Poison Frog Mystery (6 page)

“Did he come up with any suspicious names on that employee list?” Henry asked.

“He didn’t get a chance to look at it for very long. I looked it over, too, and no one jumped out at me.” She tucked a loose strand of blond hair back behind her ear. “We’ve been lucky here, we really have. We’ve had a lot of good people on staff. Very few who didn’t work out. When someone’s left, it’s usually been because he or she found a different job, went back to school, or moved. We haven’t had to let too many people go.”

“Of the ones you did let go, were any of them, you know ... angry?” Henry asked.

Lindsey thought about it for a second, then shook her head. “No, not really. We’ve never had any nastiness, if that’s what you mean. The few times we’ve had to let people go, it was because they just didn’t seem to be working out. They cared for the animals very much, but they didn’t have the knack for taking care of them properly. It takes a very special type of person to be a good zookeeper. Anyone can be a zookeeper, but only a few can be
good
zookeepers.”

“Like you!” Benny said.

Lindsey blushed. “I’m not as good as I’d like to be, and there are people here who are better. Jordan’s one of the best zookeepers in the world.” She took another sip from her soda. “Jordan and Mr. Colby personally interview everyone who applies to work here. Between the two of them, they’re very good at judging people. I still find it hard to believe someone who used to work here could be the thief.”

“What are they going to do about the keys?” Jessie asked.

Violet nodded. “And what about the locks?”

Lindsey sighed. “I guess we’re going to have to change all of them. The cage locks, the door locks. It’s going to be very expensive.”

“Mr. Colby won’t be too happy about that, I’ll bet,” Jessie guessed.

“No, he certainly won’t,” Lindsey agreed. “But it’s better than losing more animals. That would be a disaster.”

Henry, who had been deep in thought for the last few minutes, said, “You know something? It might be better for you
not
to change any locks, at least not yet.”

Lindsey stopped short of taking a bite from her sandwich. “Why would that be better?”

“Because you’ll never catch the thief if you do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, if you change all the locks now, and the thief tries to take some more animals, he or she will know you’ve figured out what’s going on. Then that person will disappear for good, and you’ll never get the ferrets or the condors back.”

“Okay...”

“So leave everything the way it is for now, let the thief think everything’s fine. The thief has already made one big mistake with the “broken” locks. There’s bound to be another, if we can just wait a little longer.”

Jessie asked, “Has the night guard started yet?”

Lindsey shook her head. “No. He’ll start on Monday.”

“Maybe we can figure something out before then,” Henry said. “Let’s see ... well, you know the thief is going after the endangered species...”

“They’re the most valuable,” Lindsey pointed out, “so it makes sense.”

“So what animal will be taken next?” Violet asked.

Lindsey frowned. “It gets much more serious now. I’m afraid this time the thief might go for the toads.”

“Toads?” Jessie asked, surprised. “I thought there were lots of toads around.”

“No,” Lindsey said. “Some toads and frogs are very rare. And we have one of the rarest kinds in our program right now.” She hesitated. “I think we’d better go talk to Dr. Hunziker. Come on.”

They all met in the keeper’s room behind the amphibian enclosures. It didn’t take long for the Aldens to realize these back rooms all looked pretty much the same—bright lights, a cement floor, a long table, a pair of steel sinks, and a wall of supply shelves. There was something different in this room, however—the long table had rows and rows of plastic cups on it.

“What are they for?” Benny asked as the Aldens walked in with Jordan and Lindsey.

A man of about thirty with dark hair and glasses was going from cup to cup, sprinkling what looked like pink powder into each.

“This is Ray Hunziker, kids,” Jordan said. “He’s been the zoo’s head reptile and amphibian keeper since the very first day it opened.”

The Aldens and Dr. Hunziker exchanged hellos. Then Ray turned to Benny to answer his question. “They’re nursery cups,” he said with a warm smile.

“Nursery cups?”

“Yep. Come on over and have a look.”

