He faced Neema. Did the gorilla’s eyes betray a small spark of curiosity about the excitement around her, or was that only wishful thinking.
“Neema,” he told her, “Tomorrow will be an even better day for gorillas.”
Chapter 26
Grace couldn’t keep her promise of “tomorrow” to Neema. It took four days to get Gumu back on his feet. He was a confused angry giant, at first staggering as if he’d had a stroke, lurching around and throwing himself against the bars of his cage. If any of the veterinary staff came close, Gumu bared his teeth and beat his chest and screamed. Only Jon Zyrnek could touch him or feed him. He slept on a mat next to Gumu’s cage. The vet was slowly weaning the gorilla from the heavy tranquilizers that had flooded his system for more than a week.
Jon documented the gorilla’s progress each day, posting video clips on YouTube. Grace debated whether it might be better to bring Gumu back into familiar surroundings, but the videos of his tantrums terrified her. Neema had killed a crow out of frustration and anger. Gumu had killed a man, although nobody could be sure if he knew he’d done it. Jon told her the male gorilla had signed bite bad man several times. They both hoped he would never make those signs in front of anyone who could knew sign language.
Each day, Grace showed Neema the video clips of Gumu. On seeing her mate moving and making sounds, Neema hooted and signed Gumu Gumu come over and over again. She pressed her lips to the computer screen and repeatedly asked Grace where Gumu?
Gumu is sick, Grace told her. He’ll be back when he’s better. Neema understood what sick meant; she knew about taking medicine and getting better. She abandoned her post at the top of the net to sit in front of Grace’s computer and demand to see Gumu over and over again. Although she was not an attentive mother, she tolerated Kanoni sucking on her nipples and clinging to her. Neema had little milk because although she ate a piece of fruit or a cup of yogurt each day, she refused to eat more. Both mother and baby gorilla were skin and bones. Grace worried that Neema didn’t quite believe her and that she’d go back on her hunger strike if Gumu didn’t completely recover.
Yesterday she’d been to Moses Lake to see Gumu, and she and the vet decided it was time to bring Gumu back. She’d spent the evening and night with Matt, trying to settle her nerves.
The next morning, he turned his television on to see if her gorillas had made the news again.
“Caretakers at the PeaceTree Ape Sanctuary in northern Oregon got a surprise today when they fed their troupe of bonobos, the smallest members of the ape family. Instead of the usual five bonobos that have lived at the sanctuary for the last eight years, this morning there were six. The newcomer is a young male that was apparently smuggled into the bonobo enclosure.”
“Well, isn’t the news this morning full of surprises.” Grace handed Finn a cup of coffee and then, pushing Lok aside, sat down on the couch beside him with her own cup.
The screen flashed to a middle-aged woman with a rake in one hand and a long graying braid over her shoulder. “We’re calling him Houdini,” she told the reporter.
“A veterinary certificate of health and five hundred dollars in cash was also found outside the fence,” the desk reporter said. “It’s a new twist on animal smuggling, and it seems to be happening all over the country.”
“That’s right,” chimed the reporter’s teammate. “Two days ago, a pair of bushbabies appeared in an unused cage in a sanctuary, complete with appropriate vegetation and food. And the Cincinnati zoo had long wanted a mate for their lone female tiger, Mia, and presto, yesterday morning, a young male had materialized inside the cage with her. A Chicago resident claims the male tiger is his, that he raised him from a cub in his city apartment.”
“Good luck getting that cat back, you asshole,” Grace mumbled. “Raising a tiger in an apartment?”
Finn asked, “We don’t know anything about who might be behind this trend, do we?”
“Of course not.”
He hoped nobody at the station was tracking this latest wildlife trend.
Grace checked her watch. “The vet’s bringing Gumu back at five this afternoon. I’ve got a lot to do before then.”
“We’ll go back to your place soon,” Matt agreed.
She strolled back to the bedroom to get dressed, stopping before his study door. “I love that painting, Matt.”
