Chapter Fifteen
Panic claws at my heart. Nimble’s missing? But how? I’d have seen him. He’s so little. The pool. I was watching the sloths playing in the pool. Luciana said the door was open. Could a baby sloth have fitted through the gap? I didn’t see that the door was open, that Roisin had left it open, so I have no idea by how much it was open. Was there room for him to slip through? That hadn’t even occurred to me. Both Dexter and Carlos were very clear when I first arrived that we all had to ensure the doors clicked shut, to avoid exactly this sort of incident. And now it has happened, and on my watch. It wasn’t my fault, but right now, that doesn’t matter. I have to find Nimble.
‘Luciana, it’s possible he’s still here. You stay here, and I’ll check the foyer and the other rooms.’
‘OK, but if you don’t find him in five minutes, I’ll need to raise the alarm.’
I nod. Five minutes. It’s more than I could have hoped for. The disappointment in Luciana’s eyes causes a physical pain in my chest, not only because Nimble is missing but because I’m being silently blamed for something I didn’t do.
I open the door, close it firmly behind me and, like a stealth ninja, head out into the foyer. Fortunately, the school group isn’t due to arrive until this afternoon, so the sanctuary doesn’t have many visitors. I’d like to think they’d have told someone if they’d seen a baby sloth on its own, but you can never be sure.
Since Nimble’s only little, I don’t need to look overhead initially, although my eyes are drawn automatically upwards. He couldn’t climb anything larger than the practice rocking chairs at the moment. I don’t think, anyway. Knowing my luck, this will be the first time a baby sloth of his age climbs the equivalent of a redwood. I bat the idea away. I try not to jog across the foyer, but I need to make sure the external doors are shut. My absolute worst nightmare would be if he managed to get out into the wild again. It’s too soon. He wouldn’t be able to fend for himself yet. I’m terrified he may be run over by someone in the car park. He can’t have gone far. Sloths don’t move quickly. The irony of a sloth escaping isn’t lost on me, and maybe tomorrow or next week I’ll look back on this and laugh, but right now the danger feels very real indeed.
After I confirm that the external door is locked, I hunker down to check low to the ground, under tables, desks, chairs, then on chairs, behind curtains, plant pots, the toilets, everywhere I can think of. Five minutes passes quickly. I must be running out of time. Luciana opens the door to the nursery. Oh no, it’s time. My short career at the sanctuary is about to be over. Dread pools in the pit of my stomach. I don’t want things here to end like this and it’s so unfair. I’ll deal with my anger at Roisin’s carelessness later.
Carlos walks out from his and Sofia’s lounge area, one of the two rooms I haven’t checked yet, the other being his office. He smiles at me, but I hesitate in my reply, then give him a wan smile back. He shakes his head slightly, then enters his office. I walk towards Luciana, knowing this is it.
‘Kat!’
Carlos’ voice startles me. I turn to see him cradling Nimble.
‘Is this who you were looking for?’ His voice holds none of his earlier warmth and his eyes are steely.
I sigh with relief. ‘Yes.’ I can address the fact he’s probably going to fire me later, but for now I’m just thankful Nimble is OK.
‘Yes. Thank you.’ I hold my hands out to take him from Carlos.
‘Luciana will put him back. Why don’t you come into the office?’
He passes Nimble to Luciana as Dexter enters the foyer, followed by Victor.
‘Hey, Carlos, you got a minute?’
‘Sure. Kat, can you wait in my office, please?’
Dexter stiffens then shoots me a glance. He knows something’s up.
I go into Carlos’ office and sit down, then put my head in my hands. I want to bawl, I want to rail against the injustice of it, but most of all I want to throttle Roisin. She’s the one who caused this, but I can’t exactly say so. I’m not a snitch. And it’s not as if she left the door open on purpose. I take my hands away from my face. Or did she? Cogs whirr in my brain. Could she have? She wouldn’t. Would she?
Nausea swirls in my stomach as the realisation she may have done it intentionally to get me into trouble slots into place. I grit my teeth. I need to find out. I have to clear my name. OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. Perhaps Carlos isn’t about to give me my marching orders, but I need to know.
The minutes until Carlos returns are interminable. I fidget and cast my eyes around the room what feels like a thousand times. I consider what I’m going to say to him without dropping Roisin in it. I also think that would look worse, if I suggested someone else was to blame. I don’t see any way out of it. I’ll just need to accept whatever fate he metes out to me.
Carlos enters his office and sits down heavily behind his desk, his expression grim.
‘Carlos, I’m really sorry,’ I begin, but he holds up a hand.
