by Billy Wells
Suddenly Norma remembered how Chester had mentioned Goliath, when she’d asked Chester about why the park was closed. Was that what he’d said? She still wasn't sure.
When she opened the door to the medical wing, she found Chester sitting at a desk in front of the cages. He held a stainless steel hatchet in his right hand. Chester continued to stare into space and didn't move a muscle as she stood in the doorway, boiling over with hatred, yet apprehensive at what he planned to do with the hatchet.
Unable to control her anger any longer, she started screaming at him, tears streaming down her face. “Why did you kill my parents, and where are the seven employees who came to work this morning? Did the animals get them too?”
He looked up at her and, with no expression, said, “They're all dead. I put poison in their coffee. It was easy. I volunteered to go for takeout at McDonald's. When I came back, I stopped in the employee lounge and put some insecticide in each cup. Harry ordered orange juice instead of coffee, but the poison still worked just fine.”
“Why did you do such a horrible thing? Did Atlas tell you to do it?”
“You were right. I forgot to close the door to the enclosure last night. When the movie people came this mornin’, the big cats musta caught ’em by surprise as they got out of their van. When I came at eight, I saw pieces of ’em scattered all over the back lot.”
“Who was the man down by the road?”
Chester continued with the same emotionless tone, still smiling like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. “One of ’em got away. He almost made it to Springfield Avenue when Goliath caught him. You shoulda seen the way tore him up. It was awful.”
Norma shuddered at the thought, knowing what Goliath could do to a side of beef. Chester stopped smiling, bit his lip nervously, and continued. “Atlas said, if I wanted to save the animals, I had to get rid of the bodies. He said we couldn’t let the police ID the man right away ’cause they’d know he came from over here. He handed me a chainsaw and told me to saw off what was left of the head and the hands. I was trying to dispose of the rest when Rita smelled the blood and dragged it away from me. I barely escaped with my life. Before I got back to get it, the police found it.”
“Chester, you'll never get away with this.”
He looked at her, and, with new resolve and a devilish grin, he said, “If the zoo stays closed one more day, I might.”
“What do you mean? What difference would that make?”
“I cleaned up the pieces Goliath and the leopards didn't eat, and fed the leftovers to the wolves, the hogs, and the coyotes. There ain’t no trace of their bodies now. All I gotta do is get rid of you and the station wagon, and I’m home free.”
Norma looked into his cold eyes and saw them fix on her. She knew what was coming and retreated into the main lobby.
She quickly raced behind the glass enclosure containing Mogambo as Chester came barreling after her with the hatchet. With no hesitation, Norma unlatched the glass door on top of the python’s cage, and, taking the door in both hands, she twisted it off its hinges.
As Chester bounded toward her with the weapon poised to strike, Norma swung the glass door with all her might into him. Chester threw up his arms to protect himself, and the heavy glass striking his elbow sent the hatchet skittering across the floor. While he writhed in pain from the blow, Mogambo slithered through the cage opening on top and onto the floor.
Norma wasted no time running through the employee lounge, the timecard room, and the exit door to the outside. Rita and Ralph were still clawing at the side window of her parents’ station wagon. She heard the roar of a helicopter overhead and saw the flashing lights of several police cruisers speeding from Springfield Avenue into the Arena parking lot. In the sky, a man in a black uniform in the chopper pointed a rifle in her direction as the aircraft descended rapidly onto the asphalt.
She didn't hear the maniacal screaming of Chester advancing toward her with the hatchet poised above his head to strike. Nor did she see his body contort in a final death dance as an automatic weapon peppered him with a barrage of bullets from the helicopter. Turning, she only saw Chester’s blood-soaked body slumping to the ground, and the frightened leopards running deeper into the woods behind the zoo.
Mason parked behind the monster machine and Norma's parents’ battered car. Grabbing his phone as he got out of his Crown Vic, he punched in some numbers. When the person answered, Norma heard him request the EMTs to come on the double to the Treasure Trove Zoo parking lot. Putting away his phone, he turned toward her and said with a sheepish grin, “Do you still think we're looking for a monster?”
