Koala Killer Seventh Installment

In the employee's parking lot she put her trusty '84 Chevy pickup next to a truck that made hers look like a toy. A new one-ton 4x4 done up in camouflage, with huge off-road tires. Her brother Andrew had been into this kind of thing for a while when he was in high school. Actually, it'd been his friend Billy who was the true aficionado. Billy was now into monster truck shows, while Andrew drove a family van. Mari wondered who of her fellow employees drove this beast.

The staff was abuzz over what had happened to Stan. She just wanted to forget it for a while. Luckily most of them didn't know she'd been the one to find Stan. And as far as she knew, no one knew she'd been to the hospital and found him dead. SHe supposed she should tell that detective, Jack Palance look alike, what was his name? Oh yeah, Wilson, Lieutenant Wilson.

First things first though, she had to get the bird's feedings prepared and out for them. She got down to work cutting up oranges and apples in the kitchen. Glad to be working, doing what she loved. She hauled the Aviary's seed buckets and fruit first, then loaded the trolley for the birds of prey. She dipped the hummers' sweet water from the cooled kettle and poured it into the feeders that had been run through the washer. The fun part for her was interacting with the birds as she feeds them. She was especially fond of the crows and the hummingbirds.

Alvin, the crow, acknowledged her approach by cawing his usual greeting to her. He only used that particular combination of caws and squawky squeals when she comes into his enclosure. He wasn't just anticipating the feeding, as she'd first thought, since he also used the same sounds when she came to see him at non-feeding times. She'd done her own little study when she'd first had his care. She'd sat out of sight and listened to him for several hours at a time and discovered that he had a different set of sounds for each person he knew. She returned what she took to be his "Hi Mari" with her own version of a crtow greting that she'd heard crows in the wild use. Alvin elaborated, but like a foreigner who doesn't speak the language, she remained mute wishing she could say more. She reverted to her own language.

"Here we are then, Alvin. Fresh out of road kill again today. I've told the cook, but you know how she is."

Alvin flew up to her and sat on her hat, picking at the crown. She was used to this now, but she was certainly startled the first time he'd done it. He had wanted the ornament that was pinned on her hat (strictly against regulations). Like all crows he collected shiny objects. Sometimes, when she remembered, she'd put a large paper clip on her hat for him, but today she was distracted. She longed for life to get back to normal, but knew it wasn't going to happen any time soon.

After the feedings had been distributed, she went to what she called her office. It was a tiny closet-like storeroom off one of the landscaping department's sheds. She had placed a piece of glass on a small built-in wooden table and used it to make her reports on the animals that are required of the keepers. She perched on a rickety three-legged stool. As a rule, she was extremely comfortable here. Today, she felt uneasy.

First of all, she thought things had been moved. Not that there was much there. She kept a jar of pencils and pens, a steno pad for to-do lists, whiteout, and a folder of blank report forms. The steno pad seemed to have moved from the left to the right side of the table.

"Oh well," she thought, "mayube I put it there myself."

Then she thought she could smell a man's cologne. Ah, probably one of the landscapers looked in to see if something he neede was stored in here. She chided herself that this whole thing was making her paranoid. She made quick work of the report and started back toward Admin to drop off the paperwork.

A quick movement caught her eye. Someone ducked out of view behind the mower.

She called out, "Who's there?"

No answer.

She walked toward the mower and saw a blur of a zoo worker's uniform high-tailing it down the public walkway toward the Australia and Africa sections. What was left behind was a whiff of that same cologne. He or she had been heavyset from what she could see of their departure. They could certainly move quickly. She concluded that someone had been watching her.

Koala Killer Sixth Installment

She knew she'd feel better dealing with animals anyway. When she worked with them, a kind of peace came over her. Intrerns do not have permanent charges; they rotate care of the animals. In one way this is good because they learn about different species and get close to individuals. In another way, it's hard because you tend to want to stay with the ones you get attached to. Currently Mari had the feeding of the birds, both in the aviary, and the birds of prey in their separate enclosures. Everyday she tried to find time to visit her former charges. Today she would definitely check on the expectant mama giraffe, who was due in the next few weeks.

