by Ruby Loren
Detective Toyne joined me a few moments later.
“We received information from Lowell Adagio that you were likely being kept against your will at this property. We’re arresting them both, but it would be good to know who did it." He looked at me curiously.
“I wish I knew,” I said with a shrug.
I spent the next several hours at the police station going over everything that had happened. When asked, I'd explained that Zara believed Darren was responsible for everything that had happened but Darren had in turn claimed that she’d rigged the step for him to fall though.
I’d been left on my own with only a cup of coffee for company for what felt like forever. I’d just started to believe that I was going to be arrested myself, when Toyne walked back in.
“What happened?” I said, not really expecting an answer.
“What you've told us is the story that they’re sticking to. We were going to separate them for questioning, but when they were in the same room at the start, they just starting ripping into each other and the whole story came out. All we had to do was ask a few questions and then listen to them argue over the answers,” Toyne said, shaking his head. “Not a nice couple to be around.”
I poked at my coffee and nodded.
“We figured out what happened to Tom. It was one of the things they argued about. Apparently, he must have spotted Darren with a live rat trap at some point. It’s not that unusual, but when you found that dead rat in the tree, we’re guessing it looked a little more suspicious after the murder and the story about a stalker came out,” Toyne said, with a raised eyebrow. “Tom must have done a little detective work after things had hotted up, but he left footprints in the mud, leading back to his house. Darren must have realised he knew something and killed him.”
“Did he admit to that?” I asked, feeling confused.
Toyne shrugged. “Sort of. Zara accused him of killing the police officer and using their cheese cutting wire to do the job. Apparently she recognised it, but didn’t bother to share that information back when it happened.”
“What about Jayne?” I asked, still trying to wrap my head around the horrible happening at the community hall.
“We think he wanted Zara to be the one to find the body, so she'd be really scared. Perhaps he might have finished it there and then if she’d come out. This guy is seriously unhinged. Anyway, we believe he wedged the door after Lyra interrupted him, and he took off when he heard the rest of you come back. Alex did actually call him, so then he had a perfect excuse to turn up and find out how much he'd succeeded in scaring Zara.”
I thought back to the murder and remembered Zara being shaken but stoic. “He seemed pretty upset by it himself,” I remembered. “But I’m guessing it was because she wasn’t as scared as he’d wanted.”
Toyne nodded. “That sounds about right. By the way, we looked back through Tom's planning diary. There was a note reading ‘Step - Z’ on the day when Darren fell through the step. We didn't think anything of it at the time. It sounded like the name of a rapper, or something. Looking back, it’s obvious that Tom knew quite a lot about what was going on in the house next-door.”
“He got hung up on the story and forgot about the crime," I said, unable to summon up much sympathy. This had, after all, been a man who'd wanted to destroy my career.
“Yup, I think he just wanted to see how things played out and didn't realise he was a pawn in one of their games," Toyne agreed.
“Zara admitted he stabbed himself to throw off the police,” I commented.
Toyne didn’t look surprised.
“She said she found the blade in the Halloween maze. That was what she wanted me to kill him with. It would probably have had older traces of blood still on it.” I looked up at him. “She told me we’d claim I killed him in self-defence, but I suspect she was hoping to claim I was responsible both for his murder and the stabbing incident the previous day. It would have meant she could keep playing the victim - at my expense,” I finished.
“We think we've got most of the story out of them now. I just can’t believe I missed it for so long. I thought it was Zara, drawing attention and sympathy, but they turned out to be just as bad as each other. What a toxic couple.”
“Hey, did you find out who let the lions out?” I asked.
Toyne shook his head. “We did ask, but neither of them wanted to accuse the other of that little act. I suppose it will remain a mystery.”
“Hmm,” I said, noncommittally. Now that I knew Zara and Darren weren't responsible, I thought I had a shrewd idea as to the identity of the masked figure wearing the clown mask, which the CCTV had captured. For someone who’d claimed I was at the zoo to get her fired, she’d done all she could to ensure that was the end result. I thought I also knew the identity of the second clown, with the dark red hair, that she’d undoubtedly planned it with.
Detective Maynard threw the door open and strode into the room. She zeroed in on Detective Toyne, and I wasn’t even sure she noticed I was sitting behind the desk.
“Why are our incriminated couple both claiming they recognise you from Leeds, when you were working on their case?” She said, her voice dropping to an enraged hiss at the end of the sentence.
It was a question to which she already knew the answer.
Toyne wriggled in his chair. I can't say I felt too sorry for him.
“Thanks so much, Madi. I don’t know what we’d have done without you,” Mr Johnson said, reaching out and shaking my hand.
I’d managed to complete my review of the zoo during a long evening of work after being released from the police station. The Johnsons had rightly immediately dispensed with the PR company as soon as news of what Zara and Darren had been up to had broken. However, that hadn't stopped the press from coming in to investigate the couple's ‘hunting ground’ as they’d referred to the zoo.
I’d kept my head down when they’d arrived and had been glad that my name hadn't been mentioned in conjunction with the Banks couple or ZaZa PR.
