The Killers Amongst Us: Chimera Dawn Chronicles (13 page)

SHAW
turned at the junction
along the main street. As he approached where the vet’s property had stood, he
slowed, then parked alongside the debris. He turned to Frank.

“I see what you mean when you said there’s nothing left.
Pity the fire crew couldn’t have saved it before it collapsed in to the cellar.”

“Maybe if the outlet valve hadn’t stuck on the fire truck,
they could’ve. It was like a scene from the Keystone Cops. Grimes said he’d
recently packed the valve with a fresh seal. Hell, it was stuck tighter than a
gnat’s ass. What a farce.”

Shaw didn’t respond to that revelation, deciding to commit
it to memory.

“Good thing you contacted the wildfire department. I can see
now that whoever started the fire managed to creep up on your blindside.” Shaw
glanced over to the stumps of the burned trees in the woods. “Damn it, is that
Gyp?” He could see his dog sniffing around on the fringe of the woods. Gyp’s
lower body was black as coal.”

“Looks like you’ll have to hose him down when you get back,”
said Frank, and then he laughed.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Shaw slipped his transmission into gear, and set off down
the road.

“Are you sure it’s okay going to the wildlife park and silver
mine? They’re outside our jurisdiction since the boundary changes,” said Frank.

“It’s not far outside and we’re only going to ask questions.
I’m sure county have better things to do. When did the boundary change?”

“Not long after Jed Grimes dad died back around two thousand
and two,” Frank said.

Ten miles further on and Shaw noticed Frank shuffling
uncomfortably on his seat, and blowing sighs.

“What’s wrong?” Shaw asked.

“I missed something out of my report on events before the
fire.”

“What was that?”

“I dozed off for thirty minutes and woke up just as the
garage exploded.”

Shaw gripped the steering wheel, but said nothing.

“Did ya hear me?”

“Yeah, I heard.” Shaw’s first reaction had been to want to
scream at him, but chewing it over, he couldn’t blame Frank. “If the town
council gave me a budget for another deputy you wouldn’t have had to work more
than a double shift. I don’t think we need to talk about it anymore. Forget it.
It would have happened anyway. Like I said, you were blindsided.”

“There’s something else. Jim told me about all the trouble
you had with Hogan. I’ve been back and paid him for the meat.”

“Good.”

Shaw appreciated his honesty. He appreciated him going out
to Breakers Lake to warn Amy. He was thankful of him staying on and finding
Johno, when he should have been at home in bed. The subject was closed.

Twenty minutes driving and Frank tapped Shaw’s arm.

“It’s around here somewhere, slow down. There should be a
turning left before the bend. See there, that post used to hold the sign.”

Shaw slowed and crawled along the curb. He arrived at the
pole with no sign and turned onto a private road. The concrete road had given
up the fight with nature. Grass stalks and bushes had sprung from the cracks in
the road, but there was a clear way through. If Frank hadn’t spotted the
turning, he’d never have seen it and passed by.

“I used to bring the kids here when they were little,” said
Frank. “Great day out for the kids.”

“When did it close to the public?” Shaw asked.

“Around ten years ago. I know there was a lot of
construction activity going on after it was sold, but they didn’t use local
contractors.”

A pair of twenty foot, rusty wrought-iron gates appeared as
they turned a bend. Over the top of the gates, in an arch, were fashioned the
words. COPELAND’S ZOO. A steel chain and a hefty padlock secured the gates, and
a sign read, KEEP OUT, WILD ANIMALS. To one side there was a single pedestrian
gate. Shaw opened his door, climbed out of his seat, and ambled over to the
entrance. Frank joined him at the gate. Twenty yards beyond the main gates was
another set of gates, with a second chain link fence, leading off in either
direction. Through the second set of gates, he noticed what appeared to be a
security hut, and a pole with a camera atop, pointing in his direction.

“Let’s hope someone is around,” Frank said.

“We’ll soon find out,” said Shaw, and he pressed a button on
an intercom.

