Koala Killer Eighteenth Installment

When their clean-cut detective friend, Bill, returned, they all went down the hall to see Jorge about this Carl. Jorge asked Jeannie to send for him. She sent one of the landscape people to the elephant exhibit.

Jeannie came back into the office to announce, "Jose says Carl was busy and would come as soon as he finished with Lucy."

"Lucy's our Asian elephant," Jorge explained.

Bill spoke up, "I'm going to ask him to come down to police headquarters for questioning Mr. Johnson. I would have gone to the elephant exhibit direct, but Mari said I wouldn't be able to get in where the keepers and the animals are, anyway."

"That's correct. This is the best way, I think." Jorge murmured, as he fiddled with the letter opener on his desk.

"I think I'll alert our plain clothes backup fellow. We just might need him."

"I hope there's no trouble officer, the zoo is filled with children. Along with the usual families, there are two classes of school children here today."

"That's what I'm trying to avoid, Mr. Johnson. I'll be right back."

Jorge was asking how Mari was feeling, when they heard Jeannie shouting, "That's him, don't let him get away."

Cass was first out of the door. Jorge was right behind. Mari tried getting up, but she was stiff and slow, so she tried to use the wheel chair, but she hadn't got the hang of quick maneuvers quite yet. She was left behind, bumping into door frames. She finally figured out that one of the brakes seemed to be still on."

By the time she got out to the front path the action had moved out of sight. Cass was gone. Bill was too. Jorge was nervously reassuring the mothers with strollers across the path who looked terrified. Jeannie was staring toward the exit as if she was in a trance. Mari bumped into her leg as she came up next to her asking,"What's going on?"

But Jeannie didn't answer.

Cass was first to return. They practically jumped him for information.

He told them, "When I got to the door, Bill and another man, who was probably the backup fellow, were chasing a heavy-set zookeeper down the path. I took off after them. The keeper went through the public exit turnstile. That slowed down Bill and company. Then I heard a big engine racing, and caught a glimpse of a bis 4x4 off-roader as it went roaring out of the parking area. Bill and the other policeman shouted to someone else and soon they were giving chase. So I came back."

We went back inside and the group broke up. Jorge was distracted and went back into his office. Jeannie looked nervous, she avoided eye contact as she plopped down at her desk. Mari offered to show Cass around the zoo.

Koala Killer Seventeenth Installment

Cass pulled up a chair and started organizing her, like he'd done so often before. He said, "I'll pull out the photo in each file for you. Just concentrate on the flash of memory of the man in the hospital hallway."

He held out the first one.

"No."

And so on for the first five. On the sixth, she hesitated. The driver's license picture was bad. He set that one aside and went through each of the rest. The one set aside turned out to be the only possibility.

The man was different physically from the rest of the male employees. He had the face of a wrestler. And with two possible exceptions, he looked older than most of them.

She didn't know him. From the green sticker on his file she knew he was a Keeper. The date he started working at the zoo was also marked on the tab. May 5th. About a month ago, so he was still working for the zoo on a trial basis, since everyone had to work for ninety days and be evaluated before being hired permanently and getting benefits. He had experience with elephants, his file said. That's as much as she got from the file before Bill took it down the hall to get Annie to make copies for the police.

"Cass," Mari said, "I had just gone past the elephants the night the cart ran me down."

Cass answered, "It doesn't look good for ole Carl."

"Who's Carl?"

"The fellow you just identified."

"Wait a minute. I wouldn't call it an identification. He's just the most likely candidate."

"Well, the most likely, then. Didn't you see the name on the file?"

"No, I saw the date he started, that he was an experienced elephant keeper, but I didn't think to look at the name. I wouldn't make much of a detective, would I?"

"Well, I saw the name. It's Carl Bergen."

Koala Killer Sixteenth Installment

Chapter 5

A clean-cut dark-haired young man with a brush cut was tapping on her window at 6:30AM. He had on a worn yellow polo shirt, khaki Dockers and sneakers. He was the plain clothes detective sent to come with them to the zoo. He had a loaner wheel chair with him. It folded neatly into Cass' rental car trunk.

The Pueblo Valley Zoo had thirteen keepers and one intern, Mari. Their new 'friend", Bill, and her best friend Cass, decided it would be best to check the personnel files first. The three of them ate her scrambled eggs wrapped in tortillas with salsa as they rode to the zoo. Owen got a wee taste of it in his own breakfast, of course, as consolation at being left alone - again.

The zoo opens to the public at 9:00AM normally, but the morning feedings start at 7:00AM. The office staff comes in at 8:00AM, but the personnel and payroll gal, Annie, met them in the office at 7:30AM.

They introduced Bill as their friend and after the usal how-are-yous, Annie laid the files out on the side table in front of her wheechair. She seemed to be smiling and blinking her eyes a lot, especially when she looked at the young policeman Bill.

She sounded businesslike, however, when she said, "There are twenty-four full-time people right now. We make a copy of their photo id when they come on board."

We nodded.

She went on, "I separated the men and women as asked. If you need me I'll be down the hall in the break room drinking coffee to wake up."

Mari started looking through the ten files of men who worked there. She looked at Bill and asked, "Aren't pesonnel files confidential?"

"Not in a murder investigation. We got a warrant," he said succinctly.

"Murder!" Mari blurted out more loudly than she intended.

"Keep your voice down, please. Stan was murdered in his hospital bed. The lieutenant told me you found him minutes after he'd been smothered. I thought you knew. We're fairly certain it was someone working right here at the zoo. So, please keep it down, Ms. Nuclett."

"I'm sorry... I knew he died of course."

Cass came to stand beside her and picked up her hand.

Mari continued, "I didn't know he, he was smothered."

The whole situation was all so terrible. She hadn't thought in terms of murder.