Poison Frog Mystery (2 page)

She went back over to their empty cage and closed the door. There was a bowl of water inside. It made the cage look emptier somehow.

“Is there any chance the ferrets got out on their own?” Jessie asked. “Maybe someone forgot to lock it?”

Lindsey shook her head and took something off the long table.

“No. Look at this.”

She handed Jessie an ordinary lock—ordinary except that it was all beaten up. It looked like it had been struck with something very heavy, like a large rock or a brick.

“Someone definitely came in and broke that off the cage.”

“Did they use something in here?” Henry asked, looking around the room.

“I don’t think so,” Lindsey answered. “They probably brought something with them. A hammer, perhaps.” She nodded in the direction of the supply shelves. “They also took a bag of food. One is missing, and we keep very careful track of how much we have. We need to, because we need to know how much the animals are eating.”

“Which food did they take?” Violet asked.

“A bag for the herbivores,” Lindsey answered. “Herbivores are the animals that eat plant matter, like berries and fruits and leaves.”

Henry went over to the window that was still open. “I guess the thief came in here, right?”

“Probably. Only one window was unlocked when we checked; but then, the thief would’ve needed only one.”

Just then the door opened and a young woman hurried in.

“Is it true, Lindsey, about the ferrets?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so, Beth,” said Lindsey, and she introduced the young woman to the Aldens. She explained that Beth was an intern at the zoo, helping the mammal keeper while going to college to learn to be a zookeeper herself. Beth looked to be in her early twenties, and instead of the usual green zoo uniform, she wore overalls covered with decorative patches that declared her love of animals. SAVE THE WHALES, EXTINCT MEANS FOREVER, and ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE, TOO, some of them stated.

She was clearly upset about the ferret theft. She suggested that perhaps the carelessness of the other keepers was to blame. “I hate to say it, Lindsey, but most of the people around here just don’t take their jobs seriously enough,” she was saying. “And no one takes their job as seriously as
I
do.”

“I know you’re upset, Beth, and that the ferrets were your special favorites. But we shouldn’t go around wildly blaming one another. For now let’s just stay calm and keep our eyes and ears open.” Then, to gently change the subject, Lindsey asked, “Are the morning feedings finished yet?”

“Almost,” Beth said, taking a bag of food from the shelf. She gave Lindsey a meaningful look and added, “I’ll let you know if I see anything suspicious,” then left the room.

“She sure does care a lot about the animals!” said Benny. “I bet she’ll make a good zookeeper someday.”

“She
does
care a lot about animals, Benny,” said Lindsey, “but if she is going to be a good zookeeper she will have to learn how to get along with
people
a little bit better. I’m afraid she thinks she knows more about animals than she really does—and that might keep her from learning more.”

Upon hearing this, Jessie couldn’t help but ask, “Do you think it’s possible that because she loves the animals so much, and because she thinks no one else can care for them better than she can, maybe
she
took them? I mean, I don’t want to go around accusing anyone already, but is it possible?”

Lindsey gave this some thought. “I guess it’s
possible.
Anything’s possible at this point.” Then she shrugged. “But we’ll see. Let’s get some more evidence together before we start drawing conclusions. Now, where were we?”

“I was wondering what time you think the theft occurred,” Grandfather said. “Do you have any idea?”

Lindsey shook her head. “It must have happened sometime between when we all left last night and when we came back in this morning. Aside from that ...” She shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Maybe we could take a guess based on how much water the ferrets drank,” Henry suggested.

Everyone looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

“How much water they drank,” he said again. “If you know how much they usually drink during one night, we can figure it out from there. How much did you give them before you left, how much is there now, and how much do they usually drink in a night?”

Lindsey smiled—probably for the first time all day. “That’s pretty clever.”

“Good detectives need to be clever!” Benny told her.

“I’ll have our head mammal keeper work on it,” Lindsey went on. “I’ll be seeing her later.”

Violet shook her head. “But who would want to steal ferrets? Who would want to steal animals at all? That’s so mean.”

Lindsey said, “My guess is they stole the ferrets because they’re valuable. Remember that they’re a very rare species. There are only a few thousand black-footed ferrets left in the wild. There was a time, in fact, when scientists thought they
were
extinct. But then a little group of them was discovered. So they were almost all gone once before. We really can’t afford to lose them again.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why they’re valuable,” Henry said. “Valuable to whom?”

Lindsey frowned. “You’re never going to believe this, but ... sometimes people buy rare animals to show them off, just to prove that they have them.”

“Really?” Jessie asked.

“I’m afraid so. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it
does
happen.”

“That’s awful,” Violet said.

Henry crouched down, looking curiously at some little dents in the otherwise smooth cement floor. “Do these have anything to do with the theft?” He ran his hand over them. The surface of the floor was cold. “Were they here yesterday?”

“No,” Lindsey answered. “The mammal keeper noticed them, too. She’s sure they weren’t there before. But no one has a clue as to how they got there or why.”

“The thief could’ve dropped something heavy,” Jessie suggested. “No one would’ve heard it.”

Lindsey nodded. “I suppose that’s possible.”

“How many people knew the ferrets were here?” Grandfather asked.

“Not many,” Lindsey answered quickly. “We were very careful about that. We wanted to advertise the breeding program, but we certainly didn’t want to make a big deal about where exactly the animals were being kept until today. There was no reason to.”

“I noticed the zoo guards searching people’s bags at the exit when we first came in,” Henry mentioned.

“Yes, I noticed them, too,” said Grandfather.

“Actually, they’re not zoo guards,” Lindsey told them. “They’re the local police.”

“The police!” Violet exclaimed.