“Sheriff Shaw, to what do we owe the pleasure?” He heard a
woman’s voice ask.

Shaw looked at Frank, who shrugged his shoulders.

Shaw pressed the button, and said, “I’d like to talk with
the owner.”

“Please wait,” she answered.

Shaw stepped back and wondered if it was someone who knew
him from town. He heard a buzzing sound from the lock and the gate clicked
open.

“Please, step through and close the gate.”

Frank and Shaw ambled to the second pedestrian gate, where a
young woman met them.

“Do I know you?” Shaw asked.

“No, I doubt it, but we all saw you on the television news
channel on Saturday and your badge gives you away.”

The door lock clicked open and they entered. The woman on
security was casually dressed with a white blouse and jeans. Her accent was
American, but she had a mid-east look about her, with long flowing black hair
and dark eyes. Shaw guessed that she was in her mid-twenties. She beckoned them
into the security building.

“This is my deputy, Frank.”

“Pleased to meet you, Frank. My name is Emu, I’m head of
security” she said. “I need both of you to find a pair of plastic boots from
the rack that will fit. After, could you wash your hands, arms and face with
the biological soap at the wash basin.”

“Emu! That’s an unusual name,” Shaw said, as he picked out a
pair of boots.

“Yes, but it’s common in Egypt. The name translates to mean
Cat. You can use that name if you like. Sorry about the precautions, but we
have to be wary of disease.”

Shaw dried off with a paper towel, when another woman walked
into the office. She was wearing the same type of clothing as Cat, but nearer
Amy’s age, and with the same Mid-Eastern look about her. The women exchanged
words, but he didn’t understand anything that they were saying. Cat turned to
them.

“Emuishere will escort you to the surgery.”

Cat must have seen the puzzled look on Shaw’s face, and said.
“We’re a research facility here. Our wild life sanctuary here specializes in
breeding endangered species. The sanctuary founder is in surgery at the moment.”

“Emuishere! Is that Egyptian as well?” Frank asked.

“Prrrr, sure is,” said the youngest woman, and snickered
with a coy disposition, fluttering her long eyelashes at Frank. “It translates
to Kitten if you find that easier. Please, follow me.”

Shaw detected the smell of molten asphalt as they followed
her along a pathway.

“You laying a new road,” Shaw asked.

“No, they’re just filling in some pot holes,” Kitten said. “They
seem to have opened up everywhere with the drought. One of them is deep as a
sinkhole. It’s taking forever to fill.”

Kitten walked at a brisk pace. Shaw would have preferred a
more leisurely walk as they hurried past the wildcat enclosures. The last
enclosure housed black panthers. He counted eight, perched lazily on the
branches of trees. Shaw stopped, and walked to the mesh fence, mesmerized by
one large cat whose eyes had followed his every step.

“Are these cougars or jaguars,” Shaw called out.

The leopard that had been staring, lowered its gaze, and
started to lick what looked like a gash on it foreleg.

Kitten walked over. “If you look real careful, you’ll see
the spots. They’re all Lower Nile black leopards, very rare. The cats have been
out all night, hunting. They’ll rest here and sleep most of the day, or
sometimes they’ll wonder back into the woods to pick a private spot to rest.”

“Hunting?”

“We have fifty hectares fenced off for them to roam freely
at night. Now please, follow me.”

“That cat has a gash on its leg.”

“It’s only scratch, nothing to worry about. Trust me, it
will heal in the blink of an eye without treatment.”

Shaw could see Frank ahead, stood akimbo, and looking over
to his right.

“Brett, you’ve got to see this,” Frank said.

Shaw picked up his pace, walking along past a tall hedgerow
and joined Frank.

“They didn’t have anything like this when I was last here,”
said Frank.

