by Ruby Loren
Julia, on the other hand, did make a lot of sense. I wondered if the police had decided she or her husband-to-be might have had something to do with Jenna’s untimely death? I tried to stop myself from speculating, but it was difficult. It was okay when I thought about it in a logical, clinical way, but as soon as I remembered that for the most part, I knew and liked these people, I found I simply couldn’t believe that anyone who worked at Avery Zoo was capable of murder.
The evidence strongly suggested otherwise.
The recent fire and attempted murder drove it home even further.
“They must have some new evidence that suggests a zookeeper had something to do with… something,” I said, having no idea what I was really saying.
Barnaby gave me a lopsided grin. “Do I need to be careful around you?”
I forced a laugh. “Technically, I’m not a zookeeper here. I’m more of a… helper,” I said, not liking the way it sounded in comparison to ‘consultant’. Boy, did I miss my old job!
“In that case, you may come and visit me in the wonderful Winter Wonderland again, any time you like,” he said, his eyes even warmer than usual.
I felt my own eyes widen a little as I suddenly wondered if this was his subtle way of saying he was interested. Talk about bad timing! I thought. Why was it that half a year ago, my love life had been a desolate wasteland, and yet, suddenly I was spoilt for choice?
The only problem was, I wasn’t certain that either of them were sensible choices, and the only definite choice I’d recently made regarding my love life had turned out to be a very, very bad one.
“I think I should be letting you get on. The police are back, and they’re coming this way,” Barnaby said.
I turned to look and saw that he was right.
When I turned back he was watching me, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Are you sure you’re not involved?” he said, but this time I wasn’t so sure that he was joking.
Officer Kelly and Officer Miles waited until we were back in the relative privacy of the restaurant foyer before they spoke. It was definitely only relatively private, because people did keep popping up and venturing inside to fetch pieces of furniture.
I did my best to ignore them, but Officer Kelly and her partner kept stopping every time they went by.
“Isn’t this the place that had a bomb go off inside it?” she said after a while of this happening.
“Yes, it is,” I said, knowing what was coming next.
“Is the building safe for people to be walking into it like that? I thought the reason we were in the foyer was because everywhere else is dangerous. Should they be moving things around in there?”
I opened my mouth to find an excuse, but I was running dry today. “I’m not sure,” I confessed, wondering who had told the Human Resources and other office staff to get furniture from here. It was probably just people using their initiative. After all, that was what Auryn had encouraged staff members to do. I thought that this time, it might backfire. Especially if the roof collapsed.
“What was it you wanted to ask me? I assume that’s why you came in?” I said, hoping to distract the police from the health and safety code violations that were taking place right behind them.
“There’s some new evidence that’s come to light after questioning some potential witnesses. This is still confidential information. So, can I please ask you not to share it?” Officer Kelly said.
I nodded my head, privately thinking that - if Barnaby was correct about them interviewing the other zookeepers - they’d already told far too many staff members whatever they were about to tell me. It would be common knowledge in no time at all.
“You already know that Jenna Leary’s drink was poisoned by the perpetrator of the crime. We made a bit of a break through when we discovered the poison used was a type of rat poison. It’s some pretty nasty stuff. We brought a couple of the zookeepers in, thinking that they would be the most likely to know if the zoo had used any in the past. A couple weren’t sure, but one of the keepers who’d been working here for a while said you have used rat poison in the past. Is that right?”
“It is. It was the decision of the board under Erin Avery. I never agreed with its use. I was glad when the decision was made to stop using it,” I said.
“Okay,” Officer Kelly said. “That’s confirmation enough for me. Would you be able to show us where the poison is? It needs to be analysed.”
I opened my mouth and shut it again, wondering if this was some kind of trap. “I think I know where it might be. If it still exists, it will be in the caretakers’ storage sheds behind the zoo. That’s where anything like that gets stored.”
“Show us, please,” Officer Kelly said.
We made our grim pilgrimage across the zoo and out behind to where the fields stretched as far as Gigglesfield. I unlatched the door to the shed and the police looked at me in horror.
“It’s not locked?” Officer Miles asked.
I shook my head. “Believe it or not, there’s not a high rate of crime at the zoo. Everything that’s kept out here is basically junk, anyway. It’s the stuff no one would want to steal. Heavy duty cleaning supplies and wood preserve. Bits of rubbish wood and standard gardening tools. Perhaps the poison isn’t here, but I don’t think it would be kept with any of the machinery. All of that’s inside the zoo, next to the food store.” I pointed. “There’s no way anyone smart would put a bag of poison that close to the animals’ food. It’s bad enough if there’s an oil leak. We always have to make sure it hasn’t somehow spread through to the next barn. Can you imagine if there was poison to worry about, too?” I said it with a hint of bitterness in my voice.
We had been forced to worry about food being poisoned by alleged animal rights activists in the past. Then there was the tragic incident which had started it all. A serval had died after eating a rat which had consumed some poison. That had been the final straw for me as far as using the poison went, even though it had later turned out that the serval had been deliberately fed the rat.
