by Ruby Loren
Danny Emeridge had been the last apprentice zookeeper that the zoo had taken on, before Auryn had decided that his future lay with the family business. He was the sort of guy that no one had a bad word to say about and despite his apprentice status, he’d worked as hard as any keeper.
That was before it had happened.
He’d been walking across the car park when they struck. Danny had stayed late, so no one was around to see. I’d found him an hour or so later and had called an ambulance and the police. They’d saved his life, but he’d never returned to the zoo.
The people who had done it to him went unpunished. It was another open case that everyone knew would never be solved. There had been rumours though, a lot of rumours. The animal activists had finally taken a step too far - they’d attacked one of us. People at the zoo had demanded justice, but the activists had closed ranks and allegedly nothing further could be done. The case had been dropped and eventually the protesters had drifted away, leaving the zoo in peace… until now. I wondered if the police had bothered to look into that past case and note the similar circumstances that tied together Danny’s attack and Ray’s potential murder. I thought about bringing it up with them, but found I simply didn’t want to get involved. It was time for the police to do their own detective work and if I could avoid being dragged through those past memories again, that would be a big plus.
After a dramatic start to the day, the morning turned out to be a quiet one. It was Tuesday and for some reason the general public had chosen to be elsewhere. A few families on their summer holidays milled around, but it was nice to have a day’s rest from the usual summer holiday bedlam. I always counted down the days until school started again.
I wasn’t a children hater. I thought children were great. It was more their parents that I had a problem with, or more specifically, a particular sort of parent. When you saw parents drop their kids over fences, or when kids banged on the glass of enclosures and ran wild, generally making the experience unpleasant for other families, I always bore witness to the kind of adult I didn’t like. They were usually busy chatting to their other half, or oblivious on their phone while all of this was going on.
I blinked away the negative thoughts and tried to go back to appreciating the relative quiet of the zoo. I’d just finished tidying up the fennec foxes’ enclosure when I saw Tiff waving at me through the glass.
“Hey,” I said, when I’d walked back around. I suddenly noticed she wasn’t alone. A girl wearing the pale green shirt that marked zoo volunteers and temporary staff was stood next to her. She had brown, shoulder length hair, that swung in a straight sheet and dark brown eyes. There wasn’t a scrap of makeup on her face and there was a definite tomboy air about her. This was a person who I suspected didn’t give a damn about what anyone had to say about the way she looked.
“Madi, this is Alison Rowley. She’s going to be helping out in the shop and everywhere else this summer,” Tiff said with a smile.
I extended my hand and the other girl shook it with a shy smile. We made eye contact and I immediately got the sense that this was someone I would get on with. “It’s nice to meet you. So you’re a summer odd job worker?”
She nodded. “That’s me! I need to get some cash together. Trips to Thailand don’t fund themselves,” she said, raising her dark eyebrows.
“How are the fennecs doing? I’m guessing they’re up to see what’s going on in their enclosure, given that they’re usually nocturnal.”
“They are rather curious,” I admitted, looking back at the three pairs of giant ears that could be seen poking out behind an artificial dune I’d just re-dug.
“Are those the mated pair?” Alison asked and I nodded. The third, smaller fox hopped along behind them. “That must be a pup, but he looks pretty old. How come you decided to let him stay? I know in the wild they sometimes stay together, but couldn’t it bring problems in a zoo?”
“We’re seeing how it goes, actually. As they’re a mated pair, he’s not exactly a threat and no other zoo wants to involve him in their breeding programme, due to a little defect you might have noticed. See the way he hops along? It’s because he was born with one leg significantly shorter than the other three,” I explained.
I tilted my head at Alison, taking in her rather tatty jeans with the rainbow ribbon pinned to a safety pin adorning the side seam. She may only be doing odd jobs, but she’d need to be careful or she’d have one of the managers on at her case about dress code.
“You’re a fan of fennec foxes then?” I asked and to my surprise her cheeks turned pink.
“Yeah, I just like animals, I guess,” she said with a shrug and turned back to Tiff, who’d been busy texting whilst we’d had the conversation.
“Oh, yeah I guess our break is over. Nice seeing you Madi!” Tiff said, whisking Alison away with her. I watched them go with slightly narrowed eyes. I found myself wanting to like Alison, which was probably why Tiff had bothered to introduce us in the first place, but there was also something a little off about her. If she had that much animal knowledge bursting out at the seams, why was she content to just take a summer ‘odd job’ role? Her claim that she was saving for a trip to Thailand also seemed a little fishy. Perhaps I was stereotyping, but she didn’t behave like your average adventure seeking ‘Instagram girl’, who thought Thailand was the exotic location to be.
I shook my head. Perhaps I was just being paranoid, but Alison’s in depth knowledge of animals did make me wonder. I frowned as I walked to do my next job. I hoped the zoo's screening policy was up to scratch. Of one thing I was sure, I was going to keep a close eye on Alison Rowley.
“Madi! How’s it going?”
I turned to see Tom climb out of the squirrel monkeys’ enclosure.
