by Ruby Loren
I was still learning to be that kind of person…
“Tell me,” I said with a smile, knowing it must be something good from how excited she sounded.
“Well, it’s a couple of things actually. The first one is that I had a call from this local chain of card and crafty bits shops and they want to stock my maps! How great is that?”
I told her it was brilliant and silently decided I’d tell her about the deal the literary agent had offered me another time. I would hate for Tiff to think I was trying to overshadow her in any way.
“The second thing is that I bottled asking Auryn out, but something brilliant happened anyway…” she continued.
My heart gave a nasty little jolt when she mentioned Auryn. I shook myself and ignored it. Lowell letting me down was definitely playing havoc with my feelings and that’s all it was.
“…Auryn asked me to work on a special project with him! He’s come up with an idea for an event, just like the ones he's letting everyone else put on at the zoo. It’s really cool, actually. He wants to have a day of painting and sculpting and crafting, but zoo themed. There’ll be things for the kids to craft and paint but it’s actually an event aimed at adults. Whether people are just wanting to have a go for fun, or are semi-professionals, he wants the best pieces to win prizes, which should hopefully encourage the slightly more serious practitioners to enter. If it goes well then, who knows? Maybe it will become an annual event.”
“That does sound good. If I’m back for it, do you think I could have a go?” I said with a smile.
“No way! You’re way too professional to be allowed in,” Tiff replied with a laugh. “Anyway, that’s the event idea. Auryn asked me to talk him through any promo ideas I had and about how the art and craft side of things can be made to happen. He said we can get together after work round his house and work things out for however long it takes.” There was a pause while Tiff waited for a verdict.
The twinge I'd felt earlier had gone and instead it was replaced with a deep affection for Tiff. She’d started to fall for Auryn and I hadn’t been around to realise it. I may have my own feelings that I’d never quite worked out for Auryn, but what I wanted more than anything was to see Tiff happy.
“I think that’s a pretty big step in terms of trust. He’s asked you to his house, which is a good thing.”
“What should I do?” Tiff said, surprising me with her genuine worry.
It was really strange to have Tiff asking me what to do about a guy. For as long as I could remember, it had always been the other way around. Tiff was the one with the experience and the perfect success rate! But then, she’d never been unsure before. Men tended to throw themselves at Tiff, but Auryn was a little different. I’d always been closer to him than Tiff and it was through our closeness that deeper feelings had developed. I thought if Tiff wanted to find out if there was anything between them, she would need to get to that stage herself.
“You should take it slow. Auryn takes a while to warm to people. That’s why he’s forever turning down offers of dates from the girls at the zoo. Once you're close, I know he’ll fall for you. Who wouldn’t?” I said, with a slightly sad smile I was glad Tiff couldn’t see.
“Thanks, Madi, you’re the best. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed.” She made a thoughtful sound and then found her line of thought again. “I’ve been super selfish, telling you all of my news and not asking how you're doing at all! How are things going at the new zoo?”
I bit my lip, wondering which condensed version of the truth to give her. “Someone died…” I began, fiddling with the stack of magazines on the table at the back of the room. I was still thinking of how to elaborate on that when my eyes fell on one of the publications in front of me, and I had a sudden flash of remembering.
“Hold on, Tiff, I think I need to check something. It might be important.”
“Someone died? Are you getting into trouble again, Madi?”
I grimaced. She made it sound like I went looking for trouble! Instead it was just bad luck. Or is it? I suddenly thought, wondering if Lowell’s other job might mean some of the recent happenings I'd been involved with had not been the whole story.
I supposed I’d never find out, given the way Lowell seemed determined to not tell me a thing.
“I think I might be in trouble,” I admitted, having flicked my way through a magazine about parks, gardens, and animal reserves in the UK. I’d found the feature that had caught my eye when the magazine had fallen open before.
They’d tried to hide beneath a flat cap and were even holding a fox mask over half of their face, but I recognised the faint tattoo of the word ‘WILD’ across their knuckles. My eyes darted across to the title of the article and I scanned the rest of it.
“Tiff, I’ve got to go,” I said, as the truth slowly sunk in.
“What? You just told me that someone died and now you’re running off? This isn’t an episode of Eastenders! You don’t have to leave me hanging to make sure I’ll come back and talk to you tomorrow," she teased.
I grinned in spite of the knowledge I’d just learned. “If I’m right about this, I promise I'll call you back and tell you everything.”
“Okay, Madi. Just promise me you’ll be safe,” she said.
“I’ll do my best,” was all I was able to commit to saying.
What I'd learned could turn a lot of things upside down. I just needed to make sure I was right.
I took a gamble and drove to the little hamlet where Zara and Darren’s house was. I noticed that there was a car on Zara and Darren’s drive and one in Tom’s driveway.
I got out of my car and walked up the narrow path towards the police officer’s house. Once on the doorstep, (which I’d checked was genuine before I’d stepped up) I paused to take a couple of calming breaths. One way or another, there was going to be a showdown, and I wanted to keep my head.
Tom may not be the stalker, but he was still guilty as hell.
