Cooper hummed an acknowledgment but wasn’t sure what Ryan meant. Typical of who? Hirano? Lesbians? Lonely off-the-grid cabin-dwellers?
Ryan was still talking. “You get little bits of that in the book, too. It’s really quite an interesting read.”
“Sounds like it. I picked up a copy this afternoon,” Cooper said. And then Park had promptly put it back down, but he didn’t need to add that part. “I was surprised to see a name I recognized in the acknowledgments. Has Ms. Hirano ever mentioned someone named Dr. Freeman to you?”
“Emily Freeman?” Ryan asked, and Cooper blinked in shock, not having really expected that to go anywhere. “Sure. I’ve met her myself a couple of times.”
“You have? When?”
Ryan frowned. “Our wolves got real sick a while ago and Niko called her in to consult. She’s a gifted pathologist, and there’s not much about the species she doesn’t know.”
Cooper could feel his pulse in his ears. He was as alert as if Freeman had walked into the room herself. “I didn’t know that.”
“Well, no.” Ryan laughed. “Why would you?”
“Did she figure out what was wrong? With the wolves, I mean.”
“Yeah, tainted meat, apparently. But not before three of them died. Niko took it hard. The thing is, no one even thought it was that bad. I mean, they’d just sort of been unwell for a couple weeks. Then suddenly within like two hours their systems started shutting down one after another. Animals are like that. They hide stuff well. Their keeper was still sacked, though. Everyone said if he’d caught it earlier, called Dr. Freeman in sooner, all four wolves could have lived.” Ryan’s face twisted slightly.
“You disagree?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, no. I don’t know. Probably. We’re supposed to record every little behavioral change for exactly this reason and it turns out the wolves’ keeper had been slacking. But he totally freaked out on Niko after. Accused her of setting him up. Stealing the records. Intentionally tampering with the meat. There was no basis for it. Just crazy, bitter stuff, really. I thought he was going to hit her, no joke, but she just stood there staring him down like—well, if looks could kill and all that. Niko loved those wolves. If you ask me, that’s the real reason he was fired.” Ryan shrugged. “James was his replacement, actually.”
The dull crackle of a speaker turning on caught Cooper off guard. Genevieve’s voice echoed suddenly through the rotunda, slightly muffled here in the hall, declaring it was time to announce the raffle winners. The first prize of the night...
“Why the interest in Dr. Freeman?” Ryan continued over the speaker, his expression now curious and a little eager. “Is she involved in your case? Is that why you’re asking these questions?”
“No. Not at all.” Cook shook his head firmly. She couldn’t be.
Under other circumstances, he might consider it. Freeman was a gifted pathologist with an expertise with wolves who had spent four months doing who knew what with a dead man’s biological samples. She’d openly admitted to wanting the existence of werewolves to come into the public knowledge.
Now a werewolf was murdered. His body posed in an extremely public way. His face and body affected by some mystery toxin to make his inhumanness obvious, and Freeman’s name kept popping up in odd connections to the coworkers of the victims. Hell, never mind consider it—she’d be Cooper’s number one suspect.
But the woman was in custody. Talk about an airtight alibi. And there were other people who wanted James dead. Arthur Crane, for example, who they still needed to talk to.
“Hey! That’s you!” Ryan said.
Cooper blinked at him. “Sorry?”
Ryan pointed up, and it took Cooper a moment to realize he was referring to Genevieve’s voice, still ringing out over the speakers.
...third raffle winner of the night is Cooper Dayton. Cooper Dayton, congratulations and please come to the stage beneath the elephant to collect your prize.
“I didn’t enter a raffle,” Cooper said, confused.
“Your name gets put in when you buy a ticket,” Ryan said, clapping, presumably in congratulations. “Some of the prizes are big-money items. Hope you get a good one!”
