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“That right there is one hunk of a man,” Nicole Marlin said.
“He looks kind of awkward to me,” Marlin said.
“I don’t see that, but even if it were true, he’s still a total beefcake. The viewers won’t care if he’s a smooth talker or not. They might even turn the volume down.”
It was 6:03 in the evening and they were seated on the couch in their living room, watching the Kitty Katz interview from that morning.
Marlin had spent the rest of the day searching for the man on Darren Meyer’s ranch and trying to interview other landowners in the area. He’d also loaded the carcass of the axis deer into the bed of his truck and taken it to a local butcher, who’d agreed to keep it in his meat locker for the time being.
All in all, he hadn’t been able to make much progress.
He still hadn’t been able to contact Darren Meyer. Throughout the day, he’d left several additional voicemails, but Meyer hadn’t called back. Marlin had spent a few minutes on social media, hoping to contact Meyer through a Facebook or Twitter account, but Meyer had no online presence that Marlin could find.
Now Bobby Garza appeared on the TV screen, having been interviewed later in the afternoon.
“We haven’t been able to identify the deceased person yet, but we do know it is not a zoo employee. We haven’t been able to contact the owner of the zoo, but we’ve spoken with several employees. Unfortunately, we just don’t have many answers yet.”
Marlin was hoping Lem Tucker’s autopsy tomorrow would determine how the man had died—murder or some kind of accident? Marlin had been wondering about the possibility of a gore injury from a horn or antler, but at this point that would be pure speculation.
As for the loose animals, Lauren had put Marlin in touch with a woman named Tracy Lavelle, the assistant zookeeper, who had confirmed that the axis deer shot on Darren Meyer’s land by the unidentified poacher had been from the zoo. Beyond that, four animals were still missing. Not ideal, but Marlin was thrilled to hear the number was that low.
He would head back out this evening to continue contacting landowners in that area, and to make sure no zoo animals were lingering on the highway. He could envision some of the animals returning to the zoo, hungry and tired, only to find a closed gate. Even worse, now that it was dark, drivers would have a tougher time spotting the animals on the highway before impact.
Tracy Lavelle had also agreed to visit the zoo several times throughout the evening and in the coming days, so she could watch for returning animals, and she was asking other zoo employees to help her out, watching in shifts. She’d said there were no plans to reopen the zoo until Albert had been located.
In the interview, Kitty Katz said, “Sheriff, if the animals were released on purpose, can we assume that the body found on the zoo grounds was the victim of some sort of foul play?”
“We’ll go where the evidence leads us,” Garza said, “and I’m afraid we just don’t know the answer to that yet. If anybody has any information to share, as always, we welcome calls to our office.”
“Can you share with us the nature of the victim’s injuries?”
“I’m not prepared to go into that right now,” Garza said.
“But no obvious cause of death?”
“It’s undetermined at this point,” Garza said, and the interview ended after a few more questions.
“He’s better in front of a camera than I am,” Marlin said.
“But not as cute,” Nicole said.
“Not that you’re biased,” Marlin said.
“Of course not,” Nicole said. “Have they searched Albert’s house?”
She knew the routine, having been a deputy for many years. Now she was the county victim services coordinator—a job that suited her perfectly.
“His house, his truck, and his office, all this afternoon,” Marlin said. “Found nothing. Well, one thing. There was a note on his desk that said, ‘Zoos are prissons,’ with ‘prisons’ spelled wrong. That’s all it said. None of the employees knew anything about it. The envelope was postmarked from Dallas.”
“No return address, I assume.”
“Nope.”
“So maybe from some type of animal-rights activist?”
“Maybe so. Or totally unrelated. The assistant manager Tracy said they got a note like that occasionally.”
“Doesn’t seem likely that a person would send a note like that first if they were going to visit the zoo and, say, let all the animals out,” Nicole said. “Why telegraph what you’re about to do?”
“I agree.”
“Maybe Albert will still show up,” Nicole said. “Maybe he’s been out running errands all day, or he had some type of emergency.”
Nicole was just being an optimist, and she knew it wasn’t likely at this point.
“Without his truck or his cell phone?” Marlin said.
“They found his phone?”
“Yep. Not password-protected, but there wasn’t anything good on it. And they found his wallet.”
