The Peacock's Poison

by Ruby Loren

  “So, Mr Avery… you believe that Mr O’Reilly had made a will, leaving you absolutely everything. You think one of his family members discovered the contents of the will and has since perhaps attempted to murder Mr O’Reilly,” Detective Treesden summed up.

  I was starting to get a bad taste in my mouth.

  “Yes, that’s exactly right,” Auryn confirmed.

  “I see,” the detective continued. “There’s just one problem with that. If a close relative murdered Mr O’Reilly, they’d have nothing to gain. Everything would still go to you. In fact, the person who would benefit the most from his death would be you, Mr Avery.”

  12

  A Logical Puzzle

  “Auryn stayed late after the meeting, talking to me,” I said.

  “We’ve cross-referenced the times with the suspected window in which the fire was started. We believe it happened a while after the meeting had ended. The zoo owner would have known exactly how to get into that office unseen, too,” the detective pointed out.

  I felt like tearing my hair out. If it wasn’t one of us, it was the other! I wondered if Detective Treesden could be persuaded to give Auryn and I neighbouring jail cells when he finally snapped and locked us both up.

  “But I didn’t do it,” Auryn said, looking baffled.

  “I think you still have a lot of investigating to do,” I said, trying to tactfully persuade the police to drop it for now. “At the very least, you’ll need to question Claudia to try to ascertain if she did see the will.”

  “Thank you Ms Amos, we know our job,” the detective snapped back.

  I bit my tongue to keep from saying something like ‘well, go and do it then!’.

  “Excellent, then we’re all agreed,” I said, grabbing Auryn’s arm and steering him out of the foyer and back outside, before the police could think again.

  “What just happened?” Auryn asked when we were outside and alone once more.

  I shook my head. “They were trying to trip you up. It wouldn’t have worked if you were really a seasoned crook.”

  “I just want to run the zoo and make it a success again. I don’t want anything Lawrence is trying to give me.” He looked at me, his grey eyes worried. “Do you really think he did it, just so I’d be guilted into marrying Claudia?”

  “I don’t know,” I confessed. “Perhaps there’s more to Lawrence’s family than you know. Families are complicated things.” I remembered who I was talking to and blushed.

  “Don’t I know it,” Auryn said with a smile.

  We continued walking back through the zoo together for a while, but I was glad when we parted ways. I had a lot to think about, and I wasn’t sure how to behave around Auryn in the meantime.

  This is exactly the reason why you’ve always said you should stay friends! the voice in my head complained. I was forced to admit that it was right. But there was also a smaller, quieter voice in my head, which whispered, things could be better than you ever imagined!

  I wasn’t sure which voice to trust.

  Barnaby waved me over when I walked past the Winter Wonderland the next day

  “How’s everything going?” I asked.

  “Pretty good, considering there’s been a removal team walking past the entire day.” He pointed to where a couple of the reception staff were hauling a dust covered sofa - I vaguely recognised as belonging in the old restaurant - along the path.

  “Where are they relocating to?” I asked. I’d been so busy dealing with theories about the fire, I hadn’t even considered where the staff would go to work. Auryn was clearly one step ahead of me.

  “There’s a storage place above the shop where everyone’s moving stuff to. It’s a bit of a nightmare for my team, to be honest, but we’ll make do. As long as we’ve got Christmas spirit, right?” he said and rolled his eyes. “That’s what I keep saying to everyone who complains that this isn’t the cushy Christmas job they signed up for. You won’t believe how whiny Santa gets when he doesn’t have his own private dressing room space anymore.” Barnaby shrugged.

  “But things are still going well?” I enquired, bracing myself for the answer. I hadn’t engaged with the visitors to the zoo all day after the funeral.