I stepped into the shed and looked around. A bag of blue crystals seemed to jump out at me from where it sat on an old wooden workbench at the back of the shed. I made to take a step forwards, but Officer Miles’ hand shot out and stopped me.
“Sorry,” I said, suddenly realising this shed had just become a crime scene. I didn’t need to get closer to see, anyway. The label proclaimed that it was a concentrated formula, suitable for large-scale infestations. Even being this close to it made my skin crawl.
I knew the problems rats could cause. The whole reason the zoo had tried to poison them in the first place was because they’d become a visible nuisance. I’d also witnessed rats preying on vulnerable zoo animals in the past. The general public didn’t like to see things like that when they visited a zoo.
Even so, I’d never thought that poison was the answer. There were so many other solutions available, and as a zoo, we should have been practicing the most humane methods… methods that didn’t result in the death of other animals.
“I’d hoped it had been disposed of,” I admitted to the police officers. The plastic bag looked a bit ragged to me, and I wasn’t convinced these storage sheds were exactly watertight. If that stuff started to leak into the soil…
I caught myself. A disaster had already happened. Someone had probably used the poison we were looking at to kill Jenna.
“Who has access to this shed?” Officer Kelly asked me.
I shrugged. “You saw the tight security measures we have here. Anyone could have got in.” I fiddled with my glasses while I thought about it a little harder. “The caretaking team are the ones who come here the most. The rest of the staff wouldn’t have a reason to go out of the back of the zoo, or even know what was out here. Oh, apart from the zookeepers. We come out here to take food deliveries, and there’s also the feral cats to look after.”
“So, even if this is the poison we’re looking for, there are a lot of people
with regular access to these storage huts, and even someone who wasn’t supposed to be here could have got in?” Officer Miles concluded.
“Exactly,” I agreed, feeling just as sorry as I knew they were. We might have found the source of the poison used to kill Jenna, but finding it hadn’t helped. I hoped that some fingerprints might be found, but after everything else that had been so well planned, I thought it was unlikely. The killer had murdered Jenna at a crowded event, where alcohol would be sure to make memories fuzzier than they already had a tendency to be. To do it, they’d used a poison taken from a place that anyone could access if they wanted to. It was smart, and it didn’t help us get any closer to finding Jenna’s murderer.
“Call it in, Miles. We’d better get forensics to go over the bag,” Officer Kelly said with a defeated sigh.
I looked at the bag for a moment longer, remembering the bright blue colour of the Peacock’s Poison cocktail. It would have been the perfect choice of drink to drop some equally blue poison in. I shivered, remembering I’d had a glass of the very same drink. As I’d said to Auryn on the day of the funeral, being reminded that you were just as mortal as everyone else was not pleasant.
I dropped in to the hospital later that day to check how Lawrence was getting on. I’d intended to call the other day but had been distracted. A visit in person would surely make up for that.
To be honest, I wasn’t too sure that Lawrence would be happy to see me, but I wanted to check on him all the same. Having been the one to drag him out of the office, I felt responsible. I wanted to see how he was recovering from the ordeal.
I walked along the corridor of the ward and turned right where the nurse had pointed out. Seeing Auryn and Claudia inside the room made me wish I’d thought to ask if Lawrence already had visitors.
“How is he?” I asked, hoping that the hospital room would count as some kind of neutral territory.
Lawrence coughed and looked confused. I took a step closer and he seemed to glare at me with recognition.
“I thought I’d check to see how you are,” I said to him, not sure how much of this was getting through.
Lawrence looked at me in suspicion. I knew he was confused, and still suffering from smoke inhalation - as he’d been exposed for longer than I had, and also possessed lungs damaged from years of smoking - but I thought he knew full well who I was and was every bit as disdainful as he’d been in the fire.
Still, in the time after I’d saved him, it had occurred to me that there could be another positive to having dragged him free of the smoke.
“Did you see who set the fire?” I asked, hoping he might be able to sign it out, or something.
Lawrence grunted and Auryn pulled a regretful face at me. Apparently that question had already been asked a few times.
Lawrence looked blankly at the wall before coughing another horrible cough.
“Get better soon,” I said, uncertainly and then left the room.
To my dismay, Claudia followed me.
“Did you know, too?” She hissed once we were outside of the hospital room and she’d shut the door behind her.
“About the will?” I said, guessing that was was what she must mean. Even if she hadn’t known about it before the fire, the police would have undoubtedly told her as part of their questioning.
“Yes, the will!” she said, looking furious. “I left it open on his desk that day, so he’d know I knew what he was up to, but I didn’t mean for the office snoop to stick her nose in. And then reporting me to the police! That’s just telling nasty tales.” Claudia took a step closer but I held my ground.
