Page 33 of So Twisted

His brow furrowed. “The list. Of zoo staff?”

Heat climbed her cheeks. “Right. Of course. Thank you, Trevor. The police might have a few more questions for you. Go ahead and return to the office.”

She brushed past him and headed for the door. Turk stared up at her with concern, but she couldn’t look at him right now.

“Is everything okay?” Michael asked.

“Fine,” she snapped. She took a breath and added in a softer voice. “I just need some rest, I think. We’ll start on this list bright and early.”

Michael nodded, but his face told Faith that he wasn’t happy with her deflection. He didn’t challenge her on it, though. “Right. Sounds good.”

They headed back to the hotel. Faith tried to pull her mind away from Turk’s smell issue, but she kept coming back to the trash can. There was nothing there at all. And where something might be, he’d smelled nothing.

She hated to admit it, but it was beginning to look like David was right. Maybe Turk’s age was finally beginning to catch up to him.

Turk nudged her, and she looked down into his wide, affectionate brown eyes. The gray on his muzzle stood out sharply next to that brown. She forced a smile and scratched him under his chin. “It’s okay, boy. Mommy’s just tired.” She looked back out of the windshield, and her smile faded. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Faith didn’t think she would actually be able to sleep that night, but the next thing she remembered was Michael shaking her awake. She blinked and groaned, “What time is it?”

“Nine.”

That brought her right to alertness. “Nine? Why did you wake me up so late?”

“Because you needed sleep. You kind of melted down a little last night. Turk’s clearly got something going on with his nose, and it threw you off.”

She flinched. “What do you mean, he has something going on with his nose.”

Michael sighed. “David kicked me out of the hospital to tell you something in private. Since then, you’ve been worried. Turk’s clearly not on his A-game, and last night, he excitedly pointed out an empty trash can.”

“There could have been something in that trash can.”

“But there wasn’t, which is why you didn’t tell Cuthbert to have CSI look at it.”

Faith frowned and looked away.

“I’m not going to argue with you about Turk,” Michael said. “I know it’s tough to deal with him getting older, and I know you’ll get through it.”

Faith pressed her lips together and nodded. “We don’t know if it’s anything to be concerned about yet. He’s going to retest in a couple of weeks, and then we’ll know.”

“Okay. That’s fine with me. I trust you. In the meantime, you needed rest, yes?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

Michael grinned. “Poor Faith. I’m so sorry you have to accept that you’re human.”

She threw her pillow at him, and he laughed and ducked out of the way. “There’s coffee and breakfast on the table. It’s to go because while you got your beauty rest, I started calling people on the list. Made it to name nine and learned something pretty damned interesting.”

Faith’s irritation vanished. “Yeah?”

“Yep. Get changed. We’re going to the corporate offices of Global Wildlife Experiences.”

***

In the car, Michael explained what he’d learned. “So I talked to Dr. William Orville. He’s the avian expert at Big Wilderness. Turns out he knows—knew—Dr. Vasquez. They worked together at the Henry Doorly Zoo ten years ago. Evidently, Dr. Vasquez was fired when she botched several operations in a row. The internal investigation revealed that Dr. Vasquez had a habit of drinking on the job.”

“So her negligence led to animals being hurt.”

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