by Ruby Loren
Unfortunately, I didn’t think this was the bad news…
“What’s happened?” I asked, managing to keep it cool. Auryn was a natural at this kind of thing, so I was trying to take a leaf out of his book. I didn’t think he would fly into a blind rage, no matter the disaster.
“Some of them escaped. They’re only little, but I guess I must have not checked whether the lid was on properly. It was a new tank. I should have made sure I had it figured out. I caught most of them, but because of there being plants everywhere, even on the walls, I think there are still quite a few around. But that’s not the worst part! They’d all come back to a food dish if I just waited, see? But when I came in this morning, Emma told me that a racoon had escaped. They eat everything, don’t they? I asked Emma to guard the chameleons whilst I came to find you. I wanted to come clean, but…” I mentally filled in that she’d kind of hoped I wasn’t going to be in today. And I also suspected that Emma had instructed her to own up, or else!
Emma, who was the zookeeper in charge of small mammals and the fowl at The Lucky Zoo, was a good employee, but sometimes a little too ‘by the book’. Her standards of animal care were sky high, but I knew for a fact that her holier-than-thou attitude sometimes got up other staff members’ noses.
I took a deep, calming breath. “Let me guess - the raccoon who escaped is called Billy?”
Gabby hesitated and then nodded.
“He mostly amuses himself by going through the bins, but since The Lucky Zoo is a green zoo, we’ve only got those recycling bins and green waste. He’s probably in the green waste bin, as it’s where the food will be. Baby chameleons probably aren’t high on his list of things to snack on.” I thought about it for a second. “Although, I wouldn’t put it past him,” I confessed. Some of the things I’d caught him chewing on were enough to turn your stomach. “I’ll organise the hunting posse for Billy with Emma. You can go back to looking for the escapees. Then, when we’ve caught Billy and you’ve found the chameleons, I think we need to have a chat about the zoo’s policies on bringing in new animals.”
To be frank, there weren’t any policies on bringing in animals, because I hadn’t ever imagined they’d be needed. What had Gabby been thinking, adding her chameleons to the collection without asking? They could have all kinds of health problems that, without a proper quarantine, could be passed on to the current residents. Not to mention the fact that as zoo owner, I was the one who decided which animals we accepted or tried to obtain. I included the other keepers in these decisions and would have hoped they’d extend me the same courtesy.
I shook my head as I walked down the other side of the steep incline. If it weren’t for the fact that I believed Gabby had her animals’ best interests at heart and was also a first-rate keeper in terms of the health and welfare of the animals she bred, I’d have probably fired her on the spot. Even so, I would be making it abundantly clear that this would be her second and last chance.
“Morning, Emma,” I said when the neatly turned-out zookeeper approached me down the path. The zoo was already open to visitors, but they were still in the first part of the zoo. As the responsible party for everything that went on, I would have closed the zoo if an animal that posed a danger to the public had escaped. But Billy was, well… Billy. Auryn had gifted the raccoon as a ‘no hard feelings’ present to the group of people in charge of setting up the then-named Mellon Zoo. We’d both known full well that he’d done it to hand over the problem of the escape artist raccoon. Now that I was the owner of the zoo, the poisoned chalice had been passed to me.
After grabbing a few passing staff members at random, I organised the search and retrieval party. When that had been done, I realised I was going to be late for my meeting with Auryn if I stayed and joined the search. With not too much regret, it must be said, I went back over to the creepy crawly house and had my talk with Gabby. Then I left everyone to it and went to attend to the event plans. With a bit of luck, Billy would be back under lock and key when the arts and crafts day happened on Saturday. Otherwise, I strongly suspected that several visitors would be losing their lunches.
When I walked up the stairs that led to the newly rebuilt and refurbished offices, I could hear laughter. As I approached, I realised it was coming from Auryn’s office. The door opened as I approached and Poppy Jones, the new head of reception, walked out, mid hair-flick. I watched as she glanced coquettishly back over her shoulder before she turned and saw me. The smile was immediately replaced with what I would have sworn was a mini-sulk before she bounced back.
