by Hopkin, Ben
“Yes. It is possible that there is information that could only surface with Janey’s direct involvement.”
“That’s unacceptable,” Mala retorted, her lip turning even further down. “You understand that, don’t you?”
“I do not,” Darc intoned. “Janey will not be subjected to any danger. She will simply be observing at the crime scenes, looking for details that might be significant only to her and then drawing pictures to communicate with me.”
“Darc, you’re talking about her being exposed to victims. Dead bodies. That I assume have had horrific things done to them.” Mala’s tone had increased in volume and rose in pitch. Those were markers of excitement or anger. Anger seemed to be the common thread moving through this conversation, although Darc could not penetrate through the gray mists to understand the rationale behind it.
“I do not understand. Janey has been exposed to many dead bodies before this. Most of them much more graphically mutilated.” The logic behind Mala’s reasoning seemed to Darc to be fundamentally flawed.
“Exactly! Why on earth would we subject her to more of the same? This little girl has seen enough death to last her through at least three or four lifetimes.” Mala took a deep breath and shook her head a little. “Today, we’re going to do something normal.”
“Whatcha gonna do?” Trey asked, plopping himself down in a chair. Darc did not know what his partner was trying to accomplish with this line of inquiry, as it did not seem to be a topic that would lead to Mala giving permission for Janey’s help.
“We’re headed to the zoo,” Mala said, giving Janey’s hand a squeeze. Janey pulled her hand away from Mala and started to move toward Darc before Mala could grab her arm and pull her back into her arms. “I get that you want her to help. I even get that she wants to be able to. But what she needs right now is some normalcy in her life. And I intend to give her just that.” She stood and gave Darc a look that made him feel… uncomfortable. “You try to get in my way this time, and it will not end well.”
She pulled Janey around and gave a glance at Trey, who shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands in the air for the third time. Mala snorted, then reached over and punched Trey in the shoulder.
“What was that for?” Trey whined.
“That was for not keeping this conversation from happening. I expect this kind of thing from him.” Mala jabbed her finger at Darc. “But you know better.”
Trey rubbed at his shoulder. “That is so not fair.”
“Fair, schmair,” Mala called out over her shoulder as her high heels clicked their way back down the tile-lined hallway.
“That’s it,” Trey muttered. “Next time you bring her in, I’m outta here.”
As the gray terrain inside of him continued to shake as if there had been some sort of internal earthquake, Darc could only agree with his partner.
* * *
Janey didn’t want to go to the zoo. Well, okay, that wasn’t all the way true. She loved the zoo most of the time. But she didn’t want to go today. She wanted to be with Trey and Darc. They were getting to do all kinds of important stuff, and Janey had to be here, at the zoo, watching the giraffes. It wasn’t fair. Not even a little bit.
She looked around at the other kids her age. There was a boy over close to the reptile house that was picking his nose. A girl was crying because she had dropped her ice cream. And what looked like a brother and sister were trading punches with each other while their mom played with her phone. Janey didn’t want to be like them. She wanted to have a gold badge like Darc. And going to the zoo wasn’t going to help.
Popeye, her stuffed bear, now he was excited. He loved going to the zoo. He always said he was looking for a girlfriend. That made Janey giggle.
But right now Popeye was looking up at the giraffes eating leaves off of a tree. He was also complaining about the smell. One of the giraffes had just gone poop.
Janey wasn’t supposed to talk about poop, but she couldn’t really help it if Popeye was the one that kept blabbing on and on about it. Yes, it was stinky, but it’s not like Popeye couldn’t just hold his breath. Janey took in a deep breath and held it, just to show him how. He looked at her like she was crazy.
Mala must have seen her take the breath, because she said something about it. “It does kind of smell, doesn’t it?”
Janey nodded, even though that’s not really what she meant. Sometimes it was just easier to nod and pretend. Mala gave her a little sideways hug and smiled at her.
“How about if we go and get some ice cream and then go see the tigers?”
That sounded great. Janey loved the tigers, and ice cream was always a good idea. Always, always, always.
Popeye started to grumble about the fact that he never got any ice cream and that it wasn’t fair. Janey told him to hush up. Ice cream wasn’t for bears, and the chocolate on the ice cream might kill him. She had heard that somewhere, that animals weren’t supposed to have chocolate. Maybe that was just dogs, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
The only thing Popeye had to say to that was a rude word. Then he stuck out his tongue at her and called her selfish. But Janey wasn’t selfish. She was just looking out for her best friend. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, was there?
But Popeye just sat there and pouted. Silly bear.
They got the ice cream from a very nice old man who called her sweetheart and winked at her. He was nice. Popeye said he smelled like old people. Janey said of course he did. He was an old people. Popeye said that was dumb and he wasn’t talking to her any more. Janey said that was fine by her, so there.
So when they got to the tigers, Popeye and Janey weren’t speaking to each other. That wasn’t such a big deal until Janey saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there. She wasn’t sure what to do about it. Popeye always knew what to do when weird things happened. Well, sometimes he wouldn’t say when he was being cranky, but when it was serious, like right now, he knew what to do.
