by Hopkin, Ben
And it wasn’t just Riley. Riley’s mom and dad were weird. Riley’s mom talked funny and kinda smelled funny. And Riley’s dad talked almost as much as Riley, even though it was mostly about houses and payments and a bunch of other grown-up stuff.
What was really strange was that Mala was listening to him like it was all super important. Like Janey listened when it was Trey or Darc talking about a case. That kind of important. Janey tried to pay attention, but she lost interest after a minute.
After two more minutes, Popeye started calling Riley’s dad bad names. Potty names. Janey tried not to laugh too much.
But then Mala got a phone call from Trey and they had to leave. She wished they were going with Darc and Trey wherever they were going, but Mala said no, they were headed to the station. That was okay. Janey liked the station.
She looked at the glossy piece of paper that Mala had taken from the house. Mala had been looking at it while Riley’s dad had been talking and talking and talking. Janey looked at the page, and it seemed like there was a pattern there that she could almost see. Almost, but not quite. It was like it was playing hide-and-go-seek with her.
Popeye said she was being dumb and to pay attention to him. Janey stuck her tongue out at Popeye. That wasn’t nice, but sometimes Popeye deserved it.
Even though her bear was making fun of her, Janey kept looking at the page, trying to figure out what it was trying to tell her. But so far, it wasn’t saying anything.
Right now, Janey wished a certain bear would follow its example.
* * *
Darc surveyed the crime scene, scanning for things out of place. Other than the human bone that had been discovered in the eagle exhibit, of course.
It had been a pelvis this time. Spotted by an employee, so there was no panic when Darc and Trey arrived. They’d closed down the whole section of the zoo that led to the aviary, so that the investigation wouldn’t draw attention. The fact that the bone was a pelvis made it far easier for the M.E. to determine sex and age immediately, which meant that Darc now knew they were dealing with a different body. Female this time, but still a teenager.
The lines of logic snarled and twisted, seeking coherence in the information entering in from external sources. The food chain came from outside the state, and while it was possible that the murders came from one of the purveyors of horseflesh, it seemed unlikely. The meat was ground, and these human bones, although separated from their respective bodies, were largely intact. The lines pointed to a local murder.
The C.O.O., Bruce Halfert, was standing close to Trey, moving from one foot to the other in rapid succession. “We really need to figure this out now,” he was saying to Trey. “You have no idea what this is doing for business. We’re just lucky that it was one of our own who found it this time.”
Darc stepped forward. “Is there one of your employees who might have access to the food for both the aviary and the tiger exhibits?”
“Sure,” the man responded. “The vet techs have easy access to the animals’ food, to make sure they’re getting their medication.”
“Their medication?” Darc asked.
“Oh, yeah. Most of them are on something at one point or another. The tiger’s on Prozac right now. Depression. But as for the techs, there should only be three or four that help out with the carnivores. They should be here today.”
“Great,” Trey stepped into the conversation. “Can you get someone to round ‘em up for us? We’d like to talk to them.”
The man nodded and hurried off, leaving Trey and Darc at the crime scene with the C.S.I. unit still cleaning up. Trey turned to Darc and cleared his throat. Either his partner was coming down with a summer viral infection, or he wanted Darc’s attention. Darc chose the latter.
“I feel like we’re missing something,” Trey muttered.
“Yes,” Darc concurred. “We do not know the identity of the killer.”
Trey snorted in laughter. Darc was surprised at it. He had not intended to be humorous. It was just this sort of gray emotional interaction that continued to elude Darc.
“Yeah, yeah.” Trey’s mirth subsided. “But I just feel like this whole food chain thing… I mean, it’s fine, it’s… whatever… but I’m not sure it’s where we’ll find our guy. It seems like it’s too obvious.”
“The fact that a man or woman kills has little to no bearing on their level of intelligence.”
