Tyrannosaur Canyon Read Online Free

run the chopper, an expense that came straight out of his budget. And this was only the first trip. There would have to be a second with the M.E. and the scene-of-crime team before they could move the body and collect evidence. Then there would be the publicity . . . Perhaps, thought Wilier hopefully, it was just another drug murder and wouldn't garner more than a day's story in the New Mexican.
    Yeah, please make it a drug murder.
    "There. Joaquin Wash. Head east," said Broadbent to the pilot. Wilier shot a glance at the man who'd spoiled his evening. He was tall, rangy, wearing a pair of worn-out cowboy boots, one bound together with duct tape.
    The chopper banked away from the river.
    "Can you fly lower?"
    The chopper descended, slowing down at the same time, and Wilier could see the canyon rims awash in the moonlight, their depths like bottomless cracks in the earth. Spooky damn country.
    "The Maze is right down there," Broadbent said. "The body was just inside the mouth where the Maze joins
Joaquin
Canyon
."
    The chopper slowed more, came back around. The moon was almost directly overhead, illuminating most of the canyon bottom. Wilier saw nothing but silvery sand.
    "Put it down in that open area."
    "Sure thing."
    The pilot went into a hover and began the descent, the chopper whipping up a whirlwind of dust from the dry wash before touching down. In a moment they had come to rest, dust clouds billowing away, the thudding whistle of the rotors powering down.
    "I'll stay with the chopper," said the pilot. "You do your thing."
    "Thanks, Freddy."
    Broadbent piled out and Wilier followed, keeping low, his eyes covered against the flying dust, jogging until he was beyond the backwash. Then he stopped, straightened up, slid the pack out of his pocket, and fired one up.
    Broadbent walked ahead. Wilier switched on his Maglite and shined it around. "Don't step on any tracks," he called to Broadbent. "I don't want the forensic guys on my case." He shined the Mag up the mouth of the canyon. There was nothing but a flat bed of sand between two walls of sandstone.
    "What's up there?"
    "That's the Maze," said Broadbent.
    "Where's it go to?"
    "A whole lot of canyons running up into Mesa de los Viejos. Easy to get lost in there, Detective."
    "Right." He swept the light back and forth. "I don't see any tracks."
    "Neither do I. But they have to be around here somewhere."
    "Lead the way."
    He followed Broadbent, walking slowly. The flashlight was hardly necessary in the bright moonlight, and in fact it was more of a hindrance. He switched it off.
    "I still don't see any tracks." He looked ahead. The canyon was bathed from wall to wall in moonlight, and it looked empty-not a rock or a bush, a footprint or a body as far as the eye could see.
    Broadbent hesitated, looking around.
    Wilier started to get a bad feeling.
    "The body was right in this area. And the tracks of my horse should be plainly visible over there . . ."
    Wilier said nothing. He bent down, snubbed his cigarette out in the sand, put the butt in his pocket.
    "The body was right in this area. I'm sure of it."
    Wilier switched on the light, shined it around. Nothing. He switched it off, took another drag.
    "The burro was over there," Broadbent continued, "about a hundred yards off."
    There were no tracks, no body, no burro, nothing but an empty canyon in the moonlight. "You sure this is the right place?" Wilier asked.
    "Positive."
    Wilier hooked his thumbs into his belt and watched Broadbent walk around and examine the ground. He was a tall, easy-moving type. In town they said he was Croesus-but up close he sure didn't look rich, with those crappy old boots and Salvation Army shirt.

    Wilier hawked up a piece of phlegm. There must be a thousand canyons out here, it was the middle of the night-Broadbent had taken them to the wrong canyon.
    "Sure this is the place?"
    "It was right here, at the mouth of this canyon."
    "Another canyon, maybe?"
    "No way."
    Wilier could see with his own