He joined her in the doorway. The morning light made the poppies glow and backlit the woman strolling through the field of flowers. He’d finally finished the painting yesterday afternoon. The woman was moving toward the viewer, her face cast down but smiling, one hand out over the flowers, as if she was exactly where she wanted to be at that moment.
“I want to be that woman,” she whispered.
“Grace, you are that woman.” He leaned in for a kiss. “And I am the man who is waiting for her right here.”
* * * * *
In the late afternoon, Neema sat high up in the net, still using Gumu’s blanket as a cape. Now she looked more like a mummy than a gorilla. Outside the enclosure, Finn and Tony Zyrnek talked while Grace bounced Kanoni on her hip as waited for the van to arrive.
“I’m so glad you’re coming to my barbeque tomorrow.” Tony looked from one to the other of them. “I hope Heather and Jenny will come, too. I’m a good cook, and I need to pay you back. It’s kind of ironic, in a pathetic sort of way, how this all turned out.” He patted Kanoni’s head. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself.”
Finn raised an eyebrow. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You thought it was me all along,” Tony told him. “And in a way, it was. I was the common denominator. If it wasn’t for me talking about the gorillas nonstop, none of this would have happened.”
“You don’t know that,” Grace said.
“I’m pretty darn sure. It’s all kind of like dominos crashing into each other, but it all started with me. Jarvis got the idea to kidnap Gumu because his South American drug guy liked Gumu’s paintings so much, and he would never have known about those if I’d kept my mouth shut and I didn’t have those paintings in our cell. And then he roped in DeeDee to arrange the deal and then Leroy because Leroy didn’t want to die, and Leroy got Ro and Keno, and Keno knew all about the open house because of me, and Ro got Ty involved. So Gumu would never have got kidnapped and Ty Linero would still be alive if it weren’t for me.” He stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and stared at the ground.
Finn looked at him. “Jarvis Pinder cooked the whole thing up.”
“Will he do extra time for it?” Tony’s expression was hopeful.
“I’d like to think so,” Finn said. But the truth was, the case against Pinder wasn’t strong. The convict hadn’t made any of the arrangements. He hadn’t done any of the dirty work. “Watch your back, Tony.”
Tony rocked on his feet. “I am. I will.”
“At least Ro Linero and Kevin North and Leroy Shane will go to prison,” Grace said. “Although they should go for a hell of a lot longer. Sentences for crimes against animals are never long enough.”
Finn nodded. Although Grace called the crime a kidnapping, according to the law, it was only theft and animal cruelty.
The van pulled in, and everyone got quiet.
* * * * *
Grace, holding Kanoni against her chest, opened the gate for Jon, who led Gumu in. The vet had assured her that Gumu had recovered from the anesthetic, but the big gorilla still seemed confused. Or maybe he was still in shock; suffering from a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. After seeing Neema murder the crow, Grace was worried. Gumu had twice Neema’s strength, and had never trusted humans much.
Humans had killed his family and captured and tortured him as a baby. Now he’d been captured and tortured as an adult. Being drugged and chained and locked up for a week was enough to make any creature psychotic.
Grace wasn’t at all sure that gorillas possessed any concept of forgiveness. She could only hope that both Gumu and Neema could remembe
r which humans had been kind to them.
At first, Gumu sat on the ground next to Grace, his muscles tense as he surveyed his surroundings in silence. Grace studied him with sideways glances, not wanting to confront him with direct eye contact. Gumu’s gaze seemed jumpy, unfocused. Did he know where he was? Did he remember who he was? Did he remember who they all were?
After a minute, he raised his chin and sniffed at Kanoni’s back, his nostrils flaring. Grace froze, anxious about what would come next. Gumu then clasped his massive fingers around the baby’s leg and made a low rumbling sound deep in his chest. Grace’s heart thumped. Gumu could easily pull the baby out of her arms. In the wild, silverback gorillas frequently killed babies they did not recognize. Did he remember that Kanoni was his offspring?