“Thanks,” Cooper said, feeling a sliver of excitement despite himself. Who didn’t like winning something? He said goodbye to Ryan and caught Park’s attention, gesturing that he was leaving. Park nodded, leaning down to say something to Cooper’s family and the zookeeper, while gracefully extricating himself from the snake, which had at some point ended up wrapped around his arm.
Cooper walked to the doorway that led back to the rotunda and looked around the room while he waited for Park. The announcements had stopped and the band had picked up the music again. This time a woman was singing along, and a number of people had paired up and started slowly two stepping around the dance floor. He watched them, humming along under his breath.
Would I grant all your wishes, and be proud of the task...
Finally, Park appeared at his elbow. “Making a new friend back there?” Cooper asked, amused, as they walked back into the main room.
“My energy must be very soothing to ill-tempered creatures prone to biting.” Park looked at him slyly out of the corner of his eye. “At least that’s what Dean claimed, and your father said to stop teasing you.”
“Nice,” Cooper said as they tried to pick their way through the dancing couples to the stage. “And you defended my name then and there, or does that part come in a minute?”
Park adopted a scandalized expression. “By admitting you bite me all the time? I didn’t think you’d want them to know. But I suppose I can go back...”
He looked over his shoulder, and Cooper grabbed his arm. “All right, all right.”
His uninjured hand slid down into Park’s and gave it a squeeze, but when he started to pull away, Park held on. He tugged Cooper gently, questioningly toward him, glancing at a dancing couple and then back at Cooper. Quirked an eyebrow. “Yes? No? I saw you tapping your toes.”
Cooper felt a little flushed. He looked around them but stepped hesitantly forward and let Park pull him into a dance position. Cooper felt very stiff in his arms and unsure where to look, but Park seemed perfectly at ease and patiently shuffled them across the floor toward the elephant stage, stepping in time to the music.
...only forever, if someone should ask.
Cooper couldn’t help glancing up and found Park staring down at him with a smile. Cooper cleared his throat. “Anyway, while you were yukking it up with a snake in the hand and two snakes in the grass, some of us were working.” He recapped what Ryan had told him, watching Park’s face turn more and more grim.
“When I spoke to Cola about setting up an interview with Freeman tomorrow, I asked if she’d had any visitors,” Park said when Cooper was done. “But she hasn’t. No family, friends, colleagues. Accomplices,” he added pointedly. “Hasn’t tried to make contact with anyone at all since her arrest.”
The besides you hung in the air unspoken.
“What about the threat she warned about?” Park asked, clearly thinking of that same single meeting three months ago.
“What about it?”
“Well, we did wonder where she got her information. Maybe this is the connection we’ve been waiting for.”
Cooper frowned. “But if we’re taking Freeman at her word, I’m not being threatened.”
Park looked pointedly at Cooper’s injured wrist, resting on his shoulder.
“That was spur of the moment panic. Someone wanted that phone. Someone like Arthur Crane, who is the only person besides Eli we know for sure James was blackmailing. Which at the end of the day is the actual case we have. Someone murdered a blackmailer. All this other...weirdness is insubstantial at the moment.” Although now that it seemed certain Hirano had lied about knowing James, she was a possible third person with a motive. No
t to mention the oddness around his predecessor’s departure. And what about her partner who had also been seen with James? She who had appeared in Hirano’s life after a wolf attack. What was her part in all of this?
Park was watching him with a thoughtful expression. “You’ve never doubted Eli is innocent. Why?”
“Eli and innocent are two words that have no business being neighbors,” Cooper said immediately, but then gave it some genuine thought. “I think it was extremely difficult for him to talk about his past. Especially to me. I don’t think he ever would have if he felt like he had any other possible option.”
“Maybe not. Though I think he’s more fond of you than you believe.” Park tilted his head a little. “And I think you’ve taken a shine to him yourself.”
“He’s a slippery, piquant bastard who believes a marquess’s rapier is an achievable personality type, and so horrifically attractive he looks like—like singing woodland creatures help him dress in the morning. I can’t stand him.”
