Whales and a Watery Grave_Mystery

by Ruby Loren

  “Patrick,” Ben said, inclining his head at someone standing just behind my shoulder.

  “Madi, it’s great to see you here,” the producer said when I turned round. I very nearly blurted out, ‘it is?’ I was so surprised by his change in attitude.

  “The police said I had to stick around,” I explained with a shrug.

  “How weird. I’m sure they don’t think you had anything at all to do with the unfortunate incident.” Okay now this sucking up was getting to be too much.

  “What can I do for you?” I asked, sensing that Patrick hadn’t just had a personality transplant.

  “In the wake of the tragedy we’re all still coming to terms with, it’s come to our attention that as well as being a very talented artist and storyteller, you’re also a zookeeper. Is that right?”

  “It’s no secret.”

  “That’s great! So, you’ve got some good experience with animals, I’m guessing?”

  “I own a zoo.” I could have also mentioned being a consultant, but the zoo owning thing was still a lot of fun to say. As I’d expected, it shut the producer up pretty fast.

  “That’s really interesting. You must have such a unique perspective.” He meant I wasn’t dead against all incidences of animals being kept in captivity.

  “She’s definitely unique,” Ben said from behind my back. I thought he was actually enjoying this. Unfortunately, I had an idea of the end destination…

  “You would look so great on camera. Has anyone ever told you that?” Patrick smarmed. “You’ve got amazing… features.” The pause for thought was priceless and the answer was even worse.

  “Thank you, Patrick,” I said with all the politeness I could summon. “I assume you might be attempting to persuade me to step in as the new TV presenter partner for Ben. Is that right?” I could be about to make a fool of myself in front of both of these men, but I didn’t care.

  “It would be an honour to have you on board with the documentary. I think it would be a fantastic choice for your career!”

  So, my instincts had been correct.

  “You and Ben are already so close with one another, I hear,” Patrick continued, ending all hope of me bothering to let him down gently, or subtly.

  “No, I’m not doing it. Thanks.” I grudgingly added at the last moment. Being deliberately rude was surprisingly hard, even to someone as annoying as Patrick.

  The producer looked stunned by my negative response. “I spoke to your publicist just the other day. He said you’d be delighted.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. “I’m guessing that must have been before he was arrested for stalking me.”

  And with that final flourish, I flounced off around the side of the building and left the plotting producer and a bemused Ben behind.

  The shell building was surprisingly empty, considering that the park was open as usual today. You would expect the office staff to all be working, but there was an almost unnatural silence in the place. A dead silence. I shivered a little and pushed the thought away, deciding instead to start climbing the stairs. Hopefully I’d find someone who could direct me to where the head keeper and my fiancé were.

  I hesitated after taking a few steps. It wasn’t just the building that was quiet. There was a heavy feeling in the air, and I couldn’t even hear the distant cries of seagulls. It’s the calm before the storm, my mind whispered. Five steps later, a low rumble broke the silence as the thunder rolled across the sky. Then the heavens opened.

  “Psssst!”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin, when down a corridor to the side of the stairs, an innocuous door opened and someone I’d never seen before beckoned frantically. Putting all thoughts of the unsolved probable murder and the perpetrator still running around free, I walked down the corridor to see what the man wanted.

  He opened the door wider without a word and I discovered why the building had seemed deserted. It was because everyone was crammed into this room.

  “Welcome to the secret zoo staff meeting,” Auryn said, looking quietly bemused.

  “Glad you could make it,” Nile sparkled at me. I was pretty sick of people trying to charm me so I just inclined my head. Fortunately, the head keeper had an entire room to address, so I was forgotten for now.

  “We all know that things aren’t going as the shareholders clearly hoped when they agreed to let the TV company film the conservation work that we do here. All of you have seen how they’re going to present the care we give, and you can bet that the shareholders will blame us when the park is drowning in bad publicity.” There were many murmurs of agreement to Nile’s speech. He was speaking in English, I assumed for the benefit of Auryn and me. It was our shared language, and I also had a shrewd idea that we were a part of this now.

  “The question is, what do we do about it?” He paused for effect. “I’ve already introduced you to my friends from the UK, Madi and Auryn, but, I must confess, I made the mistake of overlooking their achievements. Avery Zoo is rumoured to be the most successful zoo in South East England, perhaps even in the entire country, and Madi has an amazing track record as an animal welfare consultant. The zoos she’s worked for have gone from strength to strength. I’ve spoken to Auryn, and it turns out the police are keeping them here until the tragic death has been resolved. Fortunately for us, he’s agreed to help us out, and so has Madi.” Nile shot me a questioning look when he said that. I nodded in return, making sure I smiled.

