Chapter 21
21
I t took two days for Cody to become verified and receive confirmation of his request. A quicker process than he’d expected, and still longer than he’d hoped for.
At the scheduled time Wednesday afternoon, he logged in to the special app he’d had to download to request a visit. He waited not-so-patiently for the connection to go through. A few moments later, an unfamiliar face appeared on the screen.
The man was lanky, with neatly cropped reddish-blond hair and small rectangular glasses that appeared large on the man’s narrow face. He wasn’t at all like what Cody had expected to see from a convict. Especially not one with the kind of vocabulary Gary had picked up from him.
Cody actually wasn’t sure what he’d expected from Anthony Montesano. Certainly someone more menacing. This man looked more likely to help Cody with his taxes than steal a parrot.
Then Cody remembered that the man was in jail for some funny tax business. Nothing violent.
Still, maybe not the guy you go to for financial help. That would be Geena.
Geena.
Nope, he couldn’t think about her right now. He had to focus on getting the information he needed from this man.
“I didn’t think I recognized the name,” Anthony said in a voice laced with soft edges. “Am I supposed to know you or something?”
“Or something.” Cody nervously adjusted the phone angle, so his own face was more clearly centered on the screen. “I’m calling about Gary.”
“Gary?” Anthony’s voice rose in pitch. “What’s wrong with Gary?”
“Nothing was wrong with Gary.” Cody used the past tense because he had no idea of Gary’s current condition. He was hoping the man on the other end of this video call could clarify that. “I’m calling to find out what you know about him over the last couple days.”
Anthony looked around the room he was in. “How am I supposed to know what’s going on with him from in here? Who are you, man? And why are you asking me about my bird?”
“I’m a keeper at the zoo you turned Gary over to.”
The man’s face scrunched. “Shouldn’t you know how he’s doing, then? What happened to my bird? He was supposed to be in good hands over there. You guys were supposed to take care of him.”
There was a sense of panic in the man’s voice that grew with each word.
There went Cody’s theory.
“I was calling to see if you knew who would want to steal Gary.”
Every visible muscle in Anthony’s lanky body clenched as his panic morphed into anger. His next words came out as a low growl. “Someone tried to take my bird?”
Crap. Cody would never have called and kicked this hornet’s nest if he thought the man had nothing to do with Gary’s disappearance.
But maybe this could be helpful, anyway.
As angry as Anthony was, if he had any idea who might have stolen Gary, he’d be sure to lead the investigation in the right direction. Because the police weren’t doing anything to help.
“Someone tried to take him from the zoo a week or so ago,” Cody explained. “But I caught them in the act. They got away, so we moved Gary offsite to live with a foster from an animal rescue group. On Sunday, someone broke into her home and stole him.”
Cody’s memory wandered back to the day Gary had been stolen. The kiss he’d shared with Geena, followed immediately by the security system notification. Geena’s guilt. Geena spending the night in his apartment.
And, least of all, the email he finally opened yesterday, and the decision he now had to make.
He shook those thoughts away and returned his attention to the man on the other end of the video call.
A vein on the side of Anthony’s neck throbbed as he inhaled and exhaled sharply, his mouth screwed in a menacing snarl.
“He was supposed to be safe with y’all,” Anthony said. “I never would have turned him over if I thought you’d be so careless.”
“We had a security system installed,” Cody said in his defense. “Whoever took him knew what they were doing, and they were after Gary in particular.”
“Why? What the hell does someone want with my bird?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Cody said. “Can you think of anyone who would do that? I thought maybe you had second thoughts and wanted him elsewhere, but maybe someone wanted to hurt you by taking him? Can you think of anyone?”
Anthony chewed over Cody’s questions with his eyes staring off at something in the distance Cody couldn’t see. Something in the jail call center. Probably just a random spot on a wall, because he was clearly lost in his thoughts and barely registering his surroundings.
After what seemed like hours but was mere seconds, Anthony returned his attention to Cody.
“I got nothing, man.”
His expression was one of helplessness. Cody figured it was killing Anthony to be stuck inside that place with no way to help find Gary. And he genuinely cared about Gary.