“Clearly,” Park said, amused. “Sometimes I look like a woodland creature. And I helped you get dressed a couple hours ago. I can hum a little tune next time if it makes you feel special.”
“Why did you two break up?” Cooper asked.
Park looked surprised.
Cooper was surprised himself. He hadn’t really intended to ask. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”
“It was a long time ago,” Park said carefully. “There’s the reason we thought we were breaking up at the time, and then there’s the bigger, more vague and mature reason seen in retrospect.”
“I’ll take ‘leave the petty in the past’ for four hundred, Alex.”
Park thought about it. “I think... I think we were both too willing to see the other person the way they saw themselves. And the way we saw ourselves back then was...” He shook his head, then seemed to realize they’d both stopped dancing and spun Cooper gently toward the stage. “Or perhaps I just got sick of waking up to squirrels with a terrible tenor tying his shoes every morning.”
Cooper snorted and started to respond when a familiar ringing voice interrupted.
“Agent Park!” Genevieve Crane waved enthusiastically at him from the stage. She stepped carefully down to the floor with them, picking up her long slim-fitting black gown as she went, flashing an eye-wateringly high stiletto. “My goodness, you look handsome. And Agent...” She looked at Cooper blankly. “I’m so honored you came to say hello.”
“Actually I, um, won a raffle prize,” Cooper said. “Cooper Dayton.”
“Of course you did,” Genevieve agreed, snapping her fingers behind her and telling the woman who approached to, “Fetch Mr. Dayton his prize, would you?” Cooper wondered where Neil was. “I’m sorry you’ve caught me rather frazzled at the moment. I’m about to go up for the speech.”
“Experienced actresses still get stage fright?” Park remarked, and Genevieve eyed him as if unsure if she was being mocked or not. “Medea deserved better, but you acted the hell out of her,” Park added.
Genevieve’s face softened. “Oh, thank you, sweetheart. That’s so lovely to hear, especially when I’m so nervous. I suppose I’m more comfortable playing the vengeful woman than the conservation philanthropist.”
“Speaking of which, is your husband here?” Park asked, and Genevieve laughed.
“I haven’t poisoned him, if that’s what you’re asking, Agent Park,” she said, leaning forward to touch his arm, and Cooper was mildly surprised to realize it was more than a little flirtatious.
“No, well, you wouldn’t,” Park said. “Everyone he loves, though...” He winked and she laughed again, thoroughly at ease. Cooper hoped this was not the sort of seductive banter that had won him over, because from the outside looking in it was appalling.
“You know, I recently heard I might have a friend in common with your husband,” Park added smoothly.
Genevieve looked intrigued by the idea of being three degrees of separation from a Park of the Park Foundation.
“Margaret Cola? She mentioned seeing him a few days ago.”
“Oh,” Genevieve said, clearly disappointed. “Yes, of course. Arthur’s known her for years. They used to work together, I believe.”
Cooper exchanged looks with Park as the woman sent for the prize returned, handing it to Genevieve, who then handed it to Cooper. It was a flattish, rectangular package wrapped in expensive-looking matte-black wrapping paper. Unless it was a book of instructions on how to collect their resort tickets, he didn’t think he’d gotten one of the big-money prizes.
“Is Arthur here tonight?” Park asked.
“He’s supposed to be,” Genevieve said, scanning the people. “He wasn’t feeling terribly well, poor thing. Between you and me, he just doesn’t care for big crowds,” she added, sotto voce. “Everyone has abandoned me in my hour of need.”
“Ms. Hirano, too?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, I’m sure Niko is somewhere around here bleeding some poor sucker dry.” Genevieve laughed. “She’s much better at soliciting those...one-on-one donations. It makes me cringe, myself,” she admitted. “But Niko has plenty of practice, I suppose. She used to fund those little camping trips entirely on her own, you know.”
“For the documentaries?” Cooper asked, confused.
