Terror at the Zoo

by Peg Kehret

Ellen, with Corey beside her, crouched low beside the bushes and watched. She couldn’t see exactly what the man was doing but she saw movement and she heard the wooden panel creak.

  A light went on inside the food stand. The panel was raised up and hooked to the roof overhang. Through the opening, she could see him clearly now as he pulled out drawers and slammed them shut again. He picked up a bag of potato chips, ripped off one end, and began to eat.

  “Details,” whispered Corey.

  Ellen put her finger to her mouth, warning him to keep quiet. She knew what he meant, though. For awhile, Corey’s stories had centered on a make-believe detective who always astounded the police by remembering every detail of the villain’s description.

  Ellen stared at the man. He looked tall, although it was hard to be sure when she was crouched so low. Six feet probably. Maybe even taller. Dark hair. A khaki jacket. Jeans.

  The man turned, still searching the inside of the food stand. His jacket was open. Ellen saw a red shirt. And it wasn’t jeans, it was overalls. Bib overalls. Wouldn’t the security guard wear a uniform?

  The man stopped moving. He picked up a small box, held it toward the light, and examined it. He laid the box on the counter and bent over it. Something glinted in the light from the bare bulb inside the food stand.

  Corey clutched her arm.

  The man had a knife. A big knife. He was using it to break open the lock on the box.

  That’s probably what he used to pry open the panel, too, Ellen thought.

  He lifted the lid of the box and reached inside.

  Money. He removed a stack of bills and began counting them.

  Corey leaned closer and she was afraid he was going to say something. She put her finger to her lips again. The whites of Corey’s eyes seemed enormous as he pointed at the man.

  Ellen nodded. She watched as the man put the bills in the pocket of his jacket and zipped the pocket shut. Then he calmly sat on the counter of the food stand and continued to eat potato chips.

  Ellen dropped to her hands and knees and began to crawl away from the food stand, staying as close as possible to the bushes. She was afraid to stand up, since the man was facing in their direction. Even though they were far beyond the rectangle of light that fell from the open panel to the ground outside, she didn’t want to take any chance that he would see movement and come to investigate.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Corey was creeping along too, directly behind her. When they rounded the curve, heading back toward the south gate, Ellen stood up.

  Corey stood beside her and slipped his hand in hers. For once, he kept his mouth shut. Ellen took a deep breath and then jogged toward the gorilla house, back to the North Meadow and the safety of their tent.

  The moon rose silently, sending a dim light over the zoo. Ellen looked up. The moon was nearly full. A harvest moon, her mother would call it. In her mind, she could hear Mom singing, as she always did when they sat together around a campfire: “Shine on, shine on, harvest moon, up in the sky.”

  Mom. Where are you? Why haven’t you come?

  Ellen wished she had not brought Corey to the zoo. It had seemed right at the time but she had been positive her parents would join them. She hadn’t counted on being locked in the zoo alone with Corey all night.

  And she certainly hadn’t counted on discovering that a thief was prowling around the zoo.

  5

  “I’M GOING to spy on him some more,” Corey said.

  “No, you aren’t. We’re both staying right here in this tent.”

  They were sitting on their sleeping bags, with the picnic supper between them. There were chicken salad sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, little bags of chips, apples, bananas, and chocolate-frosted brownies. There were cans of apple juice, too, and even a little bag of after-dinner mints.

  The basket contained enough for four people, but after nibbling at half a sandwich, Ellen quit. Despite her grumbling stomach and the delicious food, nothing tasted good. She was too nervous to eat.

  “We need to gather all the evidence we can,” Corey said. “Maybe the security guard does other bad stuff.”

  “I don’t think that man was the guard.”

  “Then who was it?”

  “I don’t know. But we’ll find out what the guard looks like when he comes past here at midnight. You can spy on him then, from inside the tent. If he isn’t the thief, we can tell him what we saw.”

