Murder is a Monkey's Game

by Ruby Loren

  I hoped Luna would have better luck contacting the police than I’d had in my weapon search. I wasn’t convinced there’d be a successful outcome to my flimsy plan.

  Alcide saw me the moment I walked out into the open. To my relief, he didn’t betray any reaction and the dazed look vanished for a moment. His eyes met mine and I did my best to look reassuring and as though I had an excellent plan for getting him out of here in one piece.

  A second later, his eyes flicked back to meet Fae Girard’s and he carried on listening to her monologue.

  Now I was closer, I could hear what she was saying. My French was just about good enough that I could pick up the gist of it.

  “You’re just like the others. I know you don’t see it but it’s not right. I’m the only one who cares for her this much. I’m the only one,” Fae Girard wheedled, as though she thought convincing Alcide of this would make him sink to his knees and bare his neck for the blade.

  “I've told you, I really like Luna. I’m a decent guy. I know what that rat Enzo did, but I’m not like that. If you like Luna so much, why haven’t you told her?” Alcide bit out and then looked surprised, as if he hadn’t expected himself to ask the question.

  “I have! She knows it. We’re great friends,” Fae said, sounding utterly convinced.

  I took another deep breath and tiptoed forwards, ready to pounce.

  I'd almost got into a position where I could throw the parachute over Detective Girard’s head when the monkey screamed. I froze at the sound. To my horror, the squirrel monkey sat on the headstone next to Alcide jumped up and down, pointing right at me.

  Detective Girard turned in what felt like slow motion. Her eyes widened when she saw me and the knife shot out, reflexively. I instinctively stepped to the side and the billowing fabric waved where I’d stood, half a second earlier. The knife tore through the parachute silk and I was left feeling like a second-rate bull fighter who’d bitten off far more than they could chew.

  “Come on, Fae, you have to know that all of this has come to an end. The police know and are on their way here right now,” (I hoped).

  To my surprise, tears welled up in Fae Girard’s eyes.

  “I can still do this for her. I know she’ll thank me for it in the years to come. One day… one day we’ll be together.”

  I opened my mouth, hoping that some magical words would pop up - words that would get us out of this horrible situation. But it wasn’t my words that would save the day.

  “Fae, stop!”

  All three of us turned and saw Luna running across the graveyard, her fair hair flying in the breeze. I felt Alcide’s accusatory gaze land on me and wanted to tell him I'd done my best to keep her out of it.

  “Luna!” Detective Girard said, her face morphing into a pleasant smile, as though she hadn’t just been about to kill us both. "What are you doing here?"

  “I came to tell you I want you to stop. You don’t need to do this,” Luna said, keeping her cool.

  I held my breath and watched a furrow line Detective Girard’s forehead.

  “I do have to do this. It will make you happier, I know it will. I just want you to be happy,” the detective said, smiling sadly at Luna.

  “Thank you. I appreciate it, but what I really meant was you don’t need to do this. I’m finished with Alcide. I was going to tell him right after the funeral today,” Luna said, so convincingly I’d have believed her myself if I hadn’t heard her waxing lyrical about how Alcide might be the one just a day before.

  “You’re done with him?” Fae Girard repeated, looking surprised but pleased.

  Luna nodded, taking a step forwards. “Yes, I’m all done with stupid men. I just want for us to be friends, okay?”

  The detective’s eyes grew round and hopeful. “The very best of friends?” she said, sounding childlike for a moment.

  If you forgot about the taser and bloodstained knife she held in her hands.

  “Exactly,” Luna said, although I thought her facade was going a bit wonky. “We can be together forever.”

  The line sounded weak to my ears but the detective was so far under the spell she’d constructed around Luna that she swallowed it.

  “How long have you known it was me?” she asked. “Was it the phone calls? I was always too scared to speak. I wanted to tell you then that it was me who finally got rid of that idiot, Pascal. I knew you’d be happy but I just wasn’t sure what you’d think. I didn't know if you’d trust me.”