“You’re right.” Trey sighed. “Still…”
An employee of the park drove up to Trey and Darc in a golf cart. “Mr. Halfert wanted me to let you know that the vet techs have all been gathered. I’ll take you to them.” He motioned for them to climb into the back of the cart.
A gray promontory had jutted out into Darc’s consciousness as Trey had spoken of his concerns regarding the direction of the case. It made no sense to the strands of light that continued to dance about in Darc’s mind. But it troubled him, nonetheless.
Perhaps when they spoke to the waiting individuals, Trey’s assertion would be borne out. If so, it was a mark in favor of the formerly suspect method of “trusting one’s gut”. It could force Darc to once more reassess his modus operandi.
Darc found himself hoping that would not be the case.
* * *
Mala’s eyes watered. She’d been staring at a computer screen for way longer than was comfortable. And she wasn’t even sure she’d made any headway. At least not any that would be of immediate use to Trey and Darc.
Janey had been set up on a table nearby, with plenty of crayons and paper. She was scribbling away, glancing up every once in a while at her bear, who was sitting on the table as if he was watching her draw. Janey would also come in and check on Mala in between pictures. Remembering how significant the drawings were last time, Mala took a look, but these seemed to be just normal pictures of unicorns and animals and trees. She’d have to remember to have Darc take a look at them at some point.
Starting with the known cold case, Mala had been surprised to see how little information there had been. A pool of blood at a park close to the boy’s house that had been matched to his DNA. A pool large enough to convince the M.E.—and the boy’s family—that he was dead. The teenage youth’s face looked back at her from the glowing screen.
She scrolled through the information on the boy, and realized that he had lived fairly close to Mala’s neighborhood. Somehow, the fact that he had been so close to where Mala lived added to the reality of his murder.
There were pictures of his home: a room decked out in army colors for his little brother, a soccer mural in his own bedroom, a foosball table and an old Pac Man standing arcade game for the game room. His family had loved him, had sacrificed for him, would do anything to get him back. It was almost too much for Mala to take in.
Following an instinct that she couldn’t name, Mala printed out the information on the young man. Following up on these leads was a complete backdoor route into the case, and Mala knew it, but maybe she could swing by and ask a few questions. It couldn’t hurt anything to gather additional info, and it might even help the families to feel like something was being done.
As she was finishing up, her cell phone rang. It was Riley’s dad, Carson.
“Hey there!” he practically shouted. It sounded like he was calling from his car, which was more than likely interfering with his ability to hear himself. Didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying. “Give any more thought to house hunting?”
“A little.”
“Well, that first listing on the sheet I gave you… it’s available for you to take a look at. Family just moved out yesterday.” His tone was filled with all kinds of cheerful pressure, which caused Mala to stiffen up just a bit.
“I’m not sure. I’ve got Janey with me, and…”
“Bring her. It’ll be her house, too.”
Mala glanced in at Janey. They hadn’t talked about it yet, and Mala felt like Janey should be a part of a decision this big. Maybe this was the perfect time to do it.
<
br /> “Okay,” Mala assented. “When should I be there?”
“How about I meet you in fifteen minutes?”
“Sounds great.” Mala wasn’t positive about this, but she did feel some excitement in taking a risk on something new. She’d talk to Janey about it on the way over.
Grabbing the listings, Mala entered in the address to her phone to get directions to the house. The street name stood out to her as she was entering it into her map application. She wasn’t sure what was familiar about it. She looked back at the listing.
Oh, wow. The house would put Janey in West Woodland Elementary. They were known as having one of the best Individualized Education Programs in Seattle. The I.E.P.s could really make or break someone like Janey, who was dealing with some pretty significant educational issues.
That must have been why Mala recognized the street name. She’d been looking into that school for a while, trying to figure out how to get Janey in. Totally made sense.
And it gave Mala even more motivation to get out to this listing. Fast.
Now she only hoped Janey felt the same way about it.
