Page 39 of So Twisted

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The inside of James’s house was sparse. His money clearly went to maintaining his animals. He led them through the nearly bare interior to a backyard where several chest freezers sat, their cables snaking underground.

There was a slab near one of the chests where several thick cuts of beef sat. "This is for the tigers and bears," he explained.

Michael put a hand on his shoulder. “I think this is where we stop,” he told the suspect. “I’m not looking for a fight with a five-hundred-pound cat.”

"I don't enter the enclosures with food," James replied. "There are pullout drawers in each enclosure. I put the food in there and push it through for the animals." When Michael was still wary, James said, "You can do it yourself if you don't believe me."

Turk barked, and James frowned and looked at Faith. "Is he going to attack me?"

“If you behave yourself, then he’ll behave himself,” Faith said. “Although I’ll be honest, I do find it interesting that he’s reacting this way around you. He typically only does that when he recognizes a smell he’s picked up at a crime scene before.”

“Well, I’m working with a lot of animals,” James replied. “Considering the careers your victims chose, I imagine your dog is smelling something similar on me.”

Faith frowned. That was actually a logical explanation. It still didn’t absolve James of suspicion.

The animal trainer was pushing a pallet jack underneath a pallet piled high with sides of beef. He lifted the pallet and pushed the meat toward the enclosures. Faith heard growlingas the animals rushed to their feeding troughs anticipating the meal.

“Can you explain to us your association with the victims?” Faith asked as they walked.

“Sure,” James said, pointedly ignoring the still-growling Turk. “I reported Dr. Vasquez and Marcus Reeves for animal abuse. I don’t know who Alison Chen is.”

“She worked at the Reptile House in Henry Doorly when you reported Dr. Vasquez.”

“I see. Well, I deal with large carnivores and occasionally large herbivores, not reptiles.”

“So you didn’t report her for stealing exotic animals from the zoo?”

“I didn’t. Did someone say I did?”

“No,” Faith admitted.

“Then why are you asking me about it?”

“Because she was murdered two days ago. Someone jabbed a two-pronged roasting needle into her neck but dipped it in snake venom first. A couple nights before that, someone tore Marcus Reeves’ throat out. And last night, someone gouged pieces of Dr. Vasquez’s flesh from her body until she bled to death.”

James grimaced. "Sounds brutal." He pulled to a stop in front of an enclosure housing two beautiful Bengal tigers and unloaded some of the meat into a large metal trough that extended outward from the enclosure. The tigers growled and clawed at the cage, waiting for their meal.

“All right, all right, calm down,” James said. “You know you’re going to get the meat in a second.”

He pushed the trough closed, and the tigers fell on the meat savagely. Faith was grateful to be separated from the animals by thick steel bars.

James pushed the forklift ahead and said, “Okay, so I’m clearly a suspect. Am I correct in assuming that?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask why?”

“I think you know,” Michael replied.

James chuckled and pulled to a stop in front of an enclosure housing two enormous brown bears. The bears were more well-behaved than the tigers, but the heavy, open-mouthed breathing of the carnivores was somehow more disconcerting to Faith than the growling of the cats. James unloaded most of the rest of the meat onto the pullout trough and pushed it through. The bears remained calmer than the tigers, but there was something frightening about how easily they tore the beef apart. One of the animals fixed its gaze on Turk and gave the dog an expression that looked a little like amused contempt. Faith was glad when they moved on.

“Last stop is the wolves,” James informed them. “Make sure your dog doesn’t freak out. Dogs have problems with wolves sometimes. To answer your question… Prince, right?”

“That’s right.”

“To answer your question, Special Agent Prince, if you think I decided to murder three people years later for actions other people took, then I would respectfully suggest that the two of you need to reconsider your approach to this case.”

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