CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Thurman returned a moment later. With his decision made, he was no longer tense. Instead, he appeared exhausted. Faith wondered if agreeing to tell the truth was a relief to him in any way or if it only left him feeling as empty as he looked.
He took a sip of his coffee, then began. “The three individuals you named were associated with us years in the past. Dr. Vasquez was a veterinarian at the Henry Doorly Zoo for… I believe fifteen years. Global Wildlife owned the zoo for the last five of those years. She was let go when it was reported that she was performing surgeries in a state of impairment.”
“She was drinking on the job,” Faith summarized.
“Yes. During the investigation into her misconduct, an employee of the zoo’s reptile house was caught stealing reptiles. Further investigation proved it wasn’t the first time.”
“What was that employee’s name?”
Thurman sighed. “Alison Chen.”
“What a surprise,” Michael said drily.
Thurman sipped more of his coffee. He looked miserable. “A lot of this was in the news, but essentially what happened is we fired Dr. Vasquez and Alison Chen and issued the usual statements affirming our commitment to caring for our animals yadda yadda, we don’t approve of any of this, and so forth. It wasn’t enough. The Henry Doorly Zoo board of trustees voted to purchase the property from us and threatened to force the issue in court if we didn’t accept their offer of two-thirds of the market value. We weren’t in a position to say no, so we took the money. The damage to our reputation caused revenue to plummet by sixty percent. We had to sell a third of our properties and cut costs at the rest of them. We lost a quarter of the rest to bankruptcy. Basically, we were nearly ruined.”
He met Michael’s eyes and said sourly, “You see why I’m concerned about the company’s reputation? If we take another hit, I can’t pull us out of it.”
“I sympathize,” Michael replied, “but like I said earlier, we have a job to do.”
Thurman sighed. “Right.” He finished his coffee and said, “The last one, Marcus Reeves, he never actually worked for us. He leased staff from us for his zoo. Not animal care experts. I want that to be clear. No employee of Global Wildlife Experiences was responsible for the mistreatment those animals endured.”
“I believe you,” Faith replied, “but you were associated with him.”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “Worst advice I ever took, leasing employees to other zoos.”
“You mentioned that it was reported that Dr. Vasquez was drinking on the job,” Faith said. “Reported by whom?”
“Another former employee of ours. An animal trainer.”
“Does this trainer have a name?” Michael asked.
"James… I'll have to look up the last name. James, something or other. He called our HR department and said he'd talked to the zoo, and they weren't doing anything about it. His next phone call was going to be to the police, he said, so we took it seriously and sent people to investigate. And it turned out he was telling the truth."
“And what about Chen? Who reported her?”
“No one. A member of the HR team caught her stealing a red-tailed boa from an enclosure and when he confronted her about it, she started spouting some crazy shit about how she was meant to care for these animals, how their spirits were aligned or some crap.”
“And Marcus Reeves?”
Thurman’s eye twitched. He tapped his finger on the desk and sighed. “That was also James. Hawkins. I remember now, his name was Hawkins. Our CFO at the time called him Hawkins the Hawk for spotting every little damned thing that went wrong.”
“Not really a little thing,” Michael corrected.
“I know. That’s just what Katie called him.”
“Katie?”
“The CFO. We… well, look, hate us for this if you want, but we weren’t really big fans of James Hawkins after his whistleblowing left us gasping for air.”
“Would it have been better if he kept his mouth shut?” Faith asked.
“For the animals, no. For the eleven hundred people who lost their jobs and never got paid unemployment because we filed Chapter Eleven, yes. Again, hate me if you want, but the people matter more to me.”
“What a noble man you are,” Michael scoffed.
Faith laid a hand on her partner’s arm. “What happened to James Hawkins? Does he still work with you?”
“No. He was let go for unrelated issues.”
“What issues?”
“Performance issues. The animals he trained didn’t perform the way we wanted them to.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Not really. It was years ago.”
Michael scoffed again. “Hmm. Are you sure you didn’t just make up a reason to fire him because he blew the whistle and put your company in trouble?”
Rather than answer the question directly, Thurman returned to his tried-and-true standard. “The company isn’t a few executives, Special Agent. It’s thousands of people. A lot of those people couldn’t feed their families or pay rent anymore after the crap that happened when James decided to play hero. To directly answer your question, it’s true that he wasn’t effective as an animal trainer, and it’s true that we fired him for that reason. And that response I can and will back up in court.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Faith said. “In the meantime, we need the most recent contact information you have for James Hawkins.”
Thurman sighed and opened his computer. “Sure. The information is years outdated, but sure, knock yourself out.” He shook his head. “We’re doing our best here, agents. We’re just trying to keep our heads above water.”
“I sympathize with that,” Faith said. “But someone’s trying to hold other people’s heads underwater, and we need to find him before he drowns anyone else.”
Thurman didn’t respond until he had the address. He wrote it down and handed it to Faith. “Something to think about, Special Agent. These victims weren’t good people. Maybe ask yourself if the world isn’t better off without them in it.”