Norma threw her arms around him and began to cry. Mason didn’t understand why she was so distraught until she told him about her parents. After a lengthy period of heavy sobbing, she regained her composure enough to tell Mason what had happened. “Chester Tull forgot to close the gate when he fed the big cats last night.” She paused to sniffle into a handkerchief Mason had given her and then continued. “When the people making the movie got out of their van, Goliath, a huge tiger that weighs over seven hundred pounds, and two leopards ate them for breakfast.”
“How many of them were there?” Mason asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I believe there were five. One made it all the way across the parking lot before one of the cats got to him. He’s the one they found near the highway.”
“What happened to his head and his hands?”
“Chester told me he chain-sawed them off, trying to keep the police from identifying him.”
“What a lamebrain,” Mason barked.
“Chester was actually mentally challenged,” Norma explained.
“I'll say,” Mason growled. “And where is he now?”
“A policeman shot him from the chopper when he tried to kill me with a hatchet.”
“Where are all the animals?”
“I guess they’re running loose in the neighborhood.” Norma started to sob again.
Someone screamed from behind the building. Mason pulled out his phone and told his partner, now standing beside him, “Alert the others that dangerous wild animals—tigers, lions, and leopards—have escaped from the Treasure Trove Zoo. Get the animal control people down here ASAP. Until then, shoot to kill any animal you come upon.”
Norma was extremely sad to think Chester’s forgetfulness might lead to the deaths of all the big cats at the zoo.
A rescue squad vehicle sped across the parking lot and pulled up beside Mason's Crown Vic. The officer escorted Norma away from her parents’ station wagon as several firefighters proceeded to lift the wreckage onto a flatbed truck with a derrick and crane. Norma noticed several police officers combing the area with rifles.
“Is there anything else you can tell me before you leave? Your grandparents are waiting to take you home,” Mason said grimly.
“Actually there are a few more things you should know,” Norma replied and then blew her nose.
“What might they be?” Mason said, withdrawing a notebook.
“Chester poisoned the Treasure Trove Zoo employees who showed up for work this morning, hacked them up, and fed them to the wolves, the hogs, and the coyotes.”
“You’re shittin’ me,” Mason groaned.
“I wish I were,” Norma replied. “He thought, by closing the zoo today and tomorrow, it would give the animals time to eat up all the evidence. He probably never got around to picking up all the body parts of the movie crew for fear he would be attacked himself. I don't know which employees came to work today, but I probably know some of them, since I worked here for two summers.”
Mason called to the EMT driver who was about to pull away. “You might tell whoever needs to know there may be people coming into the emergency room who have been attacked by a lion or a tiger. Several have escaped from Treasure Trove Zoo.”
“Wow, we’ve never had anything like this before,” the driver said excitedly. “I'll tell the powers that be.”
; Mason’s partner put down his phone and reported, “We contacted the animal rescue people, and they're on their way. I called the precinct. They're sending some high-powered rifles they say would bring down a dinosaur.”
By the end of the day, Mogambo was back in his tank, and Ralph and Rita were back in their enclosures, chewing on slabs of raw meat like nothing had happened. One lion named Tarzan seemed lonely as he gobbled up his slab of some kind of mystery meat in his cage. The police had wounded the male and female lions that shared enclosure, and later, mercifully, had put them down.
The next morning, the headline on the front page of The Gazette read Goliath at Large in Mount Glory. A picture of an enormous tiger that would make Stephen King shudder was below the headline. For the rest of the week, everyone in the community thought twice about stepping foot from their car onto the sidewalk. The stores on Main Street were all but deserted. The fast-food restaurants had an occasional straggler who came off the interstate not knowing about Goliath. The schools closed, and no commuters waited along Springfield Avenue for the bus to pick them up.
