Tiger Trap (6 page)

“Come, come, Sarah, I’ve seen you watching me and I know you well enough to figure you have an opinion. I’d like to hear it.”

He stared straight at me, his arms folded across his chest, that smirk getting even larger.

“Well, I guess at the very beginning I was a little bit uneasy about —”

“Sarah, before you continue, please remember that you are, without a doubt, the
worst
liar I’ve ever met in my entire life. So I suggest that rather than embarrass us both that you simply tell me your real opinion.”

I felt stunned. What was I supposed to say now? I stood silently.

“If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all, huh?” His smirk grew bigger again. “You probably think I don’t have feelings, so there’s no danger of you hurting them.” He lifted his left foot and rubbed the toe of his boot against the back of the other leg. “Just go ahead and spit it out.”

“I don’t like you!” I snapped, the words jumping out before I could stop myself.

His smirk softened into a smile. “I suppose you don’t trust me at all, either.”

“Not as far as I can throw you.”

“And you don’t think I even like animals.”

“You like money and the animals are nothing more than money to you!”

“Further, you hate these boots,” he said, gesturing at his shiny, shorn feet.

I nodded enthusiastically.

“They’re very comfortable. Do you know what they’re made of?”

This time I shook my head.

“It’s caiman. I don’t imagine you even know what a caiman is.”

“It’s like an alligator from South America. Some types are very rare and endangered.”

“Actually,
these
are made from a very rare type.”

I shuddered. I wasn’t surprised, but I was still offended.

“Now I’d like to tell you what I think of you,” Anthony said.

I didn’t care what he thought of me, but I still didn’t want to hear it. What awful thing was he going to say about me? I braced myself.

“I like you.”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed.

“I do. And the reason I like you is because you remind me very much of a younger version of me.”

I was expecting him to insult me, but this was really hitting below the belt.

“And I’ll tell you why,” he continued. “You and I are both, by nature, very observant and very analytical. We’re both always trying to figure out what’s going on around us. Watching, observing, predicting, trying to foresee every possible consequence and then strategizing how to handle them all.”

I remained silent. Just because that was how I was didn’t mean I had to agree with him.

“You’re very smart and do well,
very
well, in school. Partially, that’s because you’re clever, but also, partially, it’s because you simply outwork everybody else. And finally, you not only want, but you need, to be in control. It bothers you when somebody else is in control, and that’s perhaps why you don’t like me.”

“There could be lots of reasons why I don’t like you,” I added.

“Regardless, I still like you. I even admire you.” He paused. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get in the way of what needs to be done. Remember that.”

He turned and walked away, and I felt an eerie chill spread throughout my entire body.

I opened up the freezer. The new freezer. It was packed to the brim with meat. Anthony had not only bought a new freezer but he’d worked out some deal with a meat packer so we could get all of the meat we needed. It came pre-packaged, all wrapped up in brown paper, labelled and weighed. I wondered how much he was paying for the meat, but it really didn’t matter. There seemed to be enough money for everything.

“Everything” included the two men who had been hired to help around the farm. Their names were Bob and Doug, and they were doing a whole lot of the work involving cleaning the pens and feeding the animals. I still helped out with Buddha and Kushna, but that was because I liked to. The only job that was mine to do most of the time was the feeding of Kanga and Roo. They had gotten so much bigger and stronger over the past seven weeks. They’d let other people feed them — and that was wonderful because I couldn’t be there every day and every night for every feeding — but when they saw me coming they ignored everybody else completely. I was proud of my little joeys.

Nick was pretty happy letting the two men do most of the work. He spent a great deal of his time playing with or riding Peanuts. My brother loved that elephant and couldn’t wait until more elephants appeared.

It was funny, but the first time I’d met the two new men I didn’t think I’d like them. Partly because they were hired by Anthony and partly because they both actually looked like him. They had the same short hair, stiff backs and muscular builds as he did. To be honest, though, they actually resembled the way he
used
to look rather than the way he appeared now.

In the time since Anthony had arrived he’d let his hair grow and he now sported a funny little goatee on his face. I never trusted anybody with a goatee. On his head he had a big black stetson, which made him look like the bad guy in a bad western. And now he almost always wore a pair of dark-tinted sunglasses. He even wore them when it wasn’t sunny outside or when he was sitting at the kitchen table in the farmhouse. You couldn’t see his eyes, or where he was looking, but I knew those dark eyes were scanning the room, planning, plotting, scheming.

I’d tried to talk to Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir about what I was thinking, but it was clear they really didn’t want to know. They were busy and happy, and it probably wasn’t right to bother or worry them when I really didn’t have any solid reasons to support my worries. Talking to Nick was useless — even more useless than usual. He liked Anthony and was just waiting for the new elephants to start arriving.

When I finally spoke to my mother, she played her lawyer role. It was as if I were being questioned on the witness stand. She cross-examined me to see what evidence I had to support my beliefs. She wanted the facts and nothing but the facts. But, of course, there weren’t any. Since Anthony had come, there were more animals, better pens, no worries about food or the future and the attendance had actually risen instead of doing what I’d predicted. I didn’t like being wrong, even when it meant good news.

My mother even had the nerve to suggest that since Anthony had arrived everything was being taken care of and maybe that was why I didn’t like him — because I wasn’t needed as much. I got so mad when she said that. What I really needed was a mother who would listen to me instead of treating me like part of a court proceeding. She was in the middle of some big trial and, like always, she got more “lawyerly” when that was happening.

“Sarah!” Nick yelled. “Did you see the big truck that just arrived?”

“If it just arrived and I’m here, what do you think