CHAPTER 4
After interviewing three of the four vet techs, Trey was beginning to see why these guys all wanted to work with animals. None of them had any social skills. Like, none. Zero. Zippo. Nada.
And they also hadn’t found anything useful from any of them. None of them recalled any kind of weirdness around the food. They only handled the food when one of the keepers was on vacation, and none of them were.
And nothing else, either. No one hanging out, acting strange. No odd protuberances from the packages of ground meat. Nothing.
The fourth guy walked into the break room that Trey and Darc had commandeered, and immediately there was something different. Up to this point, there hadn’t been a lot of eye contact, and this dude was no better about it. But none of the others had started off looking quite so pale. Or sweaty.
“So, what’s this all about?” asked the tech. This one’s name was Jensen Hire. “Is this about the human bones in the food?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact it is,” Trey answered. “Know anything about it?”
“Nope. No. Not at all.” Jensen squirmed in his seat. “The whole thing’s pretty freaky though, right?”
“Yeah, freaky,” Trey repeated with some suspicion. This guy was squirrelier than the actual squirrels here in the zoo. “But someone here had to give access to our killer. Or maybe even was the killer.” Trey paused, letting that sink in. “That’s even freakier, right?”
“Yep. Freaky.” Jensen licked his lips, looking somewhere in the vicinity of Darc’s shaved head. “Can’t explain it.”
Trey nodded his head in sympathy. “Neither could your co-workers. Here’s the thing, though… they were pretty calm about it. Strange and somewhat non-responsive, but calm.” Peering into Jensen’s eyes, Trey lowered his tone. “You aren’t.”
Jensen’s eyes widened. “Yeah, no. I just had two cups of coffee. Bad idea. Probably never get to sleep tonight.” He laughed in a nervous way, then glanced back at the door leading out of the break room. “So… are we done here? I don’t know anything about the food. Almost never have to touch it. Horsemeat grosses me out. ”
“Okay, sure,” Trey said. “Just make sure you contact us if you think of anything.”
The vet tech scurried out, and Darc turned to Trey, his expression blank. “That was not how I was expecting the conversation to conclude.”
“Yeah,” Trey muttered. “The guy wasn’t going to give us anything. But he knows something. So, I say we keep a close eye on him.” Then another idea struck him. “Oh, and we should definitely pull the guy’s phone records, see if there’s anything there.”
Who knows? Maybe they’d get lucky.
* * *
Buying a house. They were maybe buying a house. At least they were looking at one that might be a good one.
Janey didn’t know how she felt. The last time she was in a house was with Mommy and Daddy. It had been a new house and everything had smelled funny and she hadn’t known where anything was. And then the bad things had happened.
The bad things wouldn’t happen again. Janey knew that. Mostly. Darc would protect her. And Trey. And Mala, too, even though she didn’t really have a gold badge. Hers was different. But it still seemed like it worked when she showed it to people.
But living in a house with Mala? That seemed… Well, Janey didn’t know how it felt. That was part of the problem.
She wanted to live with Mala. That was true. She loved Mala, and Mala loved her. Janey knew that. But houses were big. Mala’s apartment was small. Small enough that when Janey got scared at night she could run into Mala’s room in no time.
Not that she did, most of the time, but it was good to know that she could. And if they were in a big house, maybe it would take Janey longer to get to Mala’s room. That could be scary.
But houses were nice. After a while, they started to smell like you, and you could invite friends over to play in the backyard and stuff. Janey didn’t have many friends, but maybe she would soon. Riley could come over. Well, maybe Riley and someone else, just so Riley couldn’t talk the whole time.
She just wasn’t sure. So when Mala had asked her what she thought, Janey had nodded her head. Because she wasn’t sure, but Mala seemed real excited about it.
Popeye was excited. He kept saying stuff about hot tubs and kitchen pantries. Silly bear. Janey wasn’t even sure what he was talking about.
But if Mala and Popeye were both excited, then maybe Janey should be too.
She would try, at least. For both of them.