But she wasn’t talking to Popeye, so there was only one other thing that she could think of. She grabbed Mala’s sleeve and tugged until she had Mala’s attention. Then she pointed at the thing that wasn’t supposed to be there.
It was a foot. A people foot. And one of the tigers was chewing on it.
Popeye muttered something about humans always leaving stuff around where they weren’t supposed to, but he still wasn’t really talking to Janey, so she ignored him.
When Mala finally saw what Janey was pointing at, she lifted her hand up to her mouth and gasped. She then pulled Janey into her arms and pushed Janey’s face into her side. Janey wasn’t sure why Mala was doing that. Janey had already seen the foot. It wasn’t going to be worse if she kept seeing it.
A woman that was right beside them with her son also looked where Janey had been pointing, and she started screaming. Then her little boy started screaming, too. He was crying so hard that snot started running down his face. Janey sighed. They were being dumb. There wasn’t anything to be scared of. The scary stuff happened before. All there was now was just a foot. A foot wasn’t scary. A foot couldn’t hurt you. Jeez.
It wasn’t long before lots more people started screaming and running around. Janey felt sorry for them. They didn’t know that there were men with gold badges that would make things okay. Mala dragged Janey away from the tiger cave as fast as she could walk, which meant that Janey had to almost run to keep up.
But at least Popeye started talking to her again. He said that maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to go to the zoo after all.
Janey agreed. Even if she did still kinda want to go see the monkeys.
CHAPTER 2
There had been moments in Mala’s life that had been filled with heartache and joy and everything in between. She had yet to experience a moment that was more filled with irony than this one.
As she started moving away from the tiger exhibit, Mala looked around and realized how many people had their cell phones out, taking pictures and videos o
f the foot. How many of those cameras had managed to photograph a certain blonde little girl and her adoptive mother?
This was not okay. The chance that one of those videos would go viral and images of Mala and Janey at another crime scene would end up on the desk of Janey’s social worker might be tiny, but the thought of it happening was giving Mala heart palpitations.
What could she do about it? How could she manage to get all those phones under control? It wasn’t like she could just confiscate them all.
And then it hit her. That’s exactly what she could do.
Mala pulled out her consultant I.D. for the Seattle Police Department and ran up to the nearest of the cell-phone wielding rubberneckers. “Sir, I’m with the Seattle P.D. and I’m going to need to take your phone.” The man looked at her, uncomprehending. “As evidence.” He glanced at the I.D., grumbled a bit and handed it over.
Five more go-rounds with close to the same conversation happening, and Mala had all the phones that she had seen recording the incident. She felt a little bit like a fraud, but having this footage wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Seattle P.D., would it?
After making sure that she hadn’t missed any gawkers, Mala pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial for Trey. She would have called Darc, but she just couldn’t face him right now. Not even figuratively, over the phone.
In trying to give Janey a wonderful and yes… normal… childhood experience, rather than cart her off to another crime scene with more death and dismemberment, Mala had somehow managed to take her to the one place where a severed foot was being gnawed upon by a large jungle cat.
Mala was batting a thousand in the mothering department right about now.
“Detective Keane,” Trey’s voice came over the cell.
“Trey, it’s Mala.”
“Mala, hey,” Trey’s voice sharpened. “Who taught you how to punch? My shoulder’s still hurting. I think I might have a bruise.”
Mala winced. She’d forgotten about punching Trey. Maybe it would’ve been better to call Darc after all.
“Sorry about that.”
“Ah, don’t stress about it,” Trey responded. “But I will say, it’s the last time I use the expression, ‘You punch like a girl.’”
Mala chuckled for a moment, then sobered as she remembered the reason for her call. “Trey, you and Darc need to get out here. There was a body in the tiger habitat out here at Woodland Park Zoo.”
“What?”
“A body. Well, part of a body. A foot. Just get out here.”
“On my way.” Trey answered. Mala heard him calling out to Darc as he ended the call. It wouldn’t take them that long to get out here. Ten minutes for a normal person. Five for Trey when he was feeling motivated.
In the meantime, Mala was going to do two things. First off, she was going to use her Seattle Police Department consultant I.D. to see if she could find out who had access to that tiger’s cage.
As for the second thing… she was going to set up a play date for Janey. Mala was going to make sure that little girl had normal memories to call upon once Janey was an adult. No matter what it took, Mala would make this happen. So help her, she would.
Even if it killed her.
* * *
A freaking tiger.
They now had a murder that included a tiger. Okay, he was the oldest, grumpiest, most flatulent tiger Trey had ever seen, but still. Trey had caught a case with an effing tiger. Some days, life was good.
Then Trey caught sight of another body part… looked like a shoulder blade, but Trey wasn’t a doctor… and once again he wanted to hurl. He shifted his shoulder in his sling, feeling the tug of pain from his collarbone.
Mala was there beside them, dancing from one foot to the other. Trey looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “Girl, have you got something crawling around in your nicely tailored slacks?”
“What? Oh. No. I just…” Mala squirmed some more. “I just need to get out of here. Now.”
“Hang on, there. What are you talking about? We have to take your statement.”
“You do? Really? Are you sure?” The normally calm doctor was in a pretty elevated state right now, her eyes darting around the zoo as if she were on the lam.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” Trey drawled.
