Read 095 An Instinct for Trouble for Free Online

said politely. “Did you drop this? I looked for you earlier, but you’d already gone upstairs.”
    “So that’s where it went,” the woman said with a tittering laugh. As she accepted the sheet of paper she added, “Thanks for return-
    ing it.”
    “I’m Nancy Drew and this is my friend Bess Marvin.”
    “Gerald and Edith Turkower here,” the man replied. “Smile!” he said suddenly. Before Nan-
    cy and Bess could react, he raised the camera and took three quick shots of them.
    “I wasn’t ready!” Bess protested.
    “Gerald, really!” Edith admonished. “He’s such a camera nut.”
    “I couldn’t help looking at that article,”
    Nancy said casually. “Those whistling mar-
    mots are so cute! Wouldn’t it be fun to have one as a pet?”
    “Oh, yes,” Edith replied. “I know a woman back home who has three of them.”
    “Edith likes owning unusual things,” Gerald said, shooting a keen glance at Nancy.
    “I know there are lots of them here in Yellowstone. But isn’t it illegal to take animals out of a national park?” Nancy asked, sound-
    ing naive.
    Gerald nodded. “Sure.” Then he smiled knowingly. “But there are ways around that.”
    Nancy’s heartbeat quickened. Did this cou-
    ple want to buy a marmot? Or were they somehow involved in the poaching scheme?
    She decided to dangle a little bait and see if one of them took it. “I might consider it, but only if I was sure I wouldn’t get into any trouble.”
    “Nobody likes trouble,” Gerald said. To Nancy’s disappointment, he didn’t say more before they wandered off.
    “What do you think, Nan?” Bess asked.
    “Could they be stealing the marmots?”
    Nancy frowned. “They seem more like buy-
    ers than sellers,” she said. “But either way, we’ll keep an eye on them.”
    Somewhere downstairs a clock chimed.
    Nancy glanced at her wrist. Eleven o’clock.
    She was lying in the comfortable brass bed in her hotel room.
    She realized that she had had her book open to the same page for almost half an hour. The thought that kept running through her mind was that Ned cared more about Professor Trainey than he did about the truth.
    Suddenly she couldn’t stand it any longer and put her book down, stood up, and got her jacket from the closet. A little fresh air, maybe a drive, would clear the cobwebs from her mind, she thought.
    Nancy headed outside. The night was cold and crisp. As she walked toward the parking lot, she heard voices that sounded familiar.
    Just then the headlights of an incoming car swept across a small group of people about fifty feet away. Nancy ducked behind a parked car.
    Edith and Gerald Turkower were deep in conversation with Richard and Piker, the two park maintenance men.
    Nancy crouched down and began moving between cars to get close enough to hear them.
    But the group broke up before she got there.
    She went back to her room and tried to sort out her thoughts. The only link she could think of between a rich California couple and two Yellowstone maintenance men was poaching.
    Would any of them know how to track the marmots on the computer? Nancy doubted it.
    Someone in the camp had to be involved.
    Someone like Dan Trainey.
    Nancy was still thinking when the door opened and Bess rushed in, her face aglow.
    “The disco was great!” she exclaimed. “And it wasn’t even crowded. We had lots of room to dance. You should have come.”
    Nancy smiled. “Next time.”
    “Jack is really something!” Bess fell into a chair. “He is totally dedicated to his work and knows absolutely everything about the park. I just hope I can get him as interested in me as he is in whistling marmots,” she finished with a laugh.
    Nancy smiled. “I get the feeling you had a good time,” she said, then couldn’t help sighing.
    Bess stared at her. “What’s wrong. Nan?”
    “It’s just that Ned’s upset because Dan Irainey is on my list of suspects. I guess he thinks his friends should be exempt from my investigating