Terror at the Zoo (8 page)

He was sure that the tall man was not supposed to take Shadow out of the cage. He was not supposed to feed the monkeys, either. He was not, Corey realized, a zoo employee at all. No zoo employee would act the way this man was acting.

If he doesn’t work at the zoo, how did he get in? Who was he? Why would he want to take a monkey? To set it free? Corey had seen a TV special once, about animal rights activists who had freed some caged animals from a traveling circus in order to call attention to their improper care.

But the Woodland Park Zoo was known all over the world for the good way they treated the animals. That’s why Grandpa and Grandma always went to the charity auction. They said the zoo had even trained some of the rare tamarin monkeys to survive in the wild and had then set them free in the rain forests in Brazil.

It wouldn’t do any good to turn a monkey loose in the city of Seattle. It would never survive.

Maybe he planned to sell it. Some people want exotic pets. Was there a black market for stolen monkeys? Had the man taken animals before? Corey didn’t remember hearing about any stolen animals but he wasn’t very
faithful about keeping up with the news, except for the Seahawks and the Mariners.

Corey wished he could get to a telephone, to call 911. That was the emergency number and Corey was sure this would be considered an emergency. He couldn’t call 911 when the telephone was on the other side of the fence.

He needed help but try as he might he could not think of how to get it. Even if he ran to the gate and yelled, no one would hear him. The only thing on the other side of the gate was the zoo parking lot and there wouldn’t be anyone there at night.

He decided the best thing to do was his original plan: follow the man and watch him closely. He would see exactly what the man did with the monkey; he could report everything to the police tomorrow morning.

Specific, he told himself. Get the specific details.

Corey turned away from the glass doors. He wondered how the man had gotten inside the monkey house. There must be a back door of some sort. Corey had to find it fast and get evidence of what he had just seen. He would take a picture of the man with the baby monkey.

He hurried around the side of the building, toward the back of Shadow’s cage. He found the door easily; it was standing wide open and the lights inside were on.

Corey squatted down a few feet to one side of the door. He put down his flashlight and looked through the viewfinder of his camera. If the man left the lights on, Corey might be able to get a picture without using the flash.

“Chit-chit-chitchitchit.”
The frantic cries of the little
monkey came from inside the door. Corey could hear the mother monkey’s screams now, too.

Just as Corey peered through his camera, the lights went off. He lowered the camera. He couldn’t use the flash; the man would see it for sure and know that Corey was watching him.

“Damn it!” the man muttered. “Hold still. Stay in there.”

The man’s back was to him. Corey stayed low. As long as he didn’t move, he was sure the man wouldn’t see him. There were scuffling noises and the man cursed again.

The man kicked the door, to close it, and started toward Corey. The man’s hands were clutched across his chest. Corey couldn’t see any monkey but he knew the man was holding one.

The man’s arms kept moving, as if he were having trouble holding the monkey. Twice he stopped and struggled with the bulge in his jacket.

A few more feet, Corey thought, and he’ll be past me. Then I’ll follow him. I’ll find out where he takes the monkey. I’ll stay behind him and spy on him all night long.

The dark shape of the man loomed over him. Corey held his breath.

And then the man yelped in pain.

Thunk! Fur brushed past Corey’s face. Instinctively, he reached out and tried to grab the monkey. The tail slipped through his fingers just as the man dove downward.

The man’s hands closed around Corey’s arm. He gasped in surprise. Then he grabbed Corey’s shoulders and hoisted him to his feet. He muttered something that
would get Corey grounded for a month if he ever said it.

Chattering wildly, the baby monkey ran past them and disappeared into the night.

“Who the hell are you?” the man hissed. Before Corey could reply, he added, “You just made me lose $20,000.”

Corey had never heard anyone sound so angry. So full of hate.

“I didn’t do anything,” Corey protested. “The monkey got away all by itself. We have to find it! What if it climbs over the fence?” Corey thought of the heavy traffic on Aurora Avenue or North 50th Street. He shuddered.

“Damn thing bit me.” The man shook one hand several times and then put his mouth briefly on his wrist. He spat.

Corey stepped backward but the man quickly gripped him again. His fingers dug into Corey’s arms as he leaned closer, staring at Corey. “Maybe,” he said slowly, “there’s more than one way to collect a ransom.”

Corey twisted, trying to wriggle loose. The strap on his camera broke and the camera fell to the ground. “You’re hurting me,” he said.

“You think that hurts? You don’t know what it is to get hurt.”

Corey remembered the knife.

He didn’t say anything else.

E
LLEN
was lost. She didn’t understand how it could have happened, but she didn’t know where she was or which way to go to find the monkey house. How could she be so turned around in a place she had visited so many times?

She should have taken a map. Maybe the maps show where telephones are located. But she hadn’t known she’d be alone, searching for Corey. And she hadn’t known how scary the zoo would seem at night.

The moon disappeared behind some clouds; it was even darker now than it had been earlier. The path seemed endless and she had no idea whether she was still on the shortcut or whether she had somehow followed another path by mistake. When she waved her light around, nothing looked familiar.

She saw another food stand and moved cautiously toward it. When she was next to it, she stopped and listened in case the thief was inside. She heard nothing.

