by Ruby Loren
“This person dressed in black and wore a black balaclava, which makes them fairly hard to ID.”
“You keep saying ‘person’. Was it a man or a woman?” Lowell pressed.
I exchanged another look with Katya.
“Whoever they were, they were pretty strong,” she said, looking putout.
“I would have said a man, if it weren’t for the perfume…”
Lowell looked at me. “Perfume?”
“When I was on their back trying to strangle them, I smelled something.” I screwed up my face. “Vanilla and maybe a bit of ginger and spice? It was a little like Jo Malone.”
“Their perfumes are unisex,” Katya pointed out.
I threw her a look. “Sure… but this was definitely feminine.”
Lowell tipped his head back in exasperation. “Right… so it was either a really tough woman, or a really effeminate man, but we have no idea what they actually look like.”
“Pale hands,” I said and Katya nodded.
“Great. Caucasian tough female, or maybe male. We’ll find the suspect in no time.”
“I did punch them in the face,” Katya said huffily.
“And I strangled them,” I piped up.
“Not really narrowing it down though, is it?” Lowell shook his head like it was our own fault we’d been attacked. Then he got up and walked out of the cottage.
“Good riddance,” I muttered before I could help myself.
“Amen,” Katya agreed.
I returned to Mellon Zoo early the next morning. The sky was still starting to lighten as I did my best to peer into enclosures and make notes. The thought had occurred to me that I might have taken on too much.
It’ll all be over and done with soon, I thought. A big part of me wondered why I was still wasting my time on this review of a zoo - that apparently no one actually cared about. I’d given it a lot of thought and had come up with two good reasons. Reason one was that I figured I deserved some sort of paycheque for this ridiculous farce. Reason two - the more important reason - was that the animals were still here. I wasn’t sure what would happen to the zoo, but if it was sold on, I hoped that all of the work I’d done would help ensure that these animals had wonderful lives. It was the best that I could hope for.
And that was the real reason why I was walking around the zoo before I had to run off to a fun day of pretending I didn’t know something was seriously wrong with my publisher. To make matters worse, my face looked like I’d gone ten rounds with an angry kangaroo. Maybe that was reason number three - doing this took my mind off everything.
I heard a furtive movement off to my right when I walked past a clump of grass that was still growing long and strong through January. I could tell that the noise had been made by something small. My thoughts immediately jumped to rats. All zoos had them to some extent. Even an eco-zoo might have become home to a colony. The movement was accompanied by a strange snuffling and then a growling.
That didn’t sound like rats. It was, however, familiar.
I took a couple of quick steps forwards and parted the grass. A furry face with a bandit’s mask over the eyes looked up at me. There was a packet of crisps in-between Billy’s dexterous paws, that I could only assume he’d liberated from a rubbish bin.
For a moment both of us froze.
As soon as I lunged, the raccoon ran for it - as I’d known he would. I silently cursed Auryn for his ‘gift’ to Mellon Zoo. I should have known Billy’s bad behaviour would end up being my problem.
“Billy!” I called, running after the fleeing raccoon. The furry animal glanced back over his shoulder. I got the sense that he was having fun.
“No, not the barn,” I said under my breath when I realised that was where we were heading. The raccoon made a chattering sound and then grabbed onto the handy living wall and climbed his way up and up… all the way onto the roof.
I stopped running and looked up… waiting. Two minutes later, I was still waiting.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me, Billy!” It was just typical that he’d managed to escape this very morning, when I wasn’t even supposed to be at the zoo and had a very strict timetable of events to attend through the day. And now he had decided to stay up on the roof. Tempting though it was to walk away and pretend I’d never seen him, I just couldn’t do it.
With no other keepers due to start work for another hour, I was going to have to try to get him down myself.
“Madi, what are you doing here?” Katya walked across the barn’s obsolete concrete parking space towards me. I noted that her face didn’t look nearly as bad as mine did.
“Oo… have you got photoshoots later?” she asked.
So, I did look every bit as bad as I’d thought. “Uh… yes,” I said and looked back up at the roof.
Billy still hadn’t put in an appearance.
That pest.
“I was going to put some makeup on, or something,” I said, distractedly.
“Right…” Katya sounded far from convinced. “You’d better come up with a story, too - and don’t say ‘I fell’,” she quickly continued when I opened my mouth. “Nothing is more suspicious than saying ‘I fell’.”
“Let me know if inspiration strikes. Do you know if there are any ladders around here?”
Katya blinked at the abrupt change of subject. “There’s one in the garage. I should know, I spent an hour measuring the place.”
I walked off towards the back of the barn.
“Wait… why do you need a ladder?”
“Billy the raccoon is on the roof. He got up there just fine, but I’m not convinced he’s going to find getting down as simple.” I sighed. “He’s a pest, but I don’t want him to fall and get hurt. Someone’s got to go up there and get him down… before he finally plucks up the courage to try to get down himself.”
“Someone?” Katya immediately sounded suspicious.
