by Diana X Dunn
“That must be the camera for the enclosure itself,” Luke murmured.
“One of them, anyway,” Jeff said as the scene switched again. The time wound back a few seconds and they could see Mark at the top of the screen again, this time from the opposite side of the enclosure.
“I think the other view was better,” Sara said. “We could see part of his face.”
“Presumably, Candie has the full footage from both cameras,” Jeff began. He stopped talking when Mark began to move again.
“Why is he climbing further out on that branch?” Luke demanded.
“Maybe he saw Sara in the crowd,” Jeff suggested.
“I hope not,” Sara said. Knowing what was coming, she wanted to look away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes off the screen. A few moments later, Mark turned his head, almost seeming to look straight at the camera. He seemed to be laughing.
“He thinks he’s going to win,” Luke said.
Sara opened her mouth to reply, but snapped it shut as Mark frowned. He shifted slightly and then seemed to be struggling to hold onto the branch. A second later, he fell to the ground. Sara watched as one of the largest gators grabbed him, shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll.
“That’s enough of that,” Jeff suggested.
She switched off the feed and then looked at the men. “It looks very much like he simply fell.”
“I’m going to run the whole thing through my M-ped,” Jeff told her. “It will be able to spot any editing that’s been done.”
Sara nodded. “I didn’t see any zoo employees anywhere near Mark on his walk to the enclosure.” She picked up the uniform and carefully folded it.
“I hope you’re going to keep that,” Jeff said.
“Yes, I think I am,” she replied.
The men helped her put everything else back into the bag and then clean up the space. Jeff led them back to the trash compactor, where Sara returned the bag to the pile, adding Luke’s shirt to the bag that Candie had put there.
Jeff removed his shirt and wrapped it around the zoo uniform to help them sneak it into the building. Back in Sara’s room, she hid it in the false bottom of one of her suitcases.
“Now what?” Jeff asked.
“Now we all need sleep,” Sara told him, glancing at the clock and sighing. She was going to need an energy tablet in the morning if she was going to get through the day.
She let Jeff out and then turned to Luke. “You can stay, as long as you understand that we’re just going to sleep. It’s far too late for anything else.”
He grinned and then pulled her close. “Cancel morning classes. We can stay in bed until noon,” he suggested before he kissed her.
“Sara? What happened to your morning classes?” Robert demanded the next day.
“I had a late night,” she replied. “It seemed better to cancel the classes than to try to teach without proper focus. I’m not sure what I should be teaching, anyway, at this point. I think each student needs in individualized plan. We should discuss that.”
Robert nodded. “It’s on my list, but I’ve many other things I need to do, too. Ask Candie to make you an appointment for early next week, maybe.”
“I’d really like to chat with Ethel about each student, too,” Sara added. “I know she spent a lot of time with them, working on very different things to what I’ve been doing. It would useful to get her input.”
Robert hesitated. “I’m not sure if they’re allowing her visitors or not. You could try calling the hospital and asking, I suppose.”
Or I could try simply dropping by, Sara thought. That seemed the best way to accomplish what she wanted.
The next afternoon, as the students were spending a grueling four hours deciphering coded messages, Sara headed for the nearby hospital. She left Luke in charge of the class, telling everyone that she’d be back soon. Only Luke knew where she was really going and that she might be gone for hours.
In the small hours of the night, while Luke had slept by her side, Sara had developed a theory as to what had happened to both Jake and Mark. Hoping she was wrong, Sara knew she had to talk to Ethel.
“I’m sorry, but Ms. Bell isn’t seeing visitors at the moment,” the woman at the information desk told Sara when she asked.
“Isn’t allowed visitors or would prefer not to have visitors?” Sara asked.
The woman frowned. “Whichever, you can’t see her.”
“Can someone get a message to her, please? It’s important.” Sara took the envelope out of her bag and handed it to the woman. “The sooner she gets this, the better,” she said before she turned and walked back to the transport that she’d borrowed from the school.
She sat behind the controls, idly scrolling through maps while she waited. Twenty-six minutes later her wrist-con buzzed.
Room 223 was all that the message said.
This time Sara ignored the woman behind the desk, heading instead for the elevators at the back of the lobby. On the second floor, it only took her a moment to find the right room.
Ethel was sitting in a chair next to the bed that dominated the room. She was staring out the window, Sara’s note in her hand.
“How did you know?” she asked in a low voice as Sara walked into the room.
“I didn’t know until you messaged me your room number. It was a guess,” Sara admitted.
Ethel looked at her and then sighed. “I should have realized that. I’m getting old and I’ve forgotten my training. Never admit you were lying.”
“You weren’t lying, though, just withholding information.”
“I’ve been lying for so long, that I’ve nearly forgotten the truth,” Ethel countered. “If you’d asked me, point blank, I would have lied. I may have even been able to convince you that you were wrong.”
“You may have. As I said, it was a guess.”
“Secrets take on a life of their own, you know. This one has haunted me for fifty-odd years. After all this time, it probably doesn’t even matter any longer, at least to me. It seems to matter to Robert, though.”
