Loch

Chapter 20

Maddock listened intently, his ale forgotten as Isla discussed their find with her friend, Meikle. Though his attention was focused on her conversation, he kept his eyes turned away, gazing out the window at the dark blue waters of the Firth of Lorn. A small resort town near Dunstaffnage Castle, Oban was picturesque, but the view left him cold on the inside.

He turned his attention to Bones’ and Grizzly’s discussion of Bigfoot. The two were getting along famously, but Isla seemed to share Maddock’s low opinion of the cryptid hunter.

“You and I should go Bigfoot hunting sometime,” Grizzly said to Bones. “Unless you’d rather stay close to home and look for the Skunk Ape instead.”

“Bigfoot would be cool,” Bones said hurriedly. He flashed a knowing glance in Maddock’s direction.

“Meikle says it could take some time,” Isla said, pocketing her phone.

“If he manages to decipher it at all,” Grizzly added.

“You’ve seen him in action. If anyone can do it, he can,” she said.

“It’s a race, then,” Maddock said. “Our hacker versus your scholar.”

“Let’s make it a bet,” Bones said. “Loser buys dinner and drinks… and pays for the hotel room.” He gave Isla a wink.

“Fine by me,” Isla said. “As long as you bunk with Grizzly.”

“Hey now!” Grizzly said, laughing. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“No.” Isla turned and smiled at Maddock. He felt his cheeks flush and he quickly raised his ale and took a long swig.

“Slow it down,” she said. “I’m not trying to get you drunk.”

Maddock tried to think of a clever repartee, but that was Bones’ specialty, not that most of Bones’ comments were particularly clever.

“Actually, I have to make a call. If you’ll excuse me?” He stood up too fast and banged his knee on the table, nearly upsetting everyone’s drinks.

“Time to cut you off, Maddock,” Bones said.

“Maybe.” He made his way out of the pub and onto the street. The sidewalks bustled with tourists selecting a lunchtime destination. The aroma of seafood blended with the damp breeze blowing in off the water. He found a relatively quiet spot and called Angel.

The conversation was brief. He gave her the broad strokes of their latest mystery, omitting the men they’d encountered the previous day. Angel said all the right things, but she didn’t ask her usual dozen questions, didn’t say how much she wished she were there. She told him about her new agent, who had apparently been showing her all the sights in introducing her to all the interesting people in Hollywood. He ended the conversation before they hit the long silence that seemed to plague most of their recent talks.

As he made his way back to the restaurant, he checked his email and was pleased to see he had a message from Colin Jeong. He scanned it and grinned.

“Bones is going to love this,” he said to no one in particular.

Their meals had arrived by the time he returned to the table. As he dug into a dish of mussels, scallops and crab rillettes, he filled the others in on Jeong’s findings.

“He says the tooth is genuine and it’s definitely no more than one hundred fifty years old.”

“As if we didn’t know that already,” Bones said.

Maddock ignored him. “The creature it came from comes from Scotland and its diet consisted of eels, salmon, and seals.”

“How could he tell that?” Isla asked.

“Something called ‘stable isotope analysis.’”

“Yep. Stable isotope analysis,” Grizzly said, nodding. “That’s what I figured.”

“Really?” Maddock asked. “How does it work? Jeong didn’t elaborate in his email.”

“I, um,” Grizzly shoveled a chunk of lobster in his mouth and chewed slowly, his face growing ever redder under Maddock’s and Isla’s twin stares. “It’s too much to explain. It wouldn’t make any sense if you weren’t already familiar with the scientific underpinnings of the process.”

“Sure. Anyway, he wants to do further testing on it. He said it would require taking a part of the tooth. I told him that was all right by me. We need the information more than we need a tooth no one will believe isn’t a forgery.”

“So we’re looking for a body of water in Scotland where you can find seals, eels, and salmon,” Bones said. “That narrows it down a bit.”

“There’s one more thing he mentioned,” Maddock said. “The tooth definitely came from a plesiosaur.”

Grizzly and Bones let out whoops of excitement.

Isla looked from the two men to Maddock. “Seriously? You want to go there?”

“We need something to do while we’re waiting for one of our guys to break the code. And there’s one place above all others that fits the bill.”

“Look at them. They’re like little kids at Christmas,” she said, inclining her head toward Bones and Grizzly, who were high-fiving.

“True, but I can’t bring myself to disappoint Bones. He’s wanted to go there forever.”

“This,” Isla said, “is going to be one long drive.”