Chameleons and a Corpse

by Ruby Loren

  “No problem. It’s nice to do something that’s not work,” she said and then blushed, probably realising that catching a crooked couple ransacking a house wasn’t exactly a normal way to pass the time.

  “Auryn and I are tackling the garden at the house soon. When it’s done, you’re welcome to come over. We could have a barbecue, or something. I promise we’ll talk about anything but work,” I reassured her with a twinkle in my eye.

  “That sounds nice,” Katya confessed and I suddenly got the sense of loneliness from her. I thought I understood why. The company meant keeping quiet about your real work and when it came down to it, what people did for work made up a lot of the conversation. I was sure that Katya found it hard to have friends outside of her job, and I certainly didn’t blame her for not having friends within the service. I’d met several of her colleagues and they’d all left a bad taste in my mouth.

  “I’ll call you when I’m next free?” Katya suggested, and I nodded.

  “I’ll call you the next time I need a bodyguard,” I joked back.

  “Next time, you’re paying,” she replied.

  When I arrived back at the house, I was in a remarkably cheerful mood. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed Katya’s company. Even though I was friendly to everyone who worked at my zoo and at Avery, I actually didn’t have many people I would call genuine friends. Tiff and Auryn were my closest friends but Katya and I had definitely bonded through shared near-death experience and crime solving. In spite of everything, I trusted her, and I wanted her in my life. I hoped she meant what she’d said about calling me when she was available.

  The other reason I was feeling perky was due to the presence of Rameses in the backseat of my car. I pulled up outside of Auryn’s family home and noted that the Marsdens’ car was gone.

  “Come on,” I said, letting Rameses out. He followed me meekly across the gravel. Lucky ran out from the side of the house. His tail perked up in the air when he saw us, and he strutted forwards, apparently not even considering that Rameses might be a threat. The dog whined by my side when Lucky approached, but unlike Heinrich, he didn’t lunge forwards but stood his ground. Lucky bumped noses with the dog and then flicked his tail in the Pharaoh Hound’s face.

  “Honestly Lucky, you don’t have to rub it in that you’re the boss dog,” I told my plucky cat. He meowed in response and then trotted off towards the front door. Rameses got up and gently walked after him. Apparently, he’d been accepted as a member of the pack.

  Auryn opened the door before I got there. “What on earth happened at Timmy’s place? The Marsdens marched in and out without so much as a hello or goodbye. Oh my gosh! You found him!” Auryn had spotted Rameses loitering behind me.

  “He scratched at the glass door just after the Marsdens left,” I explained. “Their dog had been out in the garden, Perhaps it encouraged him home.”

  “Thank goodness he's back! I’d better call Scarlett right away.”

  “As for the Marsdens… I already told you what they were up to. After they left, Katya deduced that they hadn't found what they were looking for.”

  “Well! I doubt we’ll be getting a Christmas card from them after all that.”

  “I need to call the police,” I said, realising that, although I hadn’t got a straight answer, the snooping around had definitely added to my suspicions that there was more going on in the Marsden family than I’d ever imagined. Had Lizzie been local on the day that Timmy had died? It could be the final piece of the puzzle.

  I dialled the number of the station and then passed along everything I knew to Detective Gregory, who made a point of thanking me for telling him immediately and surprisingly agreed that while a receipt and a vague witness was hardly evidence, conjecture paired with the house search was definitely encouraging him to consider the possibility of the pair whom no one had suspected.

  “Scarlett asked if we can keep the dog. Apparently because we ‘have zoos, right?’ it will be no trouble at all.” Auryn raised an eyebrow.

  I looked down at the Pharaoh Hound, who was starting to eye Lucky with a lot more interest now that the cat had his back turned. Something told me we might be playing a dangerous game.

  “I suppose we shouldn’t have expected anything else.” Scarlett had perfected the art of delegation. She had Georgina running around trying to get her off the hook as a murder suspect, and now she was using us to care for a dog that by rights should be her problem. I was willing to bet that it was this skill that had made her underwear company such a success. She oversaw everything without actually doing any of the actual grunt work.

  She never got her hands dirty… and that was why I found it very hard to believe that Scarlett Marsden had killed her husband.

  8

  Arts and Crafts

  I woke up to loud barking on the day of the arts and crafts event. I opened an eye in time to see Lucky arrive in the bedroom and jump up on the bed in a surprisingly sedate manner. He was followed by Rameses, who was still making a racket. Three red lines across his nose hinted at what had befallen him.

  “I hope one of you learned a lesson,” I said, being sure to note that beyond loud complaining and a scratch I needed to clean, no one seemed too hurt. However, I didn’t think my stress levels would benefit from it being a permanent thing. Both Lucky and Rameses were grown up animals who were used to their own space. Auryn shot me a look that said much the same. Scarlett was going to have to take a little more responsibility at some point.

  “I’ll take Lucky to The Lucky Zoo as planned. You’d better bring Rameses to Avery Zoo.” I bit my lip. Dogs were very definitely not usually permitted at the zoo, and I knew no one was going to think Rameses was a service dog in a million years. “You’d better say he’s a new character in the comic - a nemesis for Lucky to fight against. It’s not too far from the truth. I’ll have to add it in.”

