by Ruby Loren
Not until this year, anyway. I bit my lip and pulled out my phone, pulling up the last text message Lowell had sent me. It had been a throwaway text letting me know he was going to be home late on the night he’d sent it. At the time, I hadn’t realised how important a text it would turn out to be. Lowell’s last text to me.
I bit a little harder and then made a decision. What’s the worse that can happen? He ignores you? I typed out my first communication to Lowell since I’d told him we were on a break.
How are you? Is everything okay? Xx
I thought about it for a moment before removing one of the kisses and pressing send. There, the ball was officially in his court now. If he was willing to talk, then perhaps I would be willing to listen. Just so long as he'd changed the record since the last time we’d spoken.
I wondered if Lowell was working on a case right now and where he was. He might not even be in the country! One of his missions had sent him across the channel to stop smugglers. I knew he was mostly involved with internal relations, but he also worked as a private detective for hire, and who knew where he might have been sent? He could be looking for a lost cat in Surrey, or he could be lying in a freezing cell in Scotland, waiting for a psychopath to pull the trigger.
I shivered at my morbid imagination. Thinking about it did no good. With a bit of luck, Lowell would reply. Then I’d know where I stood, one way or another. If he chose to ignore the text, or simply wasn’t able to reply, well… I wasn’t actually sure what I’d do then.
I hoped he'd reply.
I started to pack the loose straw into the large woven sacks in preparation for hauling them around the zoo to the various animals in need of fresh, or extra, winter bedding.
The police hadn’t made as much progress into the investigation as they would have liked. I’d bumped into Officer Miles the other day and had asked him for an update, but he’d been pretty cagey with me. He’d been at the zoo to pull in a few more staff for questioning. I’d been pleased to know that, this time, they were females… most notably the partners of the men who’d been with Jenna not so long ago. One of the women who I’d seen getting into her car around the same time as the rest was Julia, the new fiancée of Harry. I wondered if she knew about her husband-to-be’s less than perfect history, or if she was about to find out. I was willing to bet that either way, Harry was sweating it.
Of course, there was a chance that Julia had already known about what Harry had done… and had decided to do a thing or two about it.
Regardless of who was, or wasn’t, responsible, I had a feeling that the police knew more than they were publicly willing to share. When I’d attempted to quiz the police officer about the type of poison used, he’d closed right up and had even accused me of being nosy. I’d told him that I just wanted to be kept up to date, as Jenna had been my friend (of sorts), but perhaps he was right and it was none of my business. The police would do their work and hopefully a culprit would be found… sooner rather than later. Without a clear motive behind the crime, there was still every chance that the killer might strike again, and it was anyone’s guess as to who might be on their list!
I pulled the handles of the straw bags together and dragged them back towards the staff area of the zoo. Half a year ago, I’d been happy at Avery Zoo. Then Lowell had come in and somehow, my life had been changed into something that was filled with more drama than I’d even thought to add to Monday’s Menagerie. All the same, looking back, I wasn't sure I’d change a thing about my own choices. Obviously, if I could, I would change the terrible events I'd witnessed. I shook my head, even self-reflection was complicated these days.
I guessed that what I was really trying to tell myself was in spite of all of the doom and gloom, that felt like it was hovering right above my head, I had a feeling that things were going to come right soon. Perhaps it was the happiness of my two best friends and being back home at Avery, where my heart still resided, but I had a warm and fuzzy feeling that I decided I would embrace.
Things weren’t as bad as they seemed! Good things were on their way.
Leah skidded around the corner in a panic.
“Madi, you’ve got to come! Everyone else is on their lunch break. There are a group of teenagers in the zoo, and they’ve set their sights on Bernard.”
I threw down the bags of straw and followed her, picking up a pitchfork when I passed one. I’d been short for a long time and knew that I often needed a little extra help to make the desired impression in situations like this one.
We ran through the zoo. I had time to reflect that it had turned out to be a rather active day, before we rounded the corner near Bernard’s new home and Leah swore under her breath.
“They were just throwing things at him to make him angry before! I wouldn’t have left if I thought they’d be stupid enough to go into the enclosure.”
Leah started shouting at the boys, who must have been in their mid-teens. There were five of them and every one of them was taller than me. I was starting to suspect that my pitchfork grab hadn’t been overkill.
“Get out of there right now! You are abusing an animal and will be prosecuted if you do not exit the enclosure and leave the zoo,” Leah threatened.
While I admired her cool-headedness in a situation that was no doubt making her hopping mad, I thought a good prang with a pitchfork might do more good here. Poor Bernard was being chased by two of the boys whilst the other two lounged around on the wrong side of the second fence.
I looked around, but couldn’t see any sign of the emus. Perhaps they’d seen the teenagers coming, and with their greater level of visitor experience, they’d known when it was best to bury their heads in the sand.
I could see that Bernard was itching for an opportunity to turn around and take on his attackers, but three boys was too much for the plucky turkey. I shook my head minutely. I’d never thought I’d be rooting for Bernard in a fight situation.
