by Edie Claire
Jeff beamed his approval and disappeared.
Leigh threw the thick wallet she used as a purse into an empty drawer of the painted metal desk she had bought at a flea market. Her computer, at least, was new—even if it was an off brand. Jeff understood the necessities of life.
She adjusted the small stack of papers on her desk, booted up the PC, and commenced staring at the monitor. She was good at staring at monitors. Unfortunately, she was no longer doing it on salary.
The headline of the Geisler Chemicals press release blurred in front of her. Warren had made her repeat every detail of her harrowing night, and had promised to find her an attorney by the end of the day. The problem was, she didn't want one. She'd only met a few trial-type lawyers, and she hadn't liked any of them. Plus, it was very unlikely they'd be willing to take her on as a charity case, which she was. Even if Warren could convince them to agree to a benevolent payment schedule, it would be money she badly needed otherwise.
A loud sigh escaped her lips. She didn't really have anything to worry about. Did she? She hadn't done anything except find the body. So what were the police doing with her car? Tanner had said the rest of Carmen's body was dragged under the fence, and the Cavalier had been parked within ten feet of that spot. Could the killer have left some evidence on it? And how long were they going to keep her car, anyway? She was tempted to call Frank and ask, but she doubted she could get off the phone without having to answer more questions. And there were at least two lines of questions she didn't want to answer.
She had spent several unproductive hours at her desk when the phone rang in the reception area. It didn't ring often; since their newly hired business manager hadn't started work yet, important callers were given Jeff's direct line. Leigh poked her head outside her door. Carl wasn't in today either, and Jeff was busy on his extension. It appeared the copywriting department would field the call.
"Hook, Inc. Innovative Advertising and PR. How may I direct your call?" As in, six feet in which direction?
"Hey there," answered a smooth, Southern male voice. "Sorry I got hung up last night. Are you okay?"
Leigh smiled and sat down on the floor next to the phone. "I'm fine. Seemed like Frank grilled you for a while, though."
"It was nothing. The man's just doing his job," Tanner said charitably. "He's been nosing around here again this morning; the staff's pretty shell-shocked. Listen, I need to tell you that Leo's laid down the law on after-hours procedures."
As well he should, Leigh thought. Leo Martin was the zoo's largely incompetent director, and he was undoubtedly in severe gastric distress over what Carmen's murder would mean for the park's image.
"No one's allowed to be here after closing, period, unless there's an emergency, and then you have to have a security escort. So we may have to adjust your schedule a little."
Leigh sighed. If she was never in a dark zoo again, it would be too soon, but she needed the money. If the zoo wanted her earlier in the day, she'd have to go back to Hook at night or on the weekends to make up the time. It was not a pleasant prospect. "When do you want me there?" she asked, trying not to sound as unenthusiastic as she felt.
"Actually," Tanner said softly, "I was hoping you might come in right after lunch today. I'm still planning on shaving Ollie, and I know you wanted to help."
Leigh smiled. She had been looking forward to seeing the orangutan get his new doo. It was sweet of Tanner to think of her.
"I'll be there," she said decisively. Hook, Inc. could live without her for a few hours. Besides, she had to talk to Tanner. There were things she had to know.
She headed out the door at noon and was well into the parking lot before realizing she had no car. As if on cue, a neon-blue VW beetle pulled up alongside her.
Warren stretched out a long arm and pushed open the passenger door. "Going somewhere?"
"To the zoo," she replied, getting in. "The vet needs my help. Could you give me a lift?"
"I'll give you a lift all right," Warren quipped, speeding off. "But it won't be to the zoo. You have an appointment with an attorney in twenty minutes. And you're going to keep it."
Chapter 5
"I'm really not comfortable with this," Leigh repeated for the third time as they stepped off the elevator onto the fourteenth floor of Grant Street's Oxford Centre. "I can't afford an attorney and I shouldn't have to pay one. I didn't do anything wrong."
