Chapter 6
6
T he man withdrew his arm from the cage and darted toward the door.
Cody followed, but the man had long legs and a head start. Cody skidded to a stop at the door frame. There was no way to know if anyone else was hiding in the room, and he didn’t want to leave Kayleigh alone to find out.
Reluctantly, he watched the man disappear around the corner of the gift shop.
Cody then turned to make sure Kayleigh was okay. She was aiming her phone at him, the flashlight beam trembling ever so slightly.
He flipped on the room light and approached her. “You all right?”
He touched her arm gently, nodding at the phone. She nodded back and turned off the phone’s flashlight.
“Can you call for the police while I make a pass around here?” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Just to see if they took anything.”
No need to let her on to his real concern that someone else might be lingering in a corner or behind the huge prep table.
She was clearly worried about the same thing, as evidenced by her eyes darting around the room. But she nodded anyway and began dialing.
He squeezed her forearm and whispered, “Thanks.”
Then he left her to make the call while he took care of other tasks.
First things first.
Cody closed the birdcage door. Gary, however, didn’t look like he wanted to leave the safety of his cage any time soon.
Next, Cody made a casual pass around the room, trying to make it seem as if he was searching for missing whats instead of any additional whos .
The room was clear of both.
On his way back past the cage, he tripped over an empty carrier. A carrier that didn’t belong out in the middle of the floor, especially since there were no other animals except Gary in there.
Upon further inspection, Cody concluded this carrier didn’t even belong to the zoo. All of their carriers were a beige shade of plastic with the initials of the zoo scrawled in permanent marker on the top.
This carrier was light blue with no writing on it.
His head snapped up as his brain locked on to what had just happened. Then, his eyes took aim at the center of it all.
“Shit stain!”
“You got that right, buddy,” Cody said.
Whoever had been in there had been planning to leave with this bird.
But why?
His first thought went to the owner. Surrender’s remorse? It happened. People surrendered custody of their animals to zoos and shelters for various reasons, then wanted them back.
But this guy’s owner was still in jail. As far as Cody knew, at least. If the person had gotten out of jail, they would have contacted the zoo. In that case, surely someone would have told Cody.
“The police are on their way.” Kayleigh’s voice was steady now. Her confidence had returned.
If only his had.
Cody had even more questions than before. All he knew was he would be here a while, filing a police report and informing his boss of what happened. Plus, he needed to make sure Kayleigh got home safe.
And then?
“We’re all fucked!”
Exactly.
What the hell was he going to do with this bird? He couldn’t very well leave him here. Not knowing that someone had tried to birdnap Gary. Especially since that someone was still loose.
Cody had let them run loose.
Not that he’d had much of a choice.
Still, it was his fault. And it was his mess to clean up. His job to keep Gary safe.
He could think of only one way to do that.
“ D on’t be mad.”
Geena pulled the phone away from her ear, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed. After a backwards count from five, her standard pause to cool any stressful response, she pressed the phone to her ear again. “What did you do?”
“I’m outside. Come let me in.”
“Taylor, it’s midnight .”
“I know, which is why I’d really rather not stand out here all night waiting for you to unlock the door.”
She considered leaving her sister outside, but only for a second. They both knew she’d let her in eventually, so no point wasting both of their nights in a pointless game of chicken.
With the phone still at her ear, Geena slipped on her gray terry robe and walked to the front door of her townhouse. Normally she would have been asleep already, but she’d gotten sucked into a documentary involving a moldy leggings empire.
She opened the door and found her sister matching her stance with her own phone against her ear. Taylor looked her up and down and grimaced at Geena’s Christmas llama pajama pants.
Taylor lowered her phone as her grimace transformed into a giggle. “Sorry. Didn’t realize you’d answer the door in that.”
“Again, it’s midnight , Taylor.” Geena frowned at her sister. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me in pajamas before now.”
With another grimace, Taylor said, “Yeah, but he hasn’t.”
She aimed a thumb at the side, and an all-too-familiar-now face appeared around the doorframe.
Cody waved awkwardly. “Hi. Sorry.”
Geena pulled her robe tight against her body, assuring it was closed, and everything was covered up.
“What are you doing here?” She looked at Taylor with wide eyes, unable to come up with a single reason either of them should be on her doorstep so late. “What are both of you doing here?”
“I couldn’t very well send him here by himself at this hour.” Taylor smiled as if she were proud of herself.
Of course she was.
“And why is he here?” Geena tugged at her robe again.
Cody frowned at the back of Taylor’s head. “She was supposed to tell you that before I got here.”
Taylor shrugged and smiled some more. “It’s easier this way.”
“Easier for who?” Geena shrieked. Then she counted backwards from five again and lowered her voice. “Someone tell me what’s going on right now.”
“I told you not to be mad,” Taylor repeated. “You know how we’re working on that foster program, but don’t really have it up and running the way we need it to yet?”
“Yes.” The words sank in, and Geena’s stomach sank right along with them. “Oh no. You brought me a dog. In the middle of the night. Taylor, I can’t take care of a dog!”
Taylor put her hands up in defense. “Good news: not a dog.”
A cat, then. She could maybe make a cat work.
She didn’t see a carrier on the porch or in anyone’s hand, though. “Where is it?”
With a nod to the side, Taylor said, “His car.”
Why would a cat be in Cody’s car?
Oh no.
It wouldn’t be in Cody’s vehicle instead of Taylor’s new little hatchback unless it was a big cat. Or even a small one. Zoo cats had feral pee smells.
Then it hit her.
No one ever said this was a cat.
She looked at Cody with her jaw clenched. “You can’t be serious.”
“There was an issue at the zoo. He can’t safely stay there tonight, and I can’t keep him at my place. My landlord will kick me out the second he hears a peep out of him.”
At least he had the decency to look apologetic about his presence on Geena’s doorstep.
Geena’s sister, on the other hand, looked as if she could make this all okay with just that sunshine smile of hers.
“And Tink would lose his mind if I brought a bird into our house. So you’re our only hope,” Taylor insisted. “Gary’s only hope.”
Geena looked back and forth between them, fuming as she tried to find the words to tell them no. Absolutely not. No way in this lifetime.
But she couldn’t.
They needed help, and as much as she didn’t like it, she could help with this.
At least for a day or two.
“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “But only temporarily. Very temporarily.”
Taylor clapped her hands excitedly. “Thank you, thank you!”
Cody looked as if she’d lifted a fifty-pound weight from his shoulders. Or, at least, a bird-sized weight.
“Thank you.”
His words and eyes held such an overwhelming sincerity that Geena felt herself lost in them. She hadn’t remembered really looking into his eyes before now. His gaze was warm and open, and Geena wondered how she hadn’t noticed that about them.
“Hey, Cody! This thing is losing its shit in here!”
Geena looked past them both to search for the owner of that voice. She found it in the form of a statuesque woman at least five years Geena’s junior with dark reddish brown hair that seemed to have a bouncy life of its own.
She turned to glare at Cody with a raised brow. “You brought a date with you to drop a pissed-off parrot at my door? Bold move.”
It was his turn to raise his hands in defense. “He wasn’t pissed off while I was in the car, I promise.” He shrugged. “I didn’t want to make her call for a ride, and you were on the way.”
She should cut him some slack for being concerned about the woman’s wellbeing, but she wasn’t feeling very charitable at the moment.
Also, it was midnight.
Plus, he had a parrot in his car and a date on her walkway.
“Whatever.” She opened the door wider and stood to the side. “But I’m not helping carry that thing in here.”