing. Can you help find it?”

  Samantha inspected the tidy row of suitcases on the sidewalk and had to admit, they were all very similar. Finding Paige’s was like picking one suspect out of a lineup of clones. Her own battered neon-green bag was easy to find and she pulled it out of the row then added it to Paige’s pile. “Doesn’t the driver deliver these to the inside of the building?”

  “Apparently not in the très chic town of Drumheller,” Paige said, trying not to bend over too far in her tiny red-and-black plaid skirt as she continued reading the name tags. “This is stupid dumb! Does everyone in the world have exactly the same black suitcase as me? For crying out loud, Sam, help me before I’m arrested for indecent exposure!” She tugged at her skirt.

  Sam was about to mention she had her own stuff to worry about when she glimpsed her suspicious suspect disappearing into the terminal. As any covert agent knows, when tailing someone, timing was crucial. She grabbed the two random bags nearest her. “I’ll take these inside for you, Paige.” And before her cousin could yell at her, Sam hurried toward the doors.

  Once inside, Sam quickly scanned the room. No sign of him. “Rotten rodents!” she cursed. This was not an auspicious start to her spying career.

  Abandoning the suitcases, Sam searched for a pay phone to call her mother’s long-time friend, Mrs. O’Reilly, who ran the boarding house where they’
d be staying. Inconveniently, Sam didn’t have a cellphone, and that was a constant source of argument at home. Her parents thought the ability to Snapchat, text or #anything to her friends 24/7 was unnecessary. They simply didn’t understand modern social networking!

  The fact she’d lost her new cell two days after she’d received it as a Christmas present might have had something to do with her parents’ negative take on the situation. It had fallen out of her pocket while she’d been skiing in the back country and was probably frozen in a glacier by now.

  Paige was no help. Her supersize cell with its sparkling pink rhinestone case was fabulous, but as she continually forgot to charge the battery, it was more of a pretty paperweight than a functioning phone.

  Finding a public pay phone was a bit of a treasure hunt. There weren’t many around and the ones that still existed were always tucked into some hidden alcove, invisible to mortals.

  Fortunately, in a bus terminal the size of a broom closet, there weren’t many places to stash the booth. Across the room, Sam saw the only communications kiosk in the depot – and it was being used.

  She caught her breath. The tall guy in the red phone booth, which could have been straight off the streets of old London, was her mystery man!

  Her cousin, now dragging her complete set of all four over- packed suitcases, came to a halt behind Sam.

  “Paige, do you see the guy using the phone?” Sam asked urgently.

  Sam’s cousin scrutinized the man in the booth. “Yeah, why? He’s not only too old for you,” she wrinkled her small nose, “he’s not yummy at all.”

  “He’s the suspicious man from the bus! The one I’ve been watching. Check him out – he’s writing something down.”

  “What suspicious man? Why were you watching him?” Paige’s mouth drew into a hard line. “Oh, no you don’t. No way, Sam! You’re not going to start with that secret agent stuff, are you? Every time we go anywhere, you turn it into a James Bond movie. It’s just some old geezer, for crying out loud! He probably runs the local hardware store and was in Calgary ordering new toilet seats for outhouses.”