“Uh-huh.” Lindsey let out a long, weary sigh. “Boy, are we ever going to be in trouble if we don’t get those ferrets back. Big trouble.”

Jessie went over and put her hand on Lindsey’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you find them.”

“Of course we will,” Violet said.

“That’s right,” Henry added.

“Hasn’t been a mystery yet we couldn’t solve!” Benny assured her.

Lindsey smiled. “I hope this one isn’t any different,” she said.

Then her smile disappeared again.

After the hectic day, Lindsey invited the Aldens back to her apartment for dinner. Grandfather Alden politely declined because he wanted to get some rest. He had a busy week of business ahead. Fortunately, Lindsey’s apartment was only a few blocks away from home, so the children were allowed to go without him.

After dinner Lindsey showed the children her huge collection of nature books and the dozens of colorful paintings and photographs on her living room walls. Some were animal pictures but others showed plants, particularly flowers.

After talking all day about the stolen ferrets, Lindsey was ready for more cheerful topics. So she told the children stories about funny things that had happened to her at the zoo. She started with one about a koala bear. The keeper had forgotten to lock the cage, and it found its way out. It was missing for three days, and for a while the zoo thought they’d never find it again. Then a woman visitor stopped by Lindsey’s office and told her how much she liked the “live outdoor exhibits in the lunch area.” Lindsey was speechless—the zoo didn’t
have
any live outdoor exhibits in the lunch area! Hurrying to the scene, she discovered the koala in a small tree. About a dozen visitors were standing around it, taking pictures.

When listening to Lindsey’s funny story, Violet looked at the gorgeous framed pictures and the books. Certainly there were more beautiful pictures in each of them! Lindsey told Violet she could look through any book she wanted.

When she spotted a book about small mammals, she thought of the black-footed ferrets. Sure enough, there was a section on ferrets at the back. Violet looked through it and was surprised at how much she already knew about black-footed ferrets from what Lindsey had told them today:

Adults weigh about a pound and a half ... They live in burrows and are very secretive ... Light brown with black markings on their feet, giving them their name ...

She kept reading, hoping maybe she’d come across something she didn’t know. It didn’t take long, and when she got to that information, her heart jumped:

Black-footed ferrets are carnivores, which means they eat meat.

“Oh, no,” she said to herself.

“What’s the matter, Violet?” Jessie asked.

“Huh? Oh, nothing, sorry.” She didn’t want to bring up the ferrets again, at least not today. She knew Lindsey was tired of talking about them.

But she still looked worried, and Lindsey noticed this. “C’mon, Violet. What’s up?”

“Um, well ... I don’t mean to bring this up again, but I read something here about the black-footed ferrets, and I don’t know if it’s important or not.”

“What’s it say?”

“It says that they only eat meat. They’re carnivores.”

“So?” Henry asked.

“You mentioned that the thief stole a bag of food. That was food for—”

“Herbivores!” Lindsey said.

“What are herbivores again?” Benny asked.

“Herbivores are plant-eaters,” Lindsey told him. “They only eat plant leaves, berries, nuts, and stuff like that.”

“So if the thief took only a food bag for a herbivore,” Jessie cut in, “then that means—“

“That means the ferrets don’t have anything to eat,” Lindsey said in almost a whisper.

“Will they ... will they get sick?” Benny asked timidly.

“I don’t think so,” Lindsey replied. “If you had gone to the trouble of stealing them, wouldn’t you make sure you knew how to take proper care of them? As soon as they see that the ferrets won’t eat any of the stolen food, they’ll probably check a book for more information. Just like you did.”

The children still looked worried about the ferrets’ health.

“Look,” Lindsey said, “whoever stole the ferrets obviously cares about them. If the thief didn’t care, he or she wouldn’t have bothered to take any food at all. Please don’t worry. They’ll be all right.”

“Well, at least we have another little clue to build on,” Jessie said.

“What’s that?”

“The thief doesn’t know what ferrets eat.”

This
was
a little clue. It certainly ruled out the possibility that one of the more experienced zookeepers in the mammal house was the thief.

“Good point,” Lindsey said. “Very good point.”

The next morning Lindsey had a meeting with Jordan Patterson, one of the zoo’s two owners. They planned to meet in the ferret room at noon. Lindsey knew the Aldens planned to see the rest of the zoo that morning, so she asked them to stop by afterward so they could meet Jordan.

As soon as the Alden children arrived at the zoo, they split up: Violet and Jessie went to the Bird Barn, while Henry and Benny stopped at the Reptile Range.

The first floor of the Reptile Range was filled with exhibits of snakes and lizards. On the second floor they saw turtles and alligators. On the third and final floor was Amphibian Hall, where the zoo kept all the amphibians. Here Benny and Henry looked at frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts from all over the world.

Benny thought snakes and lizards were neat. He was fascinated by all the different colors and patterns, and by how some snakes were so tiny while others were huge. Some were poisonous while others were harmless.

Benny played a game with himself—he made a list in his head of his favorite snakes and lizards. He saw some pretty scarlet snakes and a shiny black indigo snake. Once they had seen all the snakes, Benny decided his favorites were the beautifully striped red, white, and black San Francisco garter snakes.

He turned to tell Henry he had chosen his favorite, then stopped. The young man standing next to him wasn’t Henry! Benny was surprised and embarrassed and a little bit afraid. He turned quickly, all around, until he spotted Henry on the other side of the room still gazing at the scarlet snakes. Benny had been so interested in the animals that he hadn’t noticed he’d walked so far away from his brother. He hadn’t even heard the young man next to him come into the room. It was as if he had just appeared.