“Absolutely anything useful?”
“No.”
“Great,” he said.
“Text me what you find,” I replied.
“Will do. I’ll meet you in the city.”
“Max?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” I murmured. “I mean it.”
Chapter Eight
I SPAREDthe towering dinosaur fossils in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda a second look as I stood in line at the ticket counter in the Museum of Natural History. An epic reimagining of a herbivore defending against a sharp-toothed predator. They weren’t real fossils, of course. The soaring display would have been too heavy. Plaster castings.
They seemed more important today.
“Mommy.” A young girl in line behind me was insistent on getting her mother’s attention. “See! Look! That one’sBarosaurus.”
“Oh, I see it. The tall one?”
“Yes. And the carnivore isAllosaurus,” the girl continued, speaking in a tone as if she were defending a dissertation.
I smiled a little, reminded of my own childhood and how I tried to teach Pop everything I ever read. He was always a sport about it, even if he’d already known that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s father’s first cousin once removed was hanged for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
“Next in line,” a cashier called.
I moved quickly to the next teller. “Hi. I, uhm, have a bit of a strange request.”
The man behind the computer raised his eyebrows. “Okay….”
“Your fossil halls,” I began. “Specifically dinosaurs….”
“Yes, sir,” the young guy said with a smile and sudden upbeat tone. “It includes six permanent exhibits of—”
I waved a hand. “No, I know about the halls. I mean, there’s an assistant curator who works in the department. His name is Frank Newell.”
He made a sort of exaggerated expression. “I wouldn’t know that, I’m afraid.”
“It wasn’t a question,” I answered. “I’m telling you that there is. I need to talk to his supervisor.”
“Sir,” Ticket Boy said, starting to get a bit snotty. “Our academic staff isn’t available to answer questions from the general public. They’re all very busy.”
I frowned, noticed a name tag, and squinted a bit. “Chad.” I stared at Chad. “Look. Frank Newell was reported missing four days ago. It’s vital I speak to his boss.”
Chad licked his lips, huffed, then squared his shoulders. “Are you a cop?”
“No.”
“Then,sir… you need to either purchase an admission, or I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Chad was one head bob away from wagging his finger in my face.
I begrudgingly slid my credit card across the counter. “One adult.”
THE HALLof Ornithischian Dinosaurs was pretty crowded. Not that I could complain. I mean… dinosaurs were pretty cool. I stood in front of aStegosaurusdisplay, hunched over with my magnifying glass to read the information plaque.
