Predator

CHAPTER NINE

The Global Earth Sanctuary sat on acreage that was dissected by multiple sinuous trails hugging numerous enclosures of chain-link and barbed wire fencing. The air was filled with animal sounds: roars, growls, grunts, hoots, hollers, huffs, yips and yaps, and other things that go bump in the night. It smelled ripe, and the odor would have been stronger had it been warmer. Vignette was walking at a good clip, so Decker didn’t have a lot of time to look around. But on the occasions when he did turn his head, his eyes took in blurry and shadowed shapes walking on all fours. His own feet were feeling the chill even through his socks as he hiked up the narrow pathways of mud and pebbles. Eventually a man of about sixty years came into view. He was dressed in a work shirt, vest, jeans, and boots. He gave them a wave.

“Hi there, Vern. I’m going to check out Cody now.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Might be a good idea.” The three of them kept walking until they neared a cage containing an upright mass of fur that was limping and pacing at the same time. The animal wasn’t just roaring. It was an ear-shattering bellow. It was only machismo that prevented Decker from covering his ears.

Vignette looked around the cage and shook her head. “He didn’t touch his lunch.” She pointed to a pile of fruit, leaves, and other undecipherable blobs. “Cody’s normally a good eater. He’s agitated about something.”

Y’think? Decker said, “How strong are those pens?”

“Cody’s not going anywhere.” She turned to Vern. “Well, I suppose I’d better have a look. Do you have the rifle?”

“It’s down at the trailer.”

“S’right. It’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure about that, Vignette?” Vern was concerned.

“I’ll be fine.” Without hesitation, she approached the beast, stopping at the wire fencing. She held a bag of raw fish and a spear. To the grizzly, she said, “What’s going on, Cody?”

At the sound of her voice, the animal lumbered over to the fence, dropped to all fours, and groaned. She said, “Grizzlies don’t see well, but their smell and hearing are excellent.”

Decker just kept staring, his heart beating faster than usual. He hoped he wasn’t about to witness something gruesome. Penny’s crime scene was still fresh in his brain.

She said, “What’s the matter, little guy?”

Little guy?

She took a whistle from her pocket and blew it once. Cody’s verbal protests had reduced to whimpering. The animal stood upright and pressed his right paw against the fence. The claws were thick and long and very sharp. She examined the paw carefully, and then fed him a hunk of raw fish impaled on the tip of the spear. “He’ll do anything for salmon.”

She blew the whistle again. This time the left paw was offered for examination. Afterward, he was rewarded with more salmon. “No problem so far.” A third blow of the whistle.

The bear sat on his rump and showed Vignette his right foot. “Oh my. That looks nasty, Cody. I’d be pissed, too, if I were you.”

Decker was five feet behind her. “What’s wrong?”

Vignette gave the bear a chunk of pink flesh on the spear. “He cut his foot pad on something sharp. I’m going to have to treat it before it gets infected.” She took out a small chub of salmon and put a capsule in the dead fish’s mouth. “Okay, guy, let’s see what I can do for you.” She fed Cody the laced flesh—using the spear as his eating implement—and then looked at her watch. Five minutes later, the bear rolled over and started to snore. She threw Vern the keys. “You know the rules. Lock me in. Keep an eye on him. And if I get caught, do NOT open the door under any circumstance.”

“You’re going in there?” Decker was aghast.

“I got about fifteen minutes to work.” Vignette winked at him. “Wish me luck.”

Decker was speechless. Vern unlocked the cage door, and Vignette went inside. She worked swiftly and professionally. First she disinfected the cut, washing it out with a squeeze bottle of salt water. Then she followed with a medicinal salve or ointment. Lastly, she sealed the wound as best she could with liquid bandage material.

Decker was constantly checking his watch. With each passing minute, he became more nervous. Vern said, “He’s startin’ to move, Vignette.”

“I’m almost done. I just want to make sure …” Her words trailed off.

It was Decker who now began to pace. “Please get out of there.”

Vingette got up. “I’m fine. Main thing is he’s fine.”