It was Faith’s turn not to respond. The three agents left the bitter CEO in his office and headed outside. The receptionist paled again when she saw them and pretended to be busy with paperwork when they left the building.
Once in the car, Michael chuckled. “People are so good at finding ways to justify their actions. Even when those actions get people killed.”
“They have to find some way to live with themselves,” Faith opined. “Otherwise… well, they don’t live with themselves.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m glad I’m not him.”
“Me too,” Faith agreed.
Still, Thurman’s words remained in Faith’s head as they headed toward James Hawkins’s house.
Ask yourself if the world isn’t better off without them in it.
***
James Hawkins lived on five acres of land abutting the Hackberry Nature Preserve a few miles east of Council Bluffs. As soon as the property came into view, Faith could see a collection of exotic animals in enclosures throughout the property. There were bears, antelopes, big cats and a few different species of eagle that Faith could see just from the driveway. It looked like James had kept up his animal training business.
They parked the car, and as soon as they left the vehicle, Turk became agitated. He put his nose to the ground and growled, staring at the animals and baring his teeth.
“What is it, boy?” Faith asked. “What do you smell?”
“Probably the wolves,” Michael replied, gesturing to a large enclosure where five huge gray wolves could be seen prowling among a few trees planted to simulate their natural forested environment.
“Maybe.”
Turk only grew more agitated as they left the animals behind and approached the house, however. By the time they stood on James Hawkins’s front porch and knocked on the door, Turk had his ears pricked up and his tail flat out behind him, a sign of extreme alertness.
It wasn’t the animals.
The door opened, and a tall, muscular man of about forty poked his head out. His eyes widened when he saw the FBI uniforms. “Can I help you?”
“James Hawkins?” Faith asked.
“That’s me. Is everything all right? What’s going on?”
“I’m Special Agent Faith Bold,” Faith replied. “This is my partner, Special Agent Michael Prince, and our K9 unit, Turk. Can we talk to you for a few minutes?”
“May I ask what this is about?”
“We have questions about your former employment with Global Wildlife Experiences.”
James’s demeanor changed immediately. His eyes narrowed, and his lips curled into a frown. “I don’t have anything more to say about them.”
“This is important, Mr. Hawkins,” Faith insisted.
“I made an official statement to Global’s HR department when I left. I still have a copy of it. Give me an email address, and I’ll send it to you.”
Turk growled low in his throat. James’s frown deepened. “Am I in some kind of trouble?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
James’s face changed again, this time registering shock. “What? Why?”
“May we come inside?”
“I’d really prefer to have some answers before I let you into my house or answer any of your questions.”
He kept his voice calm but firm, and when Turk growled at him again, he didn’t show any concern. Not all that surprising from a man who trained wolves for a living.
Faith decided to be upfront with him. "We're investigating the murders of Dr. Elena Vasquez, Alison Chen and Marcus Reeves. We believe you may have some information for us."
James stared blankly at her for a moment. He blinked and said, “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
James took a breath and released it slowly. “I haven’t spoken to any of those people in years. I’ve been trying hard not to think about them.”
“Well, someone thought about them,” Faith said. “Someone tore Marcus Reeves’ throat out, poisoned Alison Chen and chopped holes into Dr. Vasquez.”
James took another breath. His eyes flicked between the agents. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have anything that can help you.”
Turk took a step toward James, and this time, he did react, stepping through his doorway and trying to pull it closed. Faith stopped it with her foot. “James, we will come back with a warrant if we need to.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” James replied, still calm. “That’s what you’ll have to do.”
“And if things go that way,” Michael added. “We’ll report to the press that we’ve made an arrest in this case, and a lot of people are going to learn that you had history with our victims.”
James stiffened. “You know about my history?”
“We talked to Mr. Thurman at Global Wildlife Headquarters,” Faith said.
James sighed. “Of course you did. So what? I’m a suspect now?”
“At the moment, you’re a person of interest,” Faith clarified. “This conversation will hopefully tell us whether you should be considered a suspect or should be removed as a person of interest.”
James sighed again. “Do either of you work with animals? Besides your dog?”
“No.”
“Okay, well, I have a lot of animals here, and they all need food. I don’t have anyone to ask to care for them. Point being is that I need to make sure they’re fed, watered and enclosed securely before I come with you.”
“We can always start the conversation here,” Faith offered.
James shook his head. “Just… give me a moment, all right?”
"I don't think we can do that, James," Michael replied.
“Am I under arrest?” James asked.
Michael frowned and reluctantly admitted, “No.”
“Then you’ll have to wait for me to take care of my animals. You can come with me if you’re afraid I’ll try to run.”
Faith and Michael shared a look. Then Faith turned back to James and said, “You go ahead. Just pretend we’re not even here.”
Turk growled again, and James gave the dog a mistrustful look. He led the three agents into the house. Faith followed, one hand on her service weapon. It was too early to tell if James was guilty or not, but Turk's behavior suggested that they might have finally found their killer. It wasn't nearly enough evidence to hold up in court, but Turk had found more than one killer with his nose before. Maybe he'd come through for them again. Faith could always hope.