First, she took Owen on his 'short' walk, around the Taco Bell, down the alley and back. She felt like she was cheating him because he didn't get to check out new territory the way he likes to. She stopped to pick up the mail as they headed back to heir little nest. In the common yard, Owen sees Bea come out of her gate. He rushes over to her full of friendly joy. They are old friends and Bea greets him in her usual way.

"Don't jump up, there's a good boy."

He restrains himself to small no contact hops. He'd come a long way from the totally unrestrained leaper he'd been a year ago when they'd found each other.

"Mari did you get my message?"

"Yes, Bea. I saw it on TV too. Don't worry, the police will figure it all out."

"Are you in any danger, Mari?"

She dismissed the idea out-of-hand and patted Bea's back. She was now in a hurry to get back to the zoo.

On the short drive she thought about Bea's comment. She'd found Stan. He didn't shoot himself in the eye and he shouldn't have died from it. She supposed she could be in danger if the person who shot Stan thought she knew something. Which she was sure she didn't. Well, she knew the koala shouldn't have been there.

"I'll ask Jorge what he's found out about that koala."

Koala Killer Fifth Installment

Chapter 2

No one took any note of her going into Stan's room. His head was slumped over. The eye that had been pierced by the dart was covered in bandage. His bed was in an upright position and the bed's tray table with his untouched breakfast in front of him. She assumed he'd fallen asleep.

"Stan?"

She touched his shoulder and his whole body slumped toward her and she shrieked. She ran out into the hallway and shouted, "Please help me!"

The nurse came, then the doctors. When she asked if he was allright they asked her if she was family and when she told them she wasn't they sent her out into the hall. She sensed that he had died. When she saw the police coming down the hall she decided to leave. She hadn't seen anything that could help them and she really felt she needed to gt home as soon as possible for her own sanity, Needless to say, she didn't get her ticket validated, but she was more than willing to pay to get out of there.

"Oh, poor Stan," she thought. She didn't know him well. Just that her was an excellent veterinarian. She'd admired the way he could handle all types of animals. But he didn't have an outgoing personality. And he certainly wasn't subject to idle chitchat. The girls in the office called him a loner. He is, or she corrected herself, was, attractive, so they all flirted with him without any apparent effect. Her friend Shirley, who used to work there in the office, told her he was single. She had no idea how Shirley had known that.

When she got home, Owen did his joy dance. No matter how long you're gone, your dog always acts like you have returned from years away at war and, thank the gods, have finally made it safely back. She turned the cooler from fan to cool. She heated up some zucchini casserole in the microwave. She tried not to think about Stan. She turned on CBS'news at noon. They were covering a fire that had broken out in Sidewinder Canyon in the Rimrock Mountains. They hoped it would be under control that day, the newscaster said.

"The poor wildlife," she chattered to Owen, "the bobcat, the deer, the javelina, the birds and bunnies, oooh."

Owen could tell she was sad and came up to lick her knee.

It just added to her mounting depression. She gave Owen a slice of zucchini with some of the mushroom soup on it and set her timer for a short nap. As she started to turn the TV off with the remote, she realized they were talking about Stan's death.

"Stan Reed, Pueblo Valley Zoo's veterinarian, was attacked last night in the zoo's infirmary and died today in County hospital. Police are withholding the cause of death pending further investigation. More at eleven."

"Attacked and died," a tragic and painful event reduced to one sentence and read with a smile by a beautiful woman posing for the camera.

Mari zapped the TV off and closed her eyes. But rest, let alone quiet thought, was not to be. The phone rang, her answering machine clicked on. It as her neighbor, Bea, "Mari, did you see the TV? The zoo where you work?, the veterinarian guy, they said he died. You don't have to pick up, honey, I just wanted you to know what they said on the TV."

No sooner had she hung up than the phone clicked again. She got back up to turn the volume all the way down. Most of the time she didn't like using the telephone at all. She was the last of her friends and family to hold out against owning a cell phone. Then the alarm she'd set went off. She knew she had little time before she was due back at the zoo. She abandoned the nap attempt and hopped in the shower.