The flamingo-looking judge sat behind a card table, facing the lawyers. His long neck twisted as he followed the ping-pong argument Ruby and Runcible were having from their separate tables. Off to the side, the jury sat with expressions ranging from bored (Firebella) to extremely bored (Sapphire). And on the other side was Scratch, laden with chains and drooping gloomily. Zoe’s dad stood beside him, holding an electric shock wand and wearing most of a fireproof suit, apart from the helmet.
And standing ominously next to the prosecution’s table was a masked figure, all in black, with the hood of his coat pulled up. Even seeing him from a distance made Zoe shiver.
“You don’t need more time!” Runcible shouted at Ruby. “You have no witnesses! You have no evidence!” He pointed to the qilin, standing peacefully beside the judge with her horn glowing softly blue. “The qilin knows he’s guilty, so give up!”
“We’ve presented our theory regarding his guilt over the sheep; the qilin cannot distinguish what he is guilty of,” Ruby yelled back. “And we might have a witness if he would stop setting himself on fire every time we go anywhere near him. We need to force the phoenix to testify before we can close this case.”
“He was probably a pile of ashes during the murder, too,” Runcible growled. “He won’t know anything, and he’s unreliable even if he claims he does.” Zoe noticed that the agent’s eyebrows seemed bushier than usual—and were his teeth getting a bit longer and sharper? She couldn’t exactly blame him. Talking to Ruby usually made her mad enough to turn into a wolf, too, if she could have.
Delia put a calming hand on Runcible’s shoulder, but he shook her off.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Ruby pointed out. “And we want those feathers tested. We have reason to believe they’re not Pelly’s at all—”
“A reason you’ve declined to share with the court!” Runcible said, flinging up his hands and giving the jury a can you believe this? glare.
“Judge Martindale, all we’re asking for is a three-day extension—” she began.
“Wait!” Matthew called. “Stop the trial!”
Everyone turned around, and Zoe suddenly felt like she was in one of those dreams where she had to give a speech to a million people but she’d overslept, run onstage in her pajamas, and forgotten what the speech was supposed to be about.
Matthew lifted the bundle from the back of the golf cart and hauled it over to set it down in front of the judge. Logan and Zoe stood on either side of him as he unwrapped the blanket with a flourish to reveal the slumbering form of the golden goose.
Muffled gasps came from the audience and the jury.
“Pelly’s dead body!” Sapphire shrieked.
“No, no, she’s alive!” Zoe shouted over the uproar that ensued. “She’s just drugged! She was kidnapped!”
“Scratch was set up!” Logan added. “He’s innocent!”
Zoe glanced over at the dragon, whose whole body was alive with hope now. Scratch’s eyes glowed and he clawed at the ground.
The SNAPA agents nearly overturned their table in their haste to get up and examine Pelly. Delia brushed her hair behind her ears, looking pale as she felt for Pelly’s pulse. Zoe wondered how it must feel to have nearly condemned an innocent dragon to death—especially when your whole mission in life was to keep them safe.
“They’re right,” Delia said, then, clearing her throat, she said it again louder. “They’re right. Judge Martindale, this goose is alive.” She turned to Zoe. “So what about the blood on the dragon’s teeth?”
“Just from the sheep he ate,” Zoe said, shaking her head.
“You’re sure?” Delia said anxiously. “He didn’t attack any people while he was loose?”
“Xanadu’s a small town,” Matthew said. “We’d know if anyone had been attacked by a dragon this past week. I promise.”
The SNAPA agent breathed a sigh of relief. “Very well. We withdraw our case against the accused, for now.”
Runcible let out a small growl and stalked back to the table, where he started slamming papers and books around.
Delia’s hands brushed through the goose’s feathers, checking for injuries. “And she seems okay,” she said. “Did she tell you what happened to her or where she’s been?”
“Not yet,” Zoe said. “We found her at our librarian’s house, but we think someone else took her from here, and then Miss Sameera rescued her by accident.”
Delia tilted her head. “Did you say Sameera?”
“Yes,” said Zoe. “Sameera Lahiri, our school librarian.”