Genevieve looked around as if making sure no one could hear them, then said, “She hadn’t actually worked for a production company for years. Most of the film career she’s always going on about was just her squatting in national parks with a handheld camera.”
“That sounds like...passion.” Cooper couldn’t imagine it himself.
“Oh, I’d say it was an obsession,” Genevieve countered. “But then she’d do anything for her beloved wolves.” There was a strange bitter note to her voice.
“Not a wolf fan yourself?” Cooper asked half jokingly, half curious.
“Of course, I’m opposed to the endangerment of any species. Each and every one is critical to maintaining the balance of our ecosystem. But personally...no, I’m not much of a wolf lover.” Genevieve’s mouth tightened, gaze distant. “Cold, proud animals. You could drive yourself crazy trying to get them to care. Just look at what happened to Niko. After everything she gave up for that pack in the Yukon, they just chewed her up and spat her out. Not that it seems to have affected her devotion in the least.” She seemed to give herself a sort of internal shake and her expression turned a bit wry, a bit self-deprecating. “I guess I’m not quite as magnanimous. But you don’t become an actress without craving unconditional affection.”
The assistant hovering at Genevieve’s elbow cleared her throat pointedly. “Ah, that’s my cue, agents. Wish me luck.”
They said goodbye and watched her walk to the stage as the band finished up their song, and as the final chords faded, the chatter and hum of the crowd seemed to rise to fill the space. Then the lights all around them got even dimmer and the large screen hanging from one balcony lit up with Wild Nature’s logo. The crowd quieted gradually, filtering down until only the loudest, most unobservant people’s voices were left. Intro music started in loudspeakers around the room and a drone shot, flying through the zoo’s main entrance, appeared on screen.
As Genevieve’s voiceover began to lay out statistics, Cooper’s attention wandered back to the present in his hand. He started to open it.
“You are as impulsive as a child,” Park murmured, watching him out of the corner of his eye. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you patience is a virtue?”
“What in all the time we’ve known each other makes you think I care about being virtuous?” Cooper said, slitting his finger under the thick paper and flicking it open.
Park sighed. “If only I’d known all it took to get you excited about receiving gifts was a bit of wrapping, we could have two vases in the foyer right now.”
“I like
to win,” Cooper said absently, pulling out... Hirano’s book.
“Oh, good,” Park said cheerfully. “I’m sure reading that won’t send you into a tailspin.”
Cooper cracked open the front cover and saw Hirano had signed it. Above, her short, choppy name was an inscription in cursive.
...the tainted will brush past the pack in darkness, passing burs to our fur, until the Moon rises again and in its light the sinners will be revealed for all to see...
“Um,” Cooper said, showing the page to Park, who read it with a frown. “More cheerful children’s tales?”
“Actually, I think it’s the same legend I was telling you about before,” Park said, studying the line. “The wording isn’t from any version I recognize, though. The concept of sin is very human. I’ve never seen it used in any wolf lore before.”
“I might have to actually read this now,” Cooper said, flipping through the pages, thinking about what Genevieve had said about Hirano, about wolves. Something slipped out to the floor, and Park swiftly bent to pick it up. When he straightened, he looked grim. “What?”
Park held up a single flat, dried-out coral rose.
Cooper stared at it, then silently opened the book again and turned through the pages, much more carefully this time. Every twenty pages or so was another pressed flower. All roses, all the same color, all missing any hint of stem.
“Who could have...” Cooper whispered.
He looked for Genevieve and realized he was not the only one watching her. One of the few people not turned toward the screen was standing on the other side of the stage opposite Cooper, and gazing a bit intensely at Genevieve. He recognized the same peroxide-blond buzz cut. The makeup assistant from earlier.
The one who had been standing outside of the wolf exhibit staring at Eli just before Cooper and Dean arrived.
Did people have their makeup redone on site? He knew they refreshed it occasionally over the course of a day. But if you got it professionally done for a big, fancy event, was that person just waiting around in the wings for...emergency powdering? He genuinely had no clue.
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