Poison Frog Mystery (3 page)

The young man had his hands deep in his jacket pockets, Benny noticed, and he stared into the enclosure with a hint of a smile on his lips. He was standing perfectly still, Benny thought, as if he’d fallen asleep with his eyes open. Even from the side, Benny could tell the young man had unusually bright blue eyes. Another thing Benny noticed was the Boston Red Sox baseball cap. It was easy to recognize—red with a blue B at the front. But it was hard to get a better look at him without being rude.

“Aren’t these beautiful animals?” the stranger asked. He looked and sounded like an older teenager, or maybe twenty at most.

“Er ... yeah, they really are. And rare, too. They’re part of the zoo’s endangered-species program!” Benny liked to hear him-self use such big words.

The young man nodded. “I know. I’ve been following the story in the newspapers. Boy would I love to have an animal collection like this. I love reptiles and amphibians most of all, but I love all animals, really. They’re doing really wonderful things here at the zoo.”

“They sure are. Snakes are my favorite,” Benny said.

“Are they?”

“Yeah, although I like all animals a lot.”

The stranger nodded. “So do I. I like everything about nature. The animals, the plants, the fresh air.”

“Me, too,” Benny replied.

The young man never took his eyes off the snakes, never really moved a muscle.

“Well, have a nice day,” Benny said finally.

“You, too.”

Benny turned away to look for Henry. The young man seemed friendly enough, but Grandfather wouldn’t have been very happy if Benny spent too much time talking to strangers.

Just then Benny’s eye was caught by some movement in the next enclosure. It was a fat brown cricket scuttling up a low branch. A chameleon was nestled in some leaves high above, watching it carefully. Then, in a flash, the chameleon fired its long tongue out and brought the cricket back into its mouth.
Wow,
Benny thought.
That was unbelievable!

Unable to control his excitement, he turned back toward the young man and said, “Did you see that?”

But the stranger had disappeared, again without making a sound. It almost seemed like he hadn’t ever really been there at all. Benny shivered. Then he hurried over to Henry.

Ten o’clock rolled around, and Lindsey and the Aldens met with Jordan Patterson in the same room where the ferrets had been stolen.

The Aldens liked Jordan from the moment they met him. He was a tall, thin man in his mid-thirties. He had short brown hair and a round, pleasant face. He also smiled a lot. Lindsey had told the Aldens on the way over that he was one of the gentlest, kindest, and most caring people she’d ever met. Never once, she said, had she ever seen him lose his temper or even raise his voice. She also said that he was a genius when it came to animals. That was probably why he was the head curator of the zoo as well as part owner.

“We love your zoo, Mr. Patterson,” Jessie told him when she shook his hand. “It’s really wonderful.”

“Thank you, Jessie,” he replied. “It’s a pleasure having you and the rest of your family as our guests. And please call me Jordan.”

“Okay, Jordan.”

Violet said, “It’s really terrible what happened to your black-footed ferrets.”

Jordan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m very worried about those two. I hope they’re okay.”

“Did Lindsey tell you about the food?” Henry asked.

“Yes, she did. Thank you for noticing that.”

“Thank Violet,” Henry said. “She’s the one who noticed.”

Jordan nodded. “Lindsey tells me you’re all pretty good detectives.”

“We like to help when we can,” said Jessie.

“Well, I’d appreciate any help. We’ve really got to get those animals back.”

“Have the police started any kind of investigation?” Henry asked.

“We’ve spoken to them and they are going to let us do as much as we can on our own right now. I don’t want any bad news about the zoo to get into the papers.” Jordan shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe the solution to the mystery is very simple. We’ll see.”

The door to the hallway opened, and an older man in a dark suit walked in. He was a large, imposing figure, with carefully trimmed silver hair, deeply tanned skin, and a glittering gold watch.

“Jordan, my friend,” he said in a deep voice, “how are you today?”

“Fine, Darren, and you?”

“Fine, just fine, thanks.”