  Auryn gave me the thumbs up and then muttered something about getting going early in order to buy some dog food for Rameses. I hadn’t thought to take any home after his meal last night - especially as I hadn’t known he was going to be staying with us.

  “Auryn…” My fiancé turned back in the bedroom doorway to look at me with bleary eyes. “It’s going to be a great day,” I told him with conviction I was determined to carry through the event. It was going to go well.

  It had to go well, or my zoo was going to find itself in a lot of trouble. There was only so much piggybacking off Avery’s success that we could do. I hoped today would be the day we stood out as a place to come back and visit, and hey - maybe tell your friends about, too. It was sink or swim for The Lucky Zoo.

  As soon as I saw the sunshine and looked at the weather forecast for the day ahead I marked it as a mini success. No matter how much promotion and ticket selling you did, nothing was worse than torrential rain on a day that required zoo animals be visible and paper, preferably, stayed dry.

  I’d never considered myself to be a skulker, but today I was going to make a special effort to be visible and move around the zoo, just chatting to people. I’d watched Auryn do it many times before, but although I’d expected it to be a challenge, I hadn’t bargained for the near-constant mob who seemed determined to follow me anywhere and everywhere, all trying to shout questions at me, or ask if I could get their manuscript published (probably not).

  I was always pleased that my comic brought happiness to people, and that my fame could be used to encourage visitors to the zoo, who in turn learned about animal conservation, but these people were different. The artists I wanted to talk to, who were dotted around the zoo getting on with their entries, shot me apologetic smiles when I walked past. In the end, I turned around and flatly asked my hangers on how many of them had started on their art or craft projects for the day. A few of them muttered something about not being here for that nonsense. For just a second, I saw a flash of red behind my eyes. Then I took a deep breath. Today I was on show. I could be nothing but professional.

  “I
am here to give feedback to people who are creating art and would like to hear it. I’m also walking around to check progress and make sure everything is going okay. Please remember I am the owner of this zoo as well as a comic book writer.” I managed a tight smile. “Aside from that, you are of course welcome to come and watch the talk I’ll be giving later this morning here and early in the afternoon at Avery Zoo. I’m sure many of your questions will be answered during the talk, and there’ll be plenty of time afterwards for me to answer any that might have been missed.”

  I looked around at the group, rather pleased by the tactful way I’d brushed them off. Unfortunately, they didn't appear to be moving.

  “Madigan! Is that you in there?” a cheery woman called. Gloria Lenin had a shining black pixie cut and a body large enough to bump most of my hangers-on out of the way. “Wonderful to see you, dear,” she said, reaching out and enveloping me in her large mass. Gloria was my main point of contact at LightStrike Publishing House. Fortunately, she was also my favourite company member. I’d grown to loathe the self-righteous woman who answered the phones and seemed to view herself as some kind of gatekeeper who kept troublesome authors safely at bay. I’d been close to throwing in the towel with my publishers all together when she’d made it sound like I was making a huge fuss over nothing with regard to the ridiculous publicist I’d been assigned.

  “Hi Madi,” Gloria’s smaller assistant Gareth said, shooting me a little smile whilst trying to maintain the balance of several files and pieces of cardboard he’d been tasked with carrying.

  “Wonderful day, wonderful people,” Gloria said, shining at everyone in turn. “You must show me the venue for our little publishing talk. I think it’s going to be jolly good fun!” Everything was always ‘jolly good fun’ when it came to Gloria. It was morbid, but there was definitely a part of me that wanted to see what would happen if she ever had to attend a funeral, or worse - give a speech at one!

  “You’re a publisher?” one of the watchers said.

  “You’re her publisher?” another piped up.

  “I am a representative from the company in charge of printing and publishing Monday’s Menagerie.” She held up a hand to quell the clamour. “However, I am not an agent, and neither is Madi. Her success story is exceptional, which is something I am going to be making very clear in my talk later on today. If you want to be published, don’t hang around industry people without bothering to do a speck of research.” She shook her head, still smiling. “Do your homework and keep working at it. That’s how success stories happen!”

  “She got famous overnight,” I heard someone mutter.

  “If you come to my talk, you’ll find out that I wrote the comic for years online. And I still do publish online.”

  “What? For free?” another follower asked. “Isn’t that devaluing your work?”

  Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to tell her to put a sock in it - especially in front of my publisher!

  Instead I took another deep breath. “There’s a fine line between give and take. The content on the website is different from the published books. A lot of people like both, but some choose just the website and others just the printed book.”

  “Soon to be books!” Gloria piped up, making me want to put a sock in her mouth, too.

  “Giving away freebies can help to build your audience. I initially wasn’t treating it as a business. I was lucky enough to have friends who helped me to start monetising by selling prints and original sketches from the comics to super fans, and then I was fortunate enough to be spotted by an agent. I’ll be the first to admit that there was a bit of luck involved in my success…” a whole lot of secrets and lies, too, but I couldn’t share the truth, “… but there was also a lot of hard work that went into building the foundation of the comic. The first ever volume that got published was done using a crowd-funding campaign.”

