095 An Instinct for Trouble by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online

been having. Did you find out anything while you were investigating?”
    “The professor is in real financial trouble,”
    Brad replied reluctantly. “I found lots of overdue bills in his tent. You know he’s put his own money into this study.”
    “Yes,” Nancy said. “But once the extension comes through, he’ll be reimbursed.”
    “That’s just it,” Brad said unhappily. “I found a letter from the Department of Interior in his tent. There won’t be any extension.
    Trainey’s application was turned down.”
    “What!” Nancy exclaimed. “That’s terri-
    ble. That means the professor’s out all that money.”
    Brad nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
    “Wow!” Nancy thought for a moment. “You know Professor Trainey pretty well, don’t you?”
    Brad nodded. “I think so. I’ve worked with him pretty closely for a couple of years.”
    “Could he be desperate enough to try to get his money back by selling marmots?” Nancy asked.
    Brad hesitated for a long time, “I guess he could try to recoup his losses,” he said, sighing.
    “Does everyone know that you drink a lot of coffee?” Nancy went on.
    Brad grinned, glad to change the subject.
    “Sure. Everybody kids me about always hav-
    ing a cup of the stuff glued to my hand.”
    “So it would have been a safe assumption that at some point in the evening you would light the stove to boil water?”
    “Yes,” he confirmed.
    “What time did you get to the hut that night?”
    “About seven-thirty,” Brad replied.
    Nancy nodded thoughtfully. The daily as-
    signments were posted outside the command post shed, so everyone would have known that Brad was monitoring feeding station 1. Alicia left the hut around six-thirty. That left the place empty for an hour-plenty of time to sabotage the stove.
    “I understand that you and Professor Trainey have the only keys to the command post,” Nancy said, turning her thoughts to how the poachers could have gained access to the computer that monitored the marmots’ sig-
    nals.
    “Technically, I guess that’s true.”
    Nancy was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
    “We had a spare that we kept hidden under a rock near the door-in case we lost the oth-
    ers.” Brad laughed. “I guess it wasn’t such a great place to hide it, because one morning about two weeks ago we couldn’t find it.”
    Nancy’s eyes widened.
    Just then a nurse came in to change Brad’s bandages. Nancy got up and said, “Well, I guess I’d better go. You’ve been a great help.”
    As she drove back to the inn, Nancy’s mind was spinning. Who’d taken the key to the command post? Was it someone unconnected to the study group-like the two maintenance men. Piker and Richard?
    She felt uneasy every time she thought of them, especially since she’d caught them in the parking lot at the hotel with the Turkowers.
    Was it possible that the professor, Piker and Richard, and the Turkowers were all involved somehow? It seemed a strange group of people to be working together. Still, she needed to keep her eye on them all.
    When Nancy opened the door to her room, she found Bess, bubbling over with enthusi-
    asm. “I had a fabulous morning! Upper Geyser Basin was amazing. Did you know that Yel-
    lowstone sits in the middle of the crater of a gigantic volcano?” She paused and glanced around. “You don’t suppose it could erupt again, do you?”
    “I doubt it, Bess.” Nancy laughed. “What did you find out about the Turkowers?”
    Bess wrinkled her forehead. “Gerald must have shot about a hundred pictures, and Edith never stopped talking about her neighbors back in California. But I don’t think they’re tourists at all. In fact, I’m now betting they’re in charge of kidnapping the marmots.”
    Nancy turned that around in her mind. She had been thinking of the Turkowers as buyers who might lead her to the poaching ring. What if Bess was right, though, and they were the sellers instead?
    “But wait,” Bess added. “I haven’t told you