Chapter 36
The first thing they needed to do was to lure the lions away from their prey.
It was a problem Wesley and Gerry had never encountered before in their working lives, and if anyone had told them it was something they’d have to face one day, in all likelihood they would have laughed.
Gunmen and knife-wielding maniacs maybe – but man-eating lions were hardly common in south Devon.
Frantic phone calls were made, and eventually Gerry’s son, Sam, came up with the solution. He called his contacts at another local zoo and arranged for a couple of vets armed with tranquilliser guns to rush to the scene. ‘Good to have friends in high places,’ Gerry remarked.
Instead of watching helplessly while the lionesses played idly with their prey, Wesley took a stunned Gerry’s arm and steered him away.
‘Let’s see if we can find Gadson.’
‘You don’t think that’s him in there?’
‘Hard to tell. The girl on the ticket desk might have some idea who’s on the premises.’
As they retraced their steps, they heard sirens. The backup they’d ordered had arrived. But there was nothing to be done until the tranquilliser darts had taken effect.
The girl looked bored as they approached the desk.
Officers were piling out of the two police cars that had rushed to the scene, and Gerry hurried over to give them a quick briefing, outlining the dangerous situation and warning them that they might have to hang around for a while until help arrived.
This left Wesley to question the girl alone, and as the officers rushed past, her bored expression changed to one of excitement.
‘Where’s Mr Gadson?’ he asked.
‘Isn’t he in his office?’
‘No. Do you know where he might be? Might he have gone home?’
She shrugged. ‘He usually lets me know.’
‘Only he wanted to tell us something. Any idea what that was?’
‘Dunno. When I saw him first thing, he said you might call round,’ said the girl. She suddenly looked worried. ‘Has something happened?’
Wesley ignored her question. ‘Has anyone else visited the zoo this morning?’
‘There were a few punters earlier, but nobody for the last couple of hours.’
‘You saw the visitors leave?’
She shook her head. ‘The exit’s at the other end. They don’t have to pass me on their way out.’
‘So anyone could have hung around?’
‘They don’t usually want to,’ she admitted with refreshing honesty. ‘But I suppose so. Or someone might have slipped in through the exit.’
‘Is that possible?’
‘Oh yeah. But people don’t generally know about it.’
In Wesley’s opinion, it was a haphazard way to run a zoo inhabited by dangerous animals. He was surprised the place hadn’t been closed down a long time ago. Perhaps, he thought, the new fatality had been an accident waiting to happen.
‘Are there any other staff here?’
‘There’s Craig, but it’s his day off.’
‘Today’s visitors – have you got their details?’
‘Only the three that paid by credit card. Two paid with cash.’
‘We’ll need the credit card details. What about CCTV?’
‘Dale had some put in a few years ago. But it’s bust. Not worked for ages.’
A van had just drawn up by the entrance, and two men in polo shirts emerged, armed with what Wesley assumed were tranquilliser guns. The cavalry had arrived.
‘Anything else you can tell me?’
‘That Jim Baker turned up a couple of hours ago. But he’s often here. Dale lets him in to draw the animals. He’s an artist, you see.’
‘And you don’t know whether he left?’
‘No, I don’t,’ she said in a whisper.
It took a while to deal with the situation at the zoo.
Colin Bowman was called out, and as soon as he arrived, he ventured into the now empty enclosure and pronounced life extinct.
The corpse was badly mauled, but it was definitely male.
The girl on the entry desk had been asked what Dale Gadson was wearing that day and she’d given a remarkably good description.
From what was left of the tattered clothing, it seemed that Gadson had fallen prey to his own beasts.
The people who had visited the zoo that morning needed to be questioned, although tracing the two who had paid in cash might prove difficult.
Officers had started working on the problem, but in the meantime, Wesley and Gerry needed to speak to Jim Baker as a matter of urgency.
The death might have been a nasty accident; Gadson might have been attacked by the animals when he entered their enclosure to feed them.
On the other hand, he had contacted Gerry the previous day saying he had something important to tell him, and Wesley didn’t believe in coincidences.
When they called at Jim Baker’s bungalow, there was nobody at home, so they messaged all patrols. They wanted Baker brought in for questioning as soon as possible.
The CSIs were hard at work and the lions had already been transported to another zoo out of harm’s way, so there was nothing more to be done in East Burrington.
However, their plans to visit Ethelred Bingley’s daughter would have to be put on hold until tomorrow, which Wesley found frustrating.
If anyone knew who’d been living at St Julian’s in the weeks before Timothy Fontescue-Burns took possession, it would be Penny Worksop.
Once they were back in Tradmouth, Gerry summoned the team together to break the news about Dale Gadson. Initially his words were met with stunned silence. ‘What a horrible way to go,’ Rob muttered, voicing what Wesley imagined they were all thinking.
‘We’ve got a team searching Gadson’s office and his house round the back of the zoo,’ said Gerry.
‘We know he was a heavy drinker, so if he somehow found his way into that enclosure when he’d had a few, it might have been an accident.
But he asked to speak to us, so we have to consider the possibility that he was murdered to stop him talking.
Tracing everyone who was at the zoo today is already in hand, but let’s put out an appeal for any dashcam or video doorbell footage from the immediate area. Just in case. Belt and braces.’
There was a murmur of assent. They’d get onto it.
A couple of hours later, Rob Carter came rushing over to Wesley’s desk. He sounded excited.
‘A van driver saw our appeal on social media. He was making a delivery in East Burrington and he parked by the zoo. He’s got some dashcam footage.’