Alarmed, Nancy hit the brakes to let the other vehicle move ahead. Instead, the van slowed.
Then without warning it swerved toward her, its front b.u.mper banging into Nancy"s door. She struggled to control the wheel, but the van slammed into her again, forcing her car toward the edge of the ravine.
She glanced to her right, and her stomach twisted. The drop was endless, and she was just about to go over!
Chapter Six.
All that separated Nancy from a drop into the ravine was a couple of feet of shoulder, and the van was continuing to nudge her over.
Nancy accelerated, attempting to pull ahead of her pursuer. She knew she couldn"t keep driving at this speed-the road was too treach- erous.
In seconds the van was behind her again, moving up to slam into her from the rear. She rounded a curve and spotted a sign for a scenic overlook. As she approached it, she took a deep breath and jerked the wheel sharply to the right. The wheels skidded on the gravel.
The van followed and was just about to ram into her again when Nancy saw a tall lodgepole pine at the far end of the overlook parking area. She steered her car straight at it. She was just about to hit it when she swerved left and shot back onto the highway.
In the rearview mirror, she saw the van graze the tree she had just missed. Then, to her astonishment, the driver of the van backed up, turned, and roared off in the other direction.
Puzzled, Nancy stopped her car. When she looked ahead of her, she saw a park service vehicle pulling into the parking area and un- derstood why the driver of the van had headed off in such a hurry. He"d seen the ranger, too.
The ranger stopped his car next to hers and jumped out. He was about forty and had a crewcut and neat mustache. "Are you all right?" he asked.
Nancy nodded, even though she felt shaken.
"A van tried to run me off the road."
"Did you see who was driving?" The ranger leaned his elbows on the edge of her window.
Nancy noted the name on the plate pinned to his breast pocket: Martin Robbins.
She shook her head.
"Will you come to my office to make a report? It"s near the north entrance," he con- tinued.
Nancy followed him back up the road to the ranger station.
Once inside and settled in a chair, she watched while Robbins filled out a report. "I don"t suppose you got the license number?"
Nancy shook her head ruefully. "Sorry, things happened too fast. I did notice the words Minden Linen painted on the door of the van. Does that mean anything to you?"
"It"s the biggest linen service in this area. All the hotels in Yellowstone get their sheets and towels from there. I know their chief dispatch- er. I"ll call him," Martin suggested.
Even though she only heard Martin"s half of the conversation. Nancy could tell that some- thing was wrong.
"Well?" she asked eagerly once he had hung up.
"One of their drivers, Bert Heckleby, missed a couple of deliveries this morning," Martin replied. "He"s not answering calls on his radio either."
Could someone have paid Heckleby to at- tack her? Or stolen his van?
"I get the feeling that there"s more to this than you"re telling me," Martin said.
Taking a deep breath. Nancy explained everything, including the propane stove explo- sion and the missing marmots.
Martin nodded. "Jack"s kept me up to date on the problems, but he"s not convinced the marmots are being poached. He thinks some- one may be trying to sabotage the study."
"That"s a possibility," Nancy replied. "But traps and tranquilizers have been stolen. That points to poaching."
The ranger frowned. "I did pa.s.s on word of this to the people at the Fish and Wildlife Service," he said. "But there"s no telling what they"ll do about it. I wish I could help more, but I simply don"t have the staff."
After Nancy told Martin that she was a detective, he grinned and nodded apprecia- tively. "I"d welcome any help you can give, but be careful. Poaching is dangerous business- especially when big money is at stake."
"I understand that whistling marmots can bring as much as five hundred dollars apiece on the black market," Nancy remarked. "If fifty of them really were stolen, the poachers stand to make twenty-five thousand dollars."
Martin glanced above Nancy"s shoulder.
She turned to see Jack Billings at the open door of the office.
He grinned at her and put a slide projector on the table in the comer of the room. "That ought to work now, Martin. Hey, Nancy. What brings you here?"
"You"d better look after this girl. Jack,"
Martin cautioned. "Somebody doesn"t like her. A guy in a van just tried to run her off the road."
"What? Are you serious?" Jack moved clos- er to Nancy and put his hand on her shoulder solicitously. "Are you okay? You want me to drive you back to the hotel?"
"No need," Nancy replied. "I"m on my way to visit Brad, anyway."
She thanked Martin and then walked out- side with Jack. The morning sun glinted against the dent in the side of the white rental car.
"You need to be more careful. Nancy. I"d feel terrible if anything happened to you."
"So would I," she joked. She couldn"t help feeling attracted to him, but the warmth and concern she saw in his eyes made her feel awkward. "I"ll tell Bess I saw you," she added pointedly.
"Please do. She"s a great girl," Jack said, smiling. "I"ll see both of you later, right?"