  “I don’t want to tell the guard. I want to be a detective and gather more evidence.”

  “We don’t need more evidence and it would make him angry if he caught us following him.”

  Corey bit into another brownie. “Well, I’m not staying in this dumb tent all night. I want to walk around the zoo. What good is it to spend the night in the zoo if we don’t see anything but the inside of a tent? I want to have an adventure.”

  “You’ll have more of an adventure than you bargain for if that thief catches you spying on him.”

  “He won’t catch me.”

  “That’s right. He won’t catch you because you aren’t going to do it.”

  A loud roar from across the meadow made both of them jump.

  “A lion,” Corey said.

  “Be quiet and listen. Maybe we can hear some of the other animals.”

  They stretched out on top of their sleeping bags and listened.

  The lion roared again, a deep throaty noise that ended on a high whine. Ellen closed her eyes and strained her ears to hear more. All was quiet.

  It felt cozy in the tent, the way it felt when her family went camping. Outside the tent, there was only silence. Gradually, her tight muscles relaxed.

  Ellen took a deep breath and then another.

  The silence stretched on.

  ELLEN and Corey’s grandparents squinted at the X ray as the doctor held it in front of the light.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Howard,” the doctor said. “The leg is not healing properly. I’m afraid we’ll have to reset it.”

  “Now? Tonight?”

  “The sooner the better. I’ve already called the hospital and arranged to have you admitted.”

  “But—”

  “You may as well get it over with tonight, Esther,” Grandpa said. “You don’t want to limp the rest of your life.”

  “If you like, you can spend the night at the hospital, too, Mr. Howard,” the doctor said. “We have several sleeping rooms for relatives to use in cases like this, when we do unplanned surgery at night.”

  “Yes,” Grandpa said. “Yes, I’ll do that.”

  “We’d better call the children,” Grandma said, “and make sure Mike and Dorothy got home. We can’t leave Corey and Ellen there by themselves.”

  “Use my phone, if you like,” the doctor said.

  Grandpa dialed. He waited a moment and then said, “I got the answering machine. That means they’ve gone on the camp-out.”

  He waited until the machine made a little bleep and then said, “Hello, it’s me. Esther and I are on our way to the hospital. She has to have her leg reset and I’m going to stay at the hospital tonight, in case she needs me. I’ll call you tomorrow, after you get home from the zoo.”

  When he hung up, Grandma said, “I’m glad Mike and Dorothy got home in time. I was afraid the plane might be late and Ellen and Corey would have to miss the camp-out.”

  Grandpa said, “You worry too much.”

  COREY’S eyes felt heavy. He struggled to keep them open. No matter what Ellen said, he didn’t want to waste his night at the zoo by falling asleep. Maybe if he walked around awhile, he wouldn’t feel so tired.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” he whispered.

  There was no response.

  “Ellen?”

  Ellen was asleep. Quietly, Corey got up from his sleeping bag. He put two apples in his jacket pockets. He found his flashlight, his camera, and the bag of peanuts that he had brought along, in case he got hungry in the night. He slipped through the flap of
the tent and started off in the moonlight.

  After he went to the bathroom, he would take the long way back to the tent. He would go past the snow leopards and the other big cats. Maybe one of them would roar at him.

  Yes. That’s what he would do. Heck, if he was going to be at the zoo all night, he had to have some fun. Let Ellen sleep in the tent if she wanted to. Corey would have his adventure by himself.

  ACROSS the zoo, on the other side of the lion area, Tony Haymes walked quietly down the path. He felt good now that he had eaten and even though there had been only fifty dollars in the cashbox, it was better than having no money at all. He also had two bananas and a sandwich in his jacket pocket, along with the cash. It was always nice to know where his next meal was coming from.

  He had pulled the panel securely shut and left the snack shop through the door. No one would be able to tell he had been inside the building until they opened the cashbox and found it empty.