Lyra had popped by to wish me goodbye and had been promptly pounced on by Jules. It would seem that Lyra's talent for dealing with complaints had been noted and now that she was out of a job, the Johnsons wanted to employ her to help Jules deal with all of the press that was going to come out of this.
“I think I can spin it to the zoo’s advantage,” Lyra had told me after accepting the job on the spot right in front of me.
“If I ever need someone to spin things in my favour with the press, I’ll give you a call,” I’d told her, only half-joking.
I smiled at the Johnsons and reminded them to get the vet to check the lions for any signs of pregnancy. If I wasn’t much mistaken, it wouldn’t be long before Pendalay Zoo had their first new arrivals in a long time.
As was my custom, I walked through the zoo one last time to wish goodbye to the animals I’d spent the last few weeks working intensively with.
Pendalay now felt more like a zoo and less like a prison.
I smiled a little as I remembered something the Johnsons had told me during our final meeting. After seeing the way people reacted to pictures of the animals before the intervention, they'd realised they'd been touched too. They weren’t going to take on too much before the animals they had in their care had recovered, but they’d confided in me their future plans to be more of an animal sanctuary, and less of a zoo.
I thought that was a rather good happy ending.
12
Ends and Beginnings
My phone rang the next morning. I’d packed the car and had just put Lucky back into his carrier for the journey. Lowell was going to continue renting the property for ‘as long as it took' in his words. I hadn’t even bothered asking him to elaborate.
I saw the unknown number and answered, hoping it might be a new job.
“Hi, Madi, it’s Jordan, your literary agent and brand new friend,” he said and then cleared his throat. "Sorry, that was a bit weird, wasn't it?”
In
spite of the mixed moods I was feeling right now, I smiled. Jordan was so stunning in real life, it was rather nice to find he struggled with the social side.
“What’s up, Jordan?” I asked.
“Lots of things! Lots of good things. I sent your comic off, which was pretty easy by the way. I just sent them a link to your site and told them how well you did with your crowd funding campaign. Five out of five publishers got back to me saying they are really interested and want to meet you in person.” I heard him hesitate. “The thing is… with fiction, you’re usually just selling the story. We are most definitely selling your fabulous comics, but then there's you. Non-fiction books tend to be sold by leading people within their field. But you’re a leading expert in zoos - which you made into a comic! I think the publishers want to meet you because they're thinking of promoting the whole package. They’ll focus on you, and that's what’s going to sell the comics they commission. In fact, I think they may have ideas beyond just the comics. Have you ever thought about writing your experiences down?”
I thought about what had happened to the last person I’d met who’d tried to make a living writing non-fiction. “I can't say it’s ever appealed to me.”
“Well, we’ll see. It’s lots to talk about anyway!” he said, unperturbed by my less than enthusiastic response. “You’re going back to the South East, right?”
“Yes, for a bit. I'm not actually sure what I’m going to be doing next. I don't have another big consulting job lined up,” I told him.
“I'm already back there. My holiday finished a couple of days ago. If you don't have a big job, now could be the time to jump on this publishing thing. It could be good," he said, tentatively.
“I’ll call you when I’m back and we can set up some meetings,” I said, deciding to throw him a bone.
“That’s brilliant! It was nice chatting to you, speak soon!”
"Who was that?” Lowell said, walking into the kitchen with an empty bottle of juice in his hand.
“My new literary agent," I said. And then, just because I couldn’t resist… “He's called Jordan. He's a really nice guy. Apparently, he has five publishing companies interested in my work.” I hesitated. "I'm not sure if I’m going to accept anything though,” I confessed.
Jordan had definitely implied that the publishers wanted me to take a lot of the limelight. I'd been worried enough about having my name on a print book, but to have my face and life thrust out there too… I didn’t think I was looking for that.
"When did you get offered a deal by this agent?” Lowell asked, not sounding too pleased about it.
“A week or so ago. I was going to tell you but things weren’t so great between us," I said.
I didn’t need to add that they weren't so great between us now either. I still wasn’t sure I could forgive Lowell for passing on the message to the police that I might be in trouble, but being too busy to bother to find out himself - or even try to call me hours after it had happened!
“So you decided not to tell me?” he said, visibly annoyed.
"Well, I just thought keeping secrets was ‘our thing’ now. I figured you didn’t need to know.” I glared at him, hating myself for being mean, but hating him just as much for making me into something I didn't want to be.
"I've told you why I can't tell you things! It's bad enough that you know as much as you do,” Lowell said.
“And I've told you that I’m not okay with not knowing stuff about you. According to that writer guy, you don’t even exist anywhere until three years ago. There are no records about what you were up to before then. Is your name even Lowell?” I asked, but held my hand up when he opened his mouth to answer. “You know what? I don’t want to know. You tell me everything, or you don’t."
I waited, but he stayed silent.
“I think it’s time we took a break," I said, feeling the weight of the words as they dropped out of my mouth.
I waited once more for him to say something - anything - that would change my mind, but he didn’t. All he said was ‘okay’ before he placed the juice bottle on the kitchen unit and walked out of the room.
