Never Sorry: A Leigh Koslow Mystery (20 page)

***

She approached the zoo's gates that afternoon in a sweatshirt and jeans, covering most of her face with a visor. Paying to get in rankled, but it was worth five bucks to escape the scrutiny of the security guards. In her uniform she'd be recognized, and she wasn't sure what the result would be. It seemed unlikely that she still had a job, and she had no intention of being "escorted" out again.

She passed through the gates without incident, and headed up the hill toward Asian Country, where Lisa Moran had last been "floating." She had just managed to steel herself for another tiger encounter when she spied her prey cleaning up after the camels on hoof-stock row. The zoo was conveniently uncrowded, allowing her to slip unnoticed behind the employee lines.

She crept through the double wooden gate and emerged beside the dump pile—a massive conglomeration of exotic animal feces—just as Lisa Moran arrived with another wheelbarrow's worth. Lisa didn't recognize her at first, then laughed. "Hey! They let you out, eh? Congratulations." She dumped the wheelbarrow over the ripe pile, jiggling to release the last clinging contents. "So, why are you sneaking around here? Leo out to get you?"

Clearly, Lisa was not intimidated. Leigh relaxed. "I just wanted to talk to you," she began, following along as Lisa rolled the empty wheelbarrow back toward the camel run. Better just to spit it out. "The other day, were you by any chance trying to warn me about Tanner?"

Lisa assumed a puzzled expression. "No. If you think Tanner really whacked his ex, you're crazy. Not that it wouldn't be justified, from what I've heard."

Leigh shook her head. Word traveled fast. "No, I didn't mean warning me he was violent. I mean—warning me about his past. About Carmen."

  Lisa stopped to open the camel's gate and pushed the wheelbarrow through. "If you want to talk—help. There's another rake in the shed."

Leigh located a rake and scoop shovel and carefully opened and closed the gate behind her. The smallest camel, a pale dromedary, promptly walked over for a sniff, plastering Leigh's shoulder with saliva.

"Zada!" Lisa chastised. "Leave her alone!" She walked over and gave the camel's large head a shove. "Sorry about that. She and Zealah are bottle babies. They're the worst, you know. The others will leave you alone."

Leigh surveyed the rest of the camels, hoping that Zealah wasn't one of the larger ones. She stayed close to Lisa, dutifully raking up the tiny balls that littered the ground by the thousands.

"I don't interfere with people's love lives," Lisa began sanctimoniously. "But Carmen Koslow was kind of a special case. I did try to warn you about her, when you first came, but you didn't pay attention."

Leigh sighed. She was beginning to accept the fact that where Tanner was concerned, she had been hearing only what she wanted to hear.

"It's like this. As far as Carmen was concerned, Dr. Mike was hers. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't anybody's. After the divorce, I'm told he openly flirted with just about everybody here, right under Carmen's nose. She acted like she didn't care, but whenever he got serious about somebody, she freaked."

The image of Carmen "freaking" was not a pleasant one. "Was Carmen the reason for the divorce?"

"I didn't work here then," Lisa said regretfully. "But I don't really think so. Everybody says Stacey just got tired of him. She was a real social climber, and he wasn't climbing fast enough. I think she wanted him to start his own clinic. You know, pump up Fifi and Fido with wormer and rake in the big bucks."

Leigh took issue with this definition of private practice, but chose to let it go. "So Carmen was afterwards?"

"No. Carmen was always. She went after him on day one. I don't think his wife noticed, or cared. At least not until the divorce settlement."

So much for Stacey being the love of his life, Leigh thought ruefully. She went back to an earlier question. "What do you mean about Carmen freaking? She was never possessive when I knew her. I mean, she used men—she wasn't dependent on them."

Lisa shook her head. "Tanner was different. She really had a thing for him. God knows why. I mean, he's hot and all, but geez. He'd treat her like dirt and she'd go asking for more. It wasn't—like—a monogamous relationship, on either end. It was weird. Carmen would seem okay with him seeing somebody else, and then she'd go and hang out at the other woman's area and scare the crap out of her. I'd only been here a week before she started stalking me. Smiled and acted nice, but just hung around, watching me. Gave me the creeps."