“If you think of anyone, will you let me know?”
Anthony blinked a few times, returning from wherever his mind had wandered. “Yeah. Yeah, yeah, of course.”
“I don’t have a business card.” Although Cody didn’t have any way of giving a card to Anthony through their video connection.
“Your name is on the call log now,” Anthony said. “I can request a call if I think of anything.”
Cody pressed his lips into a strained smile. “We’re going to do everything we can to find him.”
Not that Cody had any other leads. He’d been betting all his hopes on whatever information Anthony might have.
Turned out, that equaled a whole lot of nothing.
Anthony nodded, his face etched with worry. “Just find my bird.”
G eena held up a large carrier filled with what was left of the Memorial Day puppies. “Where are these guys going?”
Taylor slipped a leash around the neck of a dark brown pit bull mix and turned toward her sister. “Back of Austin’s SUV. He should be out there.”
“Got it.”
Geena hadn’t seen Taylor’s boyfriend’s vehicle when she got there, so he must have arrived recently to help load the animals during a rare break in the rain.
The word “rain” didn’t quite cover what had been covering the area over the past few days. After the scattered showers that had caught her and Cody at the zoo Sunday, the precipitation became relentless over the next three days. So much water fell from the sky that the nearby bayou was overflowing and threatening to cover the entire property around the shelter.
The building itself was a raised Acadian-style home, built to allow for water to build up beneath it and wash away once a nasty storm passed through. But this wasn’t just a nasty storm. This was endless sheets of torrential downpours. The water wouldn’t be receding any time soon.
That meant difficulty for the staff getting to the shelter to care for the animals without the aid of volunteers with large trucks or jeeps. It also meant that pretty soon they wouldn’t be able to walk the dogs at all.
Geena struggled to get the awkwardly balanced carrier out the door, while the puppies squirmed inside. Austin rushed to meet her at the steps, wearing a dark green poncho over his shorts and cap from practice, where he coached the local high school baseball team.
“Here, let me take that.”
“Thanks,” Geena said, handing over the carrier and letting Austin take the puppies to load them in the back of his vehicle. “I’ll go grab some more.”
“I think I can fit three, maybe four more carriers back here.”
“I’ll let them know.”
Geena headed inside to relay the information. There were definitely more than three or four carriers left to evacuate. If necessary, they could take the cats out tomorrow. If it was still raining after that, they’d have a hard time getting to the shelter in the flood waters, even with larger vehicles.
Liz placed another big carrier by the door. “How much space does he have left?”
“Three or four,” Geena said. “But I saw some cars waiting at the end of the driveway.”
They’d put out a call for emergency fosters yesterday and received a huge response from the community. They were asked to wait near the road where the water wasn’t as deep. The plan was to load up Liz's and Austin’s vehicles and drive them to meet up with the waiting fosters.
Good thing, because kitten season was in full swing, and the shelter was overrun with nursing cats and kittens. Fostering those would be easy since the momma cats did all the hard work. They just needed a safe, quiet place to care for their litters until they were large enough and old enough to be spayed or neutered and separated from their moms.
“I’ll bring some dogs to them down the driveway in a second,” Liz said. “I don’t want you sloshing out in flood waters in those shoes.”
Geena was still wearing her favorite flats and gray slacks since she’d rushed to help at the shelter right after work. “I’ll help bring more out onto the porch, at least.”
“Have at it,” Liz said, disappearing out the front door where the rain sounded like it was getting worse.
Geena’s phone buzzed with a text. It was Cody.
Her heart raced even more, despite already beating at a record pace with the stress of the evacuation. She hadn’t seen him much over the past couple of days, while they were both busy with work and animals. But seeing his name on her phone made everything feel okay just for a moment.
Got a second to talk?
He’d been checking on her regularly since Gary was taken. She’d been spending as little time at home as possible since it was so darn quiet in there without him. So most of her time was spent working late or with Taylor and the animals.
Can’t. Evacuating the shelter.
He responded immediately. Can I help?
