probably.” He gestured for one of the Mormon twins to check the width of the crate and returned to us. “You got somebody at the jail 24/7?”
“Not generally.”
“Well, you’re going to need one or I’ll have to assign one of mine—I guess I’m going to need more agents anyway.” He glanced around at all the crates and started asking questions that he already knew the answers to. “Where is the field office in Wyoming?”
“Colorado.”
He grinned. “And who is in charge there?”
I played along. “That would be you.”
One of the field agents called out. “Forty-seven.”
He pulled his cell from his pocket and began dialing. “I’ll get another half-dozen guys up here by tomorrow; rust never sleeps, and neither do we.” He was distracted by a voice on the phone. “Kim? I need bodies . . .” He glanced at me. “Know where I can get a forklift?”
“Jay over at UPS might do a freelance, but we aren’t going to get him until tomorrow morning.”
“Anybody else?”
“That I would trust with a crate containing the head of a fossil worth over eight million dollars?”
He nodded. “Call Jay in the morning, please.” He finished his requisition for another half-dozen agents and then turned back to me. “Somebody’s going to have to guard the head till then.”
I gestured toward Vic. “We’re already babysitting the ADA.”
“The what?”
“Acting
deputy attorney.”
“Oh, right . . . him.” He thought about it as he glanced over his shoulder at the man, who was writing in his own black leather notebook, the foot bobbing again. “Skip Trost, ADA—sounds like a character on that shitty television show, what’s it called?”
“
Steadfast Resolution
.”
“That’s it.” He sighed deeply. “He really thinks he needs a bodyguard?”
“He fears for his life . . . or so he tells me.”
McGroder spared a glance at my undersheriff, who was giving the finger to Jennifer and the recorder. “I hope you gave him Moretti.”
“I did.”
“She can guard my body anytime.” He tilted his head. “All right, I’ll make you a deal. We’re staying at the same hotel as Trost—the Virginian. I’ll just have one of my Utah guys stand outside his door, knock every hour on the hour, and ask him if he’s heard God’s good news.”
I smiled, pulled a hand from the pocket of my jacket, and stuck it out to him. “Vic will be relieved, and the ADA will be safer.”
We shook hands. “Deal.”
• • •
I handed the crust of my previous piece of pizza to Dog, who, awaiting his due, stood dutifully beside the crate.
“Thanks for getting dinner and the beer.”
Vic plucked an anchovy off her piece and deposited it back in the box. “Fish on a pizza; I will never get used to that.” She bit in with her elongated canine tooth and chewed, smiling and watching me. “It seemed like you were having a long day.”
“What, your uncle never put anchovies on his pizzas back in Philadelphia?”
“I was working at his pizzeria on weekends when I was a teenager and a guy ordered up a pie with anchovies, and when he picked it up he opened the box and complained that there weren’t enough.” She looked up at me. “Alphonse just looked at the guy and said, “Most people don’t like anchovies, asshole.”
“That’s an interesting take you guys in Philly have on customer service.”
“Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.” She glanced around. “So, you’re sleeping in the dinosaur graveyard tonight?”
I sipped my beer and took another slice from the open box that rested on Jen’s crated skull. “Yep.”
“Seems fitting; you’re the biggest dinosaur I know.” She waited a while before asking the question I knew was still on her mind. “Okay, so what about that frozen moment you had the other morning?”
I ate more pizza and looked at the box to avoid her eyes, but when I looked back up, she was still watching me. “What?”
“There was one of those
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