Benny peered into the first cup and saw something moving in the water. It was a little black oval with a squiggly tail.

“Is that ... ?”

“A tadpole?’’ Ray asked.

“Yeah ...”

“Sure is.”

“Wow!”

The others gathered around, looking into the other cups. Each one contained about two inches of clean water and a single tadpole.

“How long until they’re big?” Benny asked.

“Oh, about six months. In a year they’ll be full-grown.”

“What kind of toads are these?” Violet asked.

“These are Wyoming toads,” Ray told her. “They’re truly endangered. There are none left in the wild at all.”

“None at all?” asked Violet.

“None. Only four zoos keep them. They are the last of their kind.”

“I don’t remember you saying anything about them in the newspaper,” Henry commented.

“Not yet,” Jordan told them. “We’ll want to breed more of them first. Besides, if the thief got them, that would be a disaster not only for us, but for the whole species as well.” He put a finger to his lips, as if telling someone to be quiet. “This is one of our top-secret projects, so don’t say a word to anyone.”

“We won’t,” Benny assured him.

Lindsey walked to the next enclosure. “These are the poison-arrow frogs.”

“They’re cool,” Benny said.

“But dangerous,” Violet added. “If handled, they can cause painful skin rashes on humans.”

“I guess a thief wouldn’t want these,” Henry guessed.

“No, that’s not necessarily true,” Lindsey said. “People like to collect them even though they’re dangerous. They’re very pretty, so that makes them desirable. You just have to know how to handle them properly.”

Henry went back and looked at the Wyoming toad tadpoles again. “I like these little guys,” he said. “Even if they’re not pretty. I hope nothing happens to them.”

“Does
anyone
know about them?” asked Jessie.

Lindsey looked very serious, “Some people do know,” she said. “I’m still kind of worried.”

The next morning, back at the house, the Aldens were eating breakfast together when the phone rang. Grandfather answered it. “Oh, no!” the children heard him say. “I’ll send them right over.” He hung up and turned to his grandchildren.

“You kids better get down to the zoo.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Violet asked.

“The toads?” Benny asked, already fearing the answer.

Grandfather nodded sadly. “The thief paid another visit last night. Lindsey really needs your help now.”

The Aldens hurried down to the zoo and headed straight for Amphibian Hall. Lindsey, Jordan, and Dr. Hunziker were already there—and the long table that held all the nursery cups yesterday was empty.

“It’s not quite as bad as it seems,” Dr. Hunziker said. “I was so worried last night that I moved some of the tadpoles out of here. But I didn’t have time to get all of them. I had to get home.” He shrugged. “So at least the thief didn’t get all of them.”

“But look what else was stolen,” Lindsey said, pointing to the poison-arrow frog enclosure. It was empty.

“Every one,” Lindsey replied. “All fifteen of them.”

“And the lock to the panel?” Jessie asked.

“Over on the table,” Lindsey said, pointing. Like the others, it looked like it had been run over by a truck.

“And the marks—” Jessie began to ask, but Lindsey already knew the question. She pointed to a spot on the floor a few feet in front of the main door.

“They’re right there.”

Sure enough, there was a little cluster of dents and scratches where the thief had beaten the lock to make it look as though it had been broken open.

“Was any food stolen this time?” Violet wanted to know.

“Impossible to tell,” Jordan answered.

“Why?” Violet asked.

“Because poison-arrow frogs eat tiny crickets,” Jordan told her. “See that garbage can over there? The one with the lid on it?” He nodded toward a big blue can by the sinks.

“It’s full of tiny crickets. Go have a look.”

Violet went over, her brothers and sister behind, and carefully lifted the lid. Inside were thousands of tiny brown crickets. There were also a few apple slices and a wet sponge in a glass bowl.

“Wow,” she said. “Look at all of them.”

“We breed those, too,” Jordan told her. “They’re easy to breed, and certainly not endangered. But if the thief took a bunch, how could we tell? We don’t keep count.”