The agent sighed. “Oh, lord. The craziest Free Ranger of them all.”
“What’s a Free Ranger?” Logan asked. Zoe had never heard of them, either, before seeing Miss Sameera’s letter.
“A misguided movement to find and free all our mythical creatures,” Delia said. “They’re like SNAPA’s worst nightmare. They have no real proof that these animals even exist, but they’re so convinced and so determined that we can’t seem to shake them. It turns out kraken ink doesn’t work on memories of completely made-up supernatural encounters.”
“Oh,” Logan said. “Like people who say they’ve been abducted by UFOs.”
“Right,” said Delia, “except those people usually have had a real run-in with a will-o’-the-wisp or a tooth fairy.” She stroked Pelly’s head. “Sameera Lahiri has been trouble before. She exposed a menagerie in Missouri and we had to dose the whole town. I thought we got to her, too, but maybe our dosage wasn’t high enough. Some people have stronger resistance to kraken ink than others.”
“Well, we brought her back here to answer some questions,” Zoe said. She made a mental note that they’d have to give Miss Sameera extra kraken ink—maybe a lot extra. She hoped that would work; she’d never heard of anyone resisting it before. “So we’ll see what we can find out, and where she found Pelly, which might lead us to the real kidnapper.”
“Good idea,” Delia said. “Runcible and I will interrogate her as soon as we’ve packed up here.”
A movement behind the agent caught Zoe’s eye, and she turned to watch as her dad unclipped most of the chains from around Scratch. The dragon stretched his wings, beaming happily.
Runcible came storming back and stood over the goose, fuming. “You still have to answer for that dragon escaping,” he said. “I can see plenty of reasons to shut down this whole place.”
Zoe’s heart sank. After all that, hadn’t they saved the Menagerie?
“Oh, I think not,” said a voice behind Runcible. He stepped aside with a frown as Melissa Merevy strolled up with a clipboard full of forms. She tipped it so he could see the top page, where several lines were highlighted. “According to the SNAMHP rule book, anyone who’s been a werewolf less than seven years is not allowed to run free in wolf form within fifty miles of human habitation, regardless of whether he’s tracked and monitored. Moreover, with children out in the woods Sunday night, you could both be facing serious endangerment charges.” She paused, letting that sink in as Runcible turned purple and Delia stared blankly. “Unless, of course, we can reach some kind of mutual agreement about the longevity of this Menagerie’s prospects . . .”
“What?” Logan whispered to Zoe.
“I think she’s blackmailing them into letting us stay open,” Zoe whispered back.
“Oh,” he said. “Awesome.”
He grinned, looking relieved. She wished she felt that way, too, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that their problems were far from over. She kept thinking about those goose feathers—the ones that weren’t Pelly’s—and wondering where they came from and who would have had access to them.
She felt someone’s gaze on her and turned to see the Exterminator watching, dark eyes glittering through his mask.
They’d returned Pelly and saved Scratch, but they hadn’t figured out who was trying to sabotage the Menagerie.
And Zoe was sure whoever it was wouldn’t be giving up that easily.
TWENTY-THREE
<
br /> “That’s not much of a costume.”
Logan jumped and turned around. His father leaned in the doorway, looking amused.
“Aren’t you going to a Halloween party?” Mr. Wilde asked. “What are you, a grim reaper?”
Logan looked down at the black sweater and black jeans he’d been instructed to wear. “No, Blue is picking my costume,” he said. To his dad’s raised eyebrows, he added, “I kind of lost a bet.”
“Ah,” said his dad. “Unfortunate.”
“Yeah, so I’m meeting up with him to get dressed and then we’ll go over to the party together.” Logan wiped his hands on his jeans, wondering whether to admit that a party at Jasmin Sterling’s house terrified him. Probably even more than grumpy dragons or basilisks.
“I’d rather you weren’t riding around on your bike after dark,” said his dad, flipping his car keys over one finger. “I’ll drive you and you can call me for a ride back.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Logan said.
“Sure I do. I’m your dad. Ready to go?”