  “I think I sensed it was you then, yes,” Luna invented, endeavouring to focus on the detective and not meet my eyes. We both knew full well that she’d found out who the culprit was when I’d figured it out and told her, moments before we’d arrived back at the graveyard.

  “You can put down the knife and the taser. Everything’s going to be okay now,” Luna chimed.

  For a moment, I thought she might actually do it. Her grip on both weapons loosened but a moment later, her hands tightened again.

  “You don’t understand the legal system like I do, Luna. No one else will understand that what I did was right. Those people deserved what happened to them but the law won’t see that. If we make these two disappear, we can get away. I think I can even make it look like they’re the ones to blame for everything. I’ll leave the knife behind. It’s for the best, I promise,” the detective said.

  It made my blood run cold to hear someone so able to casually discuss the murder of two people.

  Especially when one of those people was me.

  “There’s no need for that. We can just go now. Your car is right there! Come on," Luna said, but the desperation in her voice was now apparent, even to the detective.

  Her mouth hardened. “You’re too caring. Can’t you see they’ve been using you? Look at them. They’ve been carrying on together behind your back all this time. He's just another cheat and she’s a backstabber, not a friend.”

  I was relieved to see that Luna didn’t believe it for a second. To my horror, she stepped forwards and reached for the knife. I didn’t even have time to shout a warning before the detective jerked her hand away, the blade slicing across Luna’s palm.

  Bright red blood dripped onto the dusty ground. Time froze as the detective and Luna looked at it in horror.

  Perhaps it was because he’d already been (literally) shocked already that Alcide was the only one who wasn’t transfixed by the cut. He ran up behind Detective Girard, even as she stuttered to Luna that she’d never meant to hurt her, ever. Alcide’s big hands made contact with the detective's lower back and he gave her such a tremendous push that she half-flew, half-staggered forwards and practically cartwheeled over a gravestone.

  One hand splayed out when she fell and I saw the taser fly free and smash against another gravestone. Unfortunately, the knife remained in her hand.

  I felt fabric between my fingers and realised that I was still holding onto the BASE jumping parachute. Wordlessly, I extended it to Alcide, who grabbed a corner. Together, we executed an unspoken plan, both operating on shared instinct that I hoped would be enough to save our lives.

  Detective Girard was already on her feet by the time we reached the gravestone she’d fallen over. The knife slashed out wildly and one look at her face was all I needed to see to know that any slim hope Luna might have had of talking her out of killing us was gone. She had only one thing on her mind now… and it was murder.

  Parachute silk parted like butter, but the fabric acted like a screen and both Alcide and I had feinted to the side. Despite the tear, we lunged forwards. The three of us fell to the ground in a tangle of cords and fabric. Detective Girard was beneath the cloth, still waving the knife around, but the angle was wrong for her to puncture through. Alcide grabbed a hold of her flailing arm and held it down.

  I rocked back onto my haunches and breathed a sigh of relief. Running footsteps announced the arrival of the police.

  At first, I thought Detective Prideaux was going to cuff Alcide, but Luna quickly explained
the situation. He must have been having a few doubts himself, as he didn’t disagree, and signalled for a couple of officers to restrain and cuff Fae Girard.

  To my surprise, Nathan and Sage appeared in the graveyard.

  Nathan noticed my puzzled expression.

  “I was dragged in for more questions,” he said, throwing Detective Prideaux a dirty look. The detective didn't even seem to notice.

  The couple stayed with Luna, Alcide, and me after Detective Girard had been arrested and the police had collected all of the evidence they needed. One of the officers had promised Luna that she’d be put away for a very long time. The same officer had also mentioned that, with hindsight, it was pretty strange how Detective Girard had been basically running a hate campaign against Enzo Argent, ever since he’d cheated on Luna. He’d said that no one had really noticed because no one had been particularly impressed with Enzo’s conduct anyway.