  “Man, I bet those books are worth big money now,” one of the followers said. I ignored her.

  “You’ll hear all about it if you come to the talk. If I say any more, you’ll be bored!” I smiled weakly.

  “You heard the lady! Scoot! I want to see those pencils on some paper,” Gloria said, managing to sound cheery, even as she essentially sent the group packing.

  When the crowd was clear she turned to me and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t hold out much hope for their careers! Hanging off your coattails is not the way to success.”

  I sighed. “There are a lot of desperate people out there in the creative world. It’s tough. You can be great at creating things but not have a single clue about how to run a business. Some people can’t do both.” I hesitated. “I wouldn’t say it’s a strength of mine. I’ve just hired a marketing guy to deal with all of that for the zoo.

  Gloria looked surprised. “Just the one?”

  “Well… I’ve still got a lot of hiring to do, but I’m doing it gradually. The first focus is the animals and, well…”

  “You can afford to run at a loss for a while,” Gloria observed. “It all looks fabulous anyway! There are so many people here. I think I might actually be getting a little stage-fright,” she joked.

  I smiled in return. Gloria Lenin had probably shaken the hand of everyone in the delivery room when she’d been born. I was surprised that the word ‘stage-fright’ was even in her vocabulary.

  I took her through the zoo and then showed her the venue - which was simply the largest patch of eco-mat covered space in the zoo. As publishing houses went LightStrike were still relatively small players, although not so small that Gloria didn’t look very taken aback by my choice of venue.

  “It’s so… open!” was the best positive comment she was able to lay her hands on.

  “There’s going to be a little stage set up when it’s time for the talks. And there’s a PA system, too. I’m not sure we’ve thought about whether or not any slides will be visible on the projector though… but I had an idea that we’d email them to all attendees, so they can look at them on their phones,” I finished brightly.

  “Well… jolly good!” she said, using her catchphrase. “Now, how’s the new book coming on?”

  From then on, it was down to business until the morning rolled along and I took to the stage for my talk about Monday’s Menagerie’s rise to success.

  As soon as that was over, I handed the microphone to Gloria and Gareth and then rushed off to give the same talk at Avery Zoo for the other half of the attendees. I was pleased to see that Avery Zoo was busy, but not any more so than The Lucky Zoo. A deep rooted worry I hadn’t even known I’d been holding onto seemed to lift from my shoulders.

  It was only after my talk finished and I thought about the packed outside area and the packed play barn that I realised just how many people I’d addressed today. I was well-versed in press conferences by now, and the company had signed me up for a couple of comic convention panels later in the summer, but I’d never expected to get such a large and positive reaction on my home turf, so to speak. It made me realise how far I’d come.

  Gloria was doing her best to drive it home, too, by telling me that while my new comics were good, I really needed to knuckle down and finish the thing. After the uplifting observation I’d made today, I thought I might actually make time to do just that.

  Tiff found me after the talk when I was on my way back to the car park. There was a lot of running around involved in this joint zoo event! Then there’d be the judging, which was thankfully taking place at The Lucky Zoo, due to its larger surface area and ‘stage’. The benefits of not having a proper venue with walls was that there were no walls! People could pack in anyway they wanted.

  “Madi!” she called right before I was about to walk into the reception area.

  “Hi, it’s going well, isn’t it? How was your talk?” Tiff had been on right before me and I’d been sorry to miss it due to my own Q and A session overrunning.

  “It was great! Everyone was really excited about my Etsy sales and what I did to make
it all happen.”

  “That’s great! It’s been going well then?” I asked realising I hadn’t talked to Tiff about our creative side projects, as we’d liked to call them, for quite some time. It wasn't because I didn’t care about Tiff’s work, I just didn’t want to turn into someone who went on and on about her own achievements whilst unknowingly belittling the achievements of those around me.

  “Yeah, everything’s been brilliant. Great for the savings account! Look at us, both millennials bucking the trend and actually having two coins to rub together,” she joked.

  “Urgh!” was all I had to say in response to that. It always irked me to have my fate thrown in with that of an entire generation. Even so, I retained hope that one day the millennials would rise up and achieve more than anyone ever imagined they could - and all whilst propping up the avocado and toast industry.

  “Have you been on anymore dates with Detective Gregory? He seemed really nice,” I said, remembering that I owed him. More than that, I felt he probably deserved to have a good word put in. I’d been unsure about Alex Gregory when we’d first met, but his recent actions had reassured me.

  “We’ve got a proper date scheduled for tonight. I told him about the arts and crafts day and the talk I was giving.” She blushed a little. “He was really impressed and said he wanted to come. Only… the murder case.”

  “At least you're going out tonight. You’ll be able to tell him how awesome you are.”

  “I think he already knows how awesome I am,” she said, surprising me with the wry smile that lit up her face. No wonder Detective Gregory had been so keen to see her again! Their last date must have gone very well indeed.

  “What about Pierce?” I asked, wondering if he’d ever completed his ‘follow up’.