The Cat's Paw

by Kat Shepherd

  CHAPTER

  3

  Sophia pointed to the event sign. “There he is.” She bit her lip. “I think I’ll catch him later. He looks pretty mad right now.”

  Evie followed Sophia’s finger. “Oh, wow. He sure does.” Dr. Chang gesticulated angrily, his arms slicing the air to punctuate his point. His face was flushed. “I wonder who he’s arguing with.” The girls crept closer and hid behind a tree, trying to catch what the disagreement was about.

  “What you are asking me to do is illegal,” Dr. Chang hissed. “Not to mention completely unethical! I don’t care how much money you’re offering; I won’t do it!” The other voice was muffled by the display, but Dr. Chang’s reply was clear. “Don’t you dare come into this zoo and threaten me. This conversation is over!” He turned abruptly on his heel and stalked back to the party.

  Sophia and Evie exchanged a look. “Whoa,” Evie said. “Intense. What do you think that was about?”

  Sophia shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s wait and see who else comes out.” Sophia felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped, startled.

  “There you are, girls,” Mareva said. “The servers are bringing out the first course, and Dr. Chang said he would begin his speech promptly at seven fifteen, so we should find our table.” She shepherded them back to the dining area, where everyone was taking their seats. Sophia tried to see who was missing, but there was too much movement to tell.

  Zach and Vishal squeezed into their seats between the girls. “Thanks again for inviting us, Sophia,” Zach said. “I can already tell it’s going to be an unforgettable night.”

  ***

  After the speeches, guests stood in clusters to have their pictures taken with Dr. Chang and Councilman Brown, who held up his Golden Gorilla Award proudly. The award honored those who had made significant contributions to furthering the mission of the zoo, and Sophia hoped to win it someday. Just before the photographer snapped their picture together, Sophia snuck a peek at Dr. Chang. He was smiling confidently, and she would never have guessed he had lost his temper earlier if she hadn’t seen it for herself.

  After the dinner plates were taken away, the party broke into smaller groups. One gaggle of guests followed a guide to a cart and hopped on. Others chatted with zookeepers and docents who stood holding birds and other small animals. A tall, gray-haired docent with crinkly blue eyes and a name tag that said LANDES stood next to a wooden box with one open side.

  Vishal pointed. “What’s inside the box with that old wig?” The wig shifted slightly and stretched one long arm up to hook onto a wooden pole that extended across the box’s inner walls. The hairy pile shifted some more, and a little face peered out of the long fur. “No way!” Vishal squealed. “It’s so cute!”

  “This is Prudence. She’s a Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, and this is her nest box. It’s one of her favorite places to hang out when she’s in her enclosure.” Landes held out a basket of rose blossoms. “Would you like to feed her?” The kids each took a blossom while Landes told them more about sloths and their habitats. Vishal held the rose blossom near Prudence’s face, and she took it delicately, munching gently as her eyelids blinked and slowly started to close.

  “Uh, is she okay?” Vishal asked.

  Landes chuckled. “She might be dozing off. Sloths sleep a lot to conserve energy. Everything they do is slow. In fact, they don’t ever leave their trees in the wild except to go to the bathroom, and they only do that about once a week.”

  Vishal gaped. “Wait a minute. Sloths only poop like once a week?”

  Landes nodded. “The process of getting down the tree and to their favorite spot can sometimes take hours, so it can be quite dangerous. In fact, over half of all sloth deaths in the wild occur when they’re—”

  “Pooping!” Vishal crowed. He turned to Zach. “Dude! Where’s that Dante guy? We have to tell him about this!”

  Zach’s eyes sparkled. “Right? That is, like, the best game idea ever! You’re a sloth and you have to eat and move around, get down, poop, and get back up again without dying!”

  “And then maybe you get extra points if the poop is like really big?”

  “Yes!” Zach was almost hopping up and down with excitement. “And maybe eating different foods could give you special pooping powers and stuff!” He looked around. “We gotta find Dante!” But the app developer and his girlfriend were nowhere to be seen.

  “They must be over at the rhino exhibit,” Landes explained.

  “The rhino exhibit?” Vishal asked.