Janey picked up the business card that the man had given them from off the seat where Mala had tossed it before. It was pretty, with a dark blue on the bottom and a light blue on the top. It was thick, almost like one of Mala’s credit cards. Janey flicked it against her cheek.
Mala pulled up to a house. It was big, but not too big. It was kinda nice, even though it looked a little lonely. She liked it, but it made her sad somehow.
When Mala got her out of the car, Janey reached up and held her hand. Sometimes grown-ups needed stuff like that. Mala looked down at her with a smile that said that Janey had done the right thing by taking her hand.
Hopefully it would be the same with going to see the house.
* * *
When Darc pulled the phone records for Jensen Hire, the vet tech, they turned up something strange. There had been fifteen calls within one week from Jensen to a cell phone for a Carson Jacob. The line was for Mr. Jacob’s business as a real estate agent. Fifteen calls to a real estate agent was not unheard of, but it was strange enough that the bright pathways of logic led them to Carson Jacob’s house.
The real estate agent’s wife appeared drunk, even though it was only late afternoon by the time Darc arrived at the address on the card, Trey at his side. She was slurring her speech, and her gaze seemed unfocused.
“No, my husband’s not at home. Bastard.” Meredith Jacobs whined. “He was supposed to be home early so we could go out to eat. But then… surprise, surprise… he has to go show another listing. If he wasn’t such an asshole, I’d think he was cheating on me.” Meredith stumbled a bit, but caught herself on the doorframe. “Whoops. I may have had a glass or two of wine. Want some?”
“No thank you, ma’am,” Trey answered.
“Ma’am? The hell you say. I’m no ma’am.” She frowned at first, but then smiled at Trey, her eyes going coy. “You can call me Meredith, Detective.”
“Uh, yeah. Do you know where your husband went?”
“Sure do.” Meredith whipped out her cell phone. “I’ve got him on a tracker. Asshole or not, I don’t really trust him all that much.” She wiped at her face. “That may be why I drink so much. Whaddaya think?” She waited for an answer from Trey, but he couldn’t for the life of him think of a response. Meredith squinted down at the screen after a long moment. “Hm. Here he is. Wait.” She grabb
ed a sheet of what looked like real estate listings from off the counter behind her. “It’s that new listing he was talking about.”
“New listing?” Trey prompted, looking for an address.
“Yeah. Family had a kid killed. Waited around for almost a year, but finally decided to move. Couldn’t bear staying in the house with all the memories. Sad.” Her face pulled into a mask of grief that would have been comical if it had been any other situation. “Oh, oh!” Her face lit up. “I just remembered who he’s with. It’s that Arabic lady. With the girl from daycare. They came over today.”
Was it Mala? A freaky coincidence if it was. Trey asked, “East Indian?”
“Whatever. I can’t tell the difference. Kid’s adopted, anyway. Doesn’t say much. Actually, come to think of it, she doesn’t say anything at all.”
Trey nodded absently as he headed back out to the car. Darc had anticipated him, grabbing the sheet of listings from out of the woman’s drunk fingers. As he strolled out to the car, Trey heard Meredith yelling behind him.
“If you see my husband, tell him he’s a jerkoff, and I’m not saving him any dinner.” She slammed the door shut with a bang.
Trey looked at Darc. He wasn’t positive how all of this real estate stuff was going to get them any closer to solving the case. But Darc was frowning and clenching his fist at his side. Signs of impatience. Trey had better step on it.
* * *
The house was perfect. Mala was in love before Carson even opened the door. It was a three-bedroom, two-bath house, with a wraparound porch that had a swing. Brick with all white trim, except for the door, which was a bright red. It was everything Mala had hoped for. It was also feeling like déjà vu. Mala decided to take that as a sign they were going in the right direction.
Even Janey seemed to like it. She’d been pretty hesitant in the car on the way over. Mala could understand how any additional change in her life right now might be scary. That was one of Mala’s major concerns.