Terror at the Zoo (5 page)

“Sure they will. The ducks are probably doing
Swan Lake
right now.”

Corey missed her sarcastic tone. “Maybe the mountain goats will fly, too.” He grinned at her. “What if ALL the animals sprout wings at night and nobody knows it?” He put his hand in his armpits and, moving his elbows up and down like wings, he galloped down the path.

I might as well talk to the moon, Ellen thought, as she shook her head and started after him. Dancing zebras. Flying goats. What would he think of next?

Moments later, Corey rushed back to her. “Somebody’s up there,” he whispered, pointing at the path ahead. “And he’s trying to break into the little store.”

“It’s the security person that Mrs. Caruthers told us about. Good. He’s probably making sure everything is locked properly.” She was glad they had found the security guard. He would take them to a telephone. Maybe he even carried a portable phone with him.

Corey grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop walking. “He isn’t checking the locks,” he insisted. “He has a tool in his hand and he’s trying to pry open a window.”

Ellen scowled. “If this is one of your stories and you’re trying to scare me, you’d better quit right now,” she said.

“No! It’s true, I swear it.”

Something in Corey’s voice made her believe him.

“Where is he?” she whispered. “How far ahead of us?”

“Across from the Elephant Forest. It’s the snack shop where we bought popcorn last time we came.”

“Did he see you?”

Corey shook his head, no.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. I saw him from behind and I didn’t make any noise. I came to tell you right away.”

Ellen turned and started in the other direction. “We’re going back to our tent,” she said.

Corey didn’t follow her.

“Come on,” she hissed.

“I’m going to spy on the zoo man,” he said.

“What? Don’t be an idiot.”

“Maybe he’s a crook. Maybe he steals things from the zoo at night and nobody knows it. If we see him do it, we can tell Mrs. Caruthers.” The words came faster. “The police will ask us questions. We’ll be detectives. We’ll be heroes! We’ll get our pictures in the paper.”

“If he’s a crook, we’re going to keep out of his way. Now, come with me.”

Corey stayed where he was. “Dad always says when someone is doing something wrong, people should take a stand. He says everyone is scared to get involved.”

Ellen hesitated. Corey was right; Dad did say that.

“The zoo man won’t see us,” Corey said. “We’ll stay on the other side of the path. There are trees and bushes to hide in. All we have to do is watch, to see what he does. That’s all. And then tomorrow morning we can tell Mrs. Caruthers what we saw.”

Ellen switched her flashlight off. Silently, they rounded the curve in the path, staying close to the right-hand edge, near the rhododendrons. As they came to a cleared area
that contained a picnic table, Corey stopped and pointed.

Ellen squinted in the dim light. On the other side of the path, about fifty feet ahead, she could make out the dark outline of a building. She knew it was the food building, where her family often bought a treat when they visited the zoo.

She heard a noise like someone hammering lightly on wood. When her eyes focused in the direction of the noise, she saw the outline of a man. He stood at the side of the building, beside the wooden panels which open to make a pass-through counter.

More noise. Corey was right. The man was breaking into the food stand. The panel was probably easier to force open than the door.

Ellen, with Corey beside her, crouched low beside the bushes and watched. She couldn’t see exactly what the man was doing but she saw movement and she heard the wooden panel creak.

A light went on inside the food stand. The panel was raised up and hooked to the roof overhang. Through the opening, she could see him clearly now as he pulled out drawers and slammed them shut again. He picked up a bag of potato chips, ripped off one end, and began to eat.

“Details,” whispered Corey.

Ellen put her finger to her mouth, warning him to keep quiet. She knew what he meant, though. For awhile, Corey’s stories had centered on a make-believe detective who always astounded the police by remembering every detail of the villain’s description.

Ellen stared at the man. He looked tall, although it was
hard to be sure when she was crouched so low. Six feet probably. Maybe even taller. Dark hair. A khaki jacket. Jeans.

The man turned, still searching the inside of the food stand. His jacket was open. Ellen saw a red shirt. And it wasn’t jeans, it was overalls. Bib overalls. Wouldn’t the security guard wear a uniform?

The man stopped moving. He picked up a small box, held it toward the light, and examined it. He laid the box on the counter and bent over it. Something glinted in the light from the bare bulb inside the food stand.

Corey clutched her arm.

The man had a knife. A big knife. He was using it to break open the lock on the box.

That’s probably what he used to pry open the panel, too, Ellen thought.

He lifted the lid of the box and reached inside.

Money. He removed a stack of bills and began counting them.

Corey leaned closer and she was afraid he was going to say something. She put her finger to her lips again. The whites of Corey’s eyes seemed enormous as he pointed at the man.

Ellen nodded. She watched as the man put the bills in the pocket of his jacket and zipped the pocket shut. Then he calmly sat on the counter of the food stand and continued to eat potato chips.