  Sophia clapped her hands. “Yes! I am so excited! Tonight, we get to go behind the scenes with Shakti, the zoo’s Indian rhino! Isn’t that amazing? We get to pet her and feed her apples!”

  “Whoa,” Zach said. “We get to . . . pet . . . a rhino?”

  A green cart pulled up and guests filed out, still chattering excitedly about their experience. A waiting docent handed them gift bags, and they milled around, some pausing to grab a last drink or visit the animals. A dark-haired security guard with a long braid smiled as she directed the others toward the tram back to the parking lot.

  Landes pointed at the cart. “Looks like we’re the last group to go.” Sophia ran over to get her parents, and everyone climbed aboard. Dr. Chang slipped into the front seat next to Landes, and the cart moved softly along the darkened path, stopping in front of a nearby barn where light streamed out from the open doorway.

  Inside the barn, a keeper stood in front of a paddock fence that separated the building’s corral and outdoor enclosure from the slop sinks, kitchenette, and hay storage. Just on the other side of the fence, a small gray mountain snuffled curiously at her hand. The mountain blinked her tiny eyes, and her pointed front lip wriggled in search of something to nibble.

  “Welcome, everyone. I’m Roxanne, and this is Shakti, our Indian rhinoceros. She’s a pretty special girl,” the keeper said. “At forty-seven, she’s officially the oldest rhino in captivity. And unofficially, that means she’s the oldest rhino in the world that we know of.”

  “Cool,” Evie said.

  Roxanne ran her fingers lightly over a pinkish bump on top of Shakti’s snout. “You might notice that Shakti doesn’t have a horn. She was diagnosed with cancer in her horn a few years ago. We were able to remove it, and doctors from the University of Minnesota came right here to this barn to give her treatments, so she’s been cancer-free for about two years now. As you can see, her horn is even starting to grow back.” Roxanne patted the rhino’s side and pointed to a cardboard box filled with apples. “Now, who wants to give her a snack?”

  ***

  Zach was still asking Roxanne questions when he heard Evie calling his name. He looked over to find the rest of the group sitting in the cart, ready to go. Landes was gone, and Dr. Chang sat in the driver’s seat and looked impatiently at his watch. “We gotta go, Zach,” Evie called. “It’s almost nine fifteen, and it was supposed to end at nine! Dr. Chang’s gonna take us straight to the parking lot.”

  “Sorry,” Zach said. “I’ll be right there.” He thanked Roxanne and gave Shakti a final goodbye pet, stroking the velvety soft skin beneath the folds of her thick hide. He leaned forward and gave her a gentle peck on her side before scampering back to the cart.

  “Dude, did you just kiss a rhino?” Vishal asked.

  “So what?” Zach said. “Shakti’s awesome. I was scared at first, because I thought rhinos were supposed to be all tough and dangerous, but she was more like a big golden retriever or something.”

  “In many ways the Indian rhinoceros is a gentle giant, but it can certainly be dangerous if it feels threatened or needs to defend its territory. Part of what makes Shakti so special is how comfortable she feels around people. Of course, she’s still a wild animal, and at 3,500 pounds, she could easily hurt someone even by accident. It’s important for all our keepers and guests to follow protocols like protected contact,” Dr. Chang said.

  “That’s why she was behind a fence,” Sophia explai
ned.

  “Too bad,” Vishal teased. “Otherwise, Zach would probably have spooned with her.” Zach laughed and punched Vishal’s arm.

  “Better look out, Vish,” Evie said. “Zach might have a new BFF.”

  “Yeah, dude,” Zach said. “You’ve been replaced.”

  “Never.” Vishal smirked and folded his arms.

  Just then the cart’s radio crackled to life, and Dr. Chang snatched it up. “Could you repeat?” The garbled voice spewed forth a series of numerical codes. “Copy that.” The zoo director’s voice was clipped. “Get the lights set up and ready to go.”

  Evie leaned over to Zach and spoke softly in his ear. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” Zach answered, “but it looks like we aren’t headed home anytime soon.”