“It’s… well, I’m really busy today, and…”
This didn’t seem like Mala at all. “Whoa, Nelly! Hold your horses. Can we take a look at our priorities for a second? Your daily schedule against catching a rabid killer. C’mon. It’s a no-brainer. We need your statement.”
Mala’s eyes brightened for a moment. “Oh, wait. I do have something for you, actually. A lot of somethings.” Mala dug into her purse and pulled out an overflowing handful of cell phones. She passed them over to Trey.
“What the hell are these?” Trey asked, jugging the phones in his arms.
“Cell phones. I got them from the zoo patrons who were videotaping or taking pictures of the crime scene.”
Trey nodded. “Good thinking…” He stopped, making a realization. “Wait a minute. How did you get them to give you their phones?”
“I, uh… I used my consultant I.D.” At least Mala had the decency to blush.
“You did what?!” Trey yelled, then looked around to make sure no one was watching. He wiped his hand over his face. “Okay, okay. But did you at least give the cell phone owners receipts or something?” Trey looked at the expression of dawning horror on her face and moved on to the next question. “Or take down their addresses? Something? Anything?”
Mala shook her head, her face sheepish.
Trey sighed. “All right. We can figure this out. I’ll put one of the uniforms on it.”
“Okay. But none of those videos are going to end up on YouTube, right?” Mala challenged him.
What was up with Mala today? This wasn’t like her at all. Trey shook his head.
“No, of course none of the videos are going to end up online. Seriously, what do you think we’re doing here?”
“Right. Right. Of course,” Mala murmured. “That was silly.”
“Yes it was,” Trey chided, then added, “And so was you saying that you had to leave before giving us a statement.”
Rubbing her forehead with her fingertips, Mala peered up at him through her hands. “But… I…” She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I don’t want Janey’s social worker to get wind of the fact that we were here.”
Oh. Now everything was making sense. Trey had to stifle a laugh. He was sure that to Mala this felt like the end of the world, but that was mostly because she had no idea how far Trey and Darc were willing to go for her. There was no way any overzealous social worker was going to ruin things for Mala and Janey.
“Trust me, Mala. I promise it won’t get out. And even if it does, we’ve got your back.” He nodded to one of the uniforms speaking with a zoo patron. “Just go and have McClellan take your statement. Shouldn’t take much time at all.”
“All right,” Mala acquiesced. She started walking toward McClellan, but then stopped and looked at Trey. “And… thank you.”
Trey nodded and smiled at her. There was something charming about seeing Mala lose her cool like that. It didn’t happen often, but it was sweet that it happened because of Janey. And speaking of losing one’s cool…
“Um… is that tiger going to be… safe?” Trey asked the tiger keeper who was standing close by, an old curmudgeon of a guy who was nearly as flatulent as the tiger. What was his name? Some old man name. Howard? No. Horace. Horace Walker. “You know… I mean, now that he’s had a taste for human flesh?”
“What?” The old man muttered, cupping a hand around his ear. Seriously, this guy was like every bad stereotype of an elderly person. Trey continued thinking that until he saw the keeper sling what looked like a hundred pound bag of food over his shoulder like it was no big deal. Man, he was strong.
“I said, ‘Is it safe?’” Trey raised the volume of his voice, realizing after the fact that
he had done the whole obnoxious tourist talk-loudly-and-slowly-and-maybe-they’ll-understand-me thing.
The old man cackled. “I heard you the first time. Just wanted to see how you handled it.” He stumped down to the employee entrance for the tiger’s habitat. As he walked through the door, Trey could’ve sworn he heard the guy mutter, “Idiot.”
Yeah, Trey led a charmed life when it came to murder cases.
He turned around and faced the C.S.I. unit. “Okay, guys. Our new best friend the tiger tamer just went in to take the animals back in where they won’t get in the way of your investigation.” Trey was about to go back to talk to Darc when he stopped and addressed the team again. “Oh… don’t let the old guy act fool you. Horace is sharp of hearing and stronger than most bodybuilders I’ve met. You have been warned.”
Trey saw several smiles on the faces of the unit. Yeah, they thought the whole thing was funny. They just needed to wait until that old guy bit their heads off. Then they’d stop laughing so much.
Jogging over… well, briskly walking—Trey didn’t really jog so much… to the front of the exhibit, Trey saw Darc wrap up a conversation with someone in a suit who beat a hasty retreat. Trey could only imagine what the administration of the zoo was feeling right now. This was the kind of thing that could shut down a place like this.
And not just from official channels. Sure, there were probably some patrons who might be more interested in going to the zoo because the tiger there had eaten some poor schmuck. But zoos’ bread and butter were the scores of school children that came on a daily basis. Trey couldn’t imagine parents being thrilled about this latest development.
“So, who’s the suit?” Trey asked his partner.
Darc turned around, his face blank. That usually meant he was processing whatever bizarre idiom had just come out of Trey’s mouth. Trey knew they were hard for Darc, but he looked at it as a tough love scenario. The guy had to learn how to deal with people who talked like real folk. Of course, after almost seven years of working together, it might be a moot point.