Then Kanoni raised her head, looked at Gumu, and chirped softly in response.
Above them, near the top of the net, the blanket slid down to reveal the top of Neema’s head. Her dark eyes fixed on them. Grace held her breath for a long moment as both adult gorillas stared at each other. The silence felt as heavy as mud, lasting long enough for Grace to hear the crows calling as they settled into their evening roost in the nearby woods.
Neema hooted softly, as if testing the reality of the situation.
Gumu raised his head and flared his nostrils. He leaned forward on his knuckles and huffed back at her.
Another tense second of silence passed. No one—human or gorilla—moved.
Then Neema threw off the blanket. She barreled down the netting, doing a forward roll in her rush to the bottom. Gumu threw both arms out just as Neema leapt from the bottom of the net. Grace dodged out of the way as Neema tackled Gumu, landing on his massive chest.
Both gorillas rolled on the ground, hooting frantically and slapping each other over and over again. Kanoni screeched and bounced against Grace’s chest, wanting to join in the reunion. Grace held tight to the primate’s little body. It wasn’t time yet to add a third member to the party. Jon opened the gate and joined his father on the other side of the fence. Grace followed him out of the enclosure and stood by Finn.
They all watched as Neema and Gumu rocketed around their enclosure, chasing each other up and down the netting, embracing and tickling each other over and over again. Their racket was deafening.
Grace couldn’t stop grinning. She turned to Finn. “Isn’t it amazing?”
He smiled back. “Amazing is the perfect description.”
Kanoni transferred herself to Finn’s arms, and although he stiffened for a second when the baby took hold of his ear, he grinned even wider.
“They are happiness in motion.” Tony Zyrnek shouted to be heard over the gorillas’ excited hoots. He held up a hand toward his son, and Jon high-fived with his father.
Finally the two adult gorillas quieted and sat in the netting, snuggling in each other’s arms. Grace took Kanoni from Finn, opened the gate, entered, and pushed the little gorilla up onto the rope net. The baby climbed up to her parents and sat hesitantly beside Neema, one hand resting lightly on her mother’s leg. After a moment, Neema pulled Kanoni onto her stomach between her and Gumu.
Neema peered over her baby to Grace, raised her arm and signed.
“Smile happy gorilla,” Jon translated.
Neema crossed her arms briefly, wrapping her baby inside for a second, before she turned her back on the humans to face Gumu.
Grace translated the last sign. “Love.”
“That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?” Tony Zyrnek drawled.
Chapter 27
Although he had never met the family of Rosemary Benson or visited the elderly woman at Sweet Song Nursing Home, Finn felt like it was only right that he and Grace should pay their last respects at her service a week later. The family had cremated her body, and so there was only a large urn among bouquets of roses up front, along with a huge photo of the elderly woman in a white silk robe heavily embroidered with stars and other symbols. Long carved jade earrings hung from her ears. A wreath of dried flowers was twined through her hair.
On the table next to the urn was a series of smaller photographs of Rosemary at all ages, dancing in a circle of folk dancers, painting designs on the cheeks of children, bending to touch noses with a tiny spotted fawn, posing in backpacking gear beneath a sign on a tree that read Pacific Crest Trail, standing in a prairie with hands out, covered in butterflies.
“Granny was a Wiccan,” an attractive young woman told them. “She would have gotten such a hoot out of jet-setting with a gorilla. She would have loved being part of your detective story.”
So much for anonymity. Finn wondered if he’d ever get used to the way that everyone knew everyone else’s business in Evansburg.
The granddaughter turned to Grace. “How are the gorillas?”
“Neema’s happy now that Gumu is back, and Kanoni is happy now that Neema’s happy. Gumu is understandably even less trusting than he ever was, so we have to be extra careful with him.”
“He’ll recover over time,” the granddaughter suggested.