I pressed the button by the door and heard the cheerful chimes sound inside the house. A few moments later, the police officer appeared at the door. He took the pair of glasses he was wearing off and frowned at me.
“Has something happened next door again?”
“No, everything’s fine. I’m actually here to talk to you,” I said, making his dark eyebrows shoot up.
“Oh?”
“You’re Andy Shaw, the investigative journalist.”
We both looked at each other for several seconds.
“How do you figure that?” he asked, crossing his arms.
A smile ghosted my lips at his half-hearted attempt to convince me otherwise. “I noticed the other day that there was something about you I’d seen before, somewhere else. It just took me a while to remember it was in a magazine in the zoo staffroom. I recognised the tattoo on your knuckles. It’s got a pretty distinctive font.”
“By which you mean, no one else in their right mind would have a tattoo that looks like a five year old wrote it.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t here to judge his tattoo choices.
He raised his hands into the air, holding the pair of what I guessed were reading glasses up high. “Okay, you've got me. You’re probably a better detective than half the coppers on the force. I hadn't thought anyone in this backwater town would read the kind of publications I write for.”
“Then you deserve to get caught,” I told him, dryly. “Whose career are you trying to ruin this time?” I asked, but I thought I already knew the answer.
It was mine.
“I don’t ‘ruin’ careers. I just expose people who claim to offer something they never provide. What I do saves countless animals from suffering and rewards the zoos, safaris, and parks who are actually doing a good job,” the police officer/writer told me.
“If that were true, you’d be writing pieces that praise the best zoos in the country, but that wouldn't sell many newspapers, would it? When was the last time you wrote something positive about a place you
investigated?”
He had the audacity to look thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “I think you've got me again,” he said, with a smug smile I didn’t like one bit. This was a man who was used to being right when everyone else is wrong. At least, that’s what he probably thought.
“You didn't actually answer my question. Who are you writing about this time?" I pressed.
He shrugged and leant against the doorjamb. I didn’t fail to notice I wasn’t being invited in.
“I started out investigating ZaZa PR. They’re fairly new to working with animal institutions and I think it shows. There were reports relating to their previous clients claiming that while everything looked shiny and nice on the outside, the animals they were supposed to be promoting were completely overlooked. Having a brand spanking new zoo, housing sick and dying animals doesn’t sound like a good idea, does it?” he said, giving me a patronising smile.
“I’m willing to admit that they don’t specialise in animal care, but to their credit - they've never claimed to. They’re a PR company, not animal specialists,” I told him, unimpressed by his decision to try and ‘expose’ them as frauds.
When I’d first arrived at Pendalay and met the PR team, I’d realised they didn’t know anything about animal care, but that was why Jules had called me in. I was there as an expert to complement the work that the PR company did to promote the zoo.
The problem was, I thought Tom/Andy knew full well that the state of the animals didn’t come down to the PR team. But he was still investigating something.
“You’re investigating me, aren’t you?” I said, unsurprised.
“Why would you assume that? Do you have something to hide?” He batted back with that same smug grin on his face.
I shot him a withering look. “I’m not naive but I am curious as to what exactly it is that you think I’m doing wrong. I’m not so stubborn I can't take good advice, so let’s hear it.”
"I really wasn't lying when I said I was investigating ZaZa PR. I don’t know if you’re aware, but on their website and in their pitches, they claim to be able to turn failing zoos into profitable ventures. While they don’t claim to be looking into the way the animals are treated, they definitely imply that everything will be a-okay if you hand over to them. Instead, you get zoos that cover up animal suffering with a veneer of brightly coloured advertising campaigns.” He ran a hand through his corkscrew hair. I decided it had been longer in the photo-shoot image. Luckily for me, he'd overlooked his tattoo.
“Still, when I got here, I found a far more interesting story. Most people know me for my animal abuse exposés in the papers, but I’ve been looking for a case with enough meat on it to write a book. This is the one, I know it!” He nodded his head up and down. “I thought this was a simple case of misleading advertising until that woman got murdered and it came out down at the station that it’s not the first time something like it has happened to Zara Banks. Wherever she goes, death follows her.” He paused for ominous effect and shot me a sideways look. “How does that sound? I was thinking of using it in the blurb.”
“Are you actually a real police officer?” I asked.
“Yes! I trained to be one straight out of college. It's how I found my passion for writing. I was involved in this horrible puppy farm case. As a police officer, there wasn’t much I could do. The law fails you sometimes. All I knew was that I couldn’t let it go, so I wrote my first exposé and sent it off to a newspaper. The rest, as they say, is history.”
I nodded, pleased that he wasn't hypocritical enough to be breaking the law by impersonating a police officer. Although, I was more than willing to bet his colleagues and employers had no idea who he really was.
“Tom…” I began, sticking with the name I suspected was the genuine one. “…I think you were on the cusp of offering me some advice about animal care.” I folded my arms and waited.