Finally, after one week, people started returning to their routines. Life had to go on, in spite of the possibility Goliath might emerge from hiding and slaughter someone. But, during that time, police officers patrolled the area day and night, armed with their high-powered firearms. People walking outside were the exception, not the rule.
After another month passed without consequence, the search for the tiger ended, and everything returned to normal. Small children frolicked in the schoolyards and in the parks. New York–bound commuters stood in long lines along Springfield Avenue, waiting for the bus.
Norma tried not to think about that horrible day at Treasure Trove Zoo, but the nightmare would haunt her for the rest of her life.
* * *
Ten years later, while sightseeing for three days in the nation's capital with her husband and three children, Norma’s oldest child, Aidan, begged her to go with them to the National Zoo on their final day. They hired a babysitter, recommended by the hotel, to care for four-year-old Brian, who had a slight fever, while they were gone.
Because of her Treasure Trove Zoo experience, seeing wild animals was not Norma's favorite thing to do, but, because her kids wanted to seen animals up close, she relented. Everything began as another wonderful day in Washington, D.C. The cherry blossoms were blooming, and the weather was perfect for a family outing. After having lunch at a hot dog stand, they came to a huge tiger enclosure. One of the tigers was lying in the sun not far from the row of steel bars along the viewing area as Norma and her family approached. As soon as she saw the massive beast, she stood transfixed as memories of that terrible day long ago painfully returned. She saw the bloody body parts of Logan strewn about the leaves and the phone ringing in his severed hand. She shuddered and closed her eyes, trying to erase the gut-wrenching images from her thoughts.
When she finally started to return to the present and opened her eyes, the huge tiger that had been lying in the sun had moved menacing close and now stood staring at her only a few feet inside the bars.
Todd, her husband, raced to her side, grabbed her, and pulled her away, shouting at her like a child. “Norma, you were standing too close. Didn’t you see that tiger coming right at you? If I didn't know better, I’d think he knows you somehow.” Todd’s expression softened as he leaned forward and kissed her. “Could you have been a female tiger in another life?” he said in jest.
“Sorry, darling, I was just lost in a daydream for a moment.”
“Are you okay? You've got goose bumps all over your arms, and your lip is trembling.”
“I'm okay. Check on the kids, will you?”
As Norma looked into the tiger’s cold, deadly eyes, she knew she had seen them before at Treasure Trove Zoo. There was no doubt in her mind. It was Goliath. And then another face from the past surfaced in the tiger’s feeding area.
A short muscular man, who seemed as wide as he was tall, with only one arm, shouted, “Come and get it.”
All three tigers meandered toward the man Norma knew as Atlas, the animal trainer who had disappeared that fateful day when her parents had been murdered. The authorities thought he might have been another victim of the animal attacks but had no conclusive evidence to confirm it.
She watched him as he pitched meat onto the ground in the cordoned-off area. Norma would never forget the day Goliath had attacked Atlas and had taken his arm. She’d never seen so much blood.
Suddenly the thought struck her that the trainer may have purposely taken Goliath to sell him to a zoo in another city. Could he have left the cage door open to create a diversion? A tiger like Goliath would probably cost more than $20,000. Would Atlas have orchestrated the whole sordid affair that ended up killing seventeen people and two lions for such a measly sum, or was it solely to get revenge for the loss of his arm? The zoo had been closed for almost a month, and attendance had been extremely poor for months afterward. In fact, there was a rumor the zoo was going bankrupt, but that never came to pass.
A cold shiver ran up her spine as her eyes focused, and she found herself staring into the creepy eyes of Atlas. When he realized she had recognized him, he tipped his hat and gave her a big gapped-toothed grin. Then he pointed to her husband and her two children standing right beside her, drew the finger of his one hand across his throat, and grinned even more broadly. Norma was thankful Todd and the children had focused on the monkey cage and didn’t see him.