“Well… my hands are still sore from getting scraped on the path yesterday when you pushed me over.” I was not above using guilt to persuade Katya to do something I really wanted to avoid.
“I think you mean ‘when I saved your life.’”
“I thought we agreed that we were even. Are you not good with heights?”
Katya looked away. “Heights are fine but - don’t laugh - we’re not covered for climbing ladders.”
“Not covered? As in… insurance not covered?”
She nodded. “If I fall and injure myself and aren’t able to work, then I’m on my own. There’s no financial help. Sorry, but I’m not going to take the risk. No one else around here will either.”
I looked heavenwards. “Let me get this straight… fighting off a machete-wielding maniac and a gang of murderous gun smugglers is A-OK, but ladders are a big no. Have I got that right?”
“Yes,” Katya replied.
“That makes perfect sense. If I ever get in trouble with a secret agent I’ll be sure to run up a ladder to get away.” I walked into the garage and hauled out the very rickety and rusted specimen of a ladder - which I suspected had been in situ ever since the Abrahams had owned the property. “Looks like I’m the mug doing the climbing. Are you at least allowed to catch me if I fall?” I let a smile reach my lips.
“That depends… how heavy are you?” Katya smiled back.
Once the ladder got going, it slid open pretty easily. I rested it against the side of the living wall and wobbled it. “I think I’ve just discovered the downside to covering everything in plants. It’s hardly a safe place to rest a ladder.” I shook my head and put my foot on the first rung. “Billy had better still be up there.”
“Or what? You’ll wring his neck?” Katya smirked at me.
“Of course not! I’d do something far more drastic like… no treats for a week!”
“I love how you’re so soft when it comes to animals, but I saw you strangling the person who was trying to chop me up into pieces. You’re tough, Madi.”
“When I need to be,” I told her
, before turning my attention back to climbing an ancient and untested ladder up the side of a barn to try to rescue a raccoon who had only himself to blame for the situation he was in. “What a way to start the day,” I muttered and started to climb.
I was three quarters of the way up the ladder when I heard the sound of a car engine. What puzzled me was that it was coming from the wrong direction.
“Madi, can you see anything?” Katya called from the bottom of the ladder.
The morning was lighter now, and I looked out down the access road - the private one that led straight to the barn. A silver car was driving this way at speed. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was a Mercedes. I passed all of this information on to Katya.
“I’m not sure… it could be something,” she said. I heard the sound of a round being chambered in her gun. Katya was taking this seriously. I turned my head and nearly wobbled right off the ladder.
“Keep going! Get up on the roof and stay there while I handle this,” Katya hissed.
I opened my mouth to argue but she gave her head a single shake. Not this time. For once, I obliged, but I was less thrilled when she tucked her gun back into her holster and quickly folded down the ladder, before slinging it around the corner. I crouched on the roof and watched the car reach the gravel behind the barn. From my vantage point, I could see Katya with her back pressed against the wall, just around the corner from where the car had pulled up.
The doors of the Mercedes opened and a man and a woman got out. They were both wearing suits.
I realised I recognised them.
I was still looking down in disgust when Katya called up.
“Madi, it’s okay! It’s Mr Flannigan and Ms Borel. They’re with us.”
“I know,” I replied shortly.
I turned away from the edge of the barn and looked at the living roof. My two least favourite people had just arrived at the zoo, but Billy the raccoon still needed rescuing. At first, I didn’t see him anywhere. For some reason, I hadn’t expected the barn to have so many plants on it and for them to be so well-established. The positioning of the barn - although down in the valley - was such that the unusual structure of the multi-faceted roof tilted away from the overlooking view. I’d noticed that it was green, but I hadn’t realised it was like this.
I was in the middle of a rooftop garden that had gone wild.
I heard a familiar chattering sound and snapped out of my reverie. Billy! The roof had strange corners and eaves - just as I’d seen inside the attic - but there was a flat part that clearly acted as a path across.
I hoped Billy had stuck to the flat bit.
I walked round, admiring the thoughtfulness of the design, that had clearly been carefully considered, even when the barn was being built. Perhaps the family had hoped to eventually add some exterior stairs that would let them access this unique space with its beautiful views across the distant Downs and the zoo itself.
I was still thinking about that when I turned the corner and found Billy. He was gnawing on something white. It looked a lot like a bone.
My eyes drifted down to the raccoon’s feet. Something smooth and white was sticking out of a patch of fescue grass. Right next to it, bleached by the sun - and looking the worse for the seven years it had spent up on the roof - was a baseball cap.
The Abraham family had been up on the roof all this time.
15
The Official Secrets Act
I finally realised Katya had been calling my name.
“Call the police!” I shouted.
“What? Everything’s okay! It’s the people who’ve come to talk to you!” Katya yelled back.
I grabbed Billy (trying not to think too hard about the bone he’d been gnawing on) and walked back to the edge of the roof where I’d climbed up.
“You need to call the police. I’ve found the Abraham family. I think they’re all up here.”
