Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith Read Free Book Online Page A

hooded, attempting to absorb the meaning behind it all. He didn’t need Justin to explain to him that if what the scientist maintained was true, it could affect the geological make-up of the park. It could even destroy everything.
    Their food came, steaming on the plates.
    “What else?” Something more was bothering Justin and Henry waited for the young man to tell him.
    Justin hunched his shoulders and leaned in closer so no one else could hear. “This has nothing to do with the lake’s rising temperature or the volcanic activity, but I also found some…tracks…in the mud down by the water.”
    “Tracks?” George’s worried face floated across Henry’s inner eyes.
    “Huge animal tracks.” Justin rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “The most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen, except for those bones you discovered yesterday. If I didn’t know better I’d swear–” he stopped talking when he caught the look in Henry’s eyes.
    “Go on, finish what you were going to say. I’m listening.” Henry started eating his dinner as if nothing was wrong, but pinpricks of unease had begun to needle him.
    He was aware the couple at the next table was having a fight of some kind. Distracting.
    Justin’s eyebrows lifted and a hesitant grin transformed his face. “If I say anymore you’re going to think I’m crazy.”
    “I can’t decide what you are if you don’t tell me what you want to tell me first.”
    “All right.” Justin’s hands went up in a surrendering gesture. “Based on what expertise I have, I’d swear those tracks were made by some sort of,” he whispered the word, “ dinosaur .”
    Henry practically choked on his steak. The idea was so ridiculous, he wanted to laugh. And here he’d thought the kid had no sense of humor. Boy was he wrong. “Some joke. You’re kidding, of course?”
    “No. Dead serious.”
    “A real one?”
    “Yes, a real breathing, walking one,” Justin hissed. “A live one.”
    Now with more than a hint of irritation, Henry mulled over the notion: what if Justin wasn’t what he’d presented himself to be, but was some kind of nut case? New York had Jaded Henry in that way. Anyone could say they were this or that but it didn’t mean they were. Some people were convincing liars. But the kid’s face was sincere; his eyes clear and bright. If he was a liar, he was damn good at it. And why would he be lying anyway?
    “It’s true. The tracks, whatever they are, seemed authentic. I don’t believe it myself. But I saw what I saw.” Justin lifted his cup of coffee with a shaky hand. They were nearly clean now, with just a hint of dirt beneath the nails. Exhausted, the guy looked even younger. About fifteen.
    “Did you take a picture of them with your cell phone?”
    “I would have if I had one. I dropped my last phone a week ago into some crevice I was climbing over. Lost three phones that way in the last year. I need to get to town and buy another.”
    “You’re hard on phones.”
    “I think I am.”
    “Doesn’t matter. Cell phones don’t work well in the park. Bad reception. Don’t work well in most places around here. But they still take photos.”
    “Oh.” Justin was watching him.
    Henry was a rational man, and he remembered that someone else had claimed to have seen something unusual in the lake. He nearly mentioned it to the scientist, but it was too preposterous to dwell on, much less repeat.
    He recalled George mentioning those strange tracks. Merely coincidences?
    “The tracks could be a hoax, Justin. Kids are always playing practical jokes around here. Like that Bigfoot scare up in Washington a couple of months ago. They had tracks, photos and everything. In the end, it turned out to be a prank. All of them do. For the attention and the tabloid money.”
    A negative nod. “No, I don’t think this is anything like that. I believe those tracks were made by something alive. Something real. Not any animal I know and not human, either.”
    “Where’d