They both stared ahead at a magnificent sandstone building.
It wouldn’t have looked out of place in Las Vegas. But in Breakers Pass terms,
it was a world apart. Kitten surged ahead and they followed her along a twenty
foot wide cobbled driveway, framed by two four-foot-wide canals of water, and
rows of palm trees. Water lilies flowered on the stretches of water, with
multi-colored carp visible, swimming close to the surface. Two Sphinx Statues,
each the size of a Greyhound bus and carved out of gray-white marbling, stood
either side of pink-marble steps, leading to two fifteen foot high, polished oak
doors, arched at the top. Shaw noticed Frank struggling with the steps.

“What’s up, old timer, saddle sore with all the sitting
around in the car.”

“Something like that,” said Frank. “Damned ankles are sore
with all that climbing yesterday. Incidentally, have you noticed the motorized
cameras on the poles and following our movement?”

“No. I was too busy looking at the cats.”

“I only saw the one screen in Cat’s office from the security
camera at the gate. They must have a CCTV screen room somewhere inside the
building for the rest of the cameras,” said Frank.

Kitten was already at the door. Either side of the large
doors stood stone buttresses, carved with Egyptian figures on the facade, and
rising six feet above the wall. A smaller door, within the left hand door
opened and Kitten beckoned them through. Shaw’s jaw dropped as he stepped
through and into a yard. It wasn’t a building with rooms and a roof, but a
perimeter wall. They stood on a multi-colored, cobbled stone and flagged
courtyard set out in intricate mosaic patterns. He stared, wide-eyed with awe
toward the center of the courtyard. He’d only ever seen similar architecture in
magazine articles about the Louvre Museum in Paris. A huge construction of
glass and aluminum in the shape of a pyramid captivated him.

“This way,” Kitten said.

Kitten led them to a buttress at the wall with a doorway.
She placed her hand on a six-inch square of glass. A line of light scanned her
hand from top to bottom, and the doorway slid open, to reveal an elevator. They
stepped inside.

“We’ll soon be there. Going down,” she said, and pressed the
button. The elevator dropped one level and stopped. Shaw noticed that there
were two more levels below. The door opened and they walked into a corridor. “Please,
take a seat over there. I’ll just go a see if she is free.”

“Who is it we’re seeing?” Shaw said.

“Ba... em, sorry, the governess,” said Kitten. She turned,
and walked on down the corridor.

“What d’ ya make of all this, Brett?”

“Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting it to be like this. I’d be
interested to know what the Egyptian connection is all about.”

Shaw noticed Kitten walking toward them, and she waved for
them to follow her. They caught up with her and stepped through a door. The
room was set out like a lecture room. To one side, students sat in a tiered
seating area, looking down at a set up that resembled an autopsy area. On the
stainless steel table, lay a kangaroo, with its lower half dissected. A woman
dressed as a surgeon nodded at them.

“I’ll be with you shortly,” she said. Removing her facemask,
cap, and gloves, she turned to the students. “We’ll leave it that for today.
You can all go and study for tomorrow’s subject.”

Shaw noticed the students were all women, and of different
nationalities in appearance. The students stood, politely bowing and all said. “Yes,
Professor Bastet.”

Shaw glanced upward. They were under the glass pyramid.

“What can I do for you? Sheriff Shaw, is it?”

“Yes, and this is my deputy, Frank.” He said, and looked
directly at her. The woman removed a clip from her hair and shook her head. Her
long black hair cascaded to frame her olive skinned face and dark brown
hypnotic eyes. He averted his gaze, aware that he was admiring her beauty. “We...
we would have telephoned, but your number isn’t listed. All we want to know is
if any of your wild animals are missing, especially a wild dog.”

“Of course, you must be investigating the vet’s death. We
saw it on the news. Well now, the simple answer is no, because we don’t have
any dogs here. All our animals have electronic implants and I can assure you
that all are accounted for.” The woman lifted her chin, and sniffed in Shaw’s
direction.

Shaw felt heat rise in his cheeks. He wondered if he was
giving off a bad body odor, aware his shirt underarms were wet with
perspiration.