Adieu at the Zoo_A Jefferson Zoo Mystery

by Harol Marshall

  “Oh, it’s not that private. I just don’t want the world knowing I’m so close to Andy’s mom, that’s all.”

  “Something about Andy, then?”

  “No, about Nelson Farthington.”

  “Well, spit it out, girl,” I told her, “unless you don’t mind Ginger hearing what you have to say, because she’ll be back here shortly.”

  “I talked to Andy’s mother about why Nelson Farthington was paying for Tony’s lawyer. She told me Tony’s mom called Nelson and told him the sheriff had come to the house and picked up Tony for questioning and asked Nelson what she should do.”

  “Not so unusual,” I said. “Tony’s family worked for the Farthingtons for years. No doubt Mrs. Pope knows Nelson well enough to phone him for a favor.”

  “Oh, it’s more than that. Andy’s mom told me Mrs. Pope and Nelson Farthington were in the same high school class and hung out with the same group of friends before Nelson left for private school in Europe. They’ve known each other for years. I often wondered if they might have dated in high school.”

  “That’s neither here nor there. I’d do exactly what she did if my kid were in trouble and I had a friend with money and pull in the community.”

  “According to Andy’s mom,” Jodie said, “Nelson asked Mrs. Pope to tell Tony to keep his mouth shut until Nelson’s lawyer appeared to represent him. So Tony never told the sheriff a thing. When the lawyer arrived, he said there was insufficient cause to hold Tony for questioning and the sheriff had to let him go. Now I’m starting to think I was wrong to suspect him just because he had that beehive rope in his truck.”

  “Bee Line rope,” I said, “and maybe we did jump to a hasty conclusion about Tony, but I still think Nelson is heading up this black market plant operation, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he pulled Jack and Tony into it with him. If so, he has more than enough reason, besides his friendship with Mrs. Pope, to pay for Tony’s lawyer.”

  “You might be right about that, but how will we ever get at the truth? Nelson Farthington has a lot of power in this town.”

  “I’m hoping to meet with him again in a safe setting and see if I can trick him into incriminating himself. You heard about my suggestion this morning proposing Nelson Farthington for Honorary Chair of Sally Ann’s latest Zoo Do?”

  “Yeah, it’s all over the zoo. Some people are wondering if you’re playing Nelson and Dan off each other.”

  “Really? Why can’t anyone give me the benefit of the doubt these days?”

  “You know people,” Jodie said, “it’s more fun to think the worst.”

  “Well, frankly, I’m getting a little sick of it.”

  Ginger arrived at the table in time to hear the tail end of my last sentence. “What are you sick of, Sam?”

  Before I could open my mouth, Jodie answered, “I told her people were talking about her playing Nelson and Dan off each other.”

  Ginger scowled. “Oh, yeah, really, that sounds like Sam. I hope you set them straight whoever it was?”

  “I did.”

  Ginger smiled. “Good for you. Who started that rumor, anyway?”

  “I don’t know. Maddy passed it along to me.”

  “That’s because she’s probably the one who started it,” I said.

  Looking over at me, Ginger asked, “Does that girl not have enough to do?”

  “Not always,” I admitted, “but I need her to man the phones and handle deliveries.”

  Our food arrived, and in between bites Jodie came out with a shocker, thoughtfully saving it for last.

  “Oh, by the way, something else I wanted to tell you,” she said, stuffing a forkful of Comfort’s vinegar-based coleslaw in her mouth, and chewed and swallowed it before finishing her sentence.

  Ginger and I followed suit. Comfort’s makes the best slaw in North Carolina.

  Jodie glanced back and forth between Ginger and me, waiting for our undivided attention. “I had dinner at El Provencal last night and you’ll never guess who I saw,”

  I stopped chewing and held my breath before I remembered Dan spent the evening with me, so at least Jodie hadn’t seen him out with another pretty blonde.

  Ginger obliged with the appropriate question. “Who?”

  “Nelson Farthington.”