“Good, thanks,” I said, mystified as to why he was speaking to me. The only words Tom and I usually exchanged were words of disagreement.
“I never got a chance to say when I saw you the other day, tough break finding Ray.” He pulled what I assumed was his attempt at a sympathetic expression. It wasn’t pretty.
One hand went to his thick thatch of sandy hair and he ruffled it unconsciously. I waited for him to speak, figuring there must be some favour he needed.
“Hey, uh, you’re looking good at the moment, Madi. I was wondering if you fancied going and getting dinner sometime?” he asked, his blue eyes deadly serious.
I made a small choking noise and did my best to stamp on the urge to laugh.
What on earth was he thinking? We’d spent the last two years arguing over the various changes and additions to the zoo and now he wanted to take me out on a date?
I suddenly realised that Tom was still staring at me, waiting for a response. “It was nice of you to ask, but no thank you,” I said, hoping that would be the end of it.
“Oh, you already got someone else in your life then? No one from the zoo, right?” he said, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I hated men who assumed that when you turned them down it couldn’t possibly be because you weren’t interested in them. It had to be because some other guy had got there first.
“No, I just don’t want to go for dinner.” I kept my voice as light as I could. “By the way, you might want to trim that clematis. It’s getting pretty close to the squirrel monkey enclosure.” I nodded to the twisting tendrils of plant that were escaping the trellis on the side of the bridge that ran across the wide stretch of water which marked the squirrel monkeys’ enclosure boundary on the west side. The plant had started to creep across the wood panelling towards the monkeys.
“Looks okay to me,” he said with a shrug and threw me a final unreadable look before striding away.
Now I really did roll my eyes. That was Tom through and through - he’d never take any advice you tried to give him.
I thought about that look he’d given me and figured it was disbelief, plain and simple. He couldn’t believe that someone like me had dared to turn someone like him down.
I snorted.
“Proves it was the right decision,” I said to myself, but I hadn’t even been tempted. The most mystifying thing was why he’d even thought to ask in the first place. I’d assumed we had a respectful mutual deep dislike thing going on. I shrugged it off and decided to get back to work.
The next stop was the still-miserable capybaras. I’d filled some rubber toys with treats. The balls needed to pushed around to get the treats to fall out and I was hoping it might distract them from their less than salubrious surroundings - at least for an hour or so.
I’d just finished giving a talk to the public about the zoo’s echidnas when I saw the new builder, Lowell, walk by. Having finished up, I thanked my audience and walked off in the direction he’d been going. It wasn’t long before I had to conclude I’d lost him and I wondered why I’d even considered following him in the first place. It was day time and he was supposed to be working. What reason did I have to suspect he was up to something?
I shrugged off my worries and pushed open the gate between the giant anteater enclosure and the wallabies, that led to the intricate behind-the-scenes passages used by zoo staff. I was on my way to the food store when I heard male voices, deep in conversation. They were from the back entrance of the bat exhibit.
I took a step towards the door and hesitated, realising I didn’t have a good reason to be going that way, as I’d only fed the bats half an hour ago. Unfortunately, it was at that moment the door swung open and Lowell stepped out.
We stared at each other in surprise.
“You startled me. I was just popping in to check that Binky had her dinner. She hasn’t been eating for a couple of days,” I invented, quickly realising I was over-explaining. The man in front of me just kept on looking with his intense, dark eyes.
Then, to my surprise, Mr Avery Senior walked through the door after Lowell. I tried not to change my facial expression as I realised it had been these two men I’d heard talking just now. I wished I’d been able to catch the words, but all I’d heard were two voices speaking in the serious undertone you used when you didn’t want anyone to overhear you.
“Mr Avery, Sir, it’s very nice to see you,” I said, giving the owner of the zoo his due respect. The old man nodded back and said hello in a vacant way that proved he had absolutely no clue who I was. Then he walked away, leaving me alone with Lowell.
We looked at each other for another long beat before turning and walking off in opposite directions.
My mind was racing as I went through the motions of the tasks I had planned for the remainder of the day. What was a rookie builder doing talking with the owner of the zoo? Perhaps I could have justified it if it were Rich, the leader of the gang, but Lowell was the new guy. I couldn’t think of any business he might have with Mr Avery Senior. Come to think of it, I wasn’t too sure what business Mr Avery himself had being at the zoo. He was still the registered owner, but he’d handed the control of the day-to-day running over to his son, Erin Avery, a long time ago. Erin now sat as the head of the board of directors.
I struggled to piece together a logical reason for the two unlikely men to be together and I could only think of something that would surely raise an eyebrow or two, if it ever got out.
My mind replayed the intense look that Lowell had given me and I found, to my surprise, that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to believe what the facts appeared to suggest.
4
Cat Burglars
The posters appeared just in time for the weekend.
I had felt like I was holding my breath all through the week after what had happened to Colin’s car, but absolutely nothing had happened. When I’d walked past the group of protesters, I’d even noticed that their number had diminished.
As it turned out, that was probably because half of them were busy putting together their next dirty trick.