Finn hoped so. It was frightening to think about Grace living and working with a killer. Even if Gumu had only killed in self-defense, the big gorilla was now aware that he could do it.
“Gumu has started painting again,” Grace said. “I hope you don’t think this is in bad taste”—she quickly glanced around the room—“but we thought you might like a small reproduction of his latest work.”
Moving to the folding chair where she’d left her bag, Grace pulled out a small framed print. The painting was darker than Gumu’s previous abstracts, with a background that was mostly cobalt swirls. In the foreground was a swipe of black and one of pink, and across both of those was a vivid splash of brilliant crimson.
“Fight.” The deep voice came from a man at the granddaughter’s elbow. He was staring intently at the painting. His freshly shaved cheeks and chin were lighter in color than the rest of his face, giving him an odd, otherworldly look.
“Ryan,” the young woman said. She laid a hand on his arm. “I haven’t seen you since the high school reunion! How are you?”
“Good.” His light colored eyes flashed to quickly to Finn and back. “I’m fine now.”
Back on his meds, Finn guessed. He glanced around the room, spotted Ryan’s parents talking to another couple. Mrs. Connelly caught his eye and smiled. He dipped his chin in response. Evansburg was sometimes a very small town.
“How did you know Gumu called it Fight?” Grace asked Ryan.
He cast his gaze down to his shoes, embarrassed. “It’s obvious.”
Were gorillas and schizophrenics were on the same otherworldly wavelength? Finn found the stark portrayal of a violent scene disturbing. How could a gorilla paint so suggestively? Oddly enough, the painting had saved Gumu’s reputation and Grace’s project before the county council. It was impossible to view that painting and not believe in the intelligence of the painter and the story behind it. Jon Zyrnek’s videos of Gumu’s recovery and Grace’s heartfelt account of the gorillas’ history appearing in USA Today hadn’t hurt, either. The college had refused to renew their funding, but Gumu’s paintings were selling for a premium and Grace had a book contract in the works, so she thought they might be okay for a while. Neither of them knew what the future would bring, but then, who really did?
“Thank you so much.” The granddaughter studied the painting, a smile on her face. She placed it with the photos of Rosemary. The splashes of pink and red in the painting echoed the red and pink roses surrounding the urn, making the painting look as if it belonged there. “We’ll treasure it.”
“Rest in peace, Rosemary,” Grace whispered to the face in the photo.
“Oh, she will, I’m sure.” The granddaughter folded her hands together. “May you walk in peace and beauty, as Gran would say.”
Finn thought Rosemary Benson must have been a very wise woman. As they strolled out of the chapel into the sunshine, he noticed tears glistening on Grace’s cheeks.
Happy cry? he signed.
Smile happy, she signed back.
A couple walking into the chapel gave them a strange look. When Finn’s gaze connected with the man’s, the stranger dipped his head and said, “Afternoon, Detective,” then turned and nodded at Grace. “Dr. McKenna.”
No doubt everyone at the station would have heard about this by the time he reported for work tomorrow.
The Great Ape Detective and The Gorilla Lady.
Finn decided to embrace it all.
Books by Pamela Beason
The Summer “SAM” Westin Mysteries
Endangered
Bear Bait
Undercurrents
Romantic Suspense
Call of the Jaguar
Shaken
nonfiction
So You Want to Be a PI?
SAVE Your Money, Your Sanity,
and Our Planet
the neema Mysteries
The Only Witness
The Only Clue
the run for your life ya adventure series
Race with Danger
Race to Truth (coming soon)
There’s always another book on the way. Keep up with Pam by signing up for notifications on her author website: http://pamelabeason.com
About the Author
Pamela Beason lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she writes novels and screenplays and teaches workshops. She has worked in many fields at many different jobs, including as a private investigator. Every chance she gets, she explores the natural world on foot, on cross-country skis or snowshoes, in her kayak, or underwater in her scuba gear.
Copyright Page
THE ONLY CLUE is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
The Only Clue Page 29