by Ruby Loren
A Memory for Murder
Madigan Amos Zoo Mysteries
Ruby Loren
Copyright © 2018 by Ruby Loren
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
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Books in the Series
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1. Missing, Presumed Dead
2. The Pop-up Zoo
3. The Elephant in the Room
4. It’s a Small World
5. The Perils of the Internet
6. Bluff and Bluster
7. Viral
8. Measuring up
9. Stashed in the Attic
10. The Comic-writing Goddess
11. Quid Pro Quo
12. Seven Minutes in Hell
13. False Friends
14. Bandit on the Run
15. The Official Secrets Act
16. Sisterly Love
17. See you Soon
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Books in the Series
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Also by Ruby Loren
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Please note, this book is written in British English and contains British spellings.
Books in the Series
Penguins and Mortal Peril
The Silence of the Snakes
Murder is a Monkey’s Game
Lions and the Living Dead
The Peacock’s Poison
A Memory for Murder
Whales and a Watery Grave
Chameleons and a Corpse
Foxes and Fatal Attraction
Monday’s Murderer
Prequel: Parrots and Payback
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1
Missing, Presumed Dead
Everyone at Avery Zoo knew the story of the Abraham family’s disappearance. It had become something of a ghost story to tell any new members of staff. As ghost stories went, it was quite thrilling, until you spared a moment to consider that something terrible must have happened to the Abraham family.
Some believed that they’d been abducted by aliens. Others thought they’d run from their outstanding debts - real or imagined, I didn’t know. But my money was on them never having left the farm. I was pretty sure that the Abraham family were dead.
The grisly story was a favourite of the Avery Zoo staff because of the ‘it could have happened here!’ factor. Around nine years ago, the Abraham family had moved down to Sussex, I didn’t know where they’d come from. Presumably somewhere that was ‘up’ but when you were close to the South East coast and considered everything upwards of London ‘The North’ that left quite a few options.
It hadn’t been long before a planning application had been filed for the large farm property. The Abrahams had sought permission to change the farm into a zoo. I assumed they had to have known about Avery Zoo and must have seen pound signs flashing in front of their eyes, although I still wondered about the wisdom of anyone setting up a zoo so close to a competitor. Had they been naive enough to think they could coexist, or were they simply vain enough to believe that their zoo was better and would be the one to succeed?
I wasn’t sure how this part had happened either, but their request had been approved. Work had begun on the family zoo and had been ongoing for two years when, all of a sudden, the Abraham family were gone. According to the story, one night they'd been in their home and the next morning they were gone without a trace. Depending on who was retelling the tale, there were plates filled with the family’s dinner on the table, or there’d been strange scorch marks in the field outside their barn conversion. I suspected that whatever had befallen the Abraham family probably had a logical explanation - but one that was no less sinister. Whatever that explanation might be, it had eluded the police and every investigative reporter who’d tried to find the truth in the years that followed.
I’d assumed that, as time passed, the story of the Abraham family would cease to be so fascinating, until everyone had forgotten about the missing people. I hadn’t considered that the farm might one day be sold.
Apparently, the only thing that had been keeping the Abraham family farm from being sold was time. If I’d ever spared a thought, it probably would have occurred to me that prime property in the South East doesn’t hang around for long - ghost story, or not. The reason it had been standing empty was that seven years had to have elapsed before the old owners could officially be presumed dead. That time had passed and the old farm somehow seemed to have been snapped up before it had even arrived on the market.
The first I heard of it was in the email I received out of the blue, two days after Christmas. Since my return to Avery Zoo, I’d always kept one eye on any offers of consulting work that were pushed my way. Sadly, nothing large enough to warrant more than a flying visit had arisen, and I was champing at the bit for a project that would allow me to truly make a difference to animal welfare in zoos. The email offered exactly this kind of opportunity.
At first, I’d been thrilled to read about the proposed opening of a brand new zoo - and in Sussex, too! But when I’d read a little further - through the part where the email writer had asked if I might be able to help them ensure that all animal enclosures were up to scratch and that everything was done to ensure that the welfare of animals was taken into consideration every step along the way - I’d seen the postcode of ‘Mellon Zoo’ and had realised that it was none other than the Abraham family farm.
That had given me pause for thought. On one hand, it would be amazing to be able to influence the creation of a zoo - literally from the ground up. Imagine how much could be achieved in terms of creating the best habitats and the most animal interactive enclosures! However, there was also Avery Zoo to consider. I’d been living with my parents nine years ago whilst studying at university, but I was willing to bet that whichever Avery had been running the zoo at the time had not been best pleased to find a rival zoo opening up literally down the road from them. And now it was finally going to happen… all these years later.
