Free On the Fifth Day by A. J. Hartley

determined vigor. In seconds she was backing away.
    The moment she did, Thomas turned his back on her, reached as high as he could up the molded concrete sides, and launched himself up, fingers scrabbling for handholds in the stone. The cement was pinkish and shaped to look like eroded rock strata. There was just enough purchase for him and not quite enough for the cat. Sparing his left leg as best he could, he dragged his weight up a couple of feet at a time until he could reach the fence.
    He knew that he shouldn't have taken his eyes off the lion, but he was too elated. When he did glance back, it was just in time to see her change her mind. She rushed the moat wall and threw herself up at him, snarling and slashing with one im
    mense paw. Thomas snatched his leg out of her reach, fought not to lose his grip, and grabbed at the rail above him as the lion fell back to earth. Before she could lunge again, he was clambering over the rail, chuckling again to himself, relief making him slightly hysterical.
    He was barely out when he caught sight of a large black woman in uniform moving swiftly in his direction from over by the carousel.
    "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she roared. 55
    O n t h e F i f t h D a y
    She was closing fast, her eyes wide and furious, giving off almost as much raw menace as the lioness.
    Thomas considered quickly, raised an apologetic hand, and started limping away toward the seal pool and the exit as quickly as he could manage. He looked down into the moat as he beat his retreat, and the lioness stared back, watching im
    periously as he stumbled off, his eyes scanning Stockton Drive for a cab.
    "Dead?" asked the Seal-breaker.
    "No," said the voice on the phone. War's voice. "Shaken up, bruised. He may have to see a doctor, but he'll live."
    "Probably as well," said the Seal-breaker. "But scared, yes?"
    "Count on it."
    "Scared enough?"
    War's voice stalled, and the Seal-breaker pounced on the hesitation.
    "That's what I thought," he said.
    "He'll drop it," said War. "He's a high school teacher. He didn't even like his brother. He'll drop it."
    "Perhaps," said the Seal-breaker. "But in case he doesn't, I want you close, particularly if he starts sniffing around."
    "There's nothing for him to find here."
    "I don't mean here," said the Seal-breaker, irritation flick
    ering suddenly and then dying away again like dry lightning.
    "I'm sending Pestilence back to Naples. Just in case."
    "There's no way Knight will go to Italy," said War. "Why would he?"
    "I said 'just in case,' " said the Seal-breaker carefully. "For now, watch and wait. Dealing with him here--if it comes to that--is likely to be messy anyway. Who knows," he said with a smile as momentary as his anger had been, "maybe a Euro
    pean trip is just what Mr. Knight needs. The world is, after all, a very dangerous place."
    CHAPTER 13
    It was almost dark by the time Thomas got back to the rectory, and the rain had turned to sleet. Finding no lights on in the house and no sign of life, he inched his way up the stairs to Ed's room and sat on the bed. He was pretty sure he had sprained both knee and ankle in his fall, but he didn't think he had broken anything. He'd be black and blue in the morning but, on the whole, he had been lucky.
    Not often you end the day relieved not to have been eaten, is it?
    He grinned to himself.
    "Leave it alone," his attacker had said.
    His grin faded. There had been no attempt at robbery, no gleeful laughing at a lethal but well-executed prank. Leave it alone. Someone was trying to scare him away from poking into Ed's death.
    Well, they'd succeeded in scaring him. Just not enough to stop him.
    Mule, said Kumi's voice in his head. Ox. The room was still untidy from the rifling of Parks, the thief who had taken what the beat cop had called the Jesus fish. Could the same man have subsequently tossed him to the lions? He had no way of knowing for sure, but he didn't think so. The thief had seemed impetuous, reckless