“I never saw the will,” I told her. “It was someone else who told the police about it.” I cocked my head at her. “But you saw it! Did it make you angry enough to… oh, I don’t know… sneak into the office with a full pack of cigarettes and light them up?”
The police had asked me to keep that a secret but I suspected Claudia had also discovered the truth during her questioning.
“What would my motivation for killing the old man be? You clearly know about the will. I get nothing.” She shook her head. “I should have known he’d pick the Averys over his own flesh and blood! He always preferred the zoo to his real family.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, discovering I truly meant it. “I know it’s none of my business, but Auryn was shocked and upset when he talked about the will. I know he never wanted to take anything away from you and your family.”
Claudia shrugged. “At the end of the day, it’s the old man’s choice.” She looked at me, her dark eyes intense. “And old men have to look after themselves don’t they?”
I nodded my head. “Will Lawrence be coming back to the zoo?”
Claudia shook her head. “Not unless he pays someone to drive him and get him ready. I also think he’s still in shock, and who knows if he’ll recover at his age, or even speak again? He’s not as independent as he likes to make out and now he won’t be getting any further help from us.” All of a sudden a look of guilt flashed across her face. “Don’t let him persuade Auryn to help him either, will you? I started working at the zoo because grandfather thought it would be a good way for me to meet someone I might be interested in, and also because my family thought someone should be keeping an eye on the old devil, but I know Auryn is a good man. What grandfather is doing to my family is wrong, but I don’t blame Auryn for it.” She smiled a little. “After the revelation of the will, I actually need this job more than ever,” she confided.
“Perhaps he’ll change his mind after the near-death experience?” I halfheartedly suggested.
She shook her head. “I think you’ve just seen for yourself how little he’s changed, and you’re the one who saved his sorry life. He’s made his mind up and that’s all there is to it. It’s time for us all to move on with our lives.”
I nodded, wondering if all along I’d been influenced by Lawrence’s bad behaviour when judging his granddaughter. Claudia seemed highly intelligent and reasonable, now that we weren’t competing for chocolates/men.
“I have a career to focus on,” she said, perhaps thinking along the same lines.
“So do I,” I reassured her and we parted ways, perhaps not friends, but at least not enemies any longer.
13
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Jordan had been calling me pretty much daily since he’d got back to the five publishers and arranged the meetings. He always filled me in on the way he thought each of them were developing their offers and how he kept them on their toes by persuading them that the other publishers were going to win the bid if they didn’t make a certain change.
The meetings had been scheduled, but Jordan had insisted we should meet for coffee first, to discuss our battle plan. I’d accepted and we’d arranged to meet today at the zoo itself.
“So, this the place!” Jordan said when he arrived. He looked around like a kid in a candy shop.
“I’ll give you the tour,” I said with a smile. I’d booked the morning off, so I that could show Jordan around. Auryn hadn’t minded in the slightest and had even hinted that he’d love to meet the agent himself. I hoped Auryn was right in thinking that having my comics published and using me to sell them would be good publicity for the zoo, rather than the opposite. I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t make everything come apart at the seams.
“He’s coming in with me,” I told the crowd of festively dressed reception staff and event workers, all trying their best to persuade visitors to the zoo to take a trip to the Winter Wonderland. I noticed they also had the arts and crafts day advertised. New posters were up everywhere, advertising the fact that Tiff and I would be giving ‘an arts and crafts business seminar’.
Jordan spotted my name on the posters. “You’re giving a talk?”
All of a sudden, I remembered he was my agent and that I’d signed a contract with him!
“It’s okay,” he said with an easy smile, reading my face. “I’ll let you off this time. Run it by me next ti
me, but stuff like this is great. Are you getting paid?”
I smiled and shook my head. “I don’t think so. Tiff and I are really doing it as a favour to Auryn to help him make the most of the event. It’s just a little add-on extra.”
Jordan looked at the poster. “That they’re charging money for! That will add up. How many people are going?”
I told him I wasn’t sure, but I thought perhaps a hundred or so for the seminar, so far.
He pointed to the White Trees Christmas Events branding at the bottom of the page. “They’ll be getting a cut. I know you want to help your friend, but you shouldn’t let anyone take advantage of you.” He fixed me with an understanding look from his hazel eyes. “Okay?” he said and I nodded, meekly.
We chatted about all kinds of stuff as we walked through the zoo. Every now and then, he’d stop and point to an animal and ask if such and such really happened.
We made it as far as the penguins when he gave me a questioning look.
I cleared my throat. “It might have happened, although I changed the gender and appearance of the person who may, or may not, have recently let them out.”
“And the slipping down the hill?” Jordan asked with a grin.
I blushed a little. “Nearly happened,” I told him.
We continued our walk around the zoo, chatting away like old friends. I found out just as much about Jordan as he did me. He’d tried to be a writer, but had ended up in the publishing industry as an agent and discovered he loved it. He loved animals and wanted to get a dog, but thought he spent too much time moving around visiting clients to get one.