I saw my first poster when I exited the giant anteater enclosure. A piece of blue, A4 paper was being blown about by the breeze and landed facedown on the floor in front of me. I picked it up and read the headline.
CONDEMN the Avery animal MURDERERS!
I skimmed my eyes over the obviously hastily prepared poster. It cited the recent death of the serval, the zoo’s employing of one Colin Campbell, a known villain of the dairy industry, and…
My eyebrows rose in disbelief. They were claiming that Ray Myers’ death in the penguin pool was a clear sign that the zoo was abusing animals, as his incompetence must have got him killed.
Well! I was about to crumple the nasty piece of paper up when I read the call to action at the bottom of the page. It was pushing for all zoo workers to turn their managers in and reveal the dark truth of what was really going on at Avery Zoo. I frowned. That was a little more interesting. I’d assumed that this poster was intended to shock the general public but it was infinitely sneakier than that. They were trying to pull us apart from the inside by making everyone question who could be trusted.
I closed my eyes and realised their plan might actually succeed. The volunteers were already furious about the managements’ handling of their private social media conversations. It wouldn’t take much to drive a wedge in when one was already in place.
I crumpled the paper into a ball and pushed it into the nearest bin. A flash of blue caught my eye and I spied another poster taped to the meerkats’ enclosure. I tore it down but my eyes were attuned to the colour now and I began seeing them everywhere. The protestors must have found someone to pretend to be a visitor and then plaster the zoo with posters. They’d done it just after opening time, while half the staff were admittedly, still waking up.
I shook my head and wondered if there would be repercussions for this. There was CCTV within the zoo, although it didn’t cover every space, otherwise the police would know the identity of whoever was helping Ray in the penguin enclosure. I frowned as I suddenly realised it probably wasn’t just by chance that they’d known where the blind spots were, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed to me that it was someone he knew who had done it. They’d had to get close enough to him to either drop, or swing the sledgehammer - depending whether you subscribed to the ‘accidental death but too scared to admit to it’ theory, or murder. They’d also known where the light switches were to turn the lights off when they left and they’d done so out of habit. So where did that leave the theory about the animal rights peoples’ involvement? Perhaps Ray’s death was completely unrelated.
I shook my head again and started pulling down the posters, feeling sorry for both Colin and Ray Myers’ memory. All Colin was guilty of, was working in the dairy industry and daring to prosecute a group of activists who had broken into his farm with the misguided intention of freeing the cows. They’d let them loose and they’d promptly run onto a motorway, killing both cows and motorists. It was a terrible tragedy which had resulted in lengthy prosecutions for the perpetrators. It had somehow turned Colin into animal rights public enemy number one, for daring to seek justice.
People were going to be very angry when they found these posters. Tensions were already running high at the zoo, with wild theories flying around about how far the activists were willing to go for their cause. The police had so far failed to share any progress on Ray’s case and I suspected it would be the same story with this new incident. The animal rights group would have found a stranger and paid them to do their dirty work. Their face on CCTV would mean nothing and the group would gleefully deny any involvement.
I crumpled up my tenth poster and binned it, nodding to members of the shop team who I saw doing the same. A death, a vandalised car, and now these hate posters… something was bubbling away at the zoo and I didn’t think it would be long before the pot spilled over.
Beams of late afternoon sunshine sliced through gaps between wooden slats, illuminating thousands of tiny dust particles in the barn. I stopped poking my head around the corner and risked a silent step forwards. At least… it had seemed silent to me. There was the usual flurry of activity as the feral cats retreated b
ehind their bales.
“Come on, it’s not as if I’m the one who is responsible for making sure you get fed and survive! Oh. Wait.” I muttered as I rounded the corner carrying a fresh bowl of cat food.
Not all of the cats had fled. That was because one of them wasn’t able to do much running at the minute.
“My, my, you are pregnant!” I said, placing the bowl down and dashing over to the rotund black cat. It did its best to slink away at top speed, but top speed wasn’t much at the moment, so I was able to untie the sweater from my waist and nab her.
Once four of the five pointy ends were safely encased in the sweater (which I very much doubted would ever be the same again) I gently felt her tummy and noted the movement within. I was no vet by any means, but I thought I felt four separate moving lumps. While I did this, the black cat actually settled down and sat still, albeit in a sulk. I risked a stroke of the head and was tolerated. A second later I heard a purr.
The cat and I stared at one another.
“How embarrassing for you,” I said, releasing the cat’s legs from captivity and letting her slink off into the shadows again. I wasn’t fooled. Much as this cat coveted the feral lifestyle, I suspected I actually had a disgruntled ex-pet on my hands.
“Well, I won’t take you back, but I’ll keep checking to make sure you and the kids are doing okay,” I said, figuring she would probably give birth in the next 48 hours. Again, I was no vet, but she looked really fat. I sucked my cheeks in and reflected that judgements like this one were the reason why I was never invited to baby showers.
I was smiling when I walked back out into the sunshine. I strolled along the slim pathway I’d worn in the grass from my regular trips to visit the cats, attention fixed on the blue sky and not the gaggle of sheds and outbuildings that stood opposite the entrance to the main storage warehouse.