“Shouldn’t you be at school?” I said, hoping to distract the boys, so Leah could come up with a better plan of action from our side of the fence. If the boys didn’t stop what they were doing, I would go over the fences and make them stop it, but Leah would probably have to throw me in. I sighed. The things I did for animals. Even the ones I wasn’t too fond of.
“School’s rubbish,” one of the lads leaning against the inside of the enclosure said. Or at least, that’s the way I chose to interpret what he really said.
“Call the police, Leah,” I said, preparing myself for rolling over the top of the fences, in order to get after the lads. They’d no doubt laugh at first, but I was the one with the pitchfork. I’d had quite a bit of practice with it from all of the mucking out that came with the zookeeper territory. “They’ll probably be here in two minutes. I think they’ve been in to interview people again today after the horrible murder we had.” I said a silent prayer of apology to Jenna, wherever she may be, for using her death as a distraction.
“Murder?” one of the boys said.
All five of them stopped their various bothersome activities and looked questioningly at me.
Great! I had their full and undivided attention.
It turned out to be unfortunate for the teenagers.
Boris and Thatcher had not been hiding, but were instead stalking their newest batch of victims. Watching as the pair somehow stealthily raced towards Bernard’s botherers was something to behold. I opened my mouth to warn them… and then waited another second.
“Look out!” I said, right after the beaks had made contact with an ear, in one case, and a bottom, in the other.
“Ouch!” The teens shrieked and instinctively dodged away from the birds… which just encouraged them. Boris and Thatcher snapped their beaks and trampled after the three, who ran in front of them, trying to bat away the snapping beaks. I raised my eyebrows. Boris and Thatcher did have a habit of stealing items belonging to the general public, and they had even nipped at a finger or two, but this was a very determined display, even
by their standards. I genuinely thought they were sticking up for their new roommate.
Speaking of Bernard, he’d recovered from his own ordeal and was comically chasing around in the wake of the emus, making the loudest gobbling sound I’d ever heard.
The lads still leaning up against the fence were howling with laughter. One of them had even pulled his phone out to film the action. I looked at Leah and she nodded, striding over to the pair and dragging them backwards over the fences by the backs of their collars.
“You and your friends are in a lot of trouble,” she said. I wordlessly handed her the pitchfork and she held it above them, threatening to use it if they moved. I wondered what the HR department would think if they could see her now.
They’d probably all hand in their resignations.
“Aren’t you going to stop our mates from getting killed out there? You can’t have dangerous animals like that in a zoo!” they said, revealing the true depth of their idiocy.
I exchanged a look with Leah.
“And that is why you need to stop skipping school,” I told them.
9
The Missing Links
I was giving more straw to the otters, so they could continue with their noisy nest building, when Auryn walked around the corner. His expression lit up and I realised he’d been looking for me.
“How are you?” I asked with a twinkle in my eye.
A light blush rose in Auryn’s tanned cheeks and I knew he followed my meaning. “I’m good,” he said with a grin.
Something about it made me hesitate for a moment, but I put it down to nerves of finally being close to having a girlfriend. Auryn had never seemed interested in anyone, to my knowledge, apart from when he’d made a move on me. I didn’t doubt he’d been friendly with girls before now, but I wasn’t so sure that he’d ever had a proper girlfriend.
Oops! I was getting ahead of myself. Auryn and Tiff were not a done deal yet, but I thought that could be changing very soon.
“What can I do for you?” I asked, remembering he hadn’t come for a catch up.
“There’s not long to go until the zoo Christmas party. Jenna was the one in charge of planning it. I was wondering if the most up to date plans were still on her laptop. Do you think she might have left it in the office? I asked Tiff, and she couldn’t remember seeing it. If it’s at her house, I could probably arrange for us to go over there and look…” He sounded less certain though, and I knew why. If he had to ask Jenna’s parents for permission to go through her stuff, just to get some party plans, they were unlikely to see Auryn as the caring zoo owner he wanted to appear.
“It’s okay, I actually have it,” I confessed. I’d completely forgotten about the laptop I’d taken from Jenna’s office. It was still in the tote bag in my staffroom locker. I quickly explained why I’d thought it would be a good idea to take it and check the contents before handing it all over to her parents. “I really do need to have a look, so thanks for the reminder. I’m sure I’ll be able to locate the plans,” I said.
“Thanks, Madi. If you’re nearly done here, would you mind doing it afterwards? Grabbing the plans is a last minute thing. They sort of needed to be done yesterday.” He shot me a guilty grin.
“I’m sure it will be fine.” I reassured him. “How’s the arts and crafts day coming along? You said they’ve already sold loads of tickets, right?”
He nodded. “Hundreds! It’s going to be a really nice change of pace. I've already asked Tiff, but you don’t mind being a judge at the end of the day, do you? You’ve both got solid reputations, so I know you’ll be respected. Lawrence suggested his art appraiser as another judge and because I wasn’t so sure about that, I also contacted a well-known local artist and invited her along. She was over the moon to be asked, which was nice.” Something about the way he said it made me suspect that the art appraiser hadn’t been so enthusiastic.