  Since arriving in Mallorca, I’d managed to spend an inordinate amount of time at The Big Blue Marine Park. It was more than enough for me to know that they were being treated unfairly by the documentary makers. If I could do anything to help the zoo’s staff out, I would. When Avery zoo had passed into Auryn’s hands, I knew that the zoo’s staff had been concerned that their jobs were on the line, but in the end, it was everyone uniting together that had made it so Avery was even being rumoured as the most successful zoo in the country! I couldn’t help but smile at that wild story. Avery was successful for its size, but there was no way it was outclassing some of the larger chains in terms of cash volume. Profits, however, were a different matter. I was still beyond proud of what Auryn and everyone at Avery Zoo had achieved.

  “Both Auryn and Madi have been very clear that they are not aquatic animal specialists, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we accept that. However, your business experience and your animal instincts are strong, and I can see we’d be foolish to not ask you for your help. So, from all of us… thank you.” A smattering of applause broke out and then quieted, I assumed as those present remembered that this was supposed to be a secret meeting.

  “Is there anything you’d like to say?” Nile asked.

  I nodded and took a few steps forwards. “I don’t want to give you any false hope,” I began and saw fallen faces all around the room. But I wasn’t about to lie to them. “The makers of these documentaries and the participants I’ve spoken to don’t approve of animals being kept in captivity - rescued, bred in captivity, or otherwise. They’ve made their decision, and there is nothing you can do to change it. However…” I took a breath. “Just because they’ve made their minds up doesn’t mean you aren’t running a great place here. In my experience, there is always room for new ideas and improvements, even in our own zoos.” I looked across and saw Auryn smiling at me. “Feeling that you’re going it alone and that it’s all down to you is not how you should feel. Collaboration is how Avery Zoo has done so well, and zoos agreeing to collaborate with me is the only reason why I’ve done well as a consultant. If we all work together, then I’m sure that The Big Blue will be able to weather the storms that may be on their way. Or already upon us.” I looked up, just as another peal of thunder growled across the sky.

  “The Big Blue!” Nile shouted.

  “The Big Blue!” the zoo’s staff shouted back, no longer caring if the documentary crew wondered what they were up to. This was about achieving the best for the animals and the best education for the visitors, who
would then go on to make choices that affected the lives of animals in the wild.

  This was about what really mattered.

  10

  Special Delivery

  The storm had passed by the time Auryn and I returned home to the villa. I’d spent the day drawing up a plan for the unexpected park review I was going to do. I was uncertain about how much help I’d be, but I still wanted to try. Sometimes, when everything is pushing you in a direction you didn’t want to go in, the best thing to do is to turn and embrace it and accept that perhaps you were going the wrong way in the first place.

  It was thoughts like this that made me feel the need to take a walk. Auryn was busy going over the scant list of events and themes that The Big Blue used during a calendar year. Every couple of seconds, he would exclaim how surprised he was that a place as big and corporate looking as The Big Blue would have so little going on. I realised he was in the zone and decided to leave him to it.

  The sun was going down leaving a beautiful orange glow in its wake - the storm’s last gift. Puddles of water still lined the paved path I walked, but I knew they would soon be gone. When it rained in Mallorca, it rained hard, but it never lasted long. Mallorca rain just didn’t have the staying power that the English stuff did.

  I was strolling aimlessly, thinking of thoughts like that one when a shadow moved and someone grabbed my arm. Instinct made me spin and lash out with my elbow, some half remembered self defence move, probably picked up from TV.

  “Not bad,” Katya said, rubbing her arm where I’d hit her.

  “I think it’s supposed to hit an attacker’s face,” I confessed, realising that perhaps I should take short-woman specific self defence classes. To be honest, I could already guess what the prime move would be.

  My cheer faded a moment later when I remembered that Katya and I hadn’t exactly parted on brilliant terms. We looked at one another for a long moment before Katya tried a weak smile. “I might have overreacted a little. You’re still wrong, but I thought more like them and less like me.” I supposed that was what passed for an apology for Katya. I decided I accepted it.

  “Things are just tough, aren’t they?” I said, knowing that we were okay again.

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. You know we build our experience and take breaks by doing other work that’s still relevant to the job. Obviously, I’ve done police work before, but this small-island force is just…” She shook her head. “It’s bureaucracy gone mad out here. It’s only because of the media pressure that the autopsy was done as fast as it was.”

  “Really?” I said, trying to sound casual about it. To my knowledge, there’d been no official press release from the police.

  “Don’t go posting this on social media, obviously, but there’s more to this case than you probably noticed when you found Leona Richards in her caravan.” Katya toyed with her plait for a moment, as if coming to a final decision on whether to confide in me or not. “It turns out, she had sickle cell anaemia. From what we can tell, no one on the documentary staff knew about it apart from Leona.”

  “She didn’t die from that, did she?” I definitely hadn’t imagined the grisly ornament and the dent in her head.

  “I told you it was complicated. First things first - Leona Richards was a good few years older than her Wiki page claims. While it turns out that sickle cell disease can be managed pretty effectively with various drugs, it affects sufferers in different ways and the average life expectancy, while always reduced, varies a lot. The autopsy results showed that she was probably only a day or so away from dying from the disease anyway - especially as she hadn’t sought any medical treatment since arriving on the island. Her liver had pretty much ceased to function and she had something called splenic sequestration that is known to cause death in sufferers of sickle cell.” Katya shook her head. “When this is released, we’ll have to ask more questions to find out if anyone knew but if they didn’t… I just can’t believe she hid it so well. Her legs were completely ulcerated. She must have been in a lot of pain. The UK police let us know that there were signs she’d been using opiate painkillers back home before coming out here. She must have smuggled them in her luggage because she sure didn’t declare them.”