  “The snow actually encouraged people to come here. I think they thought it would look more Christmassy, which it does.” We paused to look at the genuinely snow-crusted trees. They were starting to lose their newer white covering, but the effect was still pretty. “I just hope it doesn’t half-thaw and then freeze. That’s when the trouble will start.” Barnaby tilted his head from side to side. “It’s the nature of the beast. It’s always a gamble running a big event like this in the winter. You never know what the weather will throw at you.” He said it so cheerfully, I felt like reminding him that Avery Zoo had folded a significant amount of money into this, and if it didn’t pay off, the business could be in big trouble.

  I decided to let it go, realising that I was feeling a little oversensitive right now.

  “Hey, I heard you were involved in the fire?” he said, clearly fishing for gossip.

  I hid a smile, privately thinking that Barnaby would fit right in at Avery Zoo.

  “I wouldn't say ‘involved’,” I said, wanting to make it clear that I had not had anything to do with what the police now knew to be an arson attack, and likely, attempted murder. “It wasn’t as bad as it looks when you go into the office. It was mostly smoke damage,” I said, deliberately keeping the details vague. The police had asked Auryn and I to keep what they’d shared with us private, and I knew better than to confide in anyone, no matter how trustworthy I thought them. Even saying something aloud could get it picked up and spread around the zoo. I was already on the police’s bad side.

  “You were there, though?” Barnaby pressed.

  I nodded. “I saw Lawrence was still inside, so I went in and got him out. It wasn’t a big deal,” I said, but Barnaby looked shocked.

  “You’re a hero! Why is no one congratulating you?”

  “Thank you,” I said, appreciating someone being impressed by what I now thought might have been a pretty stupid thing to do. “Anyone in the same situation would have done it, I’m sure,” I said, suddenly wanting to downplay it. “Not long to go until Christmas, is there?” I said, deliberately changing the subject back onto more neutral ground.

  “Yes… the company boss is going to be here for a day or two from tomorrow. She always checks every single event to make sure it’s up to par.” He pulled a worried face. “Wish me luck!”

  “You’ll be fine. I don’t see how anyone could criticise what you’ve achieved,” I said, honestly.

  “Oh, believe me, she’ll find a way to,” he said, but he grinned at the same time.

  “I know this is a complete change of subject, but I was in a small road accident earlier today, which landed me at the police station to sort out a minor disagreement. I couldn’t help but notice that quite a few zookeepers from here were at the station for questioning. Is there something they know that we don’t?” Barnaby looked curiously at me.

  “I have no idea. Who else was there?” I asked.

  Barnaby screwed up his face, trying to remember. It was frustrating having someone who didn’t know everyone’s names yet try to describe who’d been there.

  In the end, I was very surprised by what he described. I’d been able to figure out that the zookeepers he’d seen were Vanessa, Adam, Ashley, and Leah. Julia, the new fiancée of Harry, had also been there again. I wondered what it all meant.

  “Why would they bring in the zookeepers?” I mused aloud, for that was surely what they must be doing. There was no way I could see Vanessa having a problem with Jenna. She was in her sixties and had only ever had a thing for Colin - a zookeeper who’d been tragically killed in the bomb blast during the summer. I didn’t see how she would have any motive for killing Jenna. I’d never even seen her speak to the head of reception! I knew Vanessa pretty well. She had no time for nonsense and even less time for thi
ngs that weren’t insect or reptile related. It made no sense at all that she would have been brought in.

  Julia, on the other hand, did make a lot of sense. I wondered if the police had decided she or her husband-to-be might have had something to do with Jenna’s untimely death? I tried to stop myself from speculating, but it was difficult. It was okay when I thought about it in a logical, clinical way, but as soon as I remembered that for the most part, I knew and liked these people, I found I simply couldn’t believe that anyone who worked at Avery Zoo was capable of murder.

  The evidence strongly suggested otherwise.

  The recent fire and attempted murder drove it home even further.

  “They must have some new evidence that suggests a zookeeper had something to do with… something,” I said, having no idea what I was really saying.

  Barnaby gave me a lopsided grin. “Do I need to be careful around you?”