“He wants the secret kept?”
“Desperately. He’s created his own history, of course. It’s much more interesting and exciting that the truth.”
“I should imagine being the only child of a world famous spy would be quite exciting.”
“You assume he’s an only child,” Ethel said with a small smile.
Sara inclined her head. “That was a foolish assumption.”
“It was a correct one, though. I very rarely repeat my mistakes. Not that I regret having Robert, but he was a mistake, of course. He’s well aware of that fact. That may be part of the reason why he so wants to keep the truth a secret.”
“I would have thought he would be proud of you.”
“I was a cryptologist, not a proper spy, at least in his eyes. If I’d done more work in the field, maybe gotten shot a few times, he would probably tell everyone about me. As it is, I gave all that up as soon as I found out that I was pregnant, retraining myself in codes so that I could sit behind a desk and keep my child safe.”
“What about Robert’s father? Was he a spy?”
Ethel gave her a thin smile. “We will not be discussing Robert’s father. No one knows who he was and I’ll never tell.”
Sara nodded. “So you moved behind a desk and carried Robert yourself.”
“I didn’t have a choice. This was years before ex-utero reproduction. Oh, I could have gotten rid of him, if I’d chosen to, of course. But, well, I was already in love with him the first time I heard his heartbeat. I told myself, and my boss, that I was just taking a desk job temporarily. I was going back out to the field as soon as the baby arrived.” She sighed and looked out the window again.
“But then you changed your mind or did your boss change it for you?”
“Oh, I changed my mind. My boss would have happily sent me back out to fight eco-terrorists the day after Robert was born. Sadly, I simply couldn’t leave Robert. He became th
e most important thing in the world to me, even more important than my job, than my mission.”
Sara wondered if anything would ever be more important to her than her mission. Shaking her head, she looked at Ethel. “So then what happened?”
“I kept Robert with me for the first few years, until that became dangerous. Even though I wasn’t in the field, I was becoming known for my skills, which meant I became a target. My agency broke up a terrorist cell and discovered that they’d made plans to kidnap me and force me to write codes for their purposes. The scariest part was that they knew about Robert and had noted that once they had him in their possession, they could use him to make me do whatever they wanted.”
“How horrifying.”
“The worst part, from my agency’s perspective anyway, was that they were correct. If they’d taken Robert, I would have done anything they wanted, regardless of the consequences. I very nearly lost my job and I probably should have.” Ethel became silent, seemingly lost in memories of the past.
“So what did you do?” Sara asked after a moment.
“We arranged to have Robert die,” Ethel replied, laughing at Sara’s surprised look. “Oh, not really, of course, but too many people knew about him. I hadn’t taken the necessary precautions. He lived with me and we went just about everywhere together. A few weeks later, Robert got away from me while we were out together. He ran in front of a car and died instantly.” The woman stopped and took a slow deep breath, blinking back tears.
“But he didn’t really die,” Sara reminded her.
“No, of course not, but it was awful anyway. I remember every second of it like it was yesterday. Him tugging his arm away exactly the way we’d practiced. Rushing after him, hindered by the bags of shopping I was carrying. The sound of the car horn as Robert ran into the road. Brakes squealing. The dull thud as the car struck my son.” Ethel stopped, tears flowing down her face. “The agency did such a convincing job that I still feel the loss.”
“Except Robert is still here.”
“He’s still alive, but he wasn’t mine any longer. That’s the loss that I feel, of course. He was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead. I mourned for years. A couple that couldn’t have children adopted Robert. They raised him as their own, giving him everything that money could buy. I supplied most of that money.”
Sara could hear the bitterness in the woman’s voice. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
Ethel shrugged. “Robert was three when he was adopted. He remembered just enough about me to have trouble accepting his new parents. As the years went by, as I understand it, he became a bit obsessed with finding me. It took him a long time, but he finally managed it about three years ago.”
“Was it a happy reunion?”
“That’s a good question. From my side, yes and no. I’d been watching him from a distance his entire life, of course, but I hadn’t realized that he’d been searching for me. When he showed up at my office, he took me by surprise. I tried to deny the connection, but he’d brought a mobile lab with him and insisted on a DNA test right then and there. I could have had him thrown out, of course, but he was my son.”
“And how did he feel when the test confirmed that you were his mother?”
“Resentful at first. He didn’t understand why I’d sent him away, didn’t agree with my decision. I tried to explain. We argued. He left. I didn’t see him again for nearly three years.”
“He got back in touch when he was setting up the school.”
“That’s right. He got back in touch when he realized he could use me,” Ethel agreed. “I’m his mother. I was willing to let him do that. The relationship was awkward at first, but gradually, we began to get closer. We learned that we could work well together and that making the school a success mattered to both of us.”
“Where does Jake come into the story?”
Ethel sighed. “Robert and Jake were partners when Robert was with the police. They told each other everything in those days. Robert never stopped sharing things with Jake, even after he left to start his own business. It was Jake that he turned to for advice when he first found me.”