“No, the main thing is that you get out of there alive and whole.”

She smiled and dusted her pants off. Vern opened the gate and closed it quickly, rapping the solid chain around the gate and securing it with a padlock. As soon as the bear was upright, he teetered over to Vignette and moaned. She offered him more fish, and even though the animal was woozy, he took the bait.

“That’s a good boy,” she cooed. “You feel better?”

The bear grumbled then walked away, limping of course, but it was less marked.

The three of them watched in silence as the bear tried to restore his balance. Every few minutes, he hobbled over to Vignette, who fed him salmon in progressively tinier pieces until she told him, no more. Fifteen minutes later, his nose twitched and he trudged over to his lunch. He started with an appetizer of raspberries on the branch.

“Good job,” Vern told Vignette.

“Just glad he’s better.”

“Wow.” Decker was daunted. “I can see why Mr. Penny was a supporter.”

Vignette’s smile was in full wattage. “Now you understand why I care so much. It’s for Cody and Tiki and all the animals here. They can’t talk, so I talk for them.”

“You seem to be a good interpreter,” Decker said.

Vignette smiled. “How about a tour, now that Cody’s been taken care of.”

“Sure.”

She turned to Vern. “Keep an eye on our fellah. If he becomes agitated again, we’ll do it officially and call in the vet.”

“I’ll do just that, Vignette.”

“This way,” she told Decker. They walked a few moments in silence. “So you really don’t know anything more about Mr. Penny’s will?”

“I told you all I know.”

“I know I seem greedy, but running a nonprofit is like the jungle. Only the strong survive. If you’re timid, you either die of starvation or you’re eaten alive.”

As they continued to stroll, Vignette pointed out the different cages and enclosures, giving Decker a personal story of each animal: how it was obtained, how the environment was maximized for survival, how the diets were individualized, and finally the cost of maintaining the animal. “We barely manage on a shoestring budget. We depend on people like Mr. Penny for support.”

“How much support did he supply?”

“A lot of our operating costs came from his generosity.” She stopped in front of a tiger pen. “Tiki’s in the back of the enclosure, protected in her own cage. It’s going to take a while before she’ll be allowed to roam in the enclosure. We have to make sure that Juno and Bigfoot will accept her.”

“You’ve got a male and a female tiger?”

Vignette nodded.

“How is Tiki doing?”

“All I can tell you is that she’s been eating. That’s good.”

“Have you had a chance to examine her?”

“The vet comes this Friday.”

“So you don’t know if she’s hurt or anything?”

“No.” Vignette turned to Decker. “Why would she be hurt?”

“She was left alone in the apartment for a while. There were all sorts of broken glass and sharp objects on the floor.”

“Oh, I see what you’re getting at. So far as I can tell, she’s fine. But I have no idea what she ingested and what she looks like internally.” They stared at the two tigers in the enclosures. “Gorgeous animals.”

“Where did these two come from?”

“A for-profit zoo that went under and another mail-order fiasco. We’re lucky that these two get along.”

“Are you going to breed them?”

“Not a chance. Like I said, we don’t know the genetics, and the last thing we want are unstable and unhealthy lines. All the males have been neutered and the girls have been spayed.”

They moved on. Decker said, “I know from my reading that Global Earth Sanctuary originally started out in the Santa Clarita Valley area. Why’d you move?”

“This place is like twenty times bigger than the old one in Santa Clarita. Fern was quite the visionary. Man, that was crazy when we moved! It took forever to transport all the animals. We had to do it at night for safety reasons.”

“So does Global Earth own the land here?”

“Yep.”

“Outright, or is it mortgaged?”

Vignette stopped walking. “Why?”

“Just trying to get an idea of costs. If it’s just paying to maintain all the animals, that’s bad enough. But if you have a mortgage, wow, that’s really hard.”

“Tell me about it. Seen enough?”

“Whatever you want.”

“I’m a little cold. Let’s go back.” The woman reversed directions, and the two of them started down the trails.

