Tyrannosaur Canyon Read Online Free Page B

right. He leaned forward, his face dividing the air as cleanly as a cleaver, his eyes shining. "Cigar?" "Gave 'em up." "Smart fellow. You mind?" "Hell no."
    Corvus took one from a humidor, clipped the end, lit it. He took a moment to draw a good red tip on it, then lowered it and looked at Maddox through a turning veil of smoke.
    "Good to see you, Jim."
    Maddox liked the way Corvus always gave him his full attention, speaking to him like an equal, like the stand-up guy he was. Corvus had moved heaven and earth to free him from prison; and with one phone call he could put him back in. Those two facts aroused intense, conflicting feelings that Maddox hadn't yet
    sorted out.
    "Well," said Corvus, sitting back and releasing a stream of smoke.
    Something about Corvus always made him nervous. He withdrew the map from his pocket and held it out.
    "I found this in the guy's pack."
    Corvus took it with a frown, unfolded it. Maddox waited for the congratulations. Instead, Corvus's face reddened. With a brusque motion he flipped the map onto the table. Maddox leaned over to pick it up.
    "Don't bother," came the sharp reply. "It's worthless. Where's the notebook?"
    Maddox didn't answer directly. "It was like this ... I followed Weathers into the high mesas, but he shook me. I waited two weeks for him to come back out. When he did, I ambushed him, killed him."
    There was an electric silence.
    "You killed him?"
    "Yeah. You want the guy running around to the cops, telling everyone you jumped his claim or whatever you call it? Look, trust me, the guy had to die."
    A long silence. "And the notebook?"
    "That's the thing. I didn't find a notebook. Just the map. And this." He took the metal box with the switches and LED screen out of the bag he was carrying and laid it on the table.
    Corvus didn't even look at it. "You didn't find the notebook?"
    Maddox swallowed. "Nope. Never found it."
    "He had to have had it on him."
    "He didn't. I shot him from the top of a canyon and had to hike five miles to get to the bottom. Almost two hours. By the time I reached him someone had gotten there first, another prospector, hoping to cash in. A guy on horseback, his tracks were all over. I searched the dead man and his donkey, turned everything inside out. There was no notebook. I took everything of value, swept the site clean, and buried him."
    Corvus looked away.
    "After burying Weathers, I tried to follow this other guy's tracks, but lost him. Luckily the guy's name was in the papers the next day. He lives on a ranch north of Abiquiii, supposedly a horse vet by profession, name of Broadbent." He paused.
    "Broadbent took the notebook," Corvus said in a monotone.
    "That's what I think, and that's why I looked into his background. He's married, spends a lot of time riding around the back country. Everybody knows him. They say he's rich-although you'd never know it from looking at him."
    Corvus locked his eyes on Maddox.
    "I'll get that notebook for you, Dr. Corvus. But what about the map? I mean-
    "The map's a fake."
    Another agonizing silence.
    "And the metal box?" Maddox said, pointing to the object he had retrieved from Weathers's burro. "It looks to me like there's a computer in there. Maybe on the hard disk-"
    "That's the central unit of Weathers's homemade ground-penetrating radar unit. It has no hard disk-the data's in the notebook. That's why I wanted the notebook-not a worthless map."
    Maddox turned his eyes away from Corvus's stare, slipped his hand into his pocket, and retrieved the chunk of rock, putting it down on the glass table. "Weathers also had this in his pocket."
    Corvus stared at it, his whole expression changing. He reached out with a spidery hand and plucked it gently from the table. He retrieved a loupe from his desk and examined it more closely. A long minute ticked by, and then another. Finally he looked up. Maddox was surprised to see the transformation that had taken place on his face. Gone was the tightness, the glittering eyes.