“Kids,” Jordan said to the Aldens, “this is Mr. Colby, the other owner of the zoo. He’s my partner.”

The Aldens said polite hellos.

“Hello, kids. Are you having a good time at the zoo?”

“I am,” Benny said. “I went to the Reptile Range this morning and picked out a fav —”

“That’s great, just great,” Mr. Colby said. “And how are you today, Linda?”

Lindsey put on a little smile and nodded. “Fine, Mr. Colby.”

“Good for you. Uh, Jordan, may I have a word with you in the hallway, please?”

“Hmmm? Oh, sure. Excuse me for a moment, everyone.”

The two men stepped out of the room, closing the door most of the way behind them.

“He called you Linda!” Jessie said to Lindsey in a whisper.

“At least it starts with an
L
now. Last month I was Nancy.”

“You work for him and he doesn’t even know your name?”

“He hardly knows anyone around here. He doesn’t spend a lot of time at the zoo.”

“That’s strange,” Jessie said.

“Not as strange as you might think,” Lindsey replied. “Anyway I talked to the head mammal keeper this morning while you guys were walking around. She noticed the same thing that you did, Violet, about the missing bag of food being the wrong kind. She’s very upset, like everyone else.”

“Does the mammal keeper suspect someone?” Henry asked.

“Well, she has never gotten along with Beth, the intern you met before. She thinks maybe Beth likes the ferrets
too
much.”

“Enough to steal them?”

“I really don’t think so, but I suppose we can’t rule her out as a suspect. She may have felt—mistakenly—that the ferrets would get better care with her. She’s got all kinds of unusual pets—lizards, giant insects, even a monkey.”

Benny wandered over to where the broken cage lock was still lying on the long table. He picked it up and started playing with it, then he looked into the empty ferret cage. He thought about the ferrets, where they were and whether they were doing okay. He wondered what kind of a person would steal animals from a zoo.

Suddenly he heard an angry voice through the crack in the door. It was Darren Colby, standing with Jordan Patterson in the hallway.

“I don’t care what it takes!” Mr. Colby said sharply “I want those animals found and brought back here!”

“I know you do, Darren,” Jordan was saying. “So do I.”

“Those animals were expensive!”

Benny didn’t like that the ferrets were being talked about that way. It was as if Mr. Colby thought of them as something he’d bought at the supermarket.

“Okay, Darren, take it easy,” Jordan was saying in a calm, soothing voice. “We’ll find them and everything will be fine.”

“I don’t want to have to hire a security guard,” Mr. Colby said. “That’s just more money down the drain! But I’ll do it if I have to. And if any more animals disappear ... well, you know.”

There was a pause. Benny waited.

“Darren,” Jordan said finally. “Shutting down the breeding program isn’t going to solve anything. All it’s going to do is make some rare animals even rarer. If we keep it going, we can save some of them from extinction.”

“Saving them from extinction is costing us a lot of money!” Mr. Colby hissed.

“You’ll make it all back, and more,” Jordan assured him. “I promise.”

Benny walked away from the door and rejoined the others. They had stopped talking about the investigation, and Lindsey was now telling them another funny story.

Something about a bear cub that was stealing visitors’ lunches.

Benny wasn’t really listening, though. Suddenly he didn’t feel too well.

Lindsey and the Aldens went to the zoo’s outdoor food court for lunch. It was a warm, shady area with round picnic tables and giant potted plants.

They sat at one of the tables and talked with Lindsey about some of the other animals the zoo wanted to keep in the future. “We don’t want to focus entirely on endangered species,” she said. “We’d also like to keep a few unusual animals. Animals that most people have never heard of. Every zoo in the world has monkeys, parrots, and elephants. We want to show some really strange animals, the kind that you don’t normally see in zoos, books, or even on television.”

“You should keep some unusual insects,” Jessie suggested. “Zoos never do that.”

Lindsey nodded. “We’ve thought about that. There are some pretty peculiar ones that I’ll bet people would like, especially kids. In Mexico there are hissing cockroaches the size of your hand.”

