“Yes, sir,” he replied, some of the icy snap now missing from his tone.
Sensing I’d gotten all I was going to get from the tightlipped fellow beside me, I let my attention move to the street. A few cars rolled past as the lights at the ends of the main drag shifted from green to yellow to red. Perry wiggled over a bit, sighing when he straightened out his legs. He began rubbing his thighs as he studied the alleyway that Will had disappeared into. After ten minutes had slowly ticked off Perry’s palms were moving in a blur. His worn jeans were going to ignite soon. I was about to say something to him when two forms stepped out of the shadowed alley. Will was one, Tootch the other, or so I assumed.
They walked up to the truck. Will leaned on the door, elbow just inside the open window. The other young man was shorter than Will, pudgy, with skin as pale as snow. He was wearing one of those snapback hats or whatever the hell they were called. I could only see one side of his face, and most of that was hidden by the brim of the black cap. He had terrible acne.
“Tootch said that the bone dudes have been to see him twice,” Will informed us, his voice low and secretive.
“Yeah, twice,” Tootch seconded.
“They were really hot to get rid of those bones,” Will whispered.
“Yeah, hot,” Tootch added.
“Since he doesn’t deal in that kind of shit he told them to go to Laramie.”
“Yeah, Laramie.”
I sat on the urge to slap the parrot in the camo ballcap. Perry was quiet as a church mouse beside me.
“They got mad. One of them, a big Indian dude with a chipped front tooth, hit him in the face.”
“Yeah, fucker.” Tootch turned his head to show us the shiner he was sporting then quickly went back to staring down the street, shoulders up by his ears, hat low on his brow.
“Chip Tooth Dude left him a cell number to call in case he changed his mind within the next two days. Then they broke all the windows in his car as a way of saying he better change his mind. Tootch has since then gone out of the redistribution of previously owned goods and is working at the Buck-A-Basket dollar store out on the highway stocking shelves.”
“Yeah, Buck-A-Basket,” Tootch muttered then held out his hand.
I looked from the open palm to Will. He shrugged. “I told him there was a fifty in it if he told us about the dino bone dudes.”
“I’ll give you a hundred if you share that cell phone number,” I said to Tootch. He bit down on his lower lip, grunted, and shoved his hand into his front pocket. He pulled out a strip of lined paper that read NOTES in some fancy script. The skinny bit of paper fluttered into my hand. “Thank you, Tootch. We really appreciate your cooperation.”
“Yeah, cooperation.” He shook his empty hand at me. Rising up, I dug my wallet out of my back pocket, peeled off two hundred dollar bills, and passed them to Tootch. He shoved them into the front pocket of his baggy jeans then left, melting into the alleyway like a shade.
“What are you going to do with the number?” Will asked when he wedged himself back into the cab of the truck. There was less shoving this time. Both seemed reluctant to touch the other but there was no way not to in such a small space.
“I’m going to give it to Mark,” I stated, placing the thin scrap into my wallet.
“You promised I’d not be mentioned in this!”
“And you won’t be. I’ll tell Mark that some anonymous do-gooder passed the information along to me and I, being a do-gooder as well, was handing it over to law enforcement.”
Will chewed his lower lip for a moment. “Yeah, okay.” He looked around Perry, who appeared to have swallowed a cactus. “What about the chipped tooth guy Tootch was talking about? Do you know who it is?”
I shook my head. “No, but we’ll keep an eye open for him. You two are in charge of scoping out the men in the bunkhouse. We’ve hired on a few new hands.” I lifted my phone from the dash. “I didn’t give them dental exams when they applied. I was more concerned about past ranching experience.”
“What if we find a hand with a chipped tooth?” Perry softly enquired.
“Keep an eye on him. We’d need some sort of evidence before we can make any kind of accusations,” I answered as I dialed Bishop’s cell number to relay the news that someone had indeed been looking to sell off the bones to a small time fence. Bishop, obviously, was incensed but brought up a good point.
“Whoever is doing this obviously has no real idea of how valuable those fossils are,” he hypothesized as we sat curbside wedged into a truck like sardines. I still had no clue why Perry had to be here as all Will had done was glower and elbow him. “Real poachers, the professionals who do this for a living, wouldn’t be trying to sell such valuable finds to a two-bit hood. They’d already be on the dark web. These thieves are rank amateurs who take great delight in doling out as much physical punishment as they can during the robberies.”
I thought back to Tootch’s buggered face as well as the other injuries that had been doled out. What would have happened to Landon or Montrell had they been home the night the person who had been wearing Will’s hoodie had broken into the house? Another concussion or something worse, something deadlier?
“I agree. We’re leaving now. Expect us in a couple of hours.”
“Thank you for doing this for my bones.”
“I love your bones. See you soon.” After ending the call my gaze flickered to the two young men staring at me. “Either of you have a problem with one man telling another man he loves him and his bones?”
“No, sir,” Perry mumbled.
“Could give two shits,” Will muttered.
“Good, those are the answers I like to hear.” I cranked over the engine then slapped Will’s hand when he reached for the stereo.
“Come on! My battery died.” He waved his dead cell in the air.
“Tough. Share with Perry,” I responded as I eased away from the curb. They gaped at me then at each other. Will huffed then shoved his face out his window like a sulking Schnauzer while Perry gnawed on his lower lip. I shrugged, smiled to myself, and turned us toward home. Home being Bishop and Bane.