“So Jake knew your secret.”
“I didn’t mind him knowing. I’m old now and barely useful. Modern computers can create codes that are far more sophisticated than the ones I used to write. They can decipher them better, too. No one wants to kidnap me and use my son to get me to do anything. And Robert doesn’t care enough about me that anyone could use me to get to him, either.”
“You really didn’t mind him knowing at all?”
“I didn’t mind at all. Robert, on the other hand, was sorry he’d ever told Jake anything.” Ethel shook her head. “You know what I mean. The man was unreliable at best. He drank too much, took illegal drugs, tried to get every woman he met into bed. Not only that, but he was desperate to be liked. He shared other people’s secrets like social currency. If you go out for a drink with me, I’ll tell you someone’s deepest darkest secret.”
“Why didn’t Robert fire him?”
“Robert didn’t dare. He didn’t want people to know that I was his mother, but he could have lived with it if that information came out. Jake knew a good many other secrets, some far more damning, and he kept threatening to tell all.”
“To keep his job.”
“To keep his job, to get more money, to be allowed to spin with Tamara even though it was supposed to be against the rules. The list goes on and on, really. Robert kept him supplied with alcohol and drugs and let him cancel classes whenever he didn’t feel like teaching, but none of that was enough. Robert even threatened to share a few of Jake’s secrets with people, but Jake had been much smarter than Robert. No matter how much he dug, Robert couldn’t find any proof for any of the things he knew about Jake.”
“So Robert killed him.”
Ethel looked at her pityingly. “My dear child, you’ve gotten it all wrong.”
“You killed him?”
“It was so easy it was almost funny. Robert told me about the fake murder scene. He and Jake thought they were being clever. They both thought you’d panic completely and they were looking forward to watching you fail.”
“Lovely,” Sara said dryly.
“Both men were intimidated by you. Jake was furious that you’d turned down his advances and no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find out anything about you. Your secrets were too well hidden for him.”
“So they set up the fake murder scene.”
“Jake was drunk that night, of course. Robert got him on the floor in the maze and then covered him in fake blood. He stuck the fake knife in his back and then we left. An hour later, I went back. Jake was fast asleep, snoring loudly. It only took me a second to switch the prop knife for a real one. I brought a cloth with me to soak up as much of the blood as I could. I was expecting a proper investigation into the death and I was hoping that if only fake blood was found it would confuse the issue.”
“Instead, Robert covered up everything.”
Ethel flushed. “As soon as he heard that Jake was dead, he realized what must have happened. He did what he did to protect me.”
“He got Dr. Freeman to lie on the death certificate.”
“Dr. Freeman has his own secrets. It was quite simple to get him to agree to falsify the results of a single autopsy.”
“He could lose his license to practice.”
“As I said, he has secrets. He’s agreed with Robert that he won’t practice any longer, not on patients who have genuine mental health concerns. Instead, he’s going to focus on the sort of testing that he did for Robert.”
“And performing autopsies that he shouldn’t be.”
Ethel shrugged. “It’s a complex situation. The area where the school is located is not in any official police jurisdictions. The state police were more than happy to let Robert deal with Jake’s death.”
“What about Mark?”
“Ah, yes, Mark,” Ethel sighed. “He was a fool, of
course, bragging to everyone about the secrets that Jake had told him. Even if he was certain that Jake had had a heart attack, he should have realized that some of the secrets Jake had known were worth killing over.”
“How did you do it?”
“It wasn’t really murder. Not strictly, anyway. I just made a few suggestions to the man. He wasn’t very bright, really.”
“You dressed up as a zoo employee and spoke to Mark inside the zoo.”
“You worked that much out, then. Well done.”
“I found the shirt you were wearing. Candie didn’t do a very good job of getting rid of it.”
Ethel frowned. “I should have dealt with it myself, but I needed to get away. Pretending to be devastated gave me some time and space to think. Robert was supposed to take care of that little job for me.”
“What did you say to Mark, then?”
“I told Candie I needed the restroom. You’d already tagged a few people, so people were moving around and starting to talk about lunch. I told her not to worry if I was gone for a while, because I wanted to get something to eat, as well. She didn’t care. She was focused on watching you and the students.”
“And then you changed clothes. I assume you disguised yourself, as well?”
“I used a few makeup tricks, but only a few. No one notices elderly women or employees so I was almost completely invisible. I knew where you were, you were the only one I truly needed to avoid.”
Sara nodded. “And you knew were to find Mark.”
“I did. I’d studied the zoo map in detail and I’d told Mark that I’d help him hide. He suggested that I should help him in exchange for his willingness to keep quiet about Robert, you see.”
“It was just a game,” Sara sighed.
“Mark took it very seriously. He was determined to stay hidden. It was a matter of personal pride.”
“It was a matter of ego.”
“Yes, of course. Anyway, I found him in the zoo and had a quick chat with him. I told him where you were and then suggested that he climb the tree over the alligator pond. He was delighted when I mentioned that once he was high enough, you wouldn’t be able to tag him, even if you found him.”