This, she decided, was the most horrible night of her life. She had looked forward to it so much and now everything had gone wrong. If only she had waited at home until Mom and Dad got there, instead of rushing away in a cab.

“You can’t solve a problem by saying,
if only.
” That’s what Mom always said. Ellen trudged onward.

The beam from her flashlight hit fencing. Ellen stopped and raised the light higher; the fencing continued. She recognized the Aviary. That isn’t where she had thought she was, but at least she had her bearings now. The Aviary was close to the monkey house. She had just taken the long way to get there.

Relieved, she walked faster. With any luck, Corey would be in the monkey house. He was probably jumping on one of the benches, scratching his armpits, or hanging by his knees from a railing, pretending to be a monkey in a tree. She would insist that he return to the tent with her and stay there until morning. No more wandering around the zoo in the dark.

Just ahead, she heard a shrill chattering. A monkey?

Yes. There it was again, even louder this time, and she was sure it was a monkey. The monkey didn’t sound very happy. It sounded upset, as if someone were teasing it.

The closer she got to the monkey house, the more distressed the monkey sounded. It seemed to be only one monkey and it sounded like it was in pain. Was it hurt? If so, she knew Corey wasn’t responsible. Her brother was silly and made up wild stories but he was basically a good kid and he loved the monkeys. He would never hurt one of them.

Light from the monkey house shone out through the glass doors. Ellen saw it and began to run. By the time she got to the monkey house, the chattering had stopped.

The monkey house was locked. Ellen looked through the glass doors. In the first cage, she recognized one of the rare golden lion tamarins that Grandma and Grandpa had brought her to see, when a baby monkey was born. The monkey was clearly upset, rushing frantically back and forth in its cage.

When she looked closer, she could tell it was the mother monkey, Sunshine, the one Ellen had watched as it nursed her baby. What could have happened to distress her so? Was her baby sick? Ellen could not see the baby monkey. It must be in the far corner, she thought, where she couldn’t see.

Although she was certain the monkey was making noise, the soundproof glass of the cages and the thick doors of the building prevented her from hearing it. Ellen wondered how she heard the chattering earlier when she couldn’t hear it now. Were there monkeys elsewhere in the zoo?

The monkeys in the other cages moved about restlessly while Sunshine leaped hysterically from the tree to the ground and back again.

Ellen heard the chattering again, fainter now. It came from behind the building. From outside. Maybe it was Corey, pretending to be a monkey. She hurried in that direction, flashing her light around. “Corey?” she called. “Are you here?”

“Chit-chit-chit-chit.”
The excited chattering retreated.

Ellen waved her light back and forth across the back of the building. A door marked “Employees Only” stood slightly ajar. The wood around the lock was splintered; someone had broken in.

Oh, Corey, she thought. Surely you wouldn’t have done this. You said you wanted to sleep with the monkeys but you wouldn’t do a stupid thing like this. Would you?

Of course not. She answered her own question. Corey was no hoodlum. He didn’t go around vandalizing public property and he definitely would not do anything to scare the monkeys. Grandma and Grandpa had taught them that animals have feelings, much like people have. Grandma even carried a list in her purse, of companies that don’t test their products on animals. She wouldn’t buy soap or shampoo or perfume unless the manufacturer was on her list. Grandma said she didn’t want some poor rabbit blinded just so she could smell good.

Ellen continued around the outside of the building, aiming the light toward the ground. Something crunched under her shoe. Looking down, she saw peanuts spilled on the path. Then she noticed red drops on the path near the peanuts. She leaned down to look more closely.

Blood. There were drops of blood on the path behind the monkey house.

Ellen’s breath came faster. Had someone hurt the baby monkey? Is that why the mother was so upset?

The man she had seen carried a knife. After he broke into the food stand, he must have broken into the monkey house, too. But why? Who was he? Not an employee of the zoo. She was convinced of that.

But if the man they had seen did not work at the zoo, how did he get in? Where was the security guard? Had they just missed him, or had something happened to him? The questions bounced in her brain like the bumper cars at the county fair.

She stared down at the path. Corey had brought peanuts with him. Were these some of his? How did they get spilled?

Don’t jump to conclusions, she told herself. Anyone could have spilled peanuts on the ground. She swung the flashlight in a wider circle, and froze. There, lying on the path a few feet in front of her, was a camera. She picked it up and turned it over. Her hand began to shake.

Mom had taped the small identification tag on the camera before Corey went to camp last July. Corey Streater, it said, and gave the telephone number. Corey treasured his camera. He would never be careless with it.

Ellen aimed the light at the path again and found Corey’s flashlight.

Something terrible had happened to her brother. She knew it. He would never leave his flashlight and his camera like this.

Why was blood on the ground? Was it monkey blood—or human?

Where was Corey?

I have to find him, Ellen thought. First, I’ll go back to the tent. He’s had plenty of time to explore the zoo and if nothing has happened to him he might be back at the tent by now. If he’s there, we’ll stay inside the tent until morning if I have to sit on him the rest of the night.

If he isn’t there . . .

She didn’t want to think about what she would do if he wasn’t there.

She headed back toward the tent. Please be there, Corey, she thought. Please, please be there.

She never made it back to the tent.