Primitive: A Bones Bonebrake Adventure

Chapter 14

Logan was seated on the tailgate of Bones’ truck when they finally reached the dirt road. He was dressed in street clothes and carried no weapon that Bones could see. He and Bones exchanged a long, level stare. Finally, Logan broke the silence.

“How was your hike?”

“A complete waste of time. Nothing but mud out there.”

Logan folded his arms and looked up at the sky. “Did you happen to take any pictures or videos of all that nothing?”

Bones shook his head. “Not a thing.”

Logan nodded. “How about we quit dancing around each other and just tell the truth?”

“We found them,” Slater said, “but we’re not going to do anything about it. We don’t have any photos or video and we’re not going to tell anyone what we saw. As far as we’re concerned, the mystery ended when we found out that an unnamed local faked the tracks. That’s how the episode of our show is going to play out, anyway.”

“Thank you. I mean it.” He slid down off the tailgate, walked over, and shook hands with Bones and Slater.

“So, what’s the real story?” Bones asked.

“My family’s lived on this land for more than a hundred years, and we’ve known about the skunk apes pretty much the whole time. We’ve been protecting them, trying to keep people from finding out the real story. It wasn’t that hard until Sarasota really started to grow. We still don’t get too many folks coming into this neck of the woods, but it happens.”

“What’s the deal with the fake footprints?” Bones asked. “Seems like that would just draw the kind of attention you don’t want.”

“We’ve never made any footprints. Matter of fact, we try to wipe out all we find. That’s one of the reasons Jack wanders so far afield. The skunk apes range wide sometimes and we do our best to cover their tracks. The false feet and such, that’s stuff I had made in case anyone came snooping around.” He flashed them a grin. “If somebody got too close to the truth, I figured I’d tell them me and Jack had faked the whole thing.”

“We saw shoeprints leading toward their island,” Bones said. “Do you have any interaction with them?”

“Not really. We keep an eye out for them, take them food. Fruit and the like. But we keep our distance.”

“Did your family ever consider bringing in someone who could protect them?” Slater asked. “University researchers or a government agency?”

Logan barked a laugh. “Protect? Hell, no. They’d take them away for study. If they really were just a breed of ape that didn’t belong here, an exotic species of orangutan or something, that might be one thing, but primitive humans? There’s no way the government would pass up a chance to study their genetics and such. They wouldn’t leave them out here in the swamp where anyone and anything could get to them.”

Bones nodded thoughtfully and scratched his chin. He could think of all kinds of scenarios in which the so-called skunk apes would be in danger if their presence were made known. “You’re right. If word got out that they were here, the government would almost have to take them into custody for their own protection. There are too many people who would want to get their hands on them: zoos, private corporations, government groups. Heck, if somebody was violently anti-evolution they might be tempted to come out here and erase the possible evidence.”

“I didn’t think of any of that,” Slater admitted.

“I’m a cynic. I always look on the dark side.”

Logan breathed a sigh. “I don’t think it’s going to matter for much longer. There’s only four of them left, and they’ve been breeding from the same family tree for a couple of generations. The young male had a mate, but a gator got ahold of her. I tried to get to her so I could help her, give her first aid, but they wouldn’t let me come close. She bled out.” He shook his head slowly, staring at the ground. “I don’t know if the baby is male or female. Even if it’s a girl and she lives long enough to bear children, it won’t matter in the long run. It’s almost over for them.”

“It’s not a breeding population,” Slater said. “I understand why you’re doing this, but it really seems like a missed opportunity to study a primitive human population.”

“We’ve got years of notes, pictures, and videos our family’s taken,” Logan said. “We aren’t scientists, but somebody will be able to make something of what we’ve learned when the time comes.”

“And when will that be?” Bones asked.

“Whenever the last one dies. Whether it’s me, Jack, or Jack’s children, the body will go to the Florida Museum of Natural History for study. They can take their DNA and stuff after that. Until then, I say let them be.”

Bones and Slater exchanged a long look.

“Agreed,” Bones said. “Sorry for trespassing. We just had to know the truth.”

“Don’t mention it. Sorry you and I got off on the wrong foot.”

They bade Logan goodbye and drove back to the hotel in reflective silence. It was a shame, in a way. Mystery solved, and he couldn’t tell anyone.