A sudden memory chilled Leigh to the bone. Carmen, those first two days of work. So effusive, so nice. So
happy
to see Leigh again. She had taken her to the Asia section, showed her around, told her all the animal's names. Asked questions about what Leigh was doing. Seemed to care. Leigh had thought Carmen was just trying to be nice to an old schoolmate. But Carmen had kept coming to the hospital, for one reason after another. She always seemed to be around. And Tanner had treated Leigh like a queen. Right under Carmen's nose.

"She was doing it to you, too, wasn't she?" Lisa asked.

Leigh tried to erase the glazed expression from her eyes. "Maybe," she answered.

Lisa laughed. "Sure she was. Right off the bat, too. I did try to warn you. You should appreciate it. Nobody warned me when I got here, they just sat back and watched the show. After Carmen got killed, I figured you didn't have anything to worry about anymore, so why bring it up? You seemed to be enjoying yourself." She smiled coyly.

Rarely had Leigh felt like such a complete idiot. So, Tanner had put the moves on Lisa, too. Another time, another "new girl."

Not feeling so chatty anymore, Leigh hastily finished up her portion of the raking and excused herself. She had one more person to talk to, and then she didn't care if she never set foot in this accursed zoo again.

Dena Johnson worked in the bird house with Tonya. Leigh knew Tonya only barely and Dena not at all, but she desperately wanted to face her accuser. After all, the mysterious Dena's testimony had probably been the last nail in her case's coffin. She rounded goat mountain and headed for the outside trail, but as she passed the reptile house, a fuzzy red head appeared in her peripheral vision. She looked up to see Art Faigen ducking out of sight behind the building's back corner. What was his problem? He wasn't scared of her, was he?

Remembering Katharine's warnings about intimidating people, Leigh started to get cold feet. Dena was a wildcard. She had lied once—what would stop her from complaining about harassment and getting Leigh's bail revoked?

She stopped walking. Confrontation and revenge were nice, but life with your own toilet was better. She did an about-face and headed back down the path, but had only gone a few steps when a sticklike figure called to her from behind the elephant barn. She sucked in her breath. It was Tish Holly. Amazon woman.

Tish waved her over. "Koslow! Back here!"

After Leigh's mind waged a short battle between curiosity and irrational fear, her feet carried her to the elephant barn. She crept hesitantly through the open back door and into a storage area, where her hostess was lounging on a bail of hay.

Leigh tried to determine exactly what it was about Tish that scared the hell out of her, but she wasn't sure. Undoubtedly it was some combination of the other woman's hostile aura and imposing physical appearance. Tish was a little taller than Maura, but as lean as a strip of bacon, with long, slender arms and a boyish figure. She peered at Leigh through small, narrow eyes, oddly mismatched with her broad forehead and jutting lower jaw. The perpetually scowling face cracked a thin smile, revealing an incomplete assortment of crooked, neglected teeth. "Have a seat. There's something I want to tell you."

Leigh made a cursory inspection of the barn, subconsciously noting all possible exits. Tish guffawed. "You scared of me, Koslow?"

There seemed to be no point in lying. "Yes," she answered.

Tish laughed again. "That's okay. Most people are. Suits me." She lit up a cigarette and offered one to Leigh, who politely refused. "Good girl, aren't you? You look it. I don't know how the cops can be so dense."

Leigh looked at her quizzically.

"Do I think you did it?" Tish offered. "Hell, no. Why should you? For a playboy like Tanner? Huh-uh. You're too smart for that."

Leigh began to relax. Tish seemed pretty smart herself. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said sincerely. "What did you want to tell me?"

Tish look a long drag on her cigarette before answering. "I think I might know who did kill Carmen. But I'm not sure, and I'm not getting fired over it. Now you, you've got to be looking to get yourself off. I figured you could check it out."