Warren had already stopped trying to reason with her. He merely pulled her along with a gentle grip on the arm. "This is it," he said, reading the brass doorplate. He checked his watch and smiled. "Perfect timing."
He opened the door and ushered her inside, where an efficient secretary sent them straight into the office of Katharine Bower, Attorney-at-Law. A petite, fortyish woman in a sharply cut business suit stood up and flashed a broad smile at Leigh's escort. "Warren!" she said warmly, "I'm so glad you came in. We really need to do lunch sometime." She looked at her watch. "Are you free at 2:00 PM?"
Leigh surveyed the lawyer skeptically. So, this was Warren's "shark among women"—the attorney who'd saved one of his previous employers from a trumped-up fraud charge? Judging from the sparkle in the counselor's eyes, she had matters other than criminal defense on her mind at the moment. Lunch at 2:00 PM? Please. By that hour, Leigh was long past lunch and into the chocolate zone.
Warren graciously requested a rain check, explaining that the clock was already ticking on his lunch hour. Unlike most elected officials, the Allegheny County Register of Wills seemed to feel he owed the taxpayers a full day's work. He introduced the two women, then headed for the door. "I'm off to lunch," he said, looking at Leigh. "Can I bring you back something?"
The timing was appropriate, but Leigh shook her head. When it came to unappetizing adventures, a lawyer appointment was right up there with the gynecologist.
Katharine Bower said goodbye to Warren with a calculated toss of her extremely short, extremely red hair, then turned to her client. "Now, Ms. Koslow, let's get down to business, shall we?"
Leigh sat up in her overstuffed leather chair and studied the lawyer from across the shiny black desktop. A pair of wire-framed glasses had materialized on Katharine's nose, and her voice had lost its warm edge. Evidently, business meant business. The shark had merely been on a flirt break.
"Call me Leigh, please."
Katharine nodded briefly in assent. "I understand you've been questioned by the city detectives in regard to a homicide, and that they first advised you of your rights?"
Leigh nodded glumly.
"That means they're considering you a potential suspect. It's important that you don't offer any more information unless I'm present. Understand?"
"Fine," Leigh agreed charitably. "Detective Frank can stew."
Katharine's vibrant green eyes looked up. "You've got Gerry Frank on this one?"
"Yes," Leigh answered, a little worried. "Is that good or bad?"
The lawyer's facial expression gave away nothing, but there was an intensity in her gaze Leigh couldn't miss. "Frank does his job," Katharine answered impassively. "You could do worse."
She pulled a laptop computer in front of her, and began quizzing Leigh on possible reasons the police might have for suspecting her. Unfortunately, Leigh was able to list several. The blood was a big one. Her "running away." And whatever the heck had happened with her car.
Katharine typed rapidly, occasionally tilting her nose down and peering at Leigh over the wire-rims. Her face became increasingly grim. "Anything else?"
"I can't imagine what else they'd have," Leigh said uncertainly. "I've only been working at the zoo a few days."
"So you and the victim had never met?"
Leigh squirmed. She was going to get this one wrong, too. "Well, actually, we went to high school together. But after that I didn't see her for thirteen years." Why couldn't it have been fourteen?
"You were friends in high school?"
Another strike. "Acquaintances," Leigh answered carefull
y. "Have you read the statement I gave the police?
Katharine shook her head without looking up. "The police won't give me jack unless you've been charged with something. Then we get the works. Statements, forensics reports. We'll hope it doesn't come to that."
Leigh agreed wholeheartedly.
"Now," Katharine continued, "I want you to start from your first day at the zoo, the first time you saw the victim as an adult, and tell me every significant thing that happened between then and when you walked into my office just now."
Leigh sighed. It was a story she was tired of telling. It was also a story she was tired of editing. She began doggedly, got derailed several times by specific questions, and finished with a faintly nauseous feeling.
Katharine took off her glasses and leaned back in her leather-upholstered recliner. "We need to talk motive, Leigh. It will make or break any case against you."
The nausea increased. "I have no motive."