“Hi Madi,” she said, breezing past.
I turned and watched the blonde-bobbed woman with the annoyingly perfect curves sashay back into the main office. Then I looked back through the open door of the office at Auryn.
“You were a little late, so I was just talking through some of the plans with Poppy. She and her team have got a lot to do reception-wise on the big day. Is your team ready, too?”
“I’ll be going back to them today to double check but they’ve been handing out flyers with every admittance and they know how to answer any questions that visitors might have about the day,” I told him, keeping my voice neutral.
Auryn nodded. Was it just me, or did he look a little flushed? I bit my tongue, hard. I surely couldn’t be thinking these thoughts all over again. Sure, I’d had a bit of a wobble after seeing Claudia the other day, and learning firsthand of Scarlett’s less than loyal actions, but Auryn and I had talked about it. I trusted him. The voice inside whispered that while Auryn was certainly innocent of any crime, that didn’t mean I had to like Poppy or her flirting.
“Let’s get started then. The art supplies for children should be coming here tomorrow. Perhaps you can send someone by to pick them up? I also ordered some extra paper and pencils in case anyone who doesn't know about the event happens by and wants to take part. How have you been getting on with our keynote speakers?” Auryn asked with a lopsided grin on his face.
“Well, one of them is a bit of a diva…” I said, jokingly referring to myself, before shaking my head. “It’s going fine. I need to double-check that Tiff’s okay with her time slot, but all of the other local arts and crafts entrepreneurs and businesses are happy, and I think we’ve got the staggering of speeches worked out well, so that visitors will be able to see the things they’re interested in and still have time to create their own works of art for us to judge at the end of the day. The judging panel are all sorted, too,” I added. Most of the panel was made up of the speakers, having demonstrated their authority in the industry. This year, I wouldn’t be on the main judging panel. Instead, Auryn and I would be picking a winner for our respective zoos.
“Sign-ups have been through the roof here. Everyone is eager to meet the best-selling author of Monday’s Menagerie.” Auryn’s mouth twitched up. “You are going to have one heck of a busy day.”
I nodded, smiling in return, but privately wondering how it was all going to come together. Both zoos had advertised my presence which meant I’d be doing a whole lot of running back and forth. My own speech had even been scheduled twice - once at each zoo - to allow for the predicted level of demand. The play barn was once more being used as the venue at Avery. The Lucky Zoo didn’t have much by way of conference venues. In the future, I was considering potentially reconverting the Abraham family’s barn conversion, so that the upstairs could be office space and downstairs would serve as a venue for times like these. As it stood, I was keeping one eye on the weather forecast and praying we’d be able to do it outdoors in the open space close to the elephant enclosure.
“I’d better go and talk to Tiff. Just so you know, our guests left to see the police this morning. They know I’ll be out all day, so if they need to get back into the house, they may come here. Also, they brought a dog with them.” I hoped I didn’t sound too accusatory when I said that.
Auryn arched an eyebrow. “What did Lucky do to the dog?”
I laughed. Auryn knew my cat too we
ll. “Put it this way… I think he’ll be handing in his dog membership card.”
We kissed each other goodbye and then I set off to find Tiff with a spring in my step. It was only when I was halfway towards the shop that I remembered I hadn’t told Auryn about my zoo’s escapee, or berated him for cursing me with Billy the raccoon. Sometimes his ability to be charming was sickening.
I was still smiling when I walked into the shop and greeted lots of familiar faces. Tiff saw me from where she was taking notes on stock and came over.
“Aren’t the kitten Lucky toys sweet? If only they knew the truth about him now,” she said. We exchanged a look. I’d told Tiff all about Lucky’s thirst for blood. The dark and terrible reality would not be going into the comics, where Lucky was portrayed as a friend to all animals. “You know, you really should get a proper gift shop set up at The Lucky Zoo,” Tiff said, prodding me for the umpteenth time. She was right, of course. At the moment, The Lucky Zoo had a premises that acted as a shop, but it had been built small and was fairly poorly thought out. Tiff had done what she could, but there needed to be more. I’d toyed with the idea of having gift shop stands in a kind of market area in one of the larger open spaces close to the shop.