Decker said, “I’m just wondering how Fern got the money to pay for all of this.”

“I don’t know.” Vignette bit her lip. “But I do know you’re asking questions out of more than just plain curiosity.”

“Did Penny help Global Earth buy the land?”

“The first time I ever talked to Penny was when he called up and asked about tiger cubs. If he had contact with the organization before that, I don’t know about it. Like I told you, after Fern died, Allan Gray worked as the acting head of Global Earth.”

“The vet who took off for Alaska to study grizzlies.”

“Yes. He left behind a real mess. Records were incomplete and indecipherable. I could have reached him and asked questions. But it was easier to just start from scratch. I took this job out of love for the animals, not because I was particularly good at leading organizations.”

Decker nodded. “So you don’t have any old records or …”

Again, Vignette stopped. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”

“There’s no good way to tell you this, Vignette.” A pause. “Hobart Penny didn’t die a natural death. He was murdered.”

The eyes widened and the color drained from her cheeks, which had been red because of the cold. “Murdered?”

“Yes. That’s why the police are involved. It’s not just because of an errant tiger.”

“Oh my God!” She brought her gloves to her cheeks in a silent scream. “What happened?”

“Investigation is ongoing. That’s why I’m talking to you. Mr. Penny seemed to have been a recluse the last twenty-five years. You’ve had recent contact with him. Anything you can tell me about him would be very helpful.”

“Oh my God!” She stared at Decker. “And here I am talking about a will. You must be looking at me as a suspect!”

“Right now all I’m just trying to do is get some facts.”

“I had absolutely nothing to do with his murder! I just want you to know that.”

Decker nodded. “Would you mind answering a few more questions?”

“Not at all.”

“You said the last time you saw Penny was three or four days ago, when you gave Tiki her shots?”

“Yeah, that’s—How was he murdered?”

Decker rubbed his hands and ignored the question. “My homicide detectives and I have had a lot of discussion about the crime. One question keeps coming up. How could anyone get past a loose tiger?”

“Tiki wasn’t chained up?”

“Oh … so when you came over to visit, Penny chained her up?” Decker asked.

“At first, she was chained up … for sure.” Vignette thought a moment. “Slowly we started to trust each other until we both felt comfortable being around each other. Tiki’s a very gentle soul. Not much of the wild in her.”

“So she got used to your presence?”

“Yeah, pretty quickly, too. We used to knock her out before I gave her the shots so she wouldn’t realize that someone was hurting her. You always take a chance when you knock a big animal out. Even if they remain healthy, when an animal comes out of anesthesia, it’s always unpredictable.” Again Vignette seemed lost in thought. “Hobart had a collapsible cage in the closet. Maybe Tiki was caged when the murderer came in.”

“We didn’t find a cage in the apartment. She did have about a six-foot-long chain around her neck.”

“The chain makes sense.” A pause. “Maybe Penny got rid of the cage. Initially we used it so I could give Tiki her shots. Then she got wise to us—that the cage meant shots and she wouldn’t go in. That’s when we started to knock her out with drugs.” Vignette sighed. “She never held it against me. She’s just a real nice tiger.”

“But she’s still a tiger.”

“Yes, of course. But even among wild animals, there are different dispositions.” She hesitated. “Was it a robbery? He didn’t keep a lot of stuff in his apartment.”

“From our observations, I would agree with you.”

“Who on earth would want to hurt an old man?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

“Talk about wild animals.” The woman shook her head with woe. “I’ll take my beasts over your beasts any day of the year.”

CHAPTER TEN

The descent seemed faster than the ascent: standard in travel as well as in life. Decker hardly remembered driving down the mountain, each twist of the wheel on autopilot as his brain fired one idea after another, none of which would explain why Global Earth Sanctuary had anything to do with Hobart Penny’s death. As soon as the car hit the bottom of the foothills, his Bluetooth sprang to life.

Marge’s voice. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the last half hour. Where were you?”

“Out of cellular reach,” Decker told her. “What’s up?”

