Chapter 4
FOUR
Gabriel
“Please state your name,” I say. This has to be the tenth person we’ve sat down to talk to, and so far, we’ve gotten nothing of use.
The team is excavating the spot in the hyena’s pen to see what they can find, and Liam and I are stuck interviewing everyone.
Bill came with a list of names of people who used to work in the butchery or still do.
We compared the list to who was here yesterday and talked to all of them since they’re all present here today.
It’s not like it’s a requirement, but with hundreds of employees, we have to start somewhere.
While we were dealing with that, Lacey came with a list of seasonal workers who were here yesterday. I asked her to call Nadine, the woman who’s missing work today, and get a reason why she’s not here, but Lacey told me that no one answered her call.
After sending an officer out to check Nadine’s house, I got the same information that she didn’t answer.
So then I was back to asking Bill if Nadine has any knowledge on how to butcher, and he informed me that she’s never even stepped within fifty feet of the place because she can’t handle the blood, smell, or dead animals.
She’s firmly worked in the office since she started here six years ago.
The whole time, Liam just sat there and listened carefully to every piece of it.
He always sees things that I don’t, but at this point we have a missing woman and a dead man.
The cameras offer us nothing good and show both Nadine and the man—who did indeed appear to be a seasonal worker—doing nothing out of the ordinary.
The killer knew how to work around the cameras and how to move without being noticed, which just confirms that they’re an employee.
The only thing that we get a glimpse of is the hyenas being let out around ten p.m.
“My name is George Pawne,” the man says, drawing me back to the interview.
“And your company was hired to put up the lights?” I ask.
“We were. We deal with the zoo’s seasonal decorations. We were called back in after a storm tore down some of the lights last weekend.”
“We believe that one of your employees has been murdered and we’re hoping you can confirm if the person is your employee. Would you be able to look at a photograph of the deceased?”
The man’s not surprised; he’s well aware of the reason he’s here. “Yeah, of course.”
“Thank you,” I say before sliding the phone across the table to him.
The way George’s face twitches tells me he knows him, and he almost immediately starts nodding.
“His name is Zach Peele. He’s been with the company about a year or so. He’s very hardworking. Good guy. Fuck.”
“I’m sorry this has happened,” I say as I pull the phone back. “Can you tell me what time your crew left?”
“Most of us left a little after it opened at four, but about five people stayed to work on the tree until, oh… six or so.”
“Six?” Liam asks, interest piqued.
Six is a pretty busy hour to kill someone, especially when all of the employees were here and none of them were reported as having left their position for a long period of time.
“Did those workers leave together?” I ask.
“I’m not certain but I can put a call out to the ones who were here and see what they say.”
“Thank you,” I say.
He steps out of the room, and I look over at Liam now that we’re alone for the first time in hours.
“Did Zach hang around and get killed later in the night? Did someone kill him earlier and hide the body until they could dispose of it later?”
“I want to know what Nadine was doing around six o’clock,” Liam states.
“You think she did it?”
“I think it’s peculiar that she is missing and this man is dead.”
“Why run if you’re going to go to all of this work to hide the body and your involvement? By not showing up to work, you pretty much make yourself stand out.”
Liam taps a pen against the desk as he thinks.
“That is the question. I’m not sure if she’s the killer.
I do question how she would have moved the body.
As we saw in the security feed, she’s a petite woman, though there are a lot of utility carts and golf carts, but with such big items, you’d have to stick to the walkways, which puts you at a higher chance to be shown on camera.
I just…” He leans back in his chair. “I don’t think she’s the killer.
Let’s see if George can help us identify Zach’s vehicle.
See if it’s still in the parking lot. I want to know if he left and came back, stayed, or if the killer tried to dispose of it.
Pat said that Nadine takes the bus? I want to check with the bus driver to see if she got on. ”
“Seeing if his vehicle is here should be easy; I bet there are cameras on the parking lot. Let me get Pat on that.”
The day stretches on with minimal answers.
What’s left of the body was found buried quite deep in the hyena’s pit, only discovered because of one very persistent hyena.