I realised I had to tell Auryn, my new boyfriend and the owner of Avery Zoo. He deserved to know about this brand new development. I would also value his opinion on my own involvement. I was hoping that he’d see it as an opportunity to build goodwill between the zoos. Who knew? Perhaps the zoos could even work together on certain promotions.
I shook my head, knowing I was kidding myself. There was no way that two zoos so close to each other would ever be anything other than competitors. Naturally, I believed that under Auryn’s leadership, Avery Zoo stood a far greater chance of outlasting the competitor zoo. But that didn’t mean I thought we should all be drawing up our battle grounds. There was nothing wrong with a little goodwill.
Unfortunately, when I told Auryn, he didn’t seem to agree.
“They’re really going to do that, after all this time? People said the project was cursed when they disappeared. Some people even accused my father and grandad of having something to do with it.” I raised an eyebrow at him. His father, Erin Avery, did have a track record for making decisions that weren’t exactly within the law.
Auryn shook his head. “That’s not the point. It was a stupid business idea in the first place. Why would anyone think it would work now?”
I shrugged my shoulders, feeling the glow of anticipation about ha
ving a new project dying away. “Perhaps they think their project is different. Maybe the property was sold as a zoo? I’m not actually sure how far the Abrahams got with their conversion of the farm. Were they on the cusp of opening?”
Now it was Auryn’s turn to shrug. “I was thirteen years old when they went missing. Most of what I heard was about aliens,” he said with a rueful smile.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
It didn’t take Auryn long to figure out what I was getting at. “Are you saying you’ll act as a spy for Avery Zoo?” In spite of his annoyance, he grinned at the thought - probably because of how rubbish I would be as a spy. Standing at five-foot-nothing with blonde hair that danced around my head in an unruly cloud, a light smattering of freckles, and glasses with brightly coloured rims, I was hardly the most inconspicuous person. I also never wanted to imagine myself rolling around wearing a tight black jumpsuit.
“Not a spy, but an informant.” I winced. “That sounds sneaky. It’s not sneaky, it’s just reporting. I will work with them and help them to get their enclosures sorted and their animals living in the best conditions - because we both want all zoo animals to have the best lives possible, right?” I levelled a strong gaze at him.
He looked sulky for a moment before relenting. “Yes, that is what we want.”
I kissed him and he smiled.
“I’m not a business expert, but even I can see that a second zoo opening up just a couple of miles away is going to be a problem. Initially, people will probably go to the new zoo to see what they're offering, but they’re going to come back here. Avery offers so much more than just a zoo. I believe that the animals are the heart and soul of this place but your events actually help people to understand them better - as well as drawing people back here. There is no way that the Abraham place will be able to compete with that. They could open the flashiest zoo in the world, but Avery has character and warmth. Just the other day, you told me that a questionnaire showed visitors are returning to Avery Zoo more and more frequently. Avery is going to outlast this,” I told him, hoping I sounded convincing. Everything I said felt true, but I definitely wasn’t a business genius. It was amazing enough that my little hobby of drawing a webcomic had suddenly started making me money… and had now landed me an actual publishing deal. It was certainly not my business smarts that had landed me that - just the strong support of my unexpected fans mixed with a healthy dollop of dumb luck.
“I suppose it would be a nice gesture between zoos if you were to go over there and help out.” Auryn’s eyes flashed when he said it. I had a feeling that he didn’t mean it as charitably as I had intended. It was more: ‘lull them into a false sense of security and then we strike’.
“What about a gift?” he continued.
“A gift?”
“Yeah, to further show our goodwill.”
“I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to take on the peacocks.”
“I know, I know. I’m growing kind of fond of them anyway,” Auryn said. “I was thinking something nice, cute, and furry. Something like… Billy the raccoon.”
I opened my mouth and then shut it again. Billy was cute, there was no denying that but I knew full well that wasn’t the reason why Auryn wanted to give him away.
For something so small, Billy generated a lot of bad feeling. There were a few groups of animals at the zoo who were particularly good at escaping. The squirrel monkeys would seize freedom, if given the chance, and some of the birds weren’t half-bad at giving their keepers the slip, too. But Billy was different. The raccoons he lived with were happy in their enclosure. They didn’t do everything in their power to escape. Billy did - and he was remarkably resourceful. The problem was, when he got out, he had a habit of raiding every single rubbish bin in the zoo and strewing the contents everywhere. None of the caretakers liked Billy.
“You just want to get rid of him,” I accused Auryn.
“Of course not! Mellon Zoo is going to be state of the art, right? I know he’ll have a better life with their superior level care and… I just want to get rid of him,” he admitted.