  Tony smiled. I haven’t lost my touch, he thought. Eight months in prison couldn’t take away talent like his. Of course, fifty bucks was peanuts compared to Tony’s usual haul.

  That’s what I need, he decided. A big job. Fast. Make enough in a hurry to get me out of the country, let me lie low for awhile. Then I’ll start over somewhere else. Mexico, maybe. He’d heard there were ways to make big bucks in Mexico. But in order to get to Mexico he had to do more than pilfer petty cash from a hot dog stand.

  Think big, he told himself. Think big. Bank robbery? No. Too risky. All the banks have surveillance cameras these days and he would be recognized. Jewelry store? No. He would need a fence to get rid of the stolen goods and he was out of touch.

  He left the African area behind and meandered past the orangutans and great apes. There was a special display outside the monkey house and, curious, Tony squinted in the moonlight to see what it said.

  COME MEET THE NEW BABY! We are pleased to announce that a golden lion tamarin monkey was born here on August 2nd. This species seldom reproduces in captivity. The baby is healthy and enjoys having visitors.

  Next to the announcement were several snapshots of a baby monkey. Tony stared at the pictures for a long time. The monkey was tiny, no bigger than a doll. In one of the pictures, a person was holding it and the little monkey had its arms wrapped around the person’s neck and its head snuggled against the person’s chest just the way a little child might.

  There was also a newspaper article about the birth of the baby monkey. The headline said: RARE BABY MONKEY ATTRACTS ZOO VISITORS. The story began by saying zoo attendance was up 35 percent since the birth of the baby monkey.

  Tony tugged on the glass doors that led inside the monkey house. They were locked. He cupped his hands on the sides of his face and peered inside.

  The interior of the building was dimly lit, as if the zoo were trying to match the moonlight of the outdoors. Tony could see glass partitions which separated zoo visitors from the floor-to-ceiling chain link enclosures where the monkeys lived.

  Inside the enclosures, he saw trees, fallen logs, and platforms at various heights. In one cage, high up by the ceiling, there was a swing.

  Something moved in the cage closest to where he stood. Tony saw a small shape. For a moment he thought it was a squirrel. When it moved again, another, smaller, shape followed and he realized that it was the golden tamarin monkey and her famous baby.

  And that’s when he knew how he would get enough money to go to Mexico. He would kidnap the baby monkey and hold it for ransom.

  It should be a snap. All he had to do was get into the cage and coax the little monkey to come to him. That would be simple enough.

  Tony’s heart began to pound as he thought of what he would do after he had the monkey. He’d get a room somewhere, hide out, and demand a ransom. The zoo must have plenty of money and if they didn’t, they would get it from the public. People who love animals are suckers for animal sob stories. The public would contribute. All the people who had come to the zoo to see the baby monkey would want to help get it back. They’d give money; he was sure of it.

  Twenty thousand dollars. Tony leaned his head against the cool glass door and closed his eyes. He would demand a $20,000 ransom for the return of the baby monkey. And he would get it.

  But first he had to have the monkey. He squinted through the door again. Even if he broke in, the glass partitions inside looked solid and so did the chain fencing. Even his knife couldn’t cut through chain like that; it would take a hacksaw.

  Take your time, he told himself. Calm down and think it through before you act.

  There had to be some other way to get inside. How do the keepers put food in? How are the cages cleaned? There must be some kind of entrance at the back side of each cage.

  His hands dropped to his sides and he started around the outside of the monkey building. He soon came to a wooden door marked “Employees Only.”

  My lucky day, he told himself, as he used the knife to pick the lock on the door. As he worked, he planned his strategy. He would go through whatever opening was at the back of the rare monkey’s cage. He would use the bananas in his pocket to make friends with the mother monkey. While she ate the bananas, he would pick up the baby, step back through the door or hole or whatever it was, and leave.

  He would have to move quickly. Even though the monkeys were tiny, they were still wild animals and he wasn’t sure what the mother would do if she saw him take her baby. The last thing he needed was to get bit.