Katharine smiled suddenly. "Tell me something. You said that during the day you work at an advertising agency?"
Leigh nodded.
"Have you ever pulled an all-nighter over a tough deadline?"
"Sure. Usually when somebody else drops the ball and screws up the schedule. But I'm working for myself now, and I intend to make all-nighters a thing of the past." The words sounded naïve, she knew, but one could always dream.
"But what about when you were an employee? If your boss wanted you to put in some extra evening hours for his convenience, even though it wouldn't strictly be necessary to get the project in on time? Would you agree?"
"Of course not." Before the words were completely out of Leigh's mouth, she saw through the attorney's questions. Damn.
"Do you have a romantic interest in Dr. Tanner?"
The question hit Leigh like a load of bricks. She was tired of being self conscious about her emotions. The fact was, she still wasn't sure how she felt about Tanner, and it certainly wasn't anybody else's business—homicide investigation or no. She had nothing to do with Carmen's death—why should it give perfect strangers the right to know what she was thinking?
"No!" she said forcefully.
Katharine blinked. "Fine. And was Tanner involved with Carmen Koslow?"
"I don't know!" Leigh answered honestly, if a little too vehemently.
The lawyer studied her closely. Leigh made an effort to relax. She knew such people were trained to read body language, and it annoyed the heck out of her. Why couldn't she do all this online?
Katharine typed a few more lines, then closed the lid on her laptop. "Look, Leigh. I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just trying to figure out where Frank's head is at. He's out there even as we speak searching for a motive. And I can tell you right now what he's thinking. He's thinking love triangle."
Love triangle? Leigh's face grew hot, but she kept her mouth shut. A few innocent kisses, and she was on trial for bumping off the other woman. And who said Carmen was the other woman, anyway? Who said there even was another woman?
"That's all I need from you for now, Leigh," Katharine announced. "Lab results may come in as early as this afternoon. Blood matches, hair, fibers. Fingerprints."
"I'm not worried about that," Leigh said honestly. "I didn't touch anything in that shed except the doorknobs, the light switch, the knife, and the flashlight. And I don't know why the investigators were so fascinated with my car—I parked it yesterday afternoon and haven't touched it since."
"Good." Katharine looked at Leigh pointedly. "Frank may find you today, or he may call and ask you to go back down to the bureau. When he does, you call me immediately." She handed Leigh a business card. "And don't say a word until I get there. Understand?"
Leigh nodded. Frank was definitely not getting any more out of her.
***
When Warren's VW delivered Leigh into the main zoo parking lot, it was after 1:30 PM, and Leigh was worried that Tanner had been waiting for her.
"Are you going to take her advice?" Warren repeated, since Leigh wasn't listening to him.
"Yes, yes!" she answered, "But I'm not going to use her any more than necessary. I can't afford it."
"I already told you, it's a no-interest loan."
Leigh squirmed uncomfortably. "I appreciate that, Warren. But at the rate my finances are going, it will take me years to pay you back, and I don't like owing you. I don't like owing anybody. Can you understand?"
"Of course I can," he said gently. "But you can't get cheap on something this important. You're in trouble, and Katharine's the best. You deserve the best."
Evidently, the events of the last twenty four hours were beginning to wear on Leigh's emotions. Her eyes began to water with a vengeance.
She turned her face to the side, and when Warren stopped the car, she jumped out quickly.
"Will you need a ride home?" he asked.
She shook her head. "You've done enough for me already."
"If you change your mind, just call me at the City-County Building."
Leigh nodded, then beat a hasty retreat.
Warren could be so damn nice sometimes.
***
The zoo seemed more crowded than usual for a Thursday, and as Leigh began walking up the long hill to the hospital, she noticed that many of the visitors were heading toward the Asia section—and the tiger run.
Fabulous. The word is out.
She veered off in the opposite direction, taking the long way around goat mountain and the round barn. As she passed the administration building, her stomach gave a faint, healthier rumble. Evidently it remembered that she'd skipped lunch. It also remembered that the vending machines in the employee lounge stocked full-size candy bars.