  I forced a laugh. “Technically, I’m not a zookeeper here. I’m more of a… helper,” I said, not liking the way it sounded in comparison to ‘consultant’. Boy, did I miss my old job!

  “In that case, you may come and visit me in the wonderful Winter Wonderland again, any time you like,” he said, his eyes even warmer than usual.

  I felt my own eyes widen a little as I suddenly wondered if this was his subtle way of saying he was interested. Talk about bad timing! I thought. Why was it that half a year ago, my love life had been a desolate wasteland, and yet, suddenly I was spoilt for choice?

  The only problem was, I wasn’t certain that either of them were sensible choices, and the only definite choice I’d recently made regarding my love life had turned out to be a very, very bad one.

  “I think I should be letting you get on. The police are back, and they’re coming this way,” Barnaby said.

  I turned to look and saw that he was right.

  When I turned back he was watching me, an unreadable expression on his face.

  “Are you sure you’re not involved?” he said, but this time I wasn’t so sure that he was joking.

  Officer Kelly and Officer Miles waited until we were back in the relative privacy of the restaurant foyer before they spoke. It was definitely only relatively private, because people did keep popping up and venturing inside to fetch pieces of furniture.

  I did my best to ignore them, but Officer Kelly and her partner kept stopping every time they went by.

  “Isn’t this the place that had a bomb go off inside it?” she said after a while of this happening.

  “Yes, it is,” I said, knowing what was coming next.

  “Is the building safe for people to be walking into it like that? I thought the reason we were in the foyer was because everywhere else is dangerous. Should they be moving things around in there?”

  I opened my mouth to find an excuse, but I was running dry today. “I’m not sure,” I confessed, wondering who had told the Human Resources and other office staff to get furniture from here. It was probably just people using their initiative. After all, that was what Auryn had encouraged staff members to do. I thought that this time, it might backfire. Especially if the roof collapsed.

  “What was it you wanted to ask me? I assume that’s why you came in?” I said, hoping to distract the police from the health and safety code violations that were taking place right behind them.

  “There’s some new evidence that’s come to light after questioning some potential witnesses. This is still confidential information. So, can I please ask you not to share it?” Officer Kelly said.

  I nodded my head, privately thinking that - if Barnaby was correct about them interviewing the other zookeepers - they’d already told far too many staff members whatever they were about to tell me. It would be common knowledge in no time at all.

  “You already know that Jenna Leary’s drink was poisoned by the perpetrator of the crime. We made a bit of a break through when we discovered the poison used was a type of rat poison. It’s some pretty nasty stuff. We brought a couple of the zookeepers in, thinking that they would be the most likely to know if the zoo had used any in the past. A couple weren’t sure, but one of the keepers who’d been working here for a while said you have used rat poison in the past. Is that right?”

  “It is. It was the decision of the board under Erin Avery. I never agreed with its use. I was glad when the decision was made to stop using it,” I said.

  “Okay,” Officer Kelly said. “That’s confirmation enough for me. Would you be able to show us where the poison is? It needs to be analysed.”

  I opened my mouth and shut it again, wondering if this was some kind of trap. “I think I know where it might be. If it still exists, it will be in the caretakers’ storage sheds behind the zoo. That’s where anything like that gets stored.”

  “Show us, please,” Officer Kelly said.

  We made our grim pilgrimage across the zoo and out behind to where the fields stretched as far as Gigglesfield. I unlatched the door to the shed and the police looked at me in horror.

  “It’s not locked?” Officer Miles asked.

  I shook my head. “Believe it or not, there’s not a high rate of crime at the zoo. Everything that’s kept out here is basically junk, anyway. It’s the stuff no one would want to steal. Heavy duty cleaning supplies and wood preserve. Bits of rubbish wood and standard gardening tools. Perhaps the poison isn’t here, but I don’t think it would be kept with any of the machinery. All of that’s inside the zoo, next to the food store.” I pointed. “There’s no way anyone smart would put a bag of poison that close to the animals’ food. It’s bad enough if there’s an oil leak. We always have to make sure it hasn’t somehow spread through to the next barn. Can you imagine if there was poison to worry about, too?” I said it with a hint of bitterness in my voice.