  “Well, that’s no big deal,” I said. “There aren’t too many places to eat around here, so he’s bound to stop in a local hangout now and again.”

  “That’s not the point.” Jodie gave us her best supercilious look.

  “The point being…” I asked.

  “The person he was with.”

  Jodie loves to keep people in suspense when she tells a story. Ginger and I were on the verge of strangling her when she finally anteed up. “Dan’s blonde cousin from Raleigh.”

  I nearly choked on my hush puppy.

  Chapter 49

  After the three of us returned from lunch, I delivered my budget to Bob’s office, dropping it off with his secretary a few minutes before five.

  Finally I was free, and looking forward to spending a quiet evening with my new squeeze. How did that word pop into my vocabulary? Because I wasn’t thinking straight these days. Love can do that to you, not that I was admitting to being in love, but honestly, if the way I felt about Dan Saunders wasn’t love, it was a darn good substitute.

  I locked up the office, ran downstairs and jogged half the length of the parking lot to my car. Given my early exit from work, at least earlier than I usually leave, I had plenty of time to stop and find myself a hot pink blouse and maybe a pair of hot pink thongs—sandals, not underwear—but I wasn’t ruling out the latter.

  I figured I could re-run my new black slacks. They were a good fit and gave a shapely look to my butt, not that I could remember the last time I worried about the shape of my butt.

  I pulled into the shopping center parking lot and hotfooted my way into my favorite department store where I headed straight for the sales rack in the boutique section. Thirty percent off was the best they were doing, but I’d be willing to pay full price if I found the right blouse.

  Fortunately, hot pink seemed to be one of the year’s hot colors. Again, not something I’d normally tune into since my closet was awash in zoo beige and jungle green. Amazing, I thought, how hormones can change your perspective and take control of your life.

  On the third rack, I spotted the first good possibility. The sleeves were sheer—sheer plus hot pink equals sexy, I decided—and the V-neck cut would show off just the right amount of cleavage, of which I have substantial. I flipped through the sizes, unsure which to choose since sizes seem to change annually. I can remember when I wore size ten slacks. Now, and I’m not a little girl, I wear a size six. I wondered if the former size-six women now shopped in the children’s section.

  To be safe, I picked out three different sizes and made a beeline for the fitting rooms. The size eight worked and looked really great on me. I hardly recognized myself. I’ve become so accustomed to tan golf shirts with a green and black zoo logo on the pocket, I almost felt naked, though in the presence of Dan Saunders naked wasn’t a bad thing.

  The shoe section came next. I carefully placed my new hot pink blouse in my cart and headed to the back of the store. The selection of thong sandals turned out to be more limited than I’d expected, and the disappointment must have shown on my face because a saleslady came over and asked if I needed help.

  “I was hoping to find a pair of sandals that matched this blouse,” I explained, “but I guess I’ll have to settle for plain black or white.”

  She picked up the blouse and looked it over. “Oh, this is pretty. I haven’t seen this one yet, it must have just come in today.” Glancing over at me, she added, “Aren’t you the lucky gal? They’ll be gone by the end of the day tomorrow.”

  “I have a hot date tonight,” I confessed, “and I want to look good.”

  “This blouse will do the trick.”

  I almost blushed at her choice of words. “I was so ho
ping for matching sandals…” My voice trailed off registering my disappointment.

  “I think I can help,” she said, motioning me down the aisle. “Do you like this one?” She held up a fairly simple sandal.

  I nodded. “I’d like it better in pink, though.”

  “Here’s what you do.” She picked up the sandal and walked over to the shoe accessories section where she picked out a pair of flowers in hot pink.

  “Attach these daisy clip-ons to your sandal.” She flipped the shoe over and snapped on the pink flower, which wasn’t anything like a daisy, but I had no intention of sharing that bit of information with her.

  “I think that’ll work,” I told her, thanking her for the help.

  This fashion thing was easier than I thought. The hardest task facing me was covering up the bruises on my face and legs. Black slacks would take care of the leg business, and if for some unknown reason they—the slacks, not my legs—were to come off in the presence of Dan, I’d make sure the lights were down low or maybe off.

