Koala Killer Fourth Installment

Making a note on his pad, the detective asked, "Miss Nuclett, won't you go on? You saw the koala and ...?

"Right then the security guard, Joseph, came in and her attention went back to Stan. The ambulance came soon after, then the police, I called Manny to take care of the Lar. He's only here temporarily..."

"Manny is temporary?"

Jorge came in with, "No, the gibbon is temporary, lieutenant. He's to be shipped on to the Milwaukee County Zoo today. Oh dear, I've got to get another vet to certify his health for shipping, I suppose..."

Mari could see Jorge's shoulders slump. He did not have the cool exterior of many executives. He worried visibly.

"Okay Miss Nuclett?"

"Manny got there after Stan had been loaded into the ambulance. I told him briefly about the koala, knowing he could handle it too, but come to think about it, he just looked puzzled when I mentioned it. Things were confusing. I was exhausted. With Manny there and Stan gone to hospital, all I wanted was to go home to bed. Jorge arrived about then and told me to go home."

"Speaking of which, Lieutenant, Mari needs to get some rest. She was here 'til all hours. The whole thing is stressful. I asked her to come in this morning to speak with you, but I think she needs to get more rest before she comes back to her duties this afternoon."

"Yes, that should be all for now. Thank you, Miss Nuclett. If you think of anything, please call me," he said, as he handed her his card.

She felt sleepy with Jorge's talk of needing rest. She tried to smile but it felt pretty lame, so she backed up toward the door.

"I think I will go home and lie down for an hour or so. See you later, Jorge. Bye."

But instead of heading home, Mari decided to go by the hospital on her way home to see if she could find out how Stan was doing. Maybe she could get in to see him. She found the right entrance on the third try. They'd changed things around since her last visit. She was always uncomfortable in hospitals. It disturbed her to see helpless people lying on gurneys in the hall. This was going to take longer than she thought. Like her ex-boyfriend used to say, "Everything takes longer and costs more than you thought it would."

Little did she know how true that was going to prove.

Koala Killer Third Installment

The reception area is pleasant, done in beige and turquoise, with artful close-ups of some of Pueblo Valley's animals and birds framed in bamboo.

Jeannie, the Director's secretary, looked up, saying, "Go on in Marigold. He was looking for you. The detective is with him."

Jeannie always called Mari by her full name, just like her mother used to. She kept it formal. Maybe she thought that was how private secretaries should be. Mari smiled at her as she opened the door.

Attempting to be friendly, Mari answered, "Thanks Jeannie. I like your hair."

A slight movement of her head was the only acknowledgement. Mari continues into Jorge Johnson's office where she could hear someone speaking.

Jorge looked up and interrupted the speaker, saying, "Mari, here you are. Are you allright my dear? Sit down, sit down. Lieutenant Wilson, this is Mari Nuclett."

Jorge is portly and taller than his roundness makes him seem. He's strong and tanned from his hands-on supervision. His influence and policies had brought their little zoo into it's own.

Mari thought he looked understandably nervous today.

The detective stood up as she entered the room. He takes a step towards her. He's tall and rugged looking, like the actor who played Paladin in the old TV show Have Gun, Will Travel.

"We'll make this as easy and brief as we can. I need to ask you about the incident last night. I know you've already spoken to the officers who came when it happened, but I will head the investigation and need to ask you a few questions."

"First, may I ask a question, please? How is Stan?"

"He is doing as well as can be expected, as they say. I know that's not very comforting, but as I told Mr. Johnson here, we'll have to get more from the doctors on that score."

Mari nods, disappointed. She makes a mental note to go over to the hospital to see Stan herself and get in the doctor's face, if necessary, to find out.

"I understand you found Mr. ..., " he looked at his notes, "or is that Dr. Reed? The report says that was about 9:50 last evening. Would you just tell me the sequence of events as you remember them please?"

"I was heading back to the kitchen with my charges' pans to clean them, when I noticed a light on in the animal's infirmary, so I went to investigate. Before going in, I set the pans down, made a clatter of it, I'm afraid. Then I heard the Lar Gibbon making a racket. I could tell he was upset. I hurried into the room looking up for the gibbon and saw him crouched in the highest branches in a display of sheer terror. Then I heard Stan, uh, Dr. Reed, moaning. That's when I saw him rolling back and forth on the floor. His hands were clutching something on his face. I went to him and tried to soothe him, telling him it's all right, which it obviously wasn't, of course. That's when I saw the tranq dart sticking out of his eye." She cringed at the memory, "That's what he'd been clutching. He was in a lot of pain. Then suddenly he went slack, passed out, I guess. I didn't know what to do for him. I resisted the urge to take the dart out because I didn't know what would be worse for him, so I laid him back down and went to call 911 for an ambulance."