  We had been forced to worry about food being poisoned by alleged animal rights activists in the past. Then there was the tragic incident which had started it all. A serval had died after eating a rat which had consumed some poison. That had been the final straw for me as far as using the poison went, even though it had later turned out that the serval had been deliberately fed the rat.

  I stepped into the shed and looked around. A bag of blue crystals seemed to jump out at me from where it sat on an old wooden workbench at the back of the shed. I made to take a step forwards, but Officer Miles’ hand shot out and stopped me.

  “Sorry,” I said, suddenly realising this shed had just become a crime scene. I didn’t need to get closer to see, anyway. The label proclaimed that it was a concentrated formula, suitable for large-scale infestations. Even being this close to it made my skin crawl.

  I knew the problems rats could cause. The whole reason the zoo had tried to poison them in the first place was because they’d become a visible nuisance. I’d also witnessed rats preying on vulnerable zoo animals in the past. The general public didn’t like to see things like that when they visited a zoo.

  Even so, I’d never thought that poison was the answer. There were so many other solutions available, and as a zoo, we should have been practicing the most humane methods… methods that didn’t result in the death of other animals.

  “I’d hoped it had been disposed of,” I admitted to the police officers. The plastic bag looked a bit ragged to me, and I wasn’t convinced these storage sheds were exactly watertight. If that stuff started to leak into the soil…

  I caught myself. A disaster had already happened. Someone had probably used the poison we were looking at to kill Jenna.

  “Who has access to this shed?” Officer Kelly asked me.

  I shrugged. “You saw the tight security measures we have here. Anyone could have got in.” I fiddled with my glasses while I thought about it a little harder. “The caretaking team are the ones who come here the most. The rest of the staff wouldn’t have a reason to go out of the back of the zoo, or even know what was out here. Oh, apart from the zookeepers. We come out here to take food deliveries, and there’s also the feral cats to look aft
er.”

  “So, even if this is the poison we’re looking for, there are a lot of people with regular access to these storage huts, and even someone who wasn’t supposed to be here could have got in?” Officer Miles concluded.

  “Exactly,” I agreed, feeling just as sorry as I knew they were. We might have found the source of the poison used to kill Jenna, but finding it hadn’t helped. I hoped that some fingerprints might be found, but after everything else that had been so well planned, I thought it was unlikely. The killer had murdered Jenna at a crowded event, where alcohol would be sure to make memories fuzzier than they already had a tendency to be. To do it, they’d used a poison taken from a place that anyone could access if they wanted to. It was smart, and it didn’t help us get any closer to finding Jenna’s murderer.

  “Call it in, Miles. We’d better get forensics to go over the bag,” Officer Kelly said with a defeated sigh.

  I looked at the bag for a moment longer, remembering the bright blue colour of the Peacock’s Poison cocktail. It would have been the perfect choice of drink to drop some equally blue poison in. I shivered, remembering I’d had a glass of the very same drink. As I’d said to Auryn on the day of the funeral, being reminded that you were just as mortal as everyone else was not pleasant.

  I dropped in to the hospital later that day to check how Lawrence was getting on. I’d intended to call the other day but had been distracted. A visit in person would surely make up for that.

  To be honest, I wasn’t too sure that Lawrence would be happy to see me, but I wanted to check on him all the same. Having been the one to drag him out of the office, I felt responsible. I wanted to see how he was recovering from the ordeal.

  I walked along the corridor of the ward and turned right where the nurse had pointed out. Seeing Auryn and Claudia inside the room made me wish I’d thought to ask if Lawrence already had visitors.

  “How is he?” I asked, hoping that the hospital room would count as some kind of neutral territory.