  “I should have put two and two together. Fae has always been a big fan of paragliding, which is why I thought they put her on the case. It never crossed my mind that she was the one responsible,” Sage said when we were all alone once more in the graveyard.

  “It's not your fault, honey. You couldn’t have known,” Nathan reassured her.

  She shook her head. “But I should have seen it! A few weeks ago, I saw Fae doing a super low flyby across the zoo, and it never crossed my mind again until now. I just figured she’d made a mistake that day. I didn’t even speak to her about it because I was sure no one with her level of experience would deliberately do such a risky fly over when there’s nowhere safe to land. I thought it had to be a rogue wind that had pushed her there.”

  Nathan just shook his head and patted her back, reassuring her that she hadn’t made a mistake.

  “I wasn’t even certain what this whole thing was about until today,” I confided and shot a sorry look Luna’s way. She still had a stunned expression on her face.

  "At least things can get back to normal now.” It was all I could come up with to say.

  “Better get back home now everything’s been cleared up,” Nathan said and the couple excused themselves.

  I was sure they weren't lying when they said they were going home, but I was willing to bet they were going to make a few stops along the way. The village’s rumour mill would do the rest of the work. By tomorrow, there wouldn’t be a single person in L’airelle who didn’t know that Fae Girard had got so hung up on Luna that she’d murdered a couple of people and had tried to do in a few more besides. I just hoped the villagers were farsighted enough to see that none of the troubles were the fault of Luna herself.

  Something touched my arm.

  I jumped and looked down. A small, furry face looked up at me, dark eyes round and inquisitive.

  “Still going to let them run free?” I asked, already knowing what Alcide would say.

  “Of course,” he said, summoning that same old lopsided grin to his face.

  “Even after all of the trouble this fellow just got you into?”

  Alcide shrugged. “Everything turned out okay in the end, didn’t it? Better a graveyard in the sunshine than a dark alley at night. Who knows? This little monkey might have saved my life.”

  “Oh, thanks a bunch,” I said, not entirely thrilled that the monkey was getting more credit than Luna and I were for helping Alcide out of a sticky situation.

  He laughed and rested a hand across Luna’s shoulders. “Thanks to you, too, Madi. If you hadn’t figured it all out then maybe I would have ended up like Constantine or Pascal,” he said a bit more soberly.

  “Well, it all turned out okay in the end,” I echoed. In my opinion, it was always best to reflect upon what had really happened, not what might have transpired. So much time was wasted contemplating things that never were.

  We walked out of the graveyard together. Our appointment to meet the puppies again hadn’t been forgotten. Despite the day’s drama, life would go on as it always had in L’airelle.

  We all waved goodbye to the monkey who was still sat on a headstone, eating another grape it must have stashed somewhere close by.

  Alcide reckoned the monkey would return to the zoo when it got tired of the village and missed its mates. I was coming round to the idea that he was probably right.

  * * *

  After the events of the morning, giving my final presentation and handing in my review of L’airelle Zoological Park seemed anticlimactic. It was received with thanks and Monsieur Quebec had also commented on how many improvements had already been made during my time spent at the zoo. I thanked him for his kind words and then reiterated my main point, which was about the farmyard area that urgently needed addressing. France wasn’t as tight on health and safety as England, but I still knew trouble when I saw it.

  I walked back through the zoo at the end of the day, mentally wishing goodbye to the collection of animals I’d already grown to love. The lions and tigers were batting around rubber treat balls and the Pallas’s cats looked healthy and happy, still hunting for the remnants of the spider horde we’d unleashed on their enclosure.

  I made my way to the tiki hut where I’d left a few things. Today, the end of the day quiet felt a little sad, and I sighed when I walked up the path towards the hut. All things must end and there was still so much I wanted to do for animals in other zoos. Although, I wasn’t quite sure where I’d be going next.

  I’ll have to see what Lowell’s doing, I thought and then frowned. I hadn’t seen him since the funeral when he’d jumped in a car and driven off with that agent, Ms Borel. I’d tried calling him after the big showdown in the graveyard but he hadn’t answered.

