Forbidden Ground. Karen Harper

      “Anyone you could stay with?”

      “Carson, I haven’t lived here for years and I was young when I left, but I’ll be fine. It might have been a big happy time for my father to be back here seeing old friends, but not me, so I don’t have anywhere else to stay.”

      “So how did that go—with your father?”

      “Not that well—for me, anyway. I remember what he was like, though Tess and Char really don’t.”

      “That’s my Kate. A mind like a steel trap.”

      “But I’m sorry I didn’t ask about how your talk went. Things got so intense here—”

      “Really? Have you convinced Grant Mason to let you excavate Mason Mound yet?”

      “I’m working on it, but I can’t push. Besides, the murdered man was a good friend of his, and Grant recently had another personal setback.”

      “That might make him more vulnerable.”

      “You sound like you’re pushing me into his arms.”

      “My darling, you’re the one who is desperate for links, so link away—within reason. I still think you and I could have a brilliant future. And proving the prehistoric Europe-America link could be our big break.”

      They chatted about his talk at the Smithsonian. She realized it was so unlike him not to speak about himself first. But then, it wasn’t every day that a former research assistant and protégée of Dr. Carson Cantrell found a recently deceased corpse instead of an ancient one.