Logan reluctantly trailed his dad out to the car. His dad had been acting a little weird all week, calling him a lot and asking more questions than normal, especially about Zoe Kahn. Logan was almost certain that his dad knew everything about the Menagerie and the Kahn family, but he was still waiting for Dad to come clean about Mom. After he did that, Logan was willing to tell him everything.
But if his dad did know something, this drop-off was going to be a bit awkward.
Sure enough, as they came to the bottom of Zoe’s driveway, Logan’s dad leaned forward, frowning up at the tall walls of the Menagerie.
“I can walk from here,” Logan offered.
“Isn’t this the Kahns’ place?” Dad asked.
“Yeah,” Logan said, squirming internally. “Blue and his mom live here, too. Like, in an apartment in a separate part of the house. So that’s where I’ll be. With Blue.”
“I hope so,” his dad said, stopping the car and turning to face Logan. “Listen, buddy, I’m not sure hanging out with Zoe Kahn is such a good idea.”
Here it comes. Logan held his breath. Maybe now Dad is ready to talk. “Why?” he asked.
“That whole family is trouble,” said Dad. “I’ve heard it from enough people to be worried. I’d rather you made some different friends instead.”
“Oh, sure,” Logan said. “No problem. ’Cause making friends is so easy here. I just spent two months all by myself because I figured it would be character building.”
“Logan, I’m serious,” said his dad.
“Me, too,” said Logan. “I’ve finally met people who want to be friends with me—people who are kind of awesome—and you want me to stay away from them based on what? Town rumors? That doesn’t sound like the kind of friend you’ve always told me to be.”
“I’m just saying—”
You’re just saying a pack of lies instead of finally telling me the truth, Logan thought furiously. He knew he was madder than he should be, but he couldn’t help it.
“I’m not giving up my only friends without a really good reason,” Logan said, climbing out of the car. “Thanks for the ride.” He closed the door and headed up the driveway before his dad could respond.
“Stop fussing.” Zoe lightly slapped Logan’s hand away. “You’ll mess it up.”
“I cannot believe you talked me into this,” Logan grumbled around the fake fangs in his mouth. He shot a look at Blue, who was standing in the doorway to the bathroom looking much less like an idiot than Logan did.
Zoe smoothed the last patch of fake fur onto Logan’s cheek and stepped back to inspect her work. He peered at the mirror. A hairy wig perched on his head, dark brown to match the sideburns. Ruby had chipped in with her eyeliner and helpful suggestions on how to create crags around Logan’s eyes and on his forehead and cheeks. Somehow, they’d also managed to make his eyebrows look ridiculously bushy.
“Why do I have to be a werewolf?” Logan asked, reaching up to scratch at the wig.
“Because,” Blue said, “now you’ll be itchy and uncomfortable all night. Just like me.”
Zoe sighed. “Be nice. You’re lucky Jasmin wants you there.” She plucked a piece of lint out of Logan’s fur.
“What exactly are you supposed to be?” Logan asked Blue.
Blue looked down at the torn blue pants and open-chested white shirt Jasmin had sent over. “I have no idea. Jasmin said it would make sense when I saw her. I’m thinking zombie, though—what do you think?”
“I am a hundred percent sure Jasmin does not want you to be a zombie,” Zoe said.
“Zombies are totally in,” Blue informed her. “They are the new vampires.”
“No, no, no,” Zoe said. “Nothing that wants to eat your brain will ever be attractive, and I guarantee Jasmin wants to show you off tonight.”
Blue shivered. He grabbed the makeup on the counter and began coating on a pale shade.
“Well, maybe if I’m something gross and spooky, she’ll stop liking me.” A minute later, he snapped his head toward Zoe. “Yargh! I’m going to eat your brain!” His lips were slightly green and he’d circled his eyes with a dark gray eye shadow.
“Terrifying,” Zoe said. “Especially the part where Jasmin might kill you for ruining her plan.”
“I’m going to grab my shoes. Meet you downstairs, Logan.” Blue patted Zoe on the shoulder as he headed out.
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Logan asked once Blue was gone. He knew it would be weird for her to show up at Jasmin’s party, but maybe there would be enough people there that Jasmin wouldn’t even notice her. Or maybe Jasmin would forgive her and they could at least talk to each other again.