Her racing pulse was now accompanied by a fluttering in her chest. Despite his insistence that he wasn’t a relationship person, he was one of the kindest and most helpful people she’d ever met.
Not to mention the best kisser.
But it was the information at the end of their date that really had her twisted in knots.
He wasn’t sure he would be leaving after all.
Geena hated the uncertainty of it, but she accepted she had no control over the matter. All she could do was enjoy the time they had together and try not to fall too deep until she knew what his final decision was.
We’re almost done, I think. Thanks.
Geena put her phone in her pocket and headed down the hall where Sierra and Taylor were loading animals into crates. Before she could ask which were ready, her phone rang.
She pulled it out and put it to her ear awkwardly while she reached with her other hand for one of the smaller carriers that would fit in Liz’s car.
“We’ve got it handled, I promise.”
“Do you? Because the mediator said he’s still waiting for you to turn in our tax returns from the last three years.”
The voice didn’t belong to Cody. Instead, it was the voice of someone she’d been trying to reach for the past three days.
And, yes. She had forgotten to forward those forms to the mediator. In her defense, she’d been a little busy. Not to mention all the time they’d wasted until now waiting on his declarations.
“Now you’re calling me back?” Geena couldn’t believe Ricky’s timing. “I’m busy. I’ll call you in a couple hours.”
“I won’t be here. I’m heading out with Deidre.”
Geena was tempted to ask him what happened to Monica, but she didn’t care, and she didn’t have time for his answer. She had something more pressing to ask.
“Fine then. What did you do with that parrot? I know you wouldn’t get your own hands dirty, but I know you know where he is.”
There was a long stretch of silence, then, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What parrot?”
“The one you heard in the background on our phone call last week. The one that belonged to your client, Anthony Montesano. And I know you’ve been getting paid by him off the books.”
Technically, she didn’t know that last part for sure. But he didn’t bother denying the accusation either.
“Geena, have you lost your mind?” There was another brief pause, then he stammered, “Wait, you have Tony’s bird?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Ricky.” She put the carrier containing a fluffy orange and white cat on the ground beside her so she could finish the call without jostling the poor guy as she fumed in frustration. “I know you took him. You heard him at my place, and you must have heard him on your calls with your client. You put two and two together and what? You thought you could sell him? Maybe ransom him from Anthony?”
“Ransom? Geena, are you on something? I didn’t take that bird.”
Her stomach clenched with the sinking feeling that she was on the wrong track. Ricky was a liar and a miserable excuse for a human, but he wasn’t a great actor.
“Then who did?”
“How am I supposed to know? I was just calling to see if you had our tax returns ready.”
She didn’t even feel guilty about making him wait on those. With all of his previous stalling, he could wait another day. Or longer, if she was back to square one with figuring out who took Gary.
“A little busy evacuating animals. I’ll get to it when I get to it.”
She didn’t wait for a response and ended the call with a hard stab at the screen.
“That sounded intense.” Taylor met Geena with carriers full of small kittens in each hand as they walked to the front together. “If you’re grilling that jerk of an ex, I take it there’s no word on Gary yet?”
“Not yet.” Geena placed her orange cat on the porch lined up with the other carriers. The rain fell in sheets on the roof above them, making it hard to hear anything. Geena raised her voice to a shout. “I thought for sure he’d know something since Gary’s owner had been a client of his.”
Sierra placed her carriers in line and looked at Geena with wide eyes. “Seriously?”
Geena nodded.
She wasn’t sure what else to say. She’d run out of breadcrumbs to chase, and the police weren’t helping at all. They gave the impression they couldn’t care less about a stolen bird.
All she could hope for was that Cody had thought of something. Or someone.
But she couldn’t call him now. The rain was too noisy, and they had too much work to do.
“I’ll worry about Gary more later,” she said.
It was Sierra’s turn to nod as Austin returned to the porch along with Marc, Sierra’s boyfriend, who had also shown up. “Go grab whoever’s left with Taylor. We’ll get these carriers loaded.”
Geena gave a silent salute and headed back inside to help her sister finish clearing the shelter.