  My mind drifted back again to what Mr Flannigan had said. I was starting to think that Lowell was hiding a thing or two from me after all.

  I sighed, knowing there was going to have a to be a conversation later. I hated conversations like that.

  I still had a frown on my face when I walked into the tiki hut.

  “Surprise!!” a whole bunch of people yelled, jumping out from behind the kitchen unit and sofa.

  My face must have gone through a truly startling array of emotions because when Luna and Adele popped out they were laughing.

  “You didn’t think we’d let you go without a little farewell party, did you?” Adele said, holding out a beautifully iced cake. It looked like it had a lemon glaze, dipped in chocolate at the bottom, with 'Au Revoir’ written across the top in curling script. I recognised Adele’s baking style and was even more touched.

  “This is lovely,” I said, looking around at the different staff members I’d come to know and like.

  “No need to say anymore. Let’s eat and drink!” Nathan said, when I struggled to find anymore words. He raised a bottle of prosecco and let the alcohol flow.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked Luna, when we both had slices of the cake and were sat on the sofa with only Adele close enough to hear.

  “The police have been great. Enzo’s still in hospital, which probably helped a lot,” she said, dryly.

  We both thought of her ex-boyfriend with less sympathy than we probably should have.

  “Fae has tried to take back everything she said to us when she admitted she did it, but the evidence pointing to her is very strong. The parachute and the knife are more than enough for them to move forwards with. Detective Prideaux is sure that there’ll be more evidence found when they search her home and go over her car with a fine-tooth comb.”

  The surprise must have shown on my face when Luna mentioned Detective Prideaux.

  “He’s not actually working on the case because of the personal connection, but he’s being kept updated. A team from Saint Gerraire are in charge now.”

  “I’m glad it’s over and that you’re okay. How's Alcide?” I tentatively asked. He’d been tasered earlier on in the day and then threatened with a knife. Although he’d sounded chipper when we’d spoken after Fae Girard had been arrested, I wouldn't be surprised if the reality of what h
ad almost happened to him had hit hard.

  “He’s back down in the village trying to convince the monkey to come home,” she said, a little smirk pulling at her lips.

  “What about that speech he gave about freedom and the monkey coming back when it wanted to?” I said in mock disbelief.

  “Mmm… that was all well and good until the little devil stole an entire gateaux that Madame Myrtle had left out on her windowsill. After Madame Myrtle had a word with him, Alcide decided it was time for the monkey to go home after all.” She raised an eyebrow at me and I giggled.

  Alcide had met his match after all. He may not have been willing to listen to me but there would always be the villagers to contend with.

  * * *

  “All packed?” I asked Lowell, when he came back into the cottage after placing the last of our suitcases in the back of the hire car.

  “I think so. Looks like the holiday’s over,” Lowell said with a smile, but I noticed it wasn’t a particularly wistful one. He’d enjoyed the trip - that much I knew - but I also understood the hunger of returning to do a job that you loved. The only thing that bothered me was that I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of job Lowell would be returning to do.

  We’d spoken when he’d arrived back at the cottage the previous evening. I’d told him about everything that had happened in the graveyard. He’d been duly concerned and had lamented the fact that he hadn’t been there, but all the same, I'd felt like he was half-distracted.

  In turn, I’d asked him what his meeting with Ms Borel had been about. The only information he’d yielded was that she'd wanted to seek his professional opinion on something. Perhaps some people would worry that Lowell was being a cheat, but I didn’t sense any of that and I’d learnt to trust my senses. That said, I wasn’t convinced that ‘seeking his professional opinion’ was the whole truth.

  Even as the morning sunshine illuminated the bright red paint of the hire car and I prepared to leave the cottage, I also waited for the right moment to question Lowell. Back when we’d decided we were going to be together, I’d warned him that any more secrets would not be tolerated. Unless I was much mistaken, he was well on his way to breaking that rule.