Page 83 of Talk Birdie to Me

But that kiss.

That kiss had been the one good thing about last night. He couldn’t wait to cash in that rain check for more.

Lauren narrowed her eyes. “I’m too angry with you to address your romantic situation right now.”

“I get it.” He raised his hands in defense. “It was a shit thing to assume. I’m sorry.”

“I know you just want to find Gary.” She took a deep breath, and her next few words came out ragged. “I just thought we were closer than this.”

“We are,” he insisted. “If I didn’t consider you a friend, I wouldn’t have asked you outright. I would have thrown your name to the cops or gotten more evidence behind your back. I respect you enough to come to you directly.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Her tone was back to normal, and her words seemed lighter. “I’m still mad, though.”

“Fair enough.”

“So, who else could have taken him? And why?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “A payday, maybe?”

“That’s a lot of work to sell a bird. And a loud one at that.”

Cody agreed. It didn’t make sense. Sure, Gary was worth something, but enough to go through all of that trouble?

“His previous owner?”

Lauren shrugged. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Even if it doesn’t completely make sense.”

Anthony Montesano was the name Cody kept coming back to. But once again, he was left with the question of why.

“Sentimental reasons?” Cody stared at the empty cage that had once held Gary in this very room. “But as far as I know, he never even contacted the zoo to get Gary released to a relative or business partner or anyone.”

There was a chance he had made a call to the zoo’s curator that Cody never heard about. But the police interviewed him after the zoo break-in, and if there had been a call, the curator would have mentioned it then.

Lauren cringed slightly. “Maybe no one he knew wanted to take care of Gary?”

“That’s why Gary came here in the first place,” Cody said. “But maybe that changed? Maybe he found someone to take care of the bird after all?”

Lauren nodded, then scrunched her face. “But then he would have at least tried to get Gary back through normal channels. You’re right. He would have at least called and tried to get him back easily before staging two bird heists.”

Bird heists. Cody couldn’t believe “bird heist” was a normal part of their conversational vocabulary now.

“There’s only one way to really find out,” he said.

Lauren eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’m still mad at you, but that doesn’t mean I want you running off to get yourself killed.”

“No one’s getting killed.”

The more he thought about this impromptu plan, however, the more he questioned the truth of that statement.

21

It took two days for Cody to become verified and receive confirmation of his request. A quicker process than he’d expected, and still longer than he’d hoped for.

At the scheduled time Wednesday afternoon, he logged in to the special app he’d had to download to request a visit. He waited not-so-patiently for the connection to go through. A few moments later, an unfamiliar face appeared on the screen.

The man was lanky, with neatly cropped reddish-blond hair and small rectangular glasses that appeared large on the man’s narrow face. He wasn’t at all like what Cody had expected to see from a convict. Especially not one with the kind of vocabulary Gary had picked up from him.

Cody actually wasn’t sure what he’d expected from Anthony Montesano. Certainly someone more menacing. This man looked more likely to help Cody with his taxes than steal a parrot.

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