‘Kat, maybe I was too quick to accept your offer of help and taking on someone untrained like you was a mistake. I thought you’d fit in here perfectly, save us having to go on a huge recruitment campaign which would mean weeks or months before we had another volunteer here.’ He draws breath and sighs. ‘These animals are my life. Them and the people who work with me. If anything bad happens to them, it’s as if something has happened to one of my children.’
Absent-mindedly, I wonder how Javier feels about that.
He rubs a hand across his face then goes on. ‘Today you endangered one of our most vulnerable sloths. Nimble is only young. He could not survive at this point in the wild without his mother. That’s why he’s undergoing rehabilitation and we have a schedule in place for his release back into the wild. Anything that interferes with that upsets the delicate balance between nature and nurture that we strive so hard to put in place.’
He pauses again. ‘I was very clear from the outset that it was of paramount importance that the doors were always closed securely to avoid just this type of situation.’
I nod, not trusting myself to speak, and fully cognisant of the fact Carlos doesn’t want me to; he wants to get his speech off his chest. I gain the impression this isn’t something he enjoys doing. He’s such a cheerful, happy person that coming down hard on someone mustn’t come easily to him.
Beads of perspiration form on his forehead and my heart goes out to him, even though he’s at best giving me a dressing-down, at worst leading up to sacking me.
‘I’m a great believer in second chances, generally, but not when it comes to the animals.’
My heart almost stops. This is it.
Carlos blows out a breath. ‘However, Dexter has convinced me to give you a second chance.’
Wait, what? Dexter? After the way he was so curt with me this morning? Maybe our encounter yesterday did mean something. I smile a little at this, but just a little, I don’t want Carlos to think I’m being blasé about being off the hook.
‘Thank you, Carlos. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Don’t thank me, thank Dexter. I like you, Kat, but the animals come first. This is your final chance.’
‘I understand. I won’t let you down.’ I want to give him a hug and beg forgiveness, even though I did nothing wrong, but I resist. I don’t think it would be well-received right now.
‘Make sure you don’t. Now, I want you to shadow Dexter and the others for the next week or until Dexter is happy for you to work on your own.’
I bat away the thought that nothing would give me greater pleasure, but simply thank him again and make a quick exit. Colour had already risen in my face as Carlos chastised me for carelessness, but the mention of shadowing Dexter has my colour ratcheting up to postbox-red, I’m sure. It certainly feels like it. I’m boiling now, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the heat.
As soon as I leave Carlos’ office, I let out a long, low breath. I’m exhausted. And relieved. No one will ever look after the sloths with more care and attention now than me. But really I know it’s not my care of the sloths that’s questionable; I know what I need to be wary of is Roisin trying to sabotage me.
‘You OK?’ Ella stops in front of me. ‘I heard about Nimble.’
I sigh. ‘Yeah, and, I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.’
Her eyes go wide. ‘Carlos didn’t fire you?’
I shake my head. ‘He’s given me a second chance.’
If possible her eyes go even wider. ‘A second chance?’ she parrots back at me. When I nod, she says, ‘Then you’re very lucky indeed, Kat. The sloths are Carlos and Sofia’s life. He never gives second chances where they’re concerned. He didn’t with Maite.’
The air goes out of my lungs and I realise just how much I’ve dodged a bullet. ‘Maite? Who’s Maite?’
She frowns for a second. ‘Dexter’s ex, who used to work here.’ She waves a hand to end the discussion. ‘I’ve got to go. I need to pick up some supplies in town. We’ve run out of one of the medicines and can’t wait until the next delivery.’
‘OK. I’ll see you later then.’
She turns to go then whirls back around. ‘Kat?’
‘Yes?’
‘For what it’s worth, I’m glad he gave you a second chance.’ She leans forward and gives me a brisk hug, which I return.
‘Thanks, Ella,’ I whisper in her ear. ‘That means a lot, especially right now.’
She clasps one of my hands in hers. ‘Just… be careful.’
‘I will.’ I give her a half-hearted smile. I’m sure this wasn’t my fault, well, almost sure.
As Ella walks through the foyer to the front door of the sanctuary, I stand watching her, dazed. Everything has happened so fast, I feel wrung-out and a little bit overwrought.
With Carlos telling me he wants me shadowing Dexter and the others, after retrieving my fortunately undamaged phone from the floor of the nursery, I go in search of Dexter for further instructions, but draw a blank.
I’m heading outside when I spy Roisin walking my way, and duck back indoors, where Sofia spots me as she comes out of the kitchen.
‘Ah, Kat. Come. It’s almost lunchtime and I need a taster.’
I speed-walk towards her, in an attempt to avoid the inevitable confrontation with Roisin until I can at least order my thoughts.