“Lindsey, do you think it will turn out to be Beth, the intern, who’s the thief?” Jessie asked.

“It’s a possibility. She
has
said many times that her collection of pets at home gets better care than the animals do here. Maybe she’s taking them because she thinks she can give them a better home. And she does have access to most of the rooms and could get keys from the other keepers.”

“There’s something else,” said Jessie. “She drives a van. I saw her getting into it in the parking lot.”

“A van? Why would that make her a suspect?” asked Henry.

“I guess alone it wouldn’t make her a suspect,” said Jessie, “but if she did steal the animals ... well, the ferrets wouldn’t have been a problem, but that van of hers would sure have come in handy for those condors.”

“True ...” said Lindsey.

“I saw her near the windows of the Bird Barn not too long ago,” Henry added. “She was pushing on them, like she was checking to see which ones opened and which ones didn’t.”

Lindsey nodded. “Interesting, very interesting. Maybe I’ll say something to her.”

“And what about the man in the bright shirt?” Benny said. “The one Violet and I saw taking notes. Could he be the thief?”

Henry filled Lindsey in about the new suspect and they all agreed to watch out for him at the zoo.

Darren Colby came into the room at that moment, dressed in his usual dark suit and tie.

“I just heard about the stolen frogs and toads,” he said to Jordan, ignoring everyone else. “I’m sorry, Jordan, but that’s three strikes. I’m afraid the breeding program has to be stopped.”

“Oh, no!” Violet said.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Colby went on, “but the zoo is losing too much money, and if the public finds out it will make us look bad. Nobody wants to come to a zoo that’s losing all its animals.”

“What if we find them again?” Jessie asked. “What if we catch the thief?”

“If you kids can do that,” Mr. Colby said, “then we’re back in business. You have my word.”

Benny smiled. “We’ll do it. You’ll see!”

“I hope so,” Mr. Colby replied.

Lindsey came to the Aldens’ house for dinner that night. But in spite of the delicious roast chicken, no one was very hungry.

“This is such a nightmare,” Lindsey was saying, chin in hand. “I can’t believe the thief got all those frogs and toads. Whoever the person is, they’re very clever.” She sighed. “I wonder if we’ll ever catch the thief.”

“I was thinking about something ...” Violet said, picking at her cake with her fork. “Something about those poison-arrow frogs.”

“What about them?” Lindsey asked.

“If the thief took them, wouldn’t he or she get a rash?”

“Probably,” Lindsey replied. “But all he’d have to do to avoid that is wear rubber gloves. Like the ones used in the kitchen.”

“But,” Violet continued, “if the thief was meaning to steal only the Wyoming toads, why would he or she bring gloves?”

“Hey, that’s right,” Jessie added. “The thief obviously meant to take the Wyoming toads because they were the animals featured in the breeding program. The thief probably saw the poison-arrow frogs and thought,
Hey, they’re pretty. Maybe I’ll take those, too.
Because the thief wasn’t expecting to take the poison-arrow frogs, he or she wouldn’t have brought gloves along. He would have picked up the poison frogs with bare hands. I think the thief has made the mistake we’ve been hoping for.”

Lindsey started nodding. “You know something? I think you’re right.”

“If that’s what happened,” Violet said, “when would the rash appear?”

Lindsey looked at her watch. “It would be in full bloom by now. It’s been twelve hours at least, and it takes only about eight for the rash to surface.”

“Is it possible the thief could have developed the rash and gone to the local hospital?” Jessie wondered. “Would it be worth it to call over there and ask if anyone came in with such a rash?”

Henry shook his head and cut in with, “If I were the thief and I had a weird rash caused by some animals I’d stolen, I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. A doctor would want to know how the rash was caused. Right, Grandfather?”

Grandfather Alden nodded. “Of course. The doctor would have to know the cause, or else the rash couldn’t be treated properly.”