I watched him go and then left the house. It was time to leave Cornwall and despite the success of Pendalay Zoo, I couldn’t say I was sorry to be going back home.
“Looks like it’s just you and me again, Lucky," I said, to the kitten in the carrier case. He stayed quiet and I nodded, sitting in silence myself.
Until my phone rang.
I pulled into a lay-by and answered the call without looking at the caller ID.
“Grandad has just died. Can you please… I was just wondering, could you maybe come back soon? I think I need some help.”
I heard my breath catch in my throat. “I'm already on my way back, Auryn. I’ll be with you very soon. It's going to be okay,” I added, hoping that statement would turn out to be true.
I hoped it would, for both our sakes.
The Peacock’s Poison
1
Curiosity Caked the Cat
Autumn always seems to pass too quickly, I reflected.
I was sitting in the Gigglesfield church, listening to the reverend recap Mr Avery Senior’s long and interesting life, when the thought popped into my head. Thinking about it, life was much the same. You spend forever wanting to get to the destination you have in mind, and when you’re finally there, you realise winter is just around the corner.
I shivered and tried to focus on what the reverend was saying. This service was a memorial for Charles Avery, not a personal pity party for me.
Mr Avery Senior had inherited the farmland the zoo had been built on when his father had died. Prior to setting up a zoo, the family had specialised in rare cow breeds. Even to this day, Avery featured an interesting selection of cows. The reverend mused aloud about what a challenge it must have been to change the pathway of a family business that had been going for generations, and try something new. What courage he must have had! I nodded in agreement along with the rest of the large congregation.
The entirety of Avery Zoo had turned up for Mr Avery’s funeral. Due to the predicted scale of the occasion, it had taken a while to organise his funeral and memorial service. We were now close to the end of November, with Christmas beckoning. I hoped that Auryn Avery, Mr Avery’s grandson - the new owner of the zoo - would be feeling a little more festive in the month to come.
I patted Auryn’s hand and he managed to smile back at me. With Mr Avery Senior gone, Auryn didn’t have any close family left. His father had apparently requested permission to be permitted out of prison to attend the funeral, but for whatever reason, the request had been denied. To be honest, I thought that wasn’t a bad thing. Auryn’s father had been an accomplice to murder and attempted murder. He’d also been caught selling zoo animals on the black market. All in all, there were few people who would have been pleased to see him at Charles Avery’s funeral.
The reverend continued his sermon, asking us all to wish Auryn the very best in continuing to make the same brave decisions his grandfather had done, when he’d first taken that risk and started Avery Zoo. To my surprise, Auryn reached for my hand and held it tightly. I realised the emotion of the situation was getting to him, so I held on tightly in return. I hoped that no one would see us holding hands and be foolish enough to think it was anything more than the solemn nature of the occasion.
My best friend, Tiff, had developed feelings for Auryn, whilst I’d been working on my last animal consulting job in Cornwall. She’d told me that during a planning session for a special arts and crafts day at the zoo, they’d ‘accidentally’ kissed. Unfortunately, since then, Tiff claimed that Auryn had been avoiding her. She’d hypothesised that he might be regretting getting too close to someone he worked with, but I knew Tiff was wrong about that. When I’d had my own ‘accidental’ kiss with Auryn, he’d been only too happy for us to do it again.
I felt a warm blush rise to my cheeks and lowered my head a little further, hoping my cloud of way
ward hair would conceal my strange reaction from Auryn. I also hoped that my hand wasn’t getting too hot, or sweaty, as I mentally revisited our past together.
Technically, I still had a boyfriend.
Lowell and I may not have left each other on brilliant terms, but we’d never said that we were permanently breaking up - just taking a break. I’d hoped that time away from him would make my feelings clearer, but after spending nearly a month apart, I still wasn’t sure what to think.
Lowell had lied to me.
He’d claimed the lies were necessary, due to the classified nature of his job, working as a part time secret agent. I’d been able to understand the initial secrecy, but after I’d figured out the truth, he still hadn’t wanted to confide in me. I didn’t have a huge problem with him keeping the details of his current assignments secret, but I still had my suspicions that Lowell’s meeting me hadn’t been by chance. I knew it sounded like paranoia, but my life had been pretty quiet until Lowell had come into it. Since then, there’d been bodies galore. Was it simply a coincidence, and the world was just on its way to becoming a more violent place? I wasn’t convinced. That was why I had some big trust issues with Lowell. I wasn’t even convinced that our relationship wasn’t a sham for the sake of some mission. Time will tell, I thought, trying to forget about it for now.
It was easier to not focus on Lowell when Auryn was sitting next to me. The twenty-year-old zoo owner was a few years younger than me, but I’d noticed he’d matured what felt like years over the past few months. I was sorry that he’d had to grow up so fast, but I was also proud of my friend. His father had claimed the zoo could never be a success without his black market antics to support it, but Auryn had already proved him wrong. He’d asked the zoo staff to come together and share their ideas, in the hopes of making the running of the zoo a more creative and democratic process.