“So where do I start?” I asked Robyn. It was my first day as a zoo volunteer. After the news stories about the bear poaching, Robyn convinced Nick and me to help at the zoo.
She said it was one of the best places for us to figure out how to help catch the poachers.
Nick had been assigned to the African exhibit, but with Neil’s assistant gone, there was enough to keep Robyn and me busy in Neil’s office. Three more bears had been killed—two grizzlies and one black bear. No one had any leads about the poachers’ identities. Robyn was still determined to stop them.
“Uh, just a sec.” Robyn picked up the telephone on Neil’s desk. “Good morning, Neil Warner’s office,” she said. There was a pause. “Hi, Neil. Oh, sure. Just a minute.” Robyn jiggled the mouse, but the computer screen remained dark. “It’s going to take a few minutes. Looks like I have to start up the computer.” She listened, then scribbled down a few words on a notepad. “All right. I’ll phone back as soon as I find it.” She hung up and turned to me.
“He asked me to pull a phone number off an email, but his cell phone is dying so he didn’t want to wait,” Robyn said. She logged on to the computer.
“Did he give you the passwords?” I asked.
“Yeah. I have them right here.” Robyn typed in several as the security logins came up. “Okay. Now how do I pull up the email?”
I looked over her shoulder. “I think that’s it.” I pointed to an icon. Robyn double-clicked and typed in Neil’s user name and password.
“There,” she said. “Now, I need to find an email sent to Neil from the Fish and Wildlife department a few days ago.”
“That might be the one,” I said, pointing to one. Robyn scrolled down and clicked.
“No, not that one,” I said. “The one below it.”
It was too late. The wrong email popped open. A large band of text shouted HEY NEIL, PAY ATTENTION in capital letters, all in red.
“Close it. We’re not supposed to be reading this,” I said, but both of us were caught by the brief message on the screen.
Still looking for info on current bear migratory patterns. If you don’t come through, those closest to your heart will suffer. Need the data within two weeks.Stop ignoring my emails.
Your old pal,
Scat
“What do you think that means?” I wondered out loud. “Closest to your heart?”
“It sounds like someone is threatening Neil’s family,” said Robyn, a worried frown creasing her forehead. “His kids, maybe?”
“Does he have kids?” I asked. The email made me uneasy.
“I don’t know.” Robyn clicked on the next email and found the phone number Neil needed. “He’s never mentioned kids, but we usually talk about the bears and the zoo.” She called Neil and gave him the number, then listened for a moment.
“Um, no. We aren’t too busy,” Robyn said into the phone. “Sure! We can be ready. Can Nick come too?” She paused. “All right. We’ll meet you at the back entrance in ten minutes.” She hung up and turned to me. “Neil is going out to Canmore. He has to give some kind of statement for a police investigation. He asked if we wanted to come. We have to find Nick.”
Robyn hustled me outside. We sped through the park to the African exhibit. Nick was just coming out, his shirt liberally smeared with muck.
Robyn wrinkled her nose at the smell. “What happened to you?”
“I helped clean the elephant enclosure. Do you have any idea how much poop an elephant produces?” Nick wiped the sweat off his forehead with one arm.
“A lot?” I guessed.
“More,” Nick answered.
“Never mind,” Robyn said. “Neil said we could go to Canmore with him, where they found the bear carcasses.”
“Okay. Anything’s better than this!” said Nick with relief. He followed us to the rear entrance of the zoo. Neil’s truck was parked nearby.
“Hey, kids, climb in,” Neil said. Robyn and I scrambled into the front, leaving the small bench seat behind us for Nick.
“Thanks, guys,” he muttered as he squeezed into the back and buckled his seat belt. “It’s a little tight back here.”
“You said anything’s better than elephant poop,” Robyn reminded him. But it didn’t take long before the smell of manure filled the cab. We rolled down the windows, but it didn’t help much. It was a relief to get out of the truck when we pulled over for gas. I took a deep breath of fresh mountain air. Nick climbed out of the truck and joined me.
I took a step away. “No offence, man,” I said, “but you stink.”
Nick held his stained T-shirt away from his body. “I know,” he said. “Sorry.”
There didn’t seem to be anything more to say. I watched idly as other vehicles pulled in to gas up. Two SUVs with Virginia license plates drove in.
“They’re a long way from home,” I commented.
“Yeah.” Nick didn’t pay much attention. He was busy scraping manure off his jeans. Neil finished paying for the gas when a man’s voice called from across the parking lot.
“Hey, Neil!”
“Phil, you old dog. What are you doing here?” Neil grinned at an older fellow who strode toward the rusty pickup next to us. I gave a jolt of surprise. It was the guy who’d been with the animal rights activists at the concert. Neil turned to us. “Phil’s been a friend of mine for years. Canmore isn’t such a small town anymore, but I always seem to run into somebody I know here.”
Phil took a sip from a steaming cup. “Hunting season starts in a few weeks,” he said. “Thought I’d head out and check where the game is this year.” I watched Phil, remembering how Willow’s grandmother had argued with him about hunting. Gran hadn’t seemed to care for his opinions.
Neil nodded. “Well, good luck.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got to get to a meeting, but give me a call sometime. We’ll go for coffee.”
As we got back into the truck I glanced curiously at Neil. He understood what was on my mind. “I’ve known Phil for a long time,” he explained. “He’s a good friend. That might seem a bit weird since he’s a hunter and I’m a zoologist, but he’s a staunch conservationist. He believes in using the land and animals in a respectful way. I can’t argue with that. People have been living off the land since the beginning of the human race.”
“But it’s not necessary now,” Robyn said.
“Don’t fool yourself. Meat is meat, whether the animal was shot by a hunter or raised for grocery stores,” Neil said. “We still live off the land, just in different ways.”
“I can’t believe you support hunting wild animals,” exclaimed Robyn.
“I don’t. I’m saying there are different perspectives, that’s all.” Neil parked the truck and we got out. He opened the door to the police station, where several people were waiting.
“Hi, Neil,” said one of the wildlife officers. “I see you have some helpers today.”
“They’re my summer volunteers,” Neil answered.
“I understand you’ve been working with the wildlife officials on an experimental bear-tracking system,” one of the police officers said.
“Yes,” Neil answered. “This system takes tracking to a whole new level. It gives us a digital record of a bear’s movements over time and pinpoints its location within a few minutes.”
“If you could confirm the locations this bear traveled to in the last ten days, that could really benefit our investigation,” said the police officer.
“Sure. I don’t think that should be a problem,” Neil said. “We just need to check the bear’s tag.” He turned to the wildlife officer. “Are you sure this is one of our bears?”
He nodded. “I removed the tag. We just need to cross-reference our information. Make sure we’re absolutely accurate.”
“Okay. Let’s do it,” Neil said.
Nick, Robyn and I had been quietly listening, but Robyn’s expression grew suddenly worried.
“What’s the matter?” I whispered.
“I was just thinking about that email,” Robyn answered, her voice low. “A lot of people want that tracking information. It could be used to catch the poachers, but it could also be used to help them. We have no idea how much money is involved with bear poaching, but if it’s a lot…” She paused and took a deep breath. “Trevor, they might really mean it. If someone wanted the information badly enough, Neil’s family could be in danger. For real.”