Fear forgotten, Leigh took a seat on the next hay bail. "You have proof?"

"I said no," Tish replied irritably. "Proof is your problem. I'm just planting the seed, and I'm not admitting any of this, got it? You tell anybody and I'll call you a liar."

Leigh got the picture. She nodded encouragement.

"You knew Carmen already, right?" Tish began.

Leigh nodded.

"Then you know she wasn't right. She was one seriously messed up chick. There was, like, this power thing going on. She wanted to be able to control everybody, because she didn't trust anybody. She'd find out what your weakness was and hold it over your head. But in a nice way, always with a smile."

Leigh remembered better than she wanted to, but she didn't say anything. Tish wanted to talk and she wasn't going to derail her.

"She liked having control over the animals, too. She liked messing with the dangerous ones—it gave her a thrill or something. I'm not talking about moving the tigers from one pen to the other, either. I'm talking crazy stuff. Like going in with the leopards. She'd run from one gate to the other just to see what they'd do. Sometimes she'd even wave her arms to get them interested. She went in with the tigers all the time. Lost a shoe once climbing up the chain link when one took after her."

Leigh looked at Tish in amazement. "Why?"

"Who the hell knows? I said she wasn't right." Tish pounded out the last half of her cigarette in a callused palm. "Worst thing was, sometimes she'd leave the gate open behind her, so she could get out quick, then she'd go in and start messing around. One time one of the tigers made a break for it, and if I hadn't been close enough to slam the gate, he'd have been gone."

Leigh swallowed. "Couldn't she get fired for that?"

Tish snorted, then smiled a little. "Not Miss Carmen. Miss Carmen didn't have to worry about nothing like that."

As little as Leigh was beginning to think of Tanner, she couldn't believe he'd employ a keeper who was such a loose cannon. Then it occurred to her that Tanner wasn't really Carmen's boss. Who was?

Tall, skinny, no butt
. The decade-old words rang in her ears. It was a stretch, but the man in question could certainly fit the bill. He was ugly as sin and as stooped as an eighty-year-old, but he was tall and skinny. And although she hated to admit that she'd noticed, the man had no butt.

"Leo Martin?" Leigh asked tentatively.

Tish smirked, and touched a finger to her nose.

Leigh drew in a deep breath. "Carmen and Leo Martin. He's married, isn't he?"

"Very. Wife's got money, too. Pretty much bought him his job. He didn't get it for his looks, you know."

Or his public relations skills, Leigh thought. The pieces suddenly fit. She looked up at Tish. "You think Carmen had something on him, don't you? Threatened to expose their affair?"

"I told you, she was into power games."

"And so he—" she stopped. Leo Martin, a cold-blooded killer? She looked into Tish's eyes, searching for confirmation.

Tish shrugged. "I can't see ol' Leo getting his hands messy, but that don't mean jack. You talk about motive—he's got one." She got up and opened a gate that led farther inside the barn. Leigh followed.

"Why are you telling me this?" Leigh asked. "Do you have something against him?"

Tish turned and scowled at her. "You leave me out of this. You tell anybody I said all this and you'll be begging to get back in jail."

Leigh forced a smile and took a step backward. "Don't worry. I can keep my mouth shut."

Tish turned on the hose and began to rinse down an empty stall. Gathering that she was being dismissed, Leigh left the way she had come and walked around the side of the barn back to the main road. She had taken only two steps when Leo Martin blocked her path.

Chapter 15

"You shouldn't be here." The words were hissed, rather than spoken, around the side of a nearly spent cigar. Leo Martin bent his already stooped frame a little further, putting Leigh at eye level with his liver-spotted hook nose.

She stepped back, as Leo seemed to have little regard for personal space. "I work here," she said defiantly, trying to sound as though she believed it.

"Not anymore, you don't. You're suspended. Didn't Tanner tell you?" Leo pulled the cigar butt out of his mouth and dropped it on the road. "No, of course he didn't. He was too busy whacking his ex."