  “I thought she was on drugs,” I said, feeling bad about how wrong I’d got it.

  “Actually, the autopsy showed that she had taken enough pills prior to her death to end her life. They were mixed in with some orange juice, but that’s not what actually killed her. Cause of death was drowning.”

  “Drowning…” I repeated, before I remembered the neon tetras on the carpet. “Someone drowned her in the fish tank. So, it was murder!”

  “Yes, there are indications that her head was held under water forcibly by somebody, but there are no defensive injuries, which suggest she was already out of it on the painkillers when it happened.”

  “But the ornament…” I said, remembering the hideous whales. I knew what I’d seen.

  “She was already dead when that was done.” Katya sucked her lip in for a moment before she spoke. “All in all, Leona Richards was killed in three different ways. Four, if you count her being less than a day away from death by natural causes.”

  “Her eyes were yellow,” I said, suddenly remembering that horrible detail.

  “That’s a sign of liver failure.” Katya sighed and looked out across the sea. “I’ve seen many things I would rather forget, but this case… it’s tragic. From the glowing testimonies of everyone I’ve spoken to, Leona Richards could do no wrong, she was a saint. But she was killed in three different ways. There could even be more than one killer. So, either there’s an unknown homicidal maniac on the loose… or some people have been telling lies.”

  “When will she have realised she had the disease?” I asked, remembering what Katya had said about medication.

  “I spoke to her GP in the UK, and he didn’t know anything about her symptoms… or the painkillers. It looks like she potentially got hold of them illegally. When I asked him about sickle cell disease, he said it can be asymptomatic for a long time. Perhaps when it did start showing symptoms, Leona didn’t realise what was happening and just covered it up. That would explain why no one seems to know anything. Perhaps she was killed before she even knew what was really wrong with her.” Katya twisted her plait in her hand. “It’s a tough case to crack. Interestingly, according to the doctor I spoke with, sickle cell disease is hereditary.”

  “Her mum left her and was found murdered,” I mused. “She didn’t know who her father was.”

  Katya nodded. “One of them might have had the disease and the other would have been a carrier. It’s a roll of the dice, especially if someone who had the gene, but not the disease, didn’t know they had it.”

  “What a sad ending to her story.”

  Katya nodded. “All that’s left is to find her killer and seek justice.” Waves crashed on the shore in our silence. “I will find them.”

  I surprised myself the next morning by waking up early and in a good mood. The sun was shining and the clouds and puddles of yesterday were in the past. Nearly a week of our holiday had already passed, and although it wasn’t going the way Auryn and I had planned, I thought that things might be turning around for the better anyway. Last night, we’d officially been offered work with The Big Blue Marine Park, as Nile had gone to the shareholders and shown them our track records. Our holiday had just turned into a job, but I realised I was okay with that. Part of the reason I’d been worried about falling for Auryn in the first place was that I knew it would mean sticking around at Avery Zoo. I loved the zoo and it was where I would always return, but I’d also loved the work I’d done as a consultant. Even though I was a little nervous as to what I could do to help The Big Blue, I was excited to be getting back to doing the work I loved most.

  We were low on milk, I realised when I opened the fridge, so I decided to pop out to the shops. When I walked up to the front door I realised that there was an envelope lying on
the doormat. I knew it hadn’t been there when we’d arrived back from the marine park yesterday evening.

  I picked it up from the mat and wondered if it was meant for the owner of the villa. There was nothing written on the front. I decided to open it and take a look.

  A folded piece of A4 was inside, covered in letters cut from magazines and newspapers.

  Stay away from Ben Ravenwood, or die, whore.

  I stared at the sheet of paper for a couple of seconds before I realised I was holding evidence of a crime. Someone had sent me a death threat.

  Perhaps worse than that - someone knew where I was staying.

  I got my phone out and called Katya.

  “Keep the letter and bring it with you when you come in to the park today. I’ll get it looked at, although there probably won’t be anything we can glean from it. Who knows where you’re staying?” she asked, once I’d explained what I’d found.

  “Apart from you, Ben Ravenwood seemed to know. Darius Villi found out from my friend, Tiff.” I did some more thinking. “I think some people working on the park’s staff might know as well. We’re being employed by them and had to give the address of the villa as a place of contact. I’m not sure how exactly Ben found out. Maybe he asked Darius? Before he had relations with Leona, that is…” The two men were unlikely to be on speaking terms now. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even seen Darius around at the park. He must be keeping a low profile.

  “I’ll be asking that question,” Katya assured me.

  “Thanks. I’m sure it’s nothing. A lot of people got the wrong idea when those photos were published.”