She looked toward Todd and her precious children as the red-faced, muscle-bound piece of shit continued to leer at her and point his imaginary gun at the people she loved most in the world. She stood paralyzed with fear at the blatant threat. Finally she turned toward her family and quickly ushered them away. She felt the hungry eyes of the tiger and the horrid trainer following her every step as she and her family got farther and farther away.
They stayed awhile longer, but, after Norma complained of a terrible migraine, they chose to return to the hotel. During the fifteen-minute cab ride, Norma remained silent and decided not to mention Atlas or Goliath to Todd. She feared that his damn-the-torpedoes attitude to do the right thing regardless of the consequences might be foolhardy for all of them. She could see him picking up the phone and blowing the whistle on Atlas, even though he didn’t have a shred of evidence to back it up. She wondered if Atlas was following them to the hotel. He’d had all the time in the world since it had taken so long for them to hail a taxi.
When they finally arrived back in their room and the babysitter had left, Todd, with an unhappy expression, asked, "What was that all about? We'd only arrived at the zoo when you wanted to leave. I have the uncanny feeling you made up that migraine after we saw the tiger. Am I right, darling?”
“You saw the huge tiger coming toward me at the fence when I was daydreaming?”
“Yes, I couldn't believe you just stood that close to the bars, only inches away from the god-awful thing.”
Norma was surprised when she heard herself blurt out, “It was Goliath, the tiger who disappeared the day my parents and all those people were killed.”
“Goliath? That was ten years ago. How can you be sure it was him after all this time?”
“Trust me, I'd know him anywhere. And what's worse, Atlas, his trainer from Treasure Trove Zoo, is here with him, and he threatened me.”
“He threatened you? I didn't see anyone near you when you were standing by the fence.”
“He didn't approach me, but he sent me a message about what he would do if I called the police.”
“What was the message?”
Norma drew her finger across her neck and, pointing toward her precious children, she pulled the trigger on an imaginary gun.
“The bastard. We can't let him threaten us, and we can’t let him get away with murdering all those people. You always said he was the one who must have orchestrated the whole fiasco at the zoo.”
“You should've seen the grin on his face
, darling. It made my blood run cold.”
“He won't be so bold when he's behind bars for the rest of his life,” Todd ranted, just the way Norma thought he would.
“Please! Do you think there would be enough evidence to even have a trial? I don't know for sure he really did it. I have no idea what his motive might have been, unless it was about the Workmen's Comp claim or to get even with the zoo’s management. If we bring in the authorities, and they can't convict him, he's sure to come after us.”
“Why not call the lead investigator? What was his name? Mason—that was it. See what he says. If he doesn't think there's enough evidence to convict him, we'll drop it. Call Mason.”
“Christ, Todd, it's been ten years. He may be retired by now.”
“I saw his picture in the paper. He didn’t look that old to me. You'll regret not pursuing this for the rest of your life if you don't call. I guarantee it,” Todd said self-righteously.
Norma knew she wouldn’t hear the end of this, so, against her better judgment, she searched via Google for the number, picked up the phone, and called. The dispatcher answered, "Mount Glory Police Department."
“I'd like to speak to Lieutenant Mason. It’s been a long time since we talked. I hope he’s still active.”
After a lengthy hesitation and an audible exhale, the dispatcher replied, “I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that Mason was the victim of an animal attack some years ago, and he died from his injuries.”
“I'm sorry, sir. I think you're mistaken. Mason did serve as the lead investigator on the massacre at Treasure Trove Zoo, and you’re right quite a few officers were killed that day, but he wasn't one of them.”
After another pause, the dispatcher continued, “You're right, ma’am. He wasn't killed that day. What did you say your name was?”
“Norma Blaine. I was Norma Osgood when it happened.”
“Aren’t you the one who said she saw a monster in the lake?”
Norma's face reddened as she confessed, “Yes, I'm the one. I know, monsters only exist in the movies. I learned a valuable lesson that day.”