“I thought I was going to pay you more and you’d do all that for me?” I said with a sideways smile.
Tiff waved a hand. “Oh, hush! We’re friends.”
“But this is business!” I protested. It was our ongoing argument. Tiff was the kind of person who’d always do something to help out a friend without expecting anything back in return. Much as I appreciated her kindness, the zoo was my business, and I wanted to treat it as such by paying people what they were worth.
Apparently I wasn’t going to get my way, as Tiff changed the subject.
“I’ve uh… got a date tonight,” she confided. Something about the way she said it clued me in that, for some reason, she wanted my approval.
“Who’s the lucky guy?”
“Pierce. We had a really nice chat the other day and I gave him my number. He wants to take me to the new sushi place that’s opened up in town.”
“That’s good, right?” I said, praying I was covering my own slight misgivings about Pierce. I’d concluded that it was simply paranoia left over from my bad experience with MI5, hadn’t I?
“Yeah, it’s great.” She bit her lip. “Do you think he’s okay?”
I knew she was asking because of Darius, her last boyfriend. I only wished I could give her a decent answer. “I know about as much as you do. His job references were good, but I’ve no idea what kind of a guy he is.” I thought about it. “Go careful and you’ll be fine.”
Tiff nodded, not looking too reassured. Fortunately, the conversation then moved on to the arts and crafts day and the difficult topic of Pierce was dropped.
It was only later, when I was thinking about Pierce, that I realised Katya hadn’t acknowledged my phone call or even the follow up text I’d sent afterwards to cover up the real reason I’d called her. It had only been a ‘How are you doing?’ text, but I had expected some kind of acknowledgement. We were supposed to be friends. All I could think to reassure myself was that Katya was deep under cover, working on a new assignment.
Something pinged in my head, reminding me that she had mentioned there could be some new developments in the case that they’d dragged me into. I wondered if it was to do with that. Fortunately, I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary so I was more than happy to assume that my role in all that was over. And good riddance! I thought, reminded of my ex-boyfriend and the two agents in their suits, whom I had grown to loathe.
Much as I liked Katya, perhaps her silence was for the best.
I was surprised to see Georgina Farley striding across the grassy picnic area when I exited the shop. I was even more startled when it became apparent that I was the person she was looking for.
“Madi! I’m so glad I found you. The nice lady officer at the station said you called this morning asking after Rameses?” The lawyer smiled broadly at me.
“I just wanted to know if he’d been found. When I discovered he was still missing, I wanted to offer to look for him myself. The police have a lot on their plates, and I’m sure Scarlett does, too,” I hastily added, not wanting to make a slight against the lawyer’s client.
“That’s so nice of you to offer. I’m actually going over to the house myself to pick up a couple of things. Scarlett doesn’t want to go back there, you see. She’s also so busy with this merger. It’s a real nightmare, I can tell you!” Georgina said, but the smile never fell off her face. I was starting to wonder if unnerving good humour was part of her skillset as a lawyer.
“I bet,” I said, hoping I sounded like I understood half of what it was all about.
“Do you want to come with me? We can have a look for the dog. There might be a couple of questions to ask about the case, too. I wouldn’t normally be so frank, but let’s just say the police aren’t particularly enthusiastic about having freed Scarlett. If they find anything at all that can give them grounds to bring her back in, they will. I wouldn’t normally share this either, but I really don’t think she did it. I’m not about to spout any guff about her loving Timmy too much, or anything like that. Put simply, she’s too darn busy to bother with killing her layabout husband.”
I inwardly raised my eyebrows at that description of Timmy Marsden, but to be honest, I could imagine worse. “I’ll be happy to go over anything if it will help,” I told her.
“Thanks, you are a star! Are you busy now? We could jump in my car and head over.”