“Hobart had an interesting past, more than the usual sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It seems our guy liked to go to sex clubs all over the country, dressed up like a tiger and screw women from behind.”

Oliver added, “Sometimes it was a lion or a leopard … just for variety’s sake.”

Decker glanced at Gabe. The boy had his head tilted back with his eyes closed. He appeared to be lost in his music. “Who told you this?”

“The ex,” Oliver said.

“And you believe her?”

Marge said, “We found the snapshots in a few leftover boxes in the storage wing of Sabrina Talbot’s house.”

“Storage wing?”

“Yep. Her house is big enough for an entire storage wing. The bigger question is why she kept the pictures. She certainly didn’t need them for blackmail. Sabrina Talbot is filthy rich.”

“Filthy, filthy rich,” Oliver added.

Marge said, “Sabrina told us that in the recesses of Hobart’s mind, he actually thought he was a tiger in a man’s body. Sabrina said it got to the point that when they screwed, he used to claw and bite her on the neck.”

Oliver said, “Then she came across pictures of Hobart fucking young girls, all of them in tiger masks. Even with that, it still took her a year to make the divorce final.”

Decker shot a quick look at Gabe. The teen still had his eyes closed but was doing something to the volume of his iPhone. Decker said, “Turn that thing up.”

“What thing?” Marge asked.

“I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to Gabe.”

Gabe opened his eyes, a slow smile spread on his face. “Excuse me?”

“What’s Gabe doing with you?” Marge asked.

“I’ll explain later.” To the boy, Decker said, “Stop eavesdropping.”

“You’re talking very loud.”

Decker said, “Let me call you back.”

Marge said, “When will you be back at the station house?”

“About an hour.”

“Okay. We’ll see you then.”

Decker was about to sign off. Then he said, “How old were the pictures?”

“Penny looked to be in his fifties. The pictures were Polaroids. ’Memba them?”

“I do. I’ll talk to you later.”

“You never told me what Gabe is doing there with you.”

“Sorry you’re breaking up.” Decker cut the connection.

Gabe took out his earbuds. “What’re Polaroids?”

“Not important.”

“I can look it up on my iPhone.”

Decker said, “Way back in the Pleistocene era, before mankind as we know it went digital, you took pictures with film.”

“I know that.” Gabe was offended.

“Polaroid camera delivery system was a way to instantly print out pictures. It meant you didn’t have to take your rolls of film into the drugstore to have them processed and turned into pictures, which usually took around a week. Later they came up with photo shops that could turn your film around in twenty-four hours. And then those went out when digital went in. But Polaroids were good because of privacy: no one would see your pictures unless you showed them around.”

“Ah. So you could take like porno shots and not be worried about it.”

“Yes, you could and yes, people did.” Decker smiled. “You can always tell what new technology is going to take hold. If it has potential for pornography, it’s a winner.”

Gabe smiled. “I know I shouldn’t have been listening, but if you want to find out about sex clubs, you should talk to Chris.”

“It was over thirty years ago. Chris was around six.”

“So you’re saying that a kinky old man hasn’t been to a sex club in thirty years?”

“He was almost ninety when he was murdered.”

“So? He was rich, and there’s Viagra. You should see some of the relics that my dad caters to.” When Decker didn’t answer, Gabe said, “Besides, my dad owes you.”

“He doesn’t owe me.”

“He dumped me on you and Rina.”

“You got a bullet in your ribs under my watch. I owe him.”

“That’s only because you were doing him a favor in the first place.”

“Maybe at first, I was doing him a favor. Maybe now, he’s doing me the favor.” Decker gave him a gentle whack on the back of his head. “I appreciate your thoughts. They’re good ones.”

“I’m just sayin’ …” The car was quiet. “Do you want to hear what Everett James had to say about Global Earth Sanctuary?”

A quick glance to the boy. “You’re just full of information.”

“With a father like Chris, you learn to listen a lot.”

“You’re just a little ole fly on the wall, aren’t you?” Decker laughed. “What did you and Everett James talk about?”