Jessie shivered. “I wouldn’t like to see them.”

“Yes, you would,” Lindsey argued, smiling. “You couldn’t help but look. You’d want to look
because
they’re so gross.”

Jessie laughed. “You’re probably right.”

“What about you, Benny?” Lindsey asked. “What weird animals would you like to see?”

The youngest Alden didn’t seem to have heard the question. He was hovering over his plate, face pushed up on one hand, playing with a french fry.

“Benny?” Violet asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

He dropped the french fry and took a tiny sip of his milk shake.

“You can’t be
that
okay,” Jessie said. “You haven’t touched your lunch.”

“When Benny doesn’t eat,” Henry said to Lindsey, “you know something’s wrong.”

He moved over next to his little brother and put an arm around him. “C’mon, tell us what’s bothering you.”

“Well, I was thinking ... maybe the zoo should just get animals that don’t cost a lot of money. That way Mr. Colby won’t get so mad.”

Lindsey looked confused. “Mad? What do you mean, Benny?”

Benny reluctantly told them about the argument between Mr. Colby and Jordan Patterson that he’d overheard.

“I didn’t mean to hear them,” he pointed out. “I was just standing over by the door, looking at that banged-up lock.”

Jessie said, “Of course you didn’t mean it. No one thinks you’d do something like that on purpose.”

“Okay, look,” Lindsey said, “I know Mr. Colby doesn’t sound like the sweetest man in the world. He certainly didn’t go out of his way to make a great impression on you guys, either. But ...” She studied one of the giant potted plants for a moment. “He’s necessary. He’s not an animal person, he’s a money person. Do you understand what that means?”

The children shook their heads.

“It was hard for me to understand when I first came here, but after a while it made more sense. This zoo is a business, whether we like it or not. And in order for a business to survive, it has to make more money than it spends. Jordan is an animal expert. He isn’t really much of a businessperson, so he needs Mr. Colby to keep an eye on the money side of things. It’s Mr. Colby’s
job
to think more about the money than about the animals.”

Benny said, “After hearing him talk, I think I know what you mean by that.”

“If the zoo didn’t make money, we couldn’t afford to feed all the animals, keep them in clean cages, and keep them warm in the winter. Doing all that costs money. Also”—Lindsey smiled and pointed to herself— “I wouldn’t have a job. They wouldn’t be able to pay me.”

“That wouldn’t be good!” Benny exclaimed.

“No, it wouldn’t. And believe me, we certainly wouldn’t be able to have a breeding program without money. That whole thing was very expensive to set up.”

The Aldens nodded as they began to understand.

“Jordan and Mr. Colby get along,” she continued. “They’re not the best of friends, but they make a good team. They need each other to make the zoo work.”

“I guess that’s good,” Jessie said.

Lindsey took a sip of her soda and put on a new smile. “So do you feel better now, Benny?”

The youngest Alden nodded. “Yes, much better.”

“Are you sure?”

Benny looked at her curiously. “Mmm-hmmm. Why?”

“Because your burger still hasn’t been touched.”

Benny grabbed it and took a huge bite. The others laughed.

“So, would you all like to know about our next secret breeding project?” Lindsey asked.

“Can you really tell us?” Violet replied.

“I think I can trust you guys. Our next endangered species will be ... the California condors.”

“You’re kidding!” Jessie said.

“Nope. We’ll be one of only four zoos in the world to have them.”

“I saw a magazine article about them a few months ago,” Jessie told her. “They’re really rare.”

Lindsey nodded. “There are only about a hundred left in the whole world, and all of them live in zoos. The long-term plan, though, is to put some back into the wild. We hope there will be thousands of them in the wild again someday.”

“When are you getting them?” Henry asked.

“We’ve got them already. We’re going to put them on display in about a week. For now, however, we’re trying to get them used to their new surroundings. We’ve got them in the Bird Barn, in room number seven.”