  Clearly, I’d gone way beyond the romantic dinner stage in my thinking about my evening with Dan. I hiked to the checkout counter, paid with my debit card because I only use my credit card when I travel, and carted my precious purchases off to the parking lot where I tossed my finds into the back of my car.

  Dan Saunders is in for a treat tonight, I thought, as I pulled my car onto Creek Road and turned in the direction of home. Passing the site of our accident for the first time, I slowed down, noticing the black wavy skid marks, the torn-up turf along the shoulder, and the broken down bushes and snapped-off saplings where Jodie’s truck had skidded to a stop upside down.

  A shudder of fear engulfed my body, the kind of after-fear you experience when you’ve safely survived a death-defying event. The mind-numbing fright always comes later, which seems to me a biological response that makes no evolutionary sense. Maybe the purpose is to warn against a ‘next time’ that might end less successfully.

  Without thinking, I checked my rearview mirror. Seeing the black and white County Sheriff’s car behind me brought a huge sense of relief. Was this my guardian, and had he followed me from the zoo and waited in the parking lot while I finished my impulse shopping? I’d ask when we reached my house because I’d been under the impression the sheriff’s protective detail only materialized at night.

  I turned into my street and the black and white followed as I slowed down and executed a perfect ninety-degree turn into my driveway. The patrol car pulled over and parked on the opposite side of the street. Apparently, the sheriff had had no success locating the culprit responsible for our accident, and so my protection detail was continuing in full force.

  However, at this point, I wasn’t too sure how I felt about a sheriff’s deputy keeping track of how much time Dan spent at my house.

  Chapter 50

  I climbed out of my car and crossed the street to talk with the deputy, who turned out to be Jodie’s pal Billy.

  “Hey, Billy, have you been charged with following me as well as monitoring my house?”

  “No, ma’am,” he said, in a way that irritated me already.

  “You weren’t following me?”

  “Didn’t know it was you ’til I seen you turn into your driveway, but I was comin’ out here to deliver a message so I’m glad I found you home.”

  “A message?”

  “Yeah. Sheriff Joyner’s called off the protective detail for you and Jodie ’cause we’ve apprehended the perp what ran you two off the road.”

  I bit my lip. “Great news. Who is it?”

  “Tony Pope.”

  “Really?” I was confused. “I thought the sheriff decided Jack Dubois died in a car crash and as a result, released Tony without pressing charges.”

  “That was before our search warrant came through. Search turned up Jack’s boots in Tony’s closet. Sheriff thinks Tony ran Jack off the road just like he done to you and Jodie, ’cept in Jack’s case, he died, like I guess you two were supposed to do.”

  I sucked in my breath at Billy’s forthrightness if that’s what it was, and tried to make sense of the sheriff’s theory. “Does he have any more evidence than a pair of Jack’s boots?”

  “Yup, but I can’t say. Maybe you can find out from your boyfriend.”

  I decided to ignore the boyfriend comment. I could see why Jodie disliked him so much.

  “Well, thanks for letting me know.” I had no interest in wasting more time standing in the road jawing with Billy. If I wanted additional inside information I’d wait until Dan arrived. “And thanks for keeping an eye on us.”

  “No problem.”

  Billy started the engine with more of a roar than the sheriff might have appreciated. As he pulled away, I crossed back to my car thinking about Design’s smashed-up pickup truck and Tony Pope. The link between Tony Pope and Jack made sense, but I wasn’t buying the part about Tony running Jodie and me off the road, which meant I had mixed feelings about the sheriff canceling his protection.

  I’d feel a lot more secure going to bed knowing the sheriff’s deputies were still checking up on my safety. I hoped this new development wouldn’t signal the start of another round of sleep deprivation.

  I reached inside the back of my car and pulled out my purchases. As I walked up to my porch, my thoughts turned to Dan Saunders’s reaction to my new hot pink blouse, which caused me to forget all about the sheriff, Tony Pope, or whoever it was who might want Jodie and me dead. Lust can do that to you.