"What's a trank dart?"

"Tranquilizer dart, used for sedating the animals when we need to give them first aid and the like," Jorge answered for her.

"You said you 'laid him back down?" Had he gotten up?"

"No, I had put my arm behind his shoulder while I knelt beside him. Once he knew I was there he strained as if to sit up just before he passed out, so his head was off the floor a few inches."

Lt. Wilson checked his note pad. "What is a Lar Gibbon?"

"The smallest of the ape family. They have long arms, no tail, live in trees. Actually, they're ..."

"Fine. Thanks. Please go on."

"Not much to tell really. I knew I had to go to the gatehouse to call, well, Joseph, the guard, he actually called. Then I went back to the infirmary to be with Stan. Nothing seemed changed. I tried to calm myself and called to the gibbon who was still very upset. I remembered that the gibbon was due to be shipped out in the next day or so. I thought about calling his keeper, Manny. I started to wonder how this'd happened. I looked around for a tranq, uh, tranquilizer gun, but I didn't see one. I told 911 it was an accident, but if the gun wasn't there, maybe someone shot Stan. Is that what happened Detective?"

She'd been wondering about that since last night but didn't want to believe that violence had invaded her beloved Zoo.

"That's what we're trying to find out. Now, did you see anyone else, either when you entered the room or while waiting for the ambulance?"

"Oh, yes, I discovered the koala. The gibbon was making so much noise I didn't notice the koala was there at all, at first."

Jorge interrupted, "What koala, Mari? We don't have a koala."

"I didn't think so. But I saw him Jorge. Did they put him up somewhere after all the commotion last night?"

"It's the first I've heard of a koala, Mari. We'll check into it."

Koala Killer Second Installment

With her arms crossed at the wrist over her head, she woke up from a disturbing dream into a lively trumpet symphony. It was her radio alarm. Squinting through the window, she could see a sunny day . Staying late at the zoo last night, because of the shooting, had taken its toll on her eyes. Not ready for the light, she turned off the music and reached for her eye mask, but Owen was standing on his hind legs panting in her ear. He's waiting for the command to come up and lie next to her for a few minutes before they start their day.

"All right, Up."

Owen is a cocker mix, emphasis on 'mix'. He's getting thick in the middle but his temperament is as golden as his wavy blond coat. With an animal's love of routine, he waits for events to unfold in their familiar pattern.

The pull of nature's urges finally draws her into the bathroom. Owen follows her. He sits waiting, with an occasional lick to her knee. Bravely, she looks up into the mirror. Her mop of hair, similar in color to Owen's, stands out at odd angles. Her eyes, still squinting, makes furrows in her nose ridge. In fear of getting permanent lines there, she stops furrowing.

She looks out the little window over the tub and sees the white oleander blazing in the morning sun.

"It's going to be warm again today, Owen." His ears perk up. "A typical desert Spring day." His ears un-perk as he realizes none of the feeding words are being used: breakfast, eat, hungry.

Her body focuses on its desire for coffee. She had given up cigarettes two years ago. She willingly separates her carbohydrates from her proteins and takes herbal supplements, but she felt life wouldn't be worth living without morning coffee.

At his insistence, she mixed Owen's dry and canned food and put it down for him. Before she takes a sip of her coffee, he's gobbled his whole breakfast down.

"Now, outside with you, guy. Do your duty. Gotta rush to work."

Owen understood the word 'work' and hangs his head as he goes out. He probably thinks it's too early, she wishes she could explain the circumstances.

Munching an apple for breakfast, she called the hospital. They confirmed Stan's admittance, found the floor and room number he'd been assigned, then insisted on putting the in-charge nurse on the phone to give information about his condition. When they couldn't find the nurse, she let them off the hook and said she'd call back later.


The employee gate at the zoo is a beehive of activity. She parks her pickup by the back fence. A uniformed officer is standing guard. This combined with the chain link fence topped with barbed wire (intended more to keep the adventurous out, than the wild beasts in) has turned her familiar entrance into the look of a prison. Police and plain clothes detectives are rushing in and out. She hates rushing. She purposely slows her pace.
She clips her zoo i.d. onto her shirt so the officer can see it. As she walks past, she notices the small animal infirmary where she'd found Stan last night is sealed off with crime tape. She wonders if they'd moved the Gibbon, the screamer from last night.
"And the Koala? What was a Koala doing there anyway? Maybe a new acquisition," she thought. She heads straight for the Director's office in the Executive Building.