  CHAPTER

  4

  Dr. Chang turned away from the exit and drove farther into the darkness of the empty zoo. Everyone in the group was silent and tense, and Vishal could just make out the menacing silhouettes of the nocturnal animals prowling their exhibits as the electric cart sped toward its unknown destination. There was a ghostly roar as they passed a roundhouse, and Vishal jumped. “What was that?!”

  Dr. Chang said nothing. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, the knuckles of his golden-brown hands pale with tension. Sophia glanced at him and shifted nervously in her seat. “I think it’s probably a black howler monkey.”

  “That’s a monkey?” Zach whispered. “It sounds like a dragon!”

  “That’s a much cooler description than what I would have come up with,” Evie said.

  “What do you think it sounds like?” Sophia asked.

  “Someone burping into a microphone.”

  Dr. Chang pulled the cart in front of a high-walled open-air exhibit that was sunken below the path and surrounded by a dry, narrow moat. He jumped out and joined the cluster of staff who were huddled together over the zoo map. Maintenance workers adjusted tall, portable floodlights, directing the beams into the exhibit and the surrounding area. Keepers scoured the hard, dry-packed earth and shone flashlights into the branches of the exhibit’s trees and climbing structures.

  “Oh, no.” Sophia and the others climbed out of the cart. “It’s Marvin. Is he missing?”

  Dashiell Boyd put a sympathetic hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “It looks like it, Soph. But don’t worry; I’m sure they’ll find him. Your mom and I will go see what we can do to help.”

  Vishal cringed. “Are you telling me there’s an escaped animal somewhere?” He backed away, bumping into a tree and rattling the branches overhead. His eyes darted to the source of the sound. “What was that?!” A blossom fluttered down from the tree and landed on his shoulder. He screamed and slapped at himself. “Something’s touching me! Get it off! Get it off!”

  “Relax, dude; it’s only a flower.” Zach held up the delicate pink bloom. “See?”

  “Sorry.” Vishal looked sheepish. “I just really don’t want to get eaten.”

  Sophia’s voice was scathing. “I’m pretty sure you’re safe, Vishal. Marvin’s a red panda.”

  “Pandas are no joke,” Vishal said. “I’ve seen the panda attack videos! There’s one where this panda grabs a guy and rips his coat off!”

  Sophia sighed and pulled up a picture on her phone. “This is a red panda.”

  Vishal’s voice went high when he saw the photo of a furry red animal that was only slightly bigger than a house cat. “Aww, it’s so cute, like a little fox bear with a raccoon tail!” He passed the phone to Evie and Zach. “Don’t you just want to boop its little nose so bad?”

  Evie nodded. “Totally. That is a face with a super-boopable nose.” She returned Sophia’s phone. “I hope they find him soon. Has he ever gotten out before?”

  Sophia shook her head. “The exhibit was designed for him. He shouldn’t be able to get out unless a keeper left a door open or something.” She gestured to a uniformed zookeeper who was meticulously combing through the exhibit, pausing every so often to talk into a radio. “But Nikki’s been working with Marvin since the zoo rescued him. I can’t imagine her making a mistake like that.”

  Zach eyed one of the taller trees in the open-air enclosure. “Maybe one of the branches got too long and he was able to climb out that way?”

  The others shrugged. “Maybe,” Evie said.

  Just then, there was a cry from Marvin’s enclosure. Nikki’s flashlight illuminated something in the wet sand near Marvin’s drinking pool, and the other staff members crowded around to see, blocking the kids’ view from above.

  Dr. Chang shook his head grimly and left the group to speak into the ear of one of the security guards. She had a long, dark braid, and Evie recognized her from the party earlier. She conferred briefly with the Boyds before striding briskly over to where the kids were trying to peer into the exhibit. The rest of the staff started to disperse, their faces worried and sad.

  The guard smiled apologetically. Her name tag read KRISTIN TONGSON, and she had a large ring of keys clipped to the belt of her uniform. “Sorry about the detour. Dr. Chang asked me to give you a lift back to your car.”

  “What did they find inside the exhibit?” Sophia asked anxiously. “Is Marvin okay?”

  “It’s too soon to know anything yet,” Officer Tongson said, her expression noncommittal. She gestured to the nearby cart where Sophia’s parents sat, talking quietly to each other. “Your gift bags are waiting for you at the zoo entrance, so don’t forget to grab them on your way to your car.”

