A Memory for Murder Mystery

by Ruby Loren

  She didn’t know it, but I’d say the presence of the man standing next to me in the cupboard meant that the temperature was closer to boiling over the saucepan and splashing the kitchen in scalding water.

  “You’re a tech guy. Can’t you take the comic down from the internet? You could delete the whole thing,” Leona continued.

  I felt my fists clench by my side but knew now wasn’t the time for anger. It’s just a silly hobby, I reminded myself. It was nothing in the face of whatever was happening outside the cupboard door.

  “Ha! Yeah, that would be a great idea… for generating publicity. I’ve just hired several webmasters to look after the site to stop hackers. I could pay the guys to do it, no problem. Then we can watch as the comic hits the news again and demand for the real physical books rises even higher.”

  “Then what do you propose?” Leona’s voice spelled it out. Unless Jordan’s next words were very carefully considered, he was not going to be in a good situation.

  “We play along. You’ve said it yourself, we’re in so deep that any attempts to weasel out will look pretty suspicious, so all we can do is follow this through. A bunch of big-time money launderers for the country’s biggest criminal operations just accidentally launched the career of a comic drawing nobody. So what? It’s a pretty funny story, actually.”

  “I don’t care about funny stories!” Leona sounded ready to start hitting something… or someone.

  “I know, but what I’m saying is, there is no reason to panic. I know you’ve got big-time guys working on PR, and I’m telling you to tell them to keep up the good work because they’re going to be doing it for a while longer. We do this thing and we keep everything in the clear. At the same time, in the background, we do business as usual. Who’s going to suspect when we have such a brilliant cover in place? We’re one of the few publishing companies in the entire industry seeing any measure of financial success right now. Why would anyone think we’re cooking our books?”

  “Are you up for repeating all of what you just said to Don and his guys who’ve spent the past month staring at scribbled drawings of animals, rather than working on the next job?”

  “Sure… I can do that,” Jordan said, but he didn’t sound quite as sure of himself.

  “Good luck. You might not look so pretty by the end of your speech.”

  “Come on, Leona. You’ve always been able to charm Don!”

  “And you’ve always been able to charm me… until now, Jordan. Until now,” Leona said.

  There was the sound of footsteps fading fast as she walked away down the corridor.

  Silence fell outside of the cupboard door.

  BAM!

  For a horrifying moment, I thought the door would break, or just fly straight open and reveal us standing there like a couple of lemons when Jordan kicked it. Around us, mops fell over and plastic buckets filled with cleaning products hit the floor, shaken loose. One heart-stopping moment later, I opened my eyes to find the door had held. Jordan had paid no mind to the sounds of chaos in the cupboard.

  All that remained of my literary agent was the sound of footsteps fading away into the distance.

  I turned to Lowell with my mouth still hanging open.

  He seized my shoulders. “You need to get back out there. Right now. Or we are both in a lot of trouble.”

  Once more, I was forced to swallow my questions and just go along as if everything was okay. The only difference was, this time I knew for sure that it wasn’t. And I was finally close to the truth.

  I didn’t have to wait long for my answers once the conference had finished. It was weird having to smile and absorb the compliments Jordan threw my way when the day finished. It was even weirder when he tried to invite me out for dinner again. I kept thinking back to everything I’d heard in the cupboard and how it changed the man I’d thought I had known.

  But something told me the knowledge I now possessed was dangerous… very dangerous indeed… so I played my part and only breathed a sigh of relief when I was walking towards London Bridge Station, almost inside the sanctuary of the glass structure.

  A black car pulled up to the curb in front of me and the window rolled down.

  “Get in,” Lowell said. He didn’t look happy.

  “Looks like all of that secrecy paid off,” I couldn’t resist sniping once I was inside the car and we were driving away through central London.

  “Congratulations, your nosiness has finally got you the result you wanted.” Lowell shook his head. “You’re not going to like it.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” I said, fed up of being told what I did and didn’t want.

  A couple of hours later, I was surprised to find we were driving through the countryside. And not just any old countryside - places I recognised. Not long after that, I was a lot less surprised when we made the right turn into Mellon Zoo.

  “So, what does the zoo have to do with all this?” I asked, figuring that they’d have to tell me that, too.

  “I’m sure someone will be happy to fill you in,” Lowell growled as we began our way up the long drive towards the car park.

  I knew something was wrong the moment I got out of the car.

  I could hear shouting. A second later, an elephant trumpeted a moment before a gunshot rang out, the sound echoing off the surrounding hills.

  “Madi, stay in the car!” Lowell shouted, but I was already running up the hill.

  13

  False Friends

  For once, I wasn’t grateful for the overlooking view of the zoo because it revealed the full extent of the carnage down below. If I hadn’t already guessed by the enraged trumpet, all of the action was taking place over by the elephant enclosure. Lowell was shouting to the driver of the car and hadn’t caught up with me yet, so I spared a moment to take as much in as I could.