She opened the door to a smoky, medium-sized room buzzing with conversation. By the time the door closed behind her, there was silence. She looked out nervously at the half-dozen pairs of eyes that were staring at her. It took a second, but she regained her composure.
"Well, I didn't have lunch," she announced to the crowd. "So I know there's no giant piece of broccoli in my teeth. What gives?"
A round of nervous laughter broke the tension. "Hi, Leigh," came a voice from the corner table. "Sorry. It's just—we didn't think you'd be in today."
The voice was that of Lisa Moran, the floater who had helped out at the hospital two days ago. Lisa was a tiny, perky natural blond, the kind of woman other women loved to hate. Leigh was not above such primal feelings, but right now, Lisa was her best candidate for an ally.
Leigh got her candy bar and walked over. "Gotta work," she replied. "You know how it is."
The other three keepers seated at the table nodded. Leigh knew two of them: Tish Holly, the rather frightening six-foot tall, anorectic-looking elephant keeper, and Tonya Rawlings, a thrice-divorced twenty-something who worked in the bird house. The third keeper was a young man with fuzzy red hair who Leigh thought worked with the reptiles.
"So you found her, huh?" The redheaded youth asked. His nametag said "Art Faigen."
Leigh swallowed a large bite of candy bar and nodded. She should have expected an interrogation. The other keepers were bound to be dying of curiosity. If the deceased had been anyone other than Carmen, they might have been grieving too.
"We've all been watching the news reports at lunch," Lisa chattered. "None of them mentioned your name, just that a zoo employee found her, and that parts of her body were in the tiger run."
"You gotta wonder where the rest of her is," Tonya chimed in. "Whoever did it was pretty stupid if they thought the tigers would eat everything."
Lisa nodded solemnly. "No way. Now, the polar bears—maybe. But nobody who worked around here would throw her to the tigers. Not unless they were starved first."
"Hell, it still could have been anybody!" Tish broke in loudly. Her tone might have sent the uninitiated ducking for cover, but nobody at the table flinched. Tish always sounded angry. "They won't never figure out who did it. Too many people got screwed over by that bitch!"
/>
The other keepers nodded in agreement, and Leigh noted that none of them seemed worried that Carmen's murder had been a random act of violence. They just assumed it was personal.
"She was, like, with everybody, wasn't she?" Art asked with a rakish grin.
Lisa and Tonya looked at each other and smirked. "Well, we don't know, Art," Tonya gibed. " Was she with everybody?"
All three women looked at the redheaded youth, who couldn't be more than twenty, and burst out laughing. He blushed crimson. "Hey, man, I'm not saying nothing."
The candy bar Leigh had wanted so badly lay in her stomach like lead. She hadn't expected Carmen to have been well liked. But the indifference of her coworkers was disconcerting. That, and the other thing they were implying.
She crumpled up her candy wrapper and threw it in the trash. "I've got to get to the hospital," she said casually. "I'm running late."
"Tell Dr. Mike we all said 'hi!'" Lisa called out in a singsong. Leigh walked out and closed the door behind her, not quick enough, unfortunately, to shut out the ensuing laughter.
***
Leigh wondered if a person could get used to this sour stomach, fleeting nausea thing. Didn't pregnant women do it? She trudged the rest of the way up the hill and walked in the door to the hospital. Doris, the full-time vet tech, looked at her disapprovingly. "She's here, Doc!" she called over her shoulder, then turned back to Leigh. "He's been waiting on you to do Ollie. I told him we could get it in this morning, but he said no. I'm off—got a doctor's appointment. Told him that two weeks ago."
Doris, a heavy-set woman in her early fifties, was highly competent and knew it. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to hold Tanner in the same high regard as she had held his now-retired predecessor. She banged out the door without another word.
Tanner appeared in the doorway. He looked at Leigh and smiled lazily. "She loves me, you know," he grinned, nodding towards the exit. "She just doesn't know it."