  Dashiell and Mareva huddled closer together, and Dashiell patted the seat beside him. “Here, Sophie Bear. Why don’t you squeeze in with us?” he said.

  Sophia froze and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why? What’s wrong?”

  Mareva’s eyes widened in an expression of innocence. “There’s nothing wrong.”

  “Yes, there is,” Sophia said. “You guys haven’t called me Sophie Bear since I was little except when there’s something wrong, like when you told me Grandpa Boyd had cancer.”

  Dashiell chuckled uncomfortably. “I guess you all don’t call yourselves the Gemini Detective Agency for nothing.” His voice softened. “Why don’t we talk about it in the car?”

  Sophia put her hands on her hips. “No. I’m not a baby, you guys. If there’s something bad you need to tell me, I’d rather hear it now.”

  “I think I know what it is,” Zach said quietly. He pointed into Marvin’s empty enclosure.

  CHAPTER

  5

  Vishal and the twins rode their bikes to Sophia’s house the next morning. When the keeper’s flashlight had illuminated a bobcat paw print in Marvin’s exhibit the night before, it seemed to confirm everyone’s worst fears: that the adorable little panda had become a hungry bobcat’s dinner. Sophia had been pale and quiet during the car ride home, and her friends were worried about her. Sophia spent almost all her free time at the zoo, and they knew she had grown attached to most of the animals there.

  Evie wheeled her bike to the edge of the driveway and tapped the kickstand. “I hope she’s okay.” She took off her neon-green helmet and rested it on the handlebars. “Remember how upset she was when Ben the spider monkey died of old age? She still can’t talk about him without crying.”

  “I know,” Zach said somberly. “She keeps a framed photo of him in her locker next to a red heart magnet that says ‘Miss U.’ It makes me so sad whenever I see it.” He leaned his bike against a tree and hooked his yellow helmet’s chin strap carefully around the seat.

  Vishal dumped his dirt-covered bike unceremoniously on the ground and dropped his helmet on the grass next to it. “And then knowing that Marvin probably got eaten by that wild bobcat she loves?” He shuddered. “That is, like, therapy-level stuff.” He jumped up to touch a low-hanging branch. “So. Many. Feelings.”

  The Sophia who greeted them at the door wasn’t the swollen-eyed, tearstained girl they were expecting. Instead she looked fresh-faced and composed, every
brunette hair of her sleek, blunt-cut bob perfectly in place. “Oh, hey. Glad you guys are here. Come on in.” Her friends looked at one another in surprise and followed her up the curving grand staircase and along the wide upstairs hallway to her room.

  “You seem like you’re in a good mood,” Zach said carefully.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Sophia asked.

  “Well, I don’t know. . . . I guess we thought you might be upset after last night. You know, like with what happened with Marvin and B-17 and everything.”

  Sophia flopped down on the white canopy bed in the middle of the room. “Oh, that’s old news.”

  “What are you talking about?” Evie asked, sinking into a pink velvet armchair. “It happened just last night.” Zach and Vishal sprawled onto the matching sofa, and Vishal immediately kicked off his shoes and stretched out his long legs onto a furry, blush-pink ottoman.

  Sophia pulled a gold-colored laptop out from under a pile of throw pillows on her bed. “Well, yeah, I was pretty upset at first, but then I started researching, and you’ll never guess what I found. Check this out.” She tapped a few keys and pulled up an article to show them. “Did you know that red pandas are amazing escape artists? A red panda named Rusty escaped from his exhibit in 2013, and they found him hiding in a bush a day later. I’m sure Marvin just did the same thing.” She nodded confidently. “I bet they’ll find him really soon.”

  Zach and Evie looked at each other. “But,” Evie said hesitantly, “what about the paw print? What about B-17?”

  Sophia shook her head. “I don’t think it was her. She’s only ever eaten rabbits.”

  “Okay,” Zach said. “But we did see her near the zoo last night.”

  Sophia sighed, exasperated. “She was only exploring. Her paw print was right by the water pool, right? She probably popped into Marvin’s enclosure for a quick drink of water, and that got him all freaked out so he escaped. I mean, why would she eat him?”