I’d taken a final look after picking Billy up. I very much doubted that anyone had even thought to search the roof back when the searches had happened. And why would they? Even if they had looked, I could tell that the bodies were supposed to have had plants growing over them. If it hadn’t been for seven years’ worth of soil erosion pushing the plants off the mounds and revealing what lay beneath, I might not have realised what was there. The roof - although overgrown - had been designed with mounds and hills all over it, mirroring the landscape visible from the view from the roof. If it hadn’t been for Billy’s penchant for trouble, I was certain that the Abrahams would have lain up here for years to come, until the roof started to leak. I’d noticed no signs of that happening anytime soon when I’d poked around the attic with Katya. It was a credit to the Abraham family’s workmanship, but it was also what had kept them from being discovered for so long.
Katya propped the ladder back up and I climbed down, holding Billy tightly to me. For all of the trouble he liked to cause, he was actually pretty tame when it came to being carried. I was able to bring him into the new zoo supplies hut and put him in a pet carrier until I had a chance to figure out how the little devil had weaselled his way out this time.
“What were you talking about up on the roof?” Katya said once I’d done that.
“You mean you haven’t yet called the police?” I looked from Katya to the two suited agents I’d first met in rural France.
“Of course we haven’t. The police aren't involved in our operations,” Ms Borel said, as if talking to a particularly stupid toad. I noticed Flannigan smirk.
“Okay. What do you propose to do with the skeletons of the Abraham family that are up on that roof?” I pointed in case they needed the help. Two could play at this patronising game.
Ms Borel shot a quizzical look at Katya.
“They owned the land before the company,” she explained. “They’ve been missing, presumed dead for seven years, hence the property being available.”
“You just found them up on the roof?” Mr Flannigan looked torn between disbelief and amusement.
Ms Borel just looked annoyed. “We’ve finished our operation here. Clear everyone out apart from a few reps with scripts. We’re done.” She threw me a final look of distaste before turning to walk away. “Katya, call the police,” she said, right before getting back into the car that had inadvertently led to the discovery of the bodies on the roof.
“I don’t understand,” I said to Katya when the suited pair had driven away again.
“I think they were coming here to talk to you, but they can’t be involved with a police investigation. The longer they stay here, the more likely someone might be able to put them in a witness position. The fewer questions, the better. Not everyone on the zoo staff is in on this.”
“I figured,” I said. I’d met the zookeepers and knew they were genuine. Unless ‘the company’ had people trained in a plethora of professions they didn’t actually practice - just ready to jump in, should the need arise - it made sense that they’d hire normal people as even more cover.
“I suppose they’ll give you ‘the talk’ another time.”
“Is that when I get my secret agent lapel badge?” I said, bemused.
“Something like that,” Katya replied, but I noticed she wasn't smiling. Either I’d lost my sense of humour and hadn’t realised, or there was something worse in store for me.
“I don’t understand,” I said when my mind wandered back to what I’d seen on the roof of the barn.
“You will in time.” Katya looked sorrier than I’d ever seen her.
“No… I mean it was the wrong hat. Up on the roof, I saw a baseball cap that must have been the one that belonged to Mr Abraham, but it’s the wrong hat. He should have been wearing the other one.”
Katya gave me a dazed look and shrugged. “People change their hats. Maybe, wherever they were supposed to be going, they didn’t go after all, and he changed it back.” I’d filled Katya in on all of that.
“Maybe,” I said, knowing I was probably talking nonsense
because of the sudden shock of finding a pile of bones that had once been the Abraham family.
“You called the police?”
Katya nodded. “Yeah, while you were climbing down.”
Right on cue we saw flashing lights driving up the private lane behind the back of the barn. Before they arrived, I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. “I am going to be so late.” I dialled Jordan’s number and gave him a thirty second explanation of what had happened before hanging up on him. I could tell from his voice that he was trying to be polite, but he’d been holding back a lot of stress. Knowing what I now knew, it was probably double the stress of a normal literary agent. I’d told him I was sorry. He’d said he understood that I couldn’t help finding the bodies. There’d been something in his tone that had hinted he actually thought I could have helped it, but he was far too polite to say it.
I put my phone away and focused on telling the police everything I’d learned since working at Mellon Zoo.
Everything about the Abraham case.
I wasn’t nuts enough to think that raving about secret agents was a good idea.
It was strange to see Detective Treesden in such a good mood. He only tried to imply I might be responsible for the whole thing a single time, which was definitely something!
When he pulled up after the scene had been secured and the first arriving officers had taken my statement, he came straight over.
“You weren’t anywhere near here a little over seven years ago, were you? Thought that it might be a good idea to take out a rival zoo before they could even open their doors?”
“I wasn’t a zookeeper seven years ago!” I protested.
Treesden raised a hand, as if I was the one being unreasonable. “Okay. It was just a standard question.”
It was only when he walked away that I reflected it had probably been our least confrontational encounter to date. Even when I’d nearly been poisoned by the con artists he’d needed some convincing that I was telling the truth. I’d been lucky that Tiff had been there - not only to save me from the poison but also to back me up when the police had arrived.