  It looked like one of the enclosure walls had come down. I couldn’t see how it had happened, but one of the elephants had left the enclosure. From the size of him, I guessed that it was the bull elephant - Donald Trunk. There were people running around, like tiny black ants, chasing more black ants. Apparently no one had told the security team and whoever they were chasing that they’d both worn the same outfits. To my relief, none of the elephants appeared to be injured and there was no one (very sensibly) close to Donald Trunk. But I knew that could change in just a few seconds. A stray bullet, or even an aimed one, could end the life of an innocent animal caught in the middle of a war zone.

  I wasn’t going to sit by and let it happen .

  I’d never before run as fast as I ran to get to that enclosure. The downhill direction was both a blessing and a curse, as half the time I was terrified my legs weren’t going to keep up with my body. At moments like that, I told myself I would be no help to anyone if I took a tumble. I applied the brakes, just a little.

  By the time I reached the elephant enclosure, I was ready to collapse in a heap of exhaustion. Instead, I took a long slow breath and walked out into the middle of the ongoing fight.

  It was strange being in amongst it and not involved. The security team mostly seemed to be on top of things. I could see a few people, who I didn’t recognise, had been restrained with plastic cuffs. However, the security team had been outnumbered and whatever element of surprise they must have had was clearly wearing off. The only positive I could see was that the attackers weren’t armed with guns… but the security team weren’t using their’s either.

  My biggest worry was the man who was shouting.

  “They’re scum! Kill them all and set these beautiful creatures free! We are the saviours of the world. Do not let them take that from you. They’re too afraid to kill us… ignore their guns! You’ve seen they’re not allowed to use them,” he screamed, levelling his knife at anyone who got too close.

  His shouting and gesturing was having another effect I wasn’t so sure he was aware of. Inside of the enclosure, the herd gathered tightly and looked on anxiously, but Donald Trunk was already o
ut in the open. I noticed his ears flapping and just a second later he trumpeted - a sure sign he was getting agitated. Unbelievably, the man shouted louder to be heard over the elephant, apparently oblivious to the reaction he was causing. Elephants didn’t like loud noises and often ran from them. However, fear could also turn to rage.

  I opened my mouth to shout a warning but shut it again. It was shouting that had caused the elephant to become agitated in the first place.

  Instead, I watched as Donald Trunk charged at the shouting man and trampled right over him.

  For a moment, time stood still.

  The two members of the security team moved backwards and stared at the elephant when it came to a halt. The man on the ground made no sound and was unquestionably dead. Both parties inspected the other for a second.

  Then the security team drew their guns.

  But time hadn’t stood still for me.

  I was already between them and the elephant.

  I raised both of my palms in a silent gesture of stop. My eyes pleaded with them to reconsider. I knew I was risking a lot - heck - everything by turning my back on an elephant who had just trampled a man. But it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that Donald Trunk should die today, and I was willing to put my life on the line to have a chance to save him.

  One of the men in black shrugged at the other and they both backed down. After all, the fight wasn't here, it was with the rest of their team still struggling to push whoever these people were back, apparently without using lethal force.

  I turned around and found myself facing down a full grown adult elephant who was having a very bad day.

  Donald swung his head to and fro. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot and his trunk followed his head, twitching from side to side. His ears were still flapping, but they were mostly fanned out. That was something at least. I knew from my research that elephants tended to pin their ears back when they charged for real - just as Donald had done when he’d trampled a person a few seconds ago.

  I gulped and tried not to think too much about that. Instead, I focused on what I knew about elephants.

  I could tell from Donald’s body language that he was agitated, but he was showing more signs of fear than aggression. The wild gunshot and the man shouting had alarmed him but the man with the knife had made a fatal mistake by yelling at the security team instead of the elephant. For the most part, elephants didn’t enjoy confrontation. They could even be scared off by consistent loud noises, shooing them away. Unfortunately, a turned back could encourage an elephant to give chase, in which case, screaming loudly was no help at all. I thought that was probably what had happened in the case of the shouting man. I’d been pretty desperate when I’d turned my back on the elephant myself and had been glad to escape (so far) unscathed.

  “Come on, Donald, you’re better off inside the enclosure,” I said to the elephant. He continued to shift from foot to foot. I knew it was now or never. If he decided to go after the people fighting nearby, I had no doubt that one of the security team would take a shot at the elephant. Either Donald would be killed, or it would make the elephant’s temper ten times worse.

  “Come on… Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!” I said loudly and firmly, waving my arms in a controlled motion and hoping I looked a lot braver than I felt.

  Donald continued to shift and swing his head. I started to feel my courage fading.

  Then, something amazing happened.

  The matriarch of the herd trumpeted and led the herd away from the broken boundary of the enclosure, as if bored by the whole thing. Donald’s attention moved from me to his retreating family. With a final trumpet, he turned and trampled back over the fallen inner fence.

  I tried not to collapse into a heap of human jelly. Adrianna, the matriarch, had saved my bacon. The elephant enclosure was already well-stocked with food sources to forage, but I was definitely going to ask the elephant keeper, Samara, to fling a few extra pieces of fruit Adrianna’s way.

