Page 26 of So Twisted

“Only to avoid jail for two life terms.”

“You’re nitpicking, Faith.”

“The Devil is in the details, Michael. Look, I don’t have conclusive evidence that he’s not our killer. That’s why we’re looking deeper. If it turns out the Knights or Alex himself do have a history of violence, then he’s back to being suspect number one for me. If not, then I’m thinking this is a case of a kid whose bark is far worse than his bite.”

Michael sighed. “Are we sure that everyone in the group is the same?”

“No. And if we clear Alex, the next step for the police will be to look into every other member and associate of the Knights of Nature. But like you said, we’re going to follow this lead to the end.” She shook her head. “I just don’t think he’s our guy.”

Michael nodded. “Well, that’s a valid opinion. We’ll wait and see. Coffee?”

“Sure. Thank you.”

Michael headed to the breakroom for coffee. Faith leaned in her chair and steepled her fingers in front of her. She looked at Alex but saw the victims, murdered for past crimes by someone far more serious about protecting animals than Alex was. Alex might be passionate about the philosophy, but he cared far more about his own skin than animal skins.

Still, a part of her hoped she was wrong. If the nervous college kid she was staring at wasn’t their killer, then their killer was still out there somewhere planning his next kill. And catching him would be far more difficult with no lead to guide them.

And who knew what fate he had in store for his next victim?

CHAPTER TEN

Doctor Elena Vasquez drained the last of her glass and sighed in satisfaction. Her lawyer had advised against drinking any further on the job but let him work sixty-hour weeks trying to figure out why Bison weren't crapping enough.

She had made the horrible mistake of taking a job at the Henry Doorly Zoo’s wildlife rehabilitation center fifteen years ago. It offered incredible benefits and a salary far greater than anything she thought she would be able to make working an ordinary practice.

She was right about that. Unfortunately, it meant her time was not her own. Like ever. Rather than staff their hospital properly, they hired a few doctors and worked them to the very edge of what the rulebook allowed, then kept them on call so they could work them past that edge without getting in trouble.

That’s the way she saw it, at least. No wonder she had to take a nip or two to get through the day sometimes. How the hell else was she going to survive this?

Well, that caught up to her when she got caught by a stupid janitor who decided his minimum-wage job obligated him to have a conscience. Gone was the Henry Doorly job, and then came nine years of working her ass off to try to make it work as a private vet, a vet for pets.

And holy hell, that was so much worse. Every single pet owner on Earth was a Karen. Literally every single one. Of course, it was a tragedy that Frou Frou had the common cold. How dare she act like it wasn't a big deal? How dare she send them home and tell them to feed her broth.Broth!Didn’t they know Frou Frou was ashowDachshund?

So here she was again, this time at the Big Wilderness Zoo in Council Bluffs. Why were there so many damned zoos here anyway?

This job paid a little better than private practice but not as much as Henry Doorly. However, nine weeks out of ten, she could work forty hours and have a normal life. This was the one week out of ten. Because it really did matter that the bison’s stool was ten percent looser than normal.

She sighed and filled her glass again. At least Big Wilderness didn’t have working security cameras. If they everdidcatch her drinking on the job, she could hold that over their heads.

An alarm went off, jarring her from her thoughts. She stared at the computer monitor, shocked sober. The alarms never went off. That wasn't a thing that happened.

The alarms were motion sensors. There were no security cameras, but the zoo did have motion sensors on each enclosure gate that would alert zoo staff if a gate was opened after hours.

She wasn’t sure if she wished they had working cameras or that they didn’t have motion sensors.

The alarm came from the wolverine enclosure. The zoo had a big male wolverine named Gus who was known for being possibly the only wolverine on Earth who didn’t try to eat your face each time you approached him.

But what was out there? Why did the gate open?

“It’s not my problem,” she whispered. “It’s not my—”

The door to her office opened. She shrieked and leaped to her feet as Gus trundled in. He growled at her. He always growled, so it was hard to tell if he was angry or just saying hi.

She got to her feet and backed away anyway. Gus was a big wolverine, forty pounds or so. She knew that a wolverine that size could kill her.

“Did you let yourself out?” she asked, her voice thready. “How did you open that lock?”

Wolverines were fairly dexterous, so the lock was a combination that required holding two different pins together and twisting counterclockwise. It was meant to be too difficult for them to figure out, but it wasn’t impossible for them to perform the movement.

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