‘I’m your woman,’ I say to her and feel a warm glow inside when she rewards me with a huge smile.
‘Kat, I know what happened this morning. I have a good feeling about you. We’re not going to talk about it any more. I know you’ll take care of our sloths.’
I nod vehemently. ‘I will. You can rest assured I’ll be on the ball from now on.’
She shoos me into the kitchen. ‘Now come. Taste. Lunch is in ten minutes.’
The smell as I enter the kitchen is heavenly. ‘Mmm,’ I say, my nose in the air like a Labrador at the first sign of food.
‘ Sopa de pejibaye ,’ explains Sofia before she proffers a spoonful of it for me to try.
That’s easy for her to say. I got that it’s a soup, and I can see that from what’s on the spoon, but other than thinking it looks like pumpkin soup, I have no idea what it is, apart from another phrase to add to my Spanish repertoire.
I blow on the spoonful then put it in my mouth. Wow! I may not know what this is, but it’s bloomin’ good. It’s not pumpkin. I’ll need to check the dictionary on my phone later. It’s rich, thick and creamy. Same colour as pumpkin soup, though.
‘This is delicious. You have quite the gift, Sofia.’
She grins. ‘Lots of practice with all the workers to feed.’
I smile at her. ‘What’s pejibaye? ’
She bites her bottom lip for a second and tilts her head to one side. ‘Palm fruit?’
‘Well, it’s really tasty.’
To think that all these palm trees I’ve seen around provide this bounty.
Sofia dips her head. ‘Good enough for lunch?’
‘Oh yes, definitely good enough for lunch.’
‘Would you like to help me serve up?’ she asks. ‘The hungry hordes will be here in a few minutes.’
‘I’d be honoured.’
We’ve only just prepared everything: the plates, the cutlery, the bread, the drinks, when the door opens and one after another, my team files in.
‘Yay! Sopa de pejibaye .’ Federica claps Mariangeles on the back.
Mariangeles sighs, slumps down on her chair, takes out her wallet and passes Federica a one-thousand colon note. I do some mental arithmetic. I think that’s about a pound fifty.
Federica explains in English– she really is taking this practising her language skills with me seriously. ‘She lost the bet. Once a week we bet what dish Sofia will serve. Mariangeles thought it would be pozole , but I was right.’
At my blank expression, she says, ‘ Pozole is a stew. You have that to look forward to.’ She leans in towards me and whispers, ‘I may have to coerce Sofia into making it next week as Mariangeles is bleeding me dry.’
I chuckle. They really are the dream tag team. I slide in beside them with my own bowl and tear off some of the pan casero . Its slightly sweet taste marries surprisingly well with the soup and the flavour of the coriander garnish, or culantro as they like to call it here.
My spoon is halfway to my mouth when the door opens and a laughing Roisin enters, followed by Dexter. Her eyes glint with mischief and her hand pats Dexter possessively as if he has just cracked the world’s funniest joke. His gaze meets mine and he gives me an infinitesimal nod, but it’s enough for Roisin to detect a change in him as she whirls round to face the room, ostensibly looking for a free table, but as soon as she sees me, her posture stiffens and her sharp intake of breath is almost audible. Busted.
There’s no longer any doubt in my mind that she left that door open on purpose. Knowing this makes me initially feel relieved that it definitely wasn’t down to me being negligent, but then disgusted at the fact a human being, particularly someone meant to be enough of an animal lover to want to work in a sloth sanctuary, would stoop so low, endangering an animal, a baby no less, to suit her own twisted agenda.
I imagine she wasn’t expecting to see me still here. Well, ha ha, the very man whom she has been flirting with immediately before lunch is the reason I’m still here. You’ve got to love the irony.
I hold her gaze, letting her know I know what she did. She glances away, evidently not enjoying the heat being on her. She caught me out once; it won’t happen again. I’ll be on my guard. And if she thinks she’s getting her claws or paws or whatever into Dexter, she can think again.
After lunch, Dexter stops by my table. ‘We’re going for a drive shortly.’
I think back to our drive last night and what that and then the walk culminated in, and I can only be cheered. Plus, I still need to thank him for convincing Carlos to give me a second chance.
Diagonally opposite me, Roisin bristles, despite the fact she’s supposedly in a conversation with Victor and Javier. Eavesdropping. What a surprise.
I nod to Dexter. ‘OK. Just tell me when.’
‘Meet me in the car park in ten minutes.’
‘Fine by me.’ I start clearing up and quickly excuse myself to the others at the table, all the while sensing Roisin’s eyes boring into me. Well, tough. Stuff her. She has done enough damage for one day.