  If he had to, he would give her his sandwich, to distract her. That should keep her occupied until he and the baby were safely outside the cage.

  And once he had the baby monkey? Then what? He would put the monkey inside his overalls and zip his jacket. He would take a cab—tell the driver his infant son was asleep. That would explain the lump in his coat. He would rent a motel room, one of those places where they don’t ask for license numbers, just cash on the line. He had the cash, from the snack-shop box.

  Tomorrow he would call the director of the zoo and tell him where and when to bring the $20,000. He would leave the monkey in the motel room, go get the money, and be on his way to Mexico.

  Yes! Tony thought. It would work! Later, he could figure out exactly how to word the ransom call and arrange the pickup. Right now he needed to get the baby monkey in his jacket and get away from the zoo.

  His heart thumped rapidly in his chest and little beads of moisture stood on his upper lip as he opened the “Employees Only” door and slipped silently into the area behind the monkey cages.

  COREY paused outside the rest rooms, debating which way to go. He was tempted to head north, past the bison and wolves. He bet those wolves would be howling tonight, with the moon almost full. The thought made him shiver with excitement.

  He wasn’t scared. After all, what could happen to him? Still, it was odd to be here like this, in the middle of the night, with only the zoo animals.

  He turned toward the lion area. The lion had roared earlier; maybe it would do so again. If not, he would keep walking, down past the orangutans and gorillas, all the way to the monkey house.

  The monkey exhibits were Corey’s favorite part of the zoo. Ellen liked the Nocturnal House but all those bats gave him the creeps. He’d take the monkeys any day. Monkeys were silly; they made him laugh. And it was easy to make up stories about what they did because they always did something unexpected.

  He wondered if monkeys lie down to sleep at night or if they sit in the trees. Maybe they make little beds in the leaves and lie down and use each other’s tails for pillows. Do monkeys dream? Do they sing monkey lullabies to their young?

  Corey didn’t know anything about how monkeys act at night. Well, he thought happily, this is my chance to find out.

  He paused for only a moment near the lion area. When none of them roared, he decided to go on. Even with the flashlight, it wasn’t as easy to find his way in the dark as he had thought it would be. He started walking toward where he thought the monkey hou
se was.

  Here I come, monkeys, he thought. You’re going to have midnight company.

  6

  THE LION roared again.

  Ellen’s eyes flew open. For a moment she didn’t know where she was or what she had heard. Then she remembered. She sat up, pulled the flap of the tent open, and looked out.

  She wondered where her parents were. Something must have gone terribly wrong or they would be here. They would never let her and Corey spend the night here alone. Heck, she and Corey weren’t even allowed to spend the night alone at home, in their own house with Prince to protect them. Grandma and Grandpa always came and stayed with them if Mom and Dad had to be gone.

  “Corey?” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

  There was no answer. He must be asleep. She kept still, listening for animal noises again. She heard nothing. Not even the rhythmic breathing of someone who’s asleep.

  She reached over toward Corey’s sleeping bag. It was empty.

  “Corey?”

  She groped for her flashlight and shined it frantically around the tent. She was alone.

  Stay calm, she told herself. Maybe he went to the bathroom. That’s where he must be. She probably heard him leave without knowing it and that’s why she woke up.

  Ellen stretched and moved her head from side to side, working the kinks out of her neck. She wasn’t used to sleeping on the ground.

  She wondered if the zoo security man had gone past yet. She had meant to stay awake and watch for him.

  She felt thirsty now so she opened the ice chest and removed a can of juice. After a few sips, she looked outside again.

  Corey should be back by now. It didn’t take this long to walk to the rest rooms and back.

  Ellen put the can of juice down. It would be just like him to decide to go off by himself in search of some excitement. Like it or not, she supposed she had better go look for him.

  She walked across the meadow to the rest rooms and cracked open the door to the men’s side. “Corey? Are you in there?”