“He does the accounting for the sanctuary pro bono. Ninety-nine percent of what we talked about was accounting. Basically, he told me how much money it takes to maintain the animals. When he heard about the old guy’s death, Hobart Penny, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Penny is an odd name for a gazillionaire.”

“Irony abounds.”

Gabe smiled again. “Everett did say that it was gonna be hard to keep the place going without Penny’s checks. Even with Penny’s donations, the place would get behind in their payments.”

“Payments to whom?”

“He didn’t specify, but he did say that the sanctuary got some of the food gratis: the meat in particular. You know, hamburger beyond the expiration date but probably still good to use. But even so, tigers and lions had big appetites. Also, many animals had very specific dietary needs. And then there were all the supplements and vet care. He asked me if I wanted to make a donation.”

“That was inappropriate. I hope you didn’t give him anything.”

“I had twenty bucks in my wallet. I gave it to him.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“That’s not the point. I happen to actually work an adult job. But he didn’t know that. He did know I was seventeen. How many kids my age have enough pocket change to give away to charity? Sounds like the place is hard up.”

Consistent with Vignette harping away on a will. “Did Everett mention anything about a mortgage on the property?”

“I don’t remember him talking about that, but I kinda tuned him out when he talked numbers.”

“What do you mean by numbers?”

“I dunno. How much they had to spend on food versus care versus this or that. It felt like one big math word problem. I nodded and smiled a lot.”

“Did you pick up any hint that something funny might be going on, like the place was cooking the books?”

Gabe said, “What do you mean ‘cooking the books’?”

Decker slowed down. “‘Cooking the books’ means impropriety in the accounting practices. Did he mention anything about embezzlement or fraud?”

“Nah, nothing like that.” Gabe’s face was one of concentration. “Everett said Penny’s money was important. He said that Global Earth often had to take out short loans to buy food and medicine for the animals until miracle money came in. A specific type of loan … what did he call it?”

“A bridge loan?”

“Yeah, that’s it. I’m impressed.”

“What kind of miracle money is he talking about?”

“Money from unexpected donors.”

“Did he mention names?”

“Well, Penny, of course. Sometimes it was a foundation or organization. Not PETA. He specifically told me that PETA didn’t like that Global Earth kept the animals in enclosures. Sorry … I don’t remember. Next time I’ll take notes.”

Again, Decker gently whacked him on the back of his head.

“Can I come back to the station house with you?”

“No.”

“I’m bored.”

“Then go back to New York.” When Gabe turned sullen, Decker said, “If I get a phone call from an irate Persian mother, I’m not going to be happy.”

“For Chrissakes, we’re just friends okay? We went through a trauma together. We’ve got a bond that no one else understands. We’re just gonna talk!”

“Do you also have a bridge to sell me?” Gabe crossed his arms across his chest and stared out the window. Decker said, “Guess I’m not so cool after all.”

The boy fiddled with his iPhone and pretended not to hear.

Decker continued speaking. “Gabriel, listen to me. I know it’s hard for you. I know you care for this girl. I don’t doubt your feelings. But Yasmine is a minor, and her parents don’t want you around. You’ve got to respect their wishes until she’s eighteen. That, my boy, is the long and the short of it.”

The kid huffed.

Decker said, “You’ve got to call her up. You can tell her you love her, because you do. But you also need to tell her that it’s not a good idea to get together until she’s older. And then go back to New York and concentrate on your studies and let her concentrate on her studies.”

“We’re just going to talk. What’s the crime in that?”

“Gabe—”

“Fine. Okay. You’re right. I’ll do everything you say, okay. Just let me do it in person.”

“That’s a mistake, son.”

“She asked to see me, Peter. I can’t tell her no. Yasmine was involved in that sadistic mess because of me. And she stood by me when she could have run away from those thugs. She put her own safety at risk. Yes, I love her, but I also prize loyalty and commitment: two things that neither of my parents understands. I know that the trial is over, but that doesn’t mean that all the shit suddenly evaporates.”

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