I thought about it. “Maybe he won’t escape from Mellon Zoo if an enclosure could be designed specially for him.”
“Maybe,” Auryn agreed but he sounded about as certain as I did.
“Okay, fine. I’ll have to see if Mellon Zoo even has a raccoon enclosure.”
“Oh, I think they might.”
“You already know?”
“My father must have taken it all pretty seriously at the time. The original plans submitted as a planning application are still in a filing cabinet in the office. No new application means they probably haven’t changed any of the details too much.”
“And you thought you’d try to palm off an animal who causes too much trouble.”
“Exactly. But I still think the whole thing is a stupid idea,” Auryn grumbled.
I nodded, just to placate him.
We walked a little further into the zoo and sat down on a bench in a quiet corner of the play zone - which was easier said than done. It was that strange time between Christmas and the New Year when no one knew quite what to do with themselves. The Winter Wonderland was still pulling in the visitors and I knew the zoo was making a healthy profit. It was crazy to think that just a short time ago, Avery Zoo had come close to losing it all. A couple of high level scammers had planned to cut and run with a lot of the zoo’s money. The zoo had benefitted both from the publicity and from the financial gain for the capture of the con artists. Avery Zoo’s Winter Wonderland had surpassed all cash forecast projections. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the zoo would be starting the New Year well and truly back in the black.
I moved a little closer to Auryn and leant my head on his shoulder. His light blonde hair tickled my face and I marvelled at how tanned his skin was even in the middle of winter.
Christmas with Auryn had been amazing. If I were being honest, it had been the best Christmas ever. We’d spent it at Auryn’s large family home, which was so big it had felt rather empty with just the two of us there. I’d remedied that by bringing my cat, Lucky, along for the day. We’d holed up in Auryn’s living room with a large fire and a beautiful tree (before Lucky got a hold of it) for company. I hoped for many more Christmases like that one.
“Have you heard anything back from the publishers?” Auryn asked me.
I shook my head. “I think they must all be off work over the Christmas period. I signed the contract and sent it back to Jordan. I think I’ve done all I can. At least with this contract, I can carry on drawing and posting my comics without any fear of legal action.”
That had been one of the reasons I’d picked this particular publishing company to work with. They’d understood how important it was to me that my loyal online readers didn’t feel shafted by suddenly having my comics become payment only. I was hoping (as were the publishing company) that by continuing my comic, I would continue to grow my fanbase. They would, in turn, love to buy hardcopies of the comics and also be interested in purchasing books containing exclusive comic strips. To me, it all sounded suspiciously like a lot more work, but then, I did have the luxury of more time these days, didn’t I? I was a freelance consultant, not a zookeeper. Whilst caring for animals was what I loved most of all, there was no reason why I couldn’t work reasonable hours and even take the weekends off. What a luxury! I smirked at the thought.
“It’s going to be great. I can’t wait for all of the publicity stuff to start,” Auryn said with a lopsided grin.
I shot him a sideways look. “You wouldn’t be thinking of using my comics to promote the zoo, would you?” I joked.
Auryn grinned. “You said it yourself - the animals come first. The more money this zoo makes, the better their enclosures and care can be.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
He suddenly looked thoughtful. “On that subject, I was thinking about the future of the zoo and perhaps investing in it.” He to
ok a deep breath. “What do you think about potentially expanding into some of the fields behind the zoo? I know it would cut down on pasture for the grazing animals, but I’m hoping I might be able to buy, or lease, some of the fields a bit further away. When Lawrence’s will has been executed, I’d definitely be able to afford it.”
I thought about telling him that he should save the money and keep it for a rainy day, because who knew what might happen in the future? But then I realised he was being the businessman his grandad would have wanted him to be. Auryn was willing to take a risk believing that it would help the zoo to be an even better place.
“What kind of animals are you thinking about bringing in?” I asked.
“Oh, you know… I hadn’t really thought about it,” he said, vaguely.
But he had thought about it. I could tell.
“Auryn…” I warned.
“All right… it’s a petting zoo. I thought it would be good to have a petting zoo. I’ve always loved visiting zoos who do that and visitors like it, too! We have a farmyard area here but that’s more rare breed and educational - a throw back to the original farm. I was thinking… fluffy goats, friendly sheep, a few deer, non-aggressive geese… you know, the kind of robust animal that actually enjoys interacting with children, so long as they’re handing out food, of course.”
I frowned. Auryn knew I hated petting zoos! The animals were usually in far too small an area in order to facilitate human and animal contact. They were also often fat from the amount of treats they’d been given by small hands.