I told her that was fine and we made our way back to the car park. I happened to stick my hand into the pocket of my work trousers and felt the crumpled paper of the receipt I’d picked up from the floor that morning. “Hey, I found this in my house. It’s not mine or Auryn’s. Do you think it could be relevant?” I asked, showing her the paper.
Georgina looked at it and then returned it to me with a pensive look. “I’m not sure. Anything could be relevant at this point. Are you taking it to the police?”
I shrugged. “It might be nothing. I thought it was probably Jon’s. He could have have passed by the cafe on his way to pick Auryn and me up. The only other people it could belong to is Annabelle Wright or Will and Lizzie Marsden - but they’d only just travelled down from Leeds yesterday.”
If the lawyer was surprised or interested that Annabelle Wright had been round our house, she didn’t show it. Even so, I thought I could sense she was a little intrigued, just as I was. “It’s probably Jon’s. I can ask him if you like? I think I have his number. He was looking over the contract at Scarlett’s behest.” She flicked her eyes heavenwards for a moment, showing me exactly what she thought about the rather humble solicitor examining a contract that she’d overseen.
I decided not to comment.
The rest of the journey was filled with idle chat. Georgina mentioned that she was impressed with the success of my comic and I had been suitably bashful. I’d noticed she hadn’t said she was a fan - just that she was impressed by my success. I supposed I should have expected every word to be carefully considered when it came from such a high-flying lawyer.
“This whole thing is a nightmare. Nice as she is, I resent having to liaise with a police officer that I know for a fact was one of the many women Timmy had dallied with. It shouldn’t be allowed,” Georgina said when we were nearly at the house.
“Which police officer?” I wanted to be sure.
“I think her name is Officer Kelly.” The lawyer sighed. “As I’ve already said, she seemed nice enough. But when I managed to get them to release Scarlett with no charge, her polite facade slipped a little. No matter how professional she may be, she’s got a bias. She shouldn’t be anywhere near the case!”
“Have you spoken to anyone on the police about it?”
Georgina shot me an ‘are you serious?’ look. “That’s their job. She may be biased, but if I were to go in there and s
uggest they kick her off the case you can bet that would ensure suspicion was fully and firmly returned to Scarlett - jealous wife accused of murder. The less the police know about what Scarlett knew was going on, the better.”
“I’m sure they’ve figured out enough for themselves. After all, Scarlett’s alibi must have been fairly transparent. They were both at it.”
Georgina nodded. “To make matters worse, Scarlett only decided to tell me right after we arrived at the station that in the long distant past she’d been carrying on with the detective, for crying out loud!”
“The new guy, Detective Gregory?” I asked, horrified that someone with such a close connection to the case was working on it.
“No, Treesden was the name she gave me. Terrible, isn’t it? Whatever happened to the sanctity of marriage?”
I did my very best to keep my jaw from dropping open. I’d assumed Detective Treesden had to have been available, because Jenna had only ever been interested in men who weren’t married or taken (a point that had been to her credit). All the same, Scarlett was still in her twenties, and Treesden was clearly a lot closer to retirement age than he looked - I’d give him that much. Also, I thought he was a bit of an ass, but perhaps it was a different story when you weren't suspected of a crime. I filed it as something to marvel about later.
She pulled up and we got out of the car. There was a white van parked a little further up the drive and the slogan ‘From Crime Scene to Clean!’ told me all I needed to know about the identity of the owner.
“They’re taking their time,” Georgina muttered. I’m supposed to be here to lock up after them. How about we go inside and see how they’re getting on? You can take me through everything you did when you went into the house and found Timmy.” She tacked the last part on so casually that it almost sounded like an afterthought. But this wasn’t my first rodeo. I knew that me spilling my account to Georgina was likely to be the sole reason she’d suggested our joint excursion. Honestly, I just wished she’d be straight with me. I didn’t have anything to hide from her. I’d told the police everything I’d seen and wouldn’t mind doing the same for her. Almost everything, the voice in my head piped up, reminding me of the leather lead that was still in my handbag at home. I really had to do something about that…