  Donald Trunk had made a very good decision.

  “Madi, that elephant was about to kill you!” Lowell steamed up to me, looking furious.

  All around the sounds of the fight were dying down. Once their leader had experienced such a nasty end, the perpetrators seemed to have given in and been rounded up.

  “Can you help me prop this fence up? I have no idea how it even came down. There’s supposed to be glass here,” I said, exasperated.

  A shout went up. We all looked over to see a man in black fleeing up the side of the furthest hill.

  “There’s always one who gets away,” Lowell said, sounding even more annoyed. He glared at me as if it was all my fault.

  “Just help me with the fence panel and let me know if you see the magical vanishing glass,” I said, unwilling to be lectured by Lowell. I’d made my choice when I’d faced down Donald Trunk. In the end, it had worked out for the best. I couldn’t take any credit but I was happy he was safe and not dead. For that matter, I was pretty happy that I was safe and not dead.

  “Mmm yeah, about the glass…” Katya arrived just in time to overhear my final comment. “We don’t have CCTV, as you know, but we patrol round here every ten minutes. The problem was, this group of people must have been watching us for some time. We’d been expecting the attack, but not for it to be subtle. It’s a good thing we never put our full force on display, or they’d have never have tried it.”

  “It’s a good thing they managed to break the elephants out?” I said, disbelieving.

  Katya turned white. “Oh, I don’t mean that…” she began.

  Lowell cut her off with a noise of derision. “Forget it. She found out about our main operation today. Someone’s going to have to fill her in, or she’ll be even more of a danger than she already is. You can say whatever you like,” he said before walking away, having clearly decided not to help me prop up the elephant enclosure.

  Katya’s eyes opened wide and she stared at me.

  “It’s been a busy day,” I said. “What were you saying about the glass?” I prompted while trying to haul the original fence back upright. It was hardly more than a visual barrier to the world outside, and I knew elephants were far too intelligent to forget that there was a way through, but we would just have to prop and hope until the cavalry arrived.

  “Oh… the group we were waiting for used the gaps in-between the patrols to remove it and take it away. I don’t know when it happened. None of us realised because the glass has no shine.”

  “Right,” I said, bemused by the whole thing. “Earlier, you said something that sounded a lot like you saying you’ve been baiting these people?” I threw Katya a stern look that I hope conveyed my low opinion of what they’d done at the expense of the well-being of a herd of elephants.

  “These aren’t just any group of animal rights nuts,” Katya said - rather politically incorrectly. “Not only does this group have a long, long record for breaking into zoos and freeing animals, they also have several counts of murder between them. They say they value lives but only the ones belonging to the animals apparently - and even most of the ones they ‘save’ wind up dead. But that’s not the reason we targeted them either.”

  “Of course not,” I said dryly. I’d worked that much out myself during my run down to the enclosure. From the very start, Amanda had claimed the security team was in place to fend off a threat to the elephants, but today I’d finally got my evidence that everything wasn’t what it appeared to be on the surface - especially when it came to MI5. Until this afternoon, I’d still had my doubts about the security team. I knew Katya was in on something for sure, but she could have told the security team to watch me for some unknown reason that meant they hadn’t actually known anything about the people they were really working with. Her admission that the elephants had been put in as bait confirmed that they had all been involved. And I also knew that MI5 wouldn’t be interested in a few badly behaved animal rescuers - murders or no murders.

  “The group have some deep con
nections with a criminal circle we’ve been trying to infiltrate for quite some time. It was decided that the best way to get the insider information was to catch them on a raid. That way, the rest of the group would assume a regular security team caught them. They may not realise they’ve been compromised. These guys have been in trouble with the law before, but they don’t know we know that there’s more to it than that. We actually thought they’d be armed with guns which is why we’ve all been carrying. Our instructions were of course to capture them alive, but we expected a lot more trouble. This group has links with cross-channel gun smuggling operations, but perhaps they’re smart enough to know that guns attract attention. Hopefully with them in our custody we’ll be able to stop the whole thing.”

  “Guns, not animals, got it,” I finished, not exactly thrilled by her explanation. It was too bad it sounded like the most truthful thing I’d heard all day.

  I frowned at the rickety fence panel we’d finally manoeuvred to cover the space. “Wait a second… is the entire zoo a sham? Was it set up to catch a bunch of gun smuggling, murdering, elephant liberators?”

  “No, of course not,” Katya said.

  I looked away at the distant Downs and relaxed a tiny bit.

  “It was also a good way of keeping tabs on your case,” she finished.

  “What? The secret service set up an entire zoo just to keep tabs on me? What about the funding from the backers?”

  “All fabricated I’m afraid.” Katya frowned a bit. “I’m not sure how much to tell you. Luke wasn’t being flippant when he said you knew everything, was he?” she asked, using the name she knew Lowell by.

  “No, I know… most things,” I said, thinking about the several hundred questions I still had regarding how it was that I’d ended up being dragged into this.

  “But the names… Donald Trunk!” I said weakly.