CHAPTER NINETEEN
Dr. Clement had lived in a spacious property dominated by an upscale mansion with a large yard covered with domed netting. Faith wondered at its purpose until she saw several birds of different species—some of them not native to America.
“An aviary,” she said aloud.
“That’s our connection to animals, I guess,” Michael said.
The two of them hadn’t spoken for the fifteen minutes it took them to drive here. The shock and disappointment of this latest murder left them too overwhelmed to address the argument they’d had. Anger and hurt floated around the back of Faith’s mind along with the beginnings of validation that after all of Michael’s rhetoric, she and Turk had been right.
But she didn’t focus on that right now. She had a job to do, and she would do it regardless of whether Michael thought she could or not.
Michael parked the car behind the police cruisers, just like he had before. There were four cruisers this time and no fewer than fourteen animal control vehicles. Apparently, the situation here was even more involved than at Alison Chen's house.
They met Detective Cuthbert in the living room of the property. The detective appeared to be somewhat more well-rested than the last time Faith saw him, but the blank look on his face told her that he was just as upset by this as she was. He greeted the agents with a nod.
“The body’s in the aviary. We’ll go look at it in a second, but Animal Control doesn’t want us there until they clear the larger birds. Some of the birds are dangerous.”
“That’s fine,” Faith replied. “Can I send Turk to sniff around?”
“They won’t let him in the aviary, but he can look around the house.”
Faith nodded. “Okay, go ahead Turk.”
Turk put his nose to the ground and began investigating. Faith noted with some satisfaction that he didn’t appear confused this time.
“What can you tell us?” she asked Detective Cuthbert.
“The victim is Dr. Sarah Clement. She’s a well-respected wildlife researcher. Or she was. Recently, she’s faced controversy for her advocacy of some rather… interesting philosophies.”
“Such as?”
“Behavior modification techniques but carried to a bit of an extreme. I’ve only glanced at the surface, but it’s kind of like those old mental hospitals that used electroshock therapy to cure violent patients. Actually, electroshock therapy is one of the tools she uses. Used, I should say.”
Michael chuckled humorlessly. “So it would be safe to say that she abused animals.”
“That’s how the majority of the scientific community saw it. She was fired from Florida State University and lost her fellowship at the Ecological Society of America. She moved here, built her own aviary, and has her own research lab in the basement. CSI’s looking through it now, but it looks like the killer was only present in the aviary. There’s a gate outside that leads directly to the aviary. It doesn’t look like he was even in the house. You can check the basement out if you want. It’s… well, let’s just say I can understand why people didn’t agree with her methods. It looks like a damned psych ward down there.”
“We’ll take your word for it,” Faith said. “But if your officers find anything down there, we want to know about it.”
“Yeah, of course.” He patted his vest and frowned. “Of all the years to quit smoking.”
“How was Dr. Clement murdered?” Michael asked.
“Best guess right now is fishhooks. Big ones. We think the killer was trying to simulate raptor talons. It’s a gruesome scene. The killer gouged her eyes out, tore open her throat and abdomen and ripped her scalp almost completely off.”
“God,” Faith whispered.
“Yeah. That’s why I wish I had a damned cigarette. Oh, shit, I completely forgot. Her research assistant is here. She’s the one who discovered the body and called it in.”
Faith perked up. “Where is she now?”
“She’s helping animal control with some of the more unruly birds. I’ll see if they can spare her yet.”
As he said that, they heard loud screeching. A moment later, a massive eagle with a golden-brown head flew through the living room. Turk barked and leaped at it, but the bird evaded him easily and headed straight for the front door. Faith and Michael hit the deck, and the eagle tucked its wings and soared through the door, then climbed rapidly into the sky, screeching its joy at escape as it rose into the air.
“Well, that one’s free, at least,” Michael said.
“No!” a voice cried.
Faith turned to see a woman in her late twenties crying out in anguish. She was short and plump with freckled cheeks and curly red hair cut so it fell above her shoulders.
She was red-eyed, and her cheeks were puffy. Clearly she’d been crying. Faith stood and approached her. “You must be Dr. Clement’s assistant.”
“I was. Until some asshole killed her. Now Darla’s escaped, and we can’t finish.” Her lower lip trembled, and she took a deep breath to steady herself. “She won’t survive out there. She hasn’t been acclimated to the wild. She was supposed to be Dr. Clement’s personal bird.”
“And what exactly was Dr. Clement’s plan with her?”
The woman wiped tears from her eyes. “Darla was injured as a chick. She never learned how to hunt properly. She won’t even eat live food. Dr. Clement was going to keep her as a pet and take care of her.”
“She didn’t want to modify Darla’s behavior to hunt for live prey?” Michael asked.
The assistant frowned and didn’t answer.
“What’s your name?” Faith asked.
“Grace.”
“Grace. I’m Faith. That’s my partner Michael. We’re here to find out who killed your boss, but we need your help. You need to answer all of our questions honestly. We believe that the person who killed Dr. Clement did so because of her work.”
Grace shook her head, pouting. “They’re all stupid. They don’t get what she was trying to do.”