There were no cars left in the parking lot overnight, and the last few cars were gone by eleven.
The final cars to pull out belonged to Pat and Bill.
The bus driver doesn’t remember whether Nadine got on or not and doesn’t have a camera to check.
The workers said that Zach left with them at six o’clock, and one even stated that he remembered following his car out.
Because of the murder, they close the zoo to the public for the day. We continue trying to piece together what happened until well past dark when Michaels sends us home.
I’m hungry and tired and cold and feel like I’ve figured out very little.
The second I get into the car, Liam blasts the heat onto me and turns my heated seat up as high as it’ll go.
“There are so many variables,” I say.
“There truly are,” Liam agrees. “But don’t worry. We’ll figure it out. This person isn’t going to get away. I have two thoughts on this. Number one, Nadine is involved, but I’m not sure how. I actually think there were two people involved in the disposal of Zach’s body.”
“Two killers?”
“I’m not sure. The issue is that all of the employees were supposedly accounted for.
Of course, you have a few people who are kind of on their own and might not be noticed if they’re missing for a short period, but all of this would have taken a significant amount of time.
However, it seems like a lot of it was completed by ten when the hyenas were let out.
They had to cut off the head. They had to transport the body and dig a significant hole, which they couldn’t have done while the hyenas were eating. I think there were two involved.”
“So Nadine might have been the one who helped and not the one who killed him?”
“Possibly.”
Liam reaches over and takes my hand that I’m struggling to heat up and sticks it between his thighs before cupping his hand over it, using his body heat to warm my fingers back to life. “I’m going to call that wretched diner of mine and have them feed us. What would you like, my love?”
“I would eat anything right about now.”
“Alright, anything it is,” he says before he calls them and orders us both mushroom Swiss chicken sandwiches. My mouth waters at the very idea of it.
My work phone beeps and I see that it’s a text from Matthew. “Matthew said that he got a video of Nadine and Zach interacting,” I say then press play.
I watch as Zach works on hammering something to the fake tree when Nadine starts by. He pauses and steps down the ladder before saying something to her that we can’t hear. She hesitates, shakes her head, and continues on her way.
Simple as that.
When we reach the diner, I hand my phone to Liam so he can watch it while I run in and get our meal.
Because of how late it is, the diner is in the process of being cleaned up for the night as the last customer heads out the door.
It’s a really nice place with fantastic food that Liam bought during the year I made him step away from law enforcement.
It was after I’d caught him killing a man and couldn’t bring myself to arrest him, so I made him promise to never join law enforcement again.
Since his father had owned restaurants before being murdered, Liam thought he’d try his hand at running a diner instead.
Needless to say, it didn’t turn out overly well.
Liam quickly got sick of the diner, and the moment he came back to law enforcement, he proceeded to pretend it didn’t exist. Thankfully, he has some pretty competent workers who he’s hired to run it for him because the place seems to do pretty good business.
When I step in, a server named Tracy rushes over to greet me. “Gabriel, hey! How are you doing?”
“Starving. Haven’t eaten since breakfast. Got too caught up in work. I really hope we didn’t inconvenience you. I didn’t think about how late it was.”
“Don’t worry, hon, not at all. And Liam might be a negligent boss, but he’s definitely a more than fair one. We got you covered. Enjoy.”
“Thank you. For you and the chef,” I say as I take it from her and hand her a tip.
“Oh, you really don’t need to do that.”
“I want to.” I leave it on the counter since she refuses to take it before I head out and find Liam still watching the video. Did my tired brain miss something?
I slide in and he sets the phone down and smiles at me. “All good?”
“Did I miss something in the video?”
“No, just… trying to figure out what he said to her.”
“Ah. Yeah, I can’t quite pick up on it.”
Liam hurries back to our house and pulls into the garage before we get out and head inside.
The first thing that happens as we enter is the assault of kitty curses flung at us for being late.
My cat, Lucille Pawl, is very displeased that we’re getting home so late.
She rushes up to me, meowing her woes the whole way.
I shove the food at Liam and scoop up the long-haired black-and-white cat and cradle her in my arms like the baby she is.