“That’s not good.”
“Nope. But at least they haven’t found his body.”
Nicole turned the TV off. “You hungry?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” Marlin said.
“Then get in there and whip us up some supper,” she said.
“I’m telling you, something ain’t right,” Red said, his voice low, because the walls were thin in the trailer.
“You’re just distracted, is all,” Mandy said. “It’s usually very reliable.”
They were lying in Red’s bed together.
“I’m not talking about that,” Red said. “We’ll get to that in a minute, and then you’d better hang on to something heavy.”
“Promises, promises,” Mandy said.
“I’m talking about that kid Garrett,” Red said.
“You really think he shoved his own dad off that roof? Why would he tell you about that if he had something to hide? It don’t make sense.”
It was currently 9:14. Mandy had joined Red and Billy Don and Garrett around the fire pit about an hour ago, so she’d had a little time to form her own opinion about the kid, even though he’d become more tight-lipped when she’d shown up. Or maybe he had a hard time talking to pretty women.
“Could be he’s just plain psycho,” Red said. “Some of those crazies get off on playing mind games with people. Maybe he wants us to think he did it. Maybe that’s how he gets his jollies.”
“Let’s focus on getting our jollies,” Mandy said. “How ’bout that?”
“It woulda been the perfect crime, or damn close to it,” Red said. “The only flaw I can see is if his daddy woulda lived to tell what really happened. But he didn’t.”
Mandy snuggled up next to Red and placed a hand on his chest.
“You’re a great detective and all, but forget about all that for a while,” she whispered.
“He had a big-time motive,” Red said.
Mandy began to breathe hot air into his ear. She knew he liked that. A lot.
“He was mad that his daddy had cheated on his momma,” Red said.
“You already told me,” Mandy said.
“Because it’s true. And if it turns out he did kill his daddy, don’t that make you wonder about the dead guy at the zoo?”
“Um-hmm,” Mandy said, and she began to run her tongue around the rim of his ear.
There was something else Red had been thinking about—something he wanted to check—but now he couldn’t remember what it was. His brain was a little foggy for some reason.
He said, “Did you, uh...was...”
“Ssshhh,” Mandy said, and she tugged gently on his earlobe with her teeth.
He could feel her breasts pressing against his upper arm. If there was anything—or two things—that could take his mind off other matters, those hooters could do the trick.
Now she was sliding her hand down to his belly button—and then even further downward.
“See, you just needed to focus,” Mandy said.
Red said something, but it wasn’t actual words.
Mandy swung a leg over him and climbed on top.
“Okay, we’re gonna need to keep this kind of quiet,” she said. “Can you do that?”
Red nodded vigorously.
“You sure?”
Red nodded again.
He was wrong. He was not able to keep it quiet.
As Albert drove, he remembered a particular conversation with Sylvia—the first time he’d suggested they run away together.
“That’s crazy!” she replied. “You’re crazy.”
“Crazy about you.”
“That would never work, so don’t even think about it.”
He wasn’t so sure she was right. This was a long time ago, before technology had evolved so quickly. Back then, you could disappear more easily. Start over. Keep a low profile. Social media wasn’t a thing yet. The internet was still fairly new.
“If it would work, would you do it?” he asked.
“Would I run away with you?”
They were lounging in bed together on a Sunday afternoon.
“Yes. That’s what I’m asking. You can be honest, you know. I can handle it, whatever the answer is.”
She lay quiet for a long moment, and he thought she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, and then he realized she was crying. He took her by the hand.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For bringing it up.”
She squeezed his hand.
“I would do it,” she said. “I want you to know that. I would, if we could, but we can’t.”
How could a simple declaration like that simultaneously crush him and make his heart soar?
“He wouldn’t hurt you if we got caught,” Albert said.
She rolled onto her side to face him. “I know that. He would hurt you. He would never stop until he found you. Never. Twenty years from now he would still be looking.”
“Then he’s the crazy one,” Albert said.
“That’s true,” she said. “Very true.”
Eerie how prescient her prediction had been. It had been nineteen years and three months since that conversation. Nearly twenty years. Her husband had been every bit as vengeful as she’d imagined.
Then again, Albert had done more than try to steal his wife. A lot more.