Page 19 of Talk Birdie to Me

Upon further inspection, Cody concluded this carrier didn’t even belong to the zoo. All of their carriers were a beige shade of plastic with the initials of the zoo scrawled in permanent marker on the top.

This carrier was light blue with no writing on it.

His head snapped up as his brain locked on to what had just happened. Then, his eyes took aim at the center of it all.

“Shit stain!”

“You got that right, buddy,” Cody said.

Whoever had been in there had been planning to leave with this bird.

But why?

His first thought went to the owner. Surrender’s remorse? It happened. People surrendered custody of their animals to zoos and shelters for various reasons, then wanted them back.

But this guy’s owner was still in jail. As far as Cody knew, at least. If the person had gotten out of jail, they would have contacted the zoo. In that case, surely someone would have told Cody.

“The police are on their way.” Kayleigh’s voice was steady now. Her confidence had returned.

If only his had.

Cody had even more questions than before. All he knew was he would be here a while, filing a police report and informing his boss of what happened. Plus, he needed to make sure Kayleigh got home safe.

And then?

“We’re all fucked!”

Exactly.

What the hell was he going to do with this bird? He couldn’t very well leave him here. Not knowing that someone had tried to birdnap Gary. Especially since that someone was still loose.

Cody had let them run loose.

Not that he’d had much of a choice.

Still, it was his fault. And it was his mess to clean up. His job to keep Gary safe.

He could think of only one way to do that.

“Don’t be mad.”

Geena pulled the phone away from her ear, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed. After a backwards count from five, her standard pause to cool any stressful response, she pressed the phone to her ear again. “What did you do?”

“I’m outside. Come let me in.”

“Taylor, it’s midnight.”

“I know, which is why I’d really rather not stand out here all night waiting for you to unlock the door.”

She considered leaving her sister outside, but only for a second. They both knew she’d let her in eventually, so no point wasting both of their nights in a pointless game of chicken.

With the phone still at her ear, Geena slipped on her gray terry robe and walked to the front door of her townhouse. Normally she would have been asleep already, but she’d gotten sucked into a documentary involving a moldy leggings empire.

She opened the door and found her sister matching her stance with her own phone against her ear. Taylor looked her up and down and grimaced at Geena’s Christmas llama pajama pants.

Taylor lowered her phone as her grimace transformed into a giggle. “Sorry. Didn’t realize you’d answer the door in that.”

“Again, it’s midnight, Taylor.” Geena frowned at her sister. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me in pajamas before now.”

---