“I’ll find the party plans and send them to you,” I promised him, tossing the last of the straw in with the otters.
“Thanks Madi, you’re the best,” he said, shooting me a happy-go-lucky grin. There’d been a period when I’d worried it would never come back, but things were different now. The Christmas event was going brilliantly, and everything was there to suggest that Avery Zoo was due a bumper year next year.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting in the animal food store with Jenna’s laptop. It hadn’t felt right to be out in the open with it in the staffroom. People might have recognised it as hers and made the wrong assumption, and there was also the questionable content I was worried I’d find. It was better to do it somewhere where I wouldn’t be overlooked, although, the bitter cold made it so I was huddled against the fridges and freezers with their warm electrics.
So far, I hadn’t found anything that might have needed removing before passing on the laptop. Perhaps Jenna had seen enough YouTube videos of laptop owners getting caught out when they put on PowerPoint presentations (which she had done) to know better than to have anything like that on her laptop, just waiting to pop up at the wrong click of a mouse.
I’d looked, but so far there was no sign of the party plans. I couldn’t help but wonder if she'd decided to do it all at the last minute. Even so, I was sure it would have been a great event. It was a shame Jenna had never really pursued her creative talents. Thinking of it made me remember the crime novel she’d always claimed to be writing. I wondered if it was on this laptop somewhere. I started to click through various files, but was having no luck.
Her most recent files were all TV show downloads. Jenna was a strict subscriber to a number of weekly shows and always liked to fill in her pool of listeners about who’d done what on a particular soap. I clicked on one of the folders, dated a few weeks ago, and glanced down the list. Part of my mind suggested that if she’d spent less time downloading and watching what I considered to be TV trash, she might have completed her crime novel. I smiled a little sadly at the Traffic Cops and CrimeWatch episode she had in her weekly folder. To write about real life crime had been Jenna’s supposed passion, although I was willing to bet she’d never expected to end up as the potential inspiration for a plot.
I shivered a little and exited the folder. My eyes skimmed the folders again, and I happened to notice that the most recent folder was from two weeks before her death. Logically, there should have been another week of shows in a folder. It wasn’t in the trash, either.
I shrugged. Perhaps she’d finally run out of disc space. It was pretty clear that Jenna didn’t keep her laptop tidy, beyond organising things into folders. Or maybe she hadn’t had time for the shows. Things had been pretty hectic right before her death, with the reception team planning their plan of action for the festive season.
Then there was the Christmas party she’d theoretically been in charge of planning. Was having the party in poor taste? I didn’t think so. If Jenna had been here, and someone else had passed away, I could just imagine her demanding that we should plough on with the celebration whilst attempting to claim it was in ‘their honour’. I smirked. Jenna had loved parties. The additional alcohol made it even easier to persuade her targets to come home with her.
Five minutes later, I shut the laptop and slid it back into my tote bag, ready to return to her office. After much searching, I’d finally located what must have been the crime novel. It was a few hundred words of a first chapter, and I wasn’t convinced Jenna had even written the words herself, as they didn’t feel like her. I shook my head, unsure how I knew that, but I did. She’d taken someone else’s words, perhaps to give herself a start. All the same, it hadn’t worked. Her novel, like the rest of her life, lay unfinished, never to be completed.
After I’d returned the laptop, I called Officer Kelly. Auryn had said to report anything that was missing and although it was small, and probably nothing, I told her about that week’s shows being gone and the potential missing party plans, too.
She’d thanked me, but I could tell she’d wondered why I’d even bo
thered to report it.
I shrugged as I walked back through the zoo to help out with cleaning up some of the enclosures. Without knowing more about what exactly had happened to Jenna, I had no way of knowing what was useful or not. I knew it was important to their investigation, but it was still frustrating that the police were keeping their cards so close to their chest. I hoped it was because they were zeroing in on the killer, but I wasn't so sure…
My phone buzzed and I glanced at the screen, pleased to see it was Jordan, my literary agent, calling. I answered and we spent the next ten minutes talking about the different publishers and the array of options each one potentially offered.
After speaking to Auryn about the comic, I’d finally emailed Jordan to let him know I’d thought about it and wanted to meet with the publishers interested in commissioning further comics. We’d discussed a few of my concerns and needs and he’d assured me that he didn’t see any reason why they couldn't be accommodated.
When I hung up the phone this time, Jordan had arranged meetings with all five. I wrote them down in the little ideas notebook I carried around with me at all times and wondered if Auryn would be quite so enthusiastic when I had to ask for time off on so many different days. I smiled and shrugged. It wasn’t as if I was really needed here. He could probably do with not having to pay me for every single day, too.
Jordan had said something about a bidding war on the phone. I still wasn’t sure what that kind of thing meant, but he’d sounded pretty excited when he’d said it and had mentioned something about a lot of money. I had no idea what a literary agent classed as ‘a lot’ but extra money was always nice. I might be able to afford to buy my own house if it was enough for a decent deposit. It would be nice to have a permanent place and not have to endlessly spend money on rent. It would be nice to have a home that I actually owned.
