Free Guarded by Mary Behre Page B

wide-brimmed hat, it was difficult to read his expression until he glanced up. He flipped open the notebook, glanced at Eddy, Reyna, then finally Shelley and said in his nasally voice, “I believe it was reported that your exact words to Mr. Jameson on October the twenty-eighth were ‘No other animal had better die or mysteriously disappear or I’ll make sure you pay for it.’”
    “I think we’ve heard enough, Payne . . . um, Deputy Munro.” Reyna turned to Dr. Kessler, who’d finally caught up to the group. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Dr. Kessler. While we respect you and your work, I think this time we really must ban Dr. Shelley Morgan from these grounds. Permanently.”
    “Now wait just a minute—” Shelley started at the same time the deputy gave both women a wary glance, then sighed in obvious frustration. Dev could relate. He was none too happy with the day’s events either.
    “Shells,” he whispered into her ear. “Why don’t—” His words were cut off by the deputy.
    “I’ve told you before, Reyna, it’s your father’s place. He decides who stays or goes.”
    “Ask him then.” Reyna crossed her arms beneath her ample chest and glared. “Daddy, are you finally going to stop her now?”
    “Stop me from what? Do you even know what’s going on here?” Shelley demanded as another person stepped out from the line of trees.
    This individual, like Eddy Jameson, wore a blue zoo uniform but looked distinctly different from everyone else. Perhaps it was the shovel he carried over both shoulders, or it might have been the quick flashes of surprise and fear on his face before he regained his composure. He glanced over at the small cage where Shelley had locked the tiger while they’d checked on the cubs, then sighed as if in relief.
    No one else noticed his behavior, because the deputy, Shelley, her boss, and now a growing crowd of zoo visitors were avidly watching Reyna plead with her father to have a no-trespassing order filed against Shelley.
    “Just look what a scene she’s made this afternoon.” Reyna gestured to the half dozen onlookers, who weren’t even pretending to ignore the drama unfolding a few feet from the tiger display. “We can’t have her coming back here.”
    “I didn’t do anything wrong. I just walked up to the cage when you started freaking out,” Shelley lied. The red on her cheeks could have been because she was in high temper, but Dev knew better. Shelley blushed like that back in college whenever she told a lie. Which wasn’t often. Why was she lying now?
    Reyna spun and leveled a glare at the newest staff member to join their party. “Is that true, Tomás? Don’t lie for her.”
    There was something threatening in her tone. Dev glanced at the young man in the dirty blue jumpsuit as he shot a nervous glance at Shelley.
    Reyna didn’t give him an opportunity to answer. “You didn’t just walk up to the cage, Dr. Morgan. I saw you several minutes earlier from the window of the visitor center. She didn’t just stand outside the cage the whole time, did she, Tomás? She went inside the tiger’s house, didn’t she?”
    Tomás pressed his already thin lips together and exhaled through his nose before he answered in a thick Spanish accent, “
Sí,
I saw you lock Miah in the cell, then go into the tiger house.”
    “And she’s done it before, hasn’t she, Tomás?” Reyna asked, not missing a beat. “Didn’t you tell me that last week she went in without Dr. Kessler present? That she had insisted on evaluating the cubs,
alone
?”
    “Tomás?” Shelley said, her eyes wide, the color draining from her face.
    There was so much disappointment in that one word, it made Dev’s chest ache for Shelley. He wasn’t surprised when Tomás winced before nodding.
    The sudden burst of questions from the group wasn’t a surprise. Clearly, only Tomás and Shelley knew about her visits. Dr. Kessler kept patting his pockets, searching for something he couldn’t