Right. Or not.
“Nah,” Zoe said with a shrug. “Way too awkward. But you’ll have to tell me everything. I want to know what her mysterious costume finally is. Plus you have to make sure Blue is nice to Jasmin.”
“I’m on it,” he promised. He hesitated. “Have you—has anyone heard anything from the SNAPA agents?”
“No.” Zoe sat down on the edge of the bathtub, frowning. “They took Miss Sameera away before we could even introduce her to the unicorns, like we promised. And they took Pelly, too, to run some scans and make sure nothing bad got into her system. Mom and Dad said not to worry, we’ll get a chance to talk to both of them once SNAPA is done, but we have to follow official protocol or something like that. It’s frustrating. I feel like there’s someone out there, planning the next awful thing to do to us, but we have no idea who it is and our best chance of finding out is locked up in a secret SNAPA facility.”
“They’ll find out what she knows, though, right?” said Logan. “Maybe they’ll show up tomorrow, give back Pelly, and hand over the answers to all our questions.”
“Hmm,” Zoe said. Logan didn’t really believe it, either. But surely SNAPA couldn’t just make Miss Sameera disappear forever. They’d get a chance to talk to her sooner or later—and perhaps Pelly would be able to identify her kidnapper, too.
Downstairs, they found the Kahns and Blue in the kitchen with Keiko, who was glaring at them all defiantly. She was dressed in a sleek sci-fi outfit, but there were furry blue ears perched on her head and a carefully groomed bushy tail emerging from the back of her suit. Logan blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing it right. Yup. Keiko was a blue spacesuit-wearing fox.
“Keiko, this is a little . . . reckless, don’t you think?” Mrs. Kahn was saying.
“I don’t see why.” Keiko practically stomped her foot. “It’s not like anyone will know by looking at my costume that I really am a fox.”
“But that’s your actual tail!” Ruby exclaimed. “You dyed it blue!”
“It’ll wash out,” Keiko snapped.
“What if someone asks to try on your tail? Aren’t they going to be a little curious that you can’t take it off?” Ruby put her hands on her hips.
Zoe rolled her eyes at Logan.
&n
bsp; “No one would dare,” Keiko said. “I’ll be fine.”
Mr. Kahn sighed. “It’s okay, Ruby. Logan and Blue will be there to make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble. Although I don’t see why you have to go as a fox, Keiko.”
“I’m not just any fox, I’m Krystal from the Star Fox saga. You’re the ones who are always telling me it’s good to connect with my cultural roots. Star Fox was a totally popular Japanese video game, according to this old magazine of Matthew’s I found. God.”
“She’s got you there, Dad,” Matthew said, a smile hovering on his lips. Zoe’s brother lounged against the counter, a bag of potato chips in his hand. He looked ten million times happier now that the qilin had been found.
“Okay, okay.” Mr. Kahn raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Just be careful.”
Keiko smiled smugly and sauntered toward the front door. “I bet I have the best costume at the party.”
Logan caught the wistful expression on Zoe’s face before she could hide it. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You won’t miss anything. We promise not to have any fun.”
She laughed. “Oh, good.”
As they went down the driveway, Logan looked back over his shoulder and saw her standing in the doorway, leaning against Captain Fuzzbutt’s furry leg. The mammoth had his trunk wrapped around her waist, making her look smaller than usual.
At least she’s not alone, he thought. The saboteur is still out there, but we saved the Menagerie, for now. And I’m going to my first Xanadu party. Maybe it’s okay to relax just for tonight.
Jasmin’s house loomed out of the darkness, light shining from the windows and illuminating the curved paved driveway. Giant spiderwebs with giant spiders in them hung from the trees and a trail of jack-o’-lanterns carved like various spooky creatures lit the way to the front door. Logan reminded himself to act like he’d never seen the place once they got inside—even though he’d been in her house just last weekend with Zoe and Blue, trying to track down the last missing griffin cub.
“Act normal,” Blue said to Logan.
The Menagerie #2 Page 18