  §

  To my surprise, I’d underestimated Dan’s response to hot pink, which is all I have to say on the matter other than that our dinner of leftovers reached the table a little later than I’d anticipated. Only one troubling circumstance marred my evening—an overwhelming sense of guilt I felt on behalf of my first husband.

  For all of nearly ten years, I’d been obsessed with the idea of never feeling about another man the way I felt about my former husband. Now Dan Saunders, someone I’d known as a friend for the past two years, had challenged that long-held notion, burying it deeper than the sea is wide. I struggled to hide my emotional turmoil, but Dan picked up on my angst.

  “What’s wrong, sweetheart? You can trust me.” He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes as if the problem lurked there.

  Exactly the words I needed to hear in order to open up to him. My biggest fear was hurting his feelings or worse yet offending him, but he told me he understood completely and in fact felt flattered, a response that never occurred to me. He also said he didn’t mind if I still loved the memory of my dead husband as long I made room in my heart for him. To tell the truth, if I hadn’t already been in with love Dan Saunders, I would have fallen for him then and there.

  Later, during our delicious and deliciously late dinner, our conversation moved away from the topic of how quickly a long-term platonic friendship can morph into a full-blown love affair, and moved instead to the subject of the sheriff’s investigation. I had no trouble prying information from him, sweetening the pot every now and then and I’m not talking leftovers here. But in the end, he had little to add to what Billy told me.

  “I stopped by the sheriff’s office on my way home,” he said. “Sheriff told me about his latest evidence—Jack’s boots in Tony’s closet. Said he had no choice but to arrest Tony and hold him responsible for Jack’s death. He figures Tony ran Jack off the road, which killed him, then Tony tried to hide the body.”

  The sheriff’s hypothesis only raised questions in my mind. “If Tony ran Jack off the road, why would he move the body? Leaving the body in the car would make Jack’s death look like an accident. Everyone would conclude,” I added, “that Jack stole the pickup and crashed it on his way out of the zoo. If Tony murdered Jack intentionally, what better cover than to have the death appear to be an accident?”

  “I don’t have a good explanation for you. Maybe Jack found out Tony was pilfering Design’s copper, but better yet, maybe they were in it together, stole the pick
up to haul off their loot and crashed on the way out because they were driving too fast. When Tony realized Jack died in the crash, he took Jack’s boots, then had to move the body because the missing boots would make the death look suspicious.”

  “So Tony moved the body over a pair of boots?”

  Dan shrugged. “The boots were new and expensive, and he and Jack wore the same size. You know how guys are about their work boots.”

  Guys and their work boots?

  Despite the insanity of that thought, I acknowledged the possibility. “Jack and Tony may have been in cahoots stealing copper, I don’t know. More likely, they were smuggling plants for Nelson Farthington and now Nelson’s paying Tony’s legal bills to keep him quiet and divert attention away from the plant smuggling operation. He can pay Tony handsomely for spending a year or two in the slammer for involuntary manslaughter.”

  “You might be right, which is to say that I suspect you’re in the wrong business.”

  “You think we could start our own P.I. firm?”

  “Something like that. That way I could spend every day with you.”

  “You’d get sick of me, and I’m not willing to risk that.”

  “Not a worry.” He leaned over and kissed me, mumbling into my lips, “Besides I see you every day now and it only makes me love you more.”

  “You’re getting me off track,” I murmured.

  “I know,” he said, moving away. “Finish your story. We can always pick up where we left off later.”

  I was beginning to like the sound of the word later. I sat for a while pondering the various scenarios in my mind, unable to come up with any more bright ideas, though one question did occur to me.

  “Incidentally,” I said, “is your cousin dating Nelson Farthington?”

  A startled look crossed Dan’s face. “Say, what?”

  Chapter 51

  Before I could respond to Dan’s surprised say what, my doorbell rang. I tried to imagine who would be stopping by my house this late, and for a fleeting second entertained the irrational fear I was about to open my front door to a smug Nate Olson accusing me of philandering or some such nonsense.