“What was she trying to do?”
“She was trying to train endangered raptors to live around humans.”
“She wanted to turn them into pets?” Michael asked.
"No! Darla was a special case. She wanted to teach endangered birds of prey how to adapt to life in population centers so they could survive and not go extinct. You know that pigeons and crows are actually more successful in urban environments than they are in rural environments? They've adapted perfectly to the presence of humans, and their populations are stable. But most birds of prey don't do so well. Some do okay in less densely populated places, but a lot of eagles need space to thrive. Golden eagles need dozens of square miles of territory, and they won't establish themselves in places where large human populations get in the way.
“Dr. Clement wanted to teach the raptors that have large home ranges how to adapt to crowded places. She was going to teach them not to attack dogs or cats or children so that people didn’t try to drive them away. She was going to teach them to recognize buildings and cars and to nest in skyscrapers and office buildings. They could fly to the wilderness for food, or maybe one day cities would build feeders for them where people could put meat they didn’t want.” She sniffled. “She just wanted to help, but everyone acted like she was evil.”
“Was there anyone in particular who seemed like they wanted to hurt her?”
Grace shook her head. “Dr. Clement didn’t talk to me much about that. She always said that we had to focus on the positive and not worry about the negative.” Her eyes widened. “The birds! Oh my God! What’s animal control going to do with the birds?”
“I don’t know,” Faith said. “But… Grace!”
The assistant had sprinted out the front door and was now shouting at one of the animal control officers. She jumped in front of him and his vehicle, arms spread to block him. Faith and Michael jogged closer to hear her demanding to know what they planned to do with the animals.
“Most of them are going to be put back in the wild,” the officer was saying, trying to remain patient.
“They can’t go back to the wild! They’re not ready yet!”
“They’re birds, kid,” the officer replied. “They don’t need training.”
Grace turned beet red. “No! It’s not that simple!”
The officer sighed, now out of patience. “Look, kid, I have a job to do.”
“I’m not a kid! I’m twenty-nine years old, and I have a doctorate, asshole!”
To the officer’s credit, he seemed appropriately chagrined. “Okay. I’m sorry. You’re right, Miss—Doctor. I’ll tell you what. If you give me your contact information, I’ll promise that we won’t do anything with these birds until we talk to you. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get to decide what happens, but we’ll get your input, and I’ll pass your information to my superiors. Will that work for now?”
Grace lowered her arms. “You’d better keep that promise.”
“I will. We just can’t have them attacking the police officers while they’re investigating the crime scene.”
Grace nodded. “Okay.”
Once Grace was finished with the officer, Faith asked, “Did Dr. Clement work closely with any other researchers?”
Grace shook her head. “Not anymore. She used to work with a lot of people, but when she was kicked out of the Ecological Society, no one wanted to talk to her. She lost all of her friends. I’m the only person she talked to. I don’t even think her family talked to her.”
“Damn,” Michael said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me too. She was a good person.” Grace’s mouth trembled. “I just hate that people won’t remember her like that.”
"Guys?" Detective Cuthbert called from the door. "The crime scene's open if you want to go see the body…" He glanced at Grace. "See Dr. Clement."
“We’ll be right there,” Faith called. To Grace, she said, “Can you think of anything else that might help us determine who murdered Dr. Clement?”
Grace shook her head. “No. I knew people hated her, but I never thought anyone would do anything like this. It’s just so vicious. ” She looked up at Faith, her eyes swimming with tears and narrowed in anger. “You know, people are just as vicious as animals are, but they have an excuse. They’re just following nature. We’re the ones who are supposed to be better than that.” She shook her head again. “But we aren’t. We’re just like chimpanzees biting each other’s throats out and tearing each other’s faces off.”
The unintentional parallel to Reeves’ murder caused Faith to shiver. She squeezed Grace’s shoulder and handed her a card. “If you think of anything, call me. I promise you”—she met Michael’s eyes—“I’m not going anywhere until I bring this killer to justice.”
Michael looked away and frowned. Faith looked away too, because staring at him right now would make her angry, and she needed to deal with that anger later.
The two human agents returned to the house. “Turk’s already looking around the body,” Cuthbert told them. “Hey, it’s none of my business, but he kinda seems confused. I’ve never worked with a K9 before, so I could be wrong, but he seems a little out of his depth with this one. You think maybe all of the animals could be throwing him off?”
Faith glanced at Michael. He had his lips pressed together and refused to look at her. She took a breath and said, “I’m quite confident that Turk can do his job, Detective.”
“Right. Of course. I didn’t mean to offend.”
When Faith walked into the aviary and saw Turk staring intently at a light fixture on the floor, though, her heart dropped.
“What do you see, Turk?”
Turk looked back at her. He looked so confused. Her heart sank even further. Come on, boy. Please don’t fall apart on me.
She sighed and called him to her.
Turk lowered his eyes, and for the first time since she’d known him, he looked ashamed. When he reached her, she ruffled his fur. “It’s okay, Turk. You’ll find him.”
And for the first time since she’d known him, she wasn’t sure she believed that.