Free Night Prey by Sharon Dunn

had gone out on one call. Her note on the board said “unable to locate the hawk.” A note with Jenna’s name on it was pinned to the wall beside the board. Jenna pressed open the piece of paper.
    Everything went really smoothly today. Your friend stayed and helped take up the slack so youcould sleep. He even went out on the call with me. Nice guy. Call Peter Hickman about the upcoming fundraiser. Mrs. Ephron said there is a bear carcass on her property that is attracting a lot of scavenger birds. She wants us to come and take the birds away, like that is part of our job description. Why doesn’t she just get rid of the carcass? You might want to go out there and calm her down. You know how she is.
    Cassidy
    Jenna smiled as she folded the note. Last spring, Mrs. Ephron had repeatedly called them because she was convinced that eagles were carrying her kittens away. But the smile faded as Jenna realized that was the second call in a week they had gotten about bear carcasses and nuisance birds. The first one had been on the property right next to Mrs. Ephron. Maybe the bears were getting into some kind of poison that was killing them. The game warden might want to look at the carcass.
    She put the note in her pocket, grateful for Cassidy’s recap of the day. She knew she could trust the other woman’s report. Cassidy was more than a coworker. She was a good friend. After the drama with her father had happened a year ago, Cassidy was the one that picked up on her distraction despite her efforts at hiding it. Cassidy had taken her to her first Al-Anon meeting.
    Jenna turned away from the white board and looked around the center. All the birds were settled behind their curtains. Cassidy was right. Keith was a nice guy. At least what she had seen of him. She had a feelingthough that Keith was like an iceberg. What she saw of him was only the smallest part.
    Jenna double-checked to make sure the lock on the back door was secure before entering the office area. Freddy was resting in his cage. It was still too early in the day for him. Nighttime was his high activity time. The center’s one and only desktop computer was turned off. She phoned the game warden about the bear carcasses and left a message. Then there was just one more stop to make.
    She opened the front door and stepped out into the softening light of the summer evening. Her calves strained as she made her way up the hill to where the ambassador birds were housed.
    She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the padlock on the building was still in place. She filed through her keys and unlocked the door. The building was no more than an uninsulated barn divided into six sections, each stall was set up to house an education bird. In the winter, when it got below zero, the birds were often brought inside to keep them warm, but the current late-summer temperatures shouldn’t be a problem for them.
    The first two stalls on either side were empty. In the third stall, Jenna passed a rough-legged hawk with a wing that had been deformed at birth. She checked on the bald eagle whose beak had been shot off. An engineer at a nearby college had helped create a prosthetic beak so the animal could eat. The opposite stall contained an osprey that was blind in one eye.
    An unusual amount of light seemed to be coming from the final stall where Georgina the turkey vultureresided. Jenna’s heart skipped a beat as her rib cage tightened. She took the final step that allowed for a view of Georgina.
    Her hand jerked to her mouth as her heartbeat sped up. At the back of the stall, someone had sawed a hole, reached in and taken Georgina.
    Jenna sucked in a breath of air and shook her head trying to fight off the encroaching devastation. What good did locks do when the buildings were so flimsy?
    She darted out of the barn and ran around to where the building had been cut into. Poor Georgina. Vultures were not known as the eye candy of the raptor world, but unlike