Ellen dropped to her hands and knees and began to crawl away from the food stand, staying as close as possible to the bushes. She was afraid to stand up, since the man was facing in their direction. Even though they were
far beyond the rectangle of light that fell from the open panel to the ground outside, she didn’t want to take any chance that he would see movement and come to investigate.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Corey was creeping along too, directly behind her. When they rounded the curve, heading back toward the south gate, Ellen stood up.

Corey stood beside her and slipped his hand in hers. For once, he kept his mouth shut. Ellen took a deep breath and then jogged toward the gorilla house, back to the North Meadow and the safety of their tent.

The moon rose silently, sending a dim light over the zoo. Ellen looked up. The moon was nearly full. A harvest moon, her mother would call it. In her mind, she could hear Mom singing, as she always did when they sat together around a campfire: “Shine on, shine on, harvest moon, up in the sky.”

Mom. Where are you? Why haven’t you come?

Ellen wished she had not brought Corey to the zoo. It had seemed right at the time but she had been positive her parents would join them. She hadn’t counted on being locked in the zoo alone with Corey all night.

And she certainly hadn’t counted on discovering that a thief was prowling around the zoo.

“I
’
M GOING
to spy on him some more,” Corey said.

“No, you aren’t. We’re both staying right here in this tent.”

They were sitting on their sleeping bags, with the picnic supper between them. There were chicken salad sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, little bags of chips, apples, bananas, and chocolate-frosted brownies. There were cans of apple juice, too, and even a little bag of after-dinner mints.

The basket contained enough for four people, but after nibbling at half a sandwich, Ellen quit. Despite her grumbling stomach and the delicious food, nothing tasted good. She was too nervous to eat.

“We need to gather all the evidence we can,” Corey said. “Maybe the security guard does other bad stuff.”

“I don’t think that man was the guard.”

“Then who was it?”

“I don’t know. But we’ll find out what the guard looks like when he comes past here at midnight. You can spy on him then, from inside the tent. If he isn’t the thief, we can tell him what we saw.”

“I don’t want to tell the guard. I want to be a detective and gather more evidence.”

“We don’t need more evidence and it would make him angry if he caught us following him.”

Corey bit into another brownie. “Well, I’m not staying in this dumb tent all night. I want to walk around the zoo. What good is it to spend the night in the zoo if we don’t see anything but the inside of a tent? I want to have an adventure.”

“You’ll have more of an adventure than you bargain for if that thief catches you spying on him.”

“He won’t catch me.”

“That’s right. He won’t catch you because you aren’t going to do it.”

A loud roar from across the meadow made both of them jump.

“A lion,” Corey said.

“Be quiet and listen. Maybe we can hear some of the other animals.”

They stretched out on top of their sleeping bags and listened.

The lion roared again, a deep throaty noise that ended on a high whine. Ellen closed her eyes and strained her ears to hear more. All was quiet.

It felt cozy in the tent, the way it felt when her family went camping. Outside the tent, there was only silence. Gradually, her tight muscles relaxed.

Ellen took a deep breath and then another.

The silence stretched on.

ELLEN
and Corey’s grandparents squinted at the X ray as the doctor held it in front of the light.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Howard,” the doctor said. “The leg is not healing properly. I’m afraid we’ll have to reset it.”

“Now? Tonight?”

“The sooner the better. I’ve already called the hospital and arranged to have you admitted.”

“But—”

“You may as well get it over with tonight, Esther,” Grandpa said. “You don’t want to limp the rest of your life.”

“If you like, you can spend the night at the hospital, too, Mr. Howard,” the doctor said. “We have several sleeping rooms for relatives to use in cases like this, when we do unplanned surgery at night.”

“Yes,” Grandpa said. “Yes, I’ll do that.”

“We’d better call the children,” Grandma said, “and make sure Mike and Dorothy got home. We can’t leave Corey and Ellen there by themselves.”

“Use my phone, if you like,” the doctor said.

Grandpa dialed. He waited a moment and then said, “I got the answering machine. That means they’ve gone on the camp-out.”

He waited until the machine made a little
bleep
and then said, “Hello, it’s me. Esther and I are on our way
to the hospital. She has to have her leg reset and I’m going to stay at the hospital tonight, in case she needs me. I’ll call you tomorrow, after you get home from the zoo.”

When he hung up, Grandma said, “I’m glad Mike and Dorothy got home in time. I was afraid the plane might be late and Ellen and Corey would have to miss the camp-out.”

Grandpa said, “You worry too much.”

COREY’S
eyes felt heavy. He struggled to keep them open. No matter what Ellen said, he didn’t want to waste his night at the zoo by falling asleep. Maybe if he walked around awhile, he wouldn’t feel so tired.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” he whispered.

There was no response.

“Ellen?”

Ellen was asleep. Quietly, Corey got up from his sleeping bag. He put two apples in his jacket pockets. He found his flashlight, his camera, and the bag of peanuts that he had brought along, in case he got hungry in the night. He slipped through the flap of the tent and started off in the moonlight.