“Okay, look… I’ll come clean with you. When I got here for the ZaZa PR case and found out the zoo had also employed some ‘new age animal whisperer’, I thought I'd hit the journalistic jackpot. I thought there was no way that you could do what everyone was saying you could. I mean, come on… the owner of Avery Zoo basically claimed you’re like a real-life Doctor Doolittle!”
I was seriously tempted to ask when he’d spoken to Auryn, but I didn't want Tom to know I was friends with the very zoo owner he’d spoken to. That would hardly help my case.
“Avery is a great zoo! They decided to put the animals first and are doing really well. I was just happy to be a part of the team there,” I said, diplomatically.
“Did you still think it was a great zoo when one of the Avery family was convicted for selling zoo animals on the black market?”
I stiffened. This man really had done his research. “As soon as I found out what was going on, I did everything I could to put a stop to it.” I didn’t add that it had nearly cost me my life, but it had. If things hadn’t gone the right way, I might have ended up at the bottom of the penguin pool with a machete in my back.
“That’s how you met your boyfriend, right? I know all about him too. You know, my first thought was that you were both investigating zoos yourselves. After all, what business do a zookeeper and a private detective have together?”
I didn’t answer that. I wasn’t sure we did have any business being together after all.
“Then, I dug a little deeper and found there were some pretty violent things happening everywhere you worked. That’s a strange coincidence.” He gave me a look but I didn't rise.
“I’m clearly not the most fortunate person in the world, but violent things happen all the time. I’m just pleased that in the past, I’ve been able to save some people from getting hurt.” Usually at my own expense, I privately added.
“Like I said, it’s pretty interesting that you’re with a private detective. Maybe you're like an undercover superhero, or maybe…” He shrugged “…you have something to do with it all.”
“I’m not here to be interrogated. You can do your own research and perhaps you'll find out what really happened in every instance. What I want to know is are you writing about me?”
“You’re an interesting person. You even have your own comic where you make fun of the people you work with. I wonder what your employers would think of that if they were to find out…”
I bristled. That wasn't what my comic was about! It had comedic characters, but none of them were real people. Neither did ducks suddenly decide to take over the world. Perhaps this writer of ‘non-fiction’ didn’t understand that.
“I wonder what your employers would think if they knew one of their police officers was secretly a relatively well known undercover reporter.”
Tom tried to play it cool but I knew enough about the feelings of animals and people to see that he was rattled. I’d been right to think that the people he worked with didn’t know what he did on the side.
“How about a deal? You let me carry on investigating ZaZa PR and all of the other weird stuff that’s happening, and I’ll leave you out this time.”
“This time?” I said, shooting him a withering glare.
He shrugged. “Yeah, I'll give you a second chance. I've had a look around Pendalay and it’s clear that whatever magic bullet someone at Avery Zoo thinks you possess, it’s lost its shine. I don’t give the zoo long until the animals are taken away.” He examined his fingernails in such an impetuous way, I wanted to punch him.
“Did you look around the zoo before I arrived?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Nope. The PR team hadn’t done any work, so why would I bother? The zoo had a bad reputation and I’m waiting for them to add a little sparkle and then I'll go in and uncover the horrendous conditions and abused animals that’ll still exist.”
“No they won’t,” I said, calmly, and for the first time since I’d accepted this job, I felt confident that I was right.
“I’ve seen the zoo. I walked round it just a couple of days ago. It�
��s horrible.”
I nodded. “It is, but the horror is over. What I’m working on is rehabilitation. It’s nothing new age or woo woo, it’s just the same as when humans have been kept in captivity, deprived of food and comfort. Things go wrong both mentally and physically. The herbivores… I’ve noticed they’re adapting faster to the changes and are at least looking and behaving as you’d expect. That doesn't mean I’m not working on ideas to make their lives better, because I am.” Despite the opposition I face from some of the keepers, I thought but decided that was yet another thing I’d keep to myself.
I took another breath. "The other animals are trickier. All of the predators have had to struggle to survive for so long, they’ve had their instincts suppressed. What I'm trying to do is help them to remember and then redevelop both the mental and physical ability to return to something closer to the natural behaviour of their wild ancestors.”
“That’s a nice spiel. What about the monkeys?” Tom asked, keeping that smile on his face.
I did my best to not let him see how worried I was about the group of animals he’d just mentioned. Like most medium to large zoos, Pendalay had an impressive primate and ape collection. Unfortunately, these were the animals who’d been most affected by the abuse. Their greater intelligence and emotional spectrum meant they took the abuse the hardest and that was a huge stepping block for me. The primates and apes at Pendalay no longer trusted humans, and I wasn’t convinced I could change that with a ‘magic bullet’.
“I’m still currently researching and planning the best remedial action for them,” I said, honestly.
“You’re doing research? Do you just Google everything and pass it off as your own ideas?”
I looked at him like he was crazy. “No, of course not. I just research what zoologists and other animal experts have already discovered in relation to the animals I'm working with. Why would I disregard the work that others have done, simply because I wasn’t the one who discovered it? Don’t you use sources to support your work?”
“As a matter of fact, I do," he said.
I really didn’t like the smirk that accompanied this declaration, but I was fed up with this conversation.