Nancy got into her car and drove off with only a wave for an answer. On the way to the hospital, she kept thinking about Jack. She hoped Bess wasn"t getting into something she"d regret.
Brad"s face broke into a welcoming smile when he saw Nancy. "Hi. It"s great to see you."
"Hi yourself," she replied, dropping into a chair by the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Great! The doctor said I"ll be out of this place in a day or two."
"I"m glad." Nancy leaned forward. "Listen, Brad, I want to talk about the problems the study"s been having. Did you find out anything while you were investigating?"
"The professor is in real financial trouble,"
Brad replied reluctantly. "I found lots of overdue bills in his tent. You know he"s put his own money into this study."
"Yes," Nancy said. "But once the extension comes through, he"ll be reimbursed."
"That"s just it," Brad said unhappily. "I found a letter from the Department of Interior in his tent. There won"t be any extension.
Trainey"s application was turned down."
"What!" Nancy exclaimed. "That"s terri- ble. That means the professor"s out all that money."
Brad nodded. "I"m afraid so."
"Wow!" Nancy thought for a moment. "You know Professor Trainey pretty well, don"t you?"
Brad nodded. "I think so. I"ve worked with him pretty closely for a couple of years."
"Could he be desperate enough to try to get his money back by selling marmots?" Nancy asked.
Brad hesitated for a long time, "I guess he could try to recoup his losses," he said, sighing.
"Does everyone know that you drink a lot of coffee?" Nancy went on.
Brad grinned, glad to change the subject.
"Sure. Everybody kids me about always hav- ing a cup of the stuff glued to my hand."
"So it would have been a safe a.s.sumption that at some point in the evening you would light the stove to boil water?"
"Yes," he confirmed.
"What time did you get to the hut that night?"
"About seven-thirty," Brad replied.
Nancy nodded thoughtfully. The daily as- signments were posted outside the command post shed, so everyone would have known that Brad was monitoring feeding station 1. Alicia left the hut around six-thirty. That left the place empty for an hour-plenty of time to sabotage the stove.
"I understand that you and Professor Trainey have the only keys to the command post," Nancy said, turning her thoughts to how the poachers could have gained access to the computer that monitored the marmots" sig- nals.
"Technically, I guess that"s true."
Nancy was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"We had a spare that we kept hidden under a rock near the door-in case we lost the oth- ers." Brad laughed. "I guess it wasn"t such a great place to hide it, because one morning about two weeks ago we couldn"t find it."
Nancy"s eyes widened.
Just then a nurse came in to change Brad"s bandages. Nancy got up and said, "Well, I guess I"d better go. You"ve been a great help."
As she drove back to the inn, Nancy"s mind was spinning. Who"d taken the key to the command post? Was it someone unconnected to the study group-like the two maintenance men. Piker and Richard?
She felt uneasy every time she thought of them, especially since she"d caught them in the parking lot at the hotel with the Turkowers.
Was it possible that the professor, Piker and Richard, and the Turkowers were all involved somehow? It seemed a strange group of people to be working together. Still, she needed to keep her eye on them all.
When Nancy opened the door to her room, she found Bess, bubbling over with enthusi- asm. "I had a fabulous morning! Upper Geyser Basin was amazing. Did you know that Yel- lowstone sits in the middle of the crater of a gigantic volcano?" She paused and glanced around. "You don"t suppose it could erupt again, do you?"
"I doubt it, Bess." Nancy laughed. "What did you find out about the Turkowers?"
Bess wrinkled her forehead. "Gerald must have shot about a hundred pictures, and Edith never stopped talking about her neighbors back in California. But I don"t think they"re tourists at all. In fact, I"m now betting they"re in charge of kidnapping the marmots."
Nancy turned that around in her mind. She had been thinking of the Turkowers as buyers who might lead her to the poaching ring. What if Bess was right, though, and they were the sellers instead?
"But wait," Bess added. "I haven"t told you my most exciting news. Guess who"s coming to Yellowstone Park?"
"Smokey the Bear?" Nancy suggested.
Bess threw a pillow at her.
"Okay," she said. "I give up."
"You"ll never believe it," Bess cried, her eyes wide with excitement. "Randy Dean!"
Chapter Seven.
Really? Randy Dean here?" Nancy said.
"Are you sure?"
Bess nodded emphatically. "Uh-huh. The ranger told us this morning. He"s coming to make a television special about the impor- tance of leaving animals in their natural envi- ronments."
"Oh? What about all those marmots of his?"
Nancy asked.
Bess shrugged. "He must have had a change of heart." Her face lit up again. "And not only that, he"s going to be staying right in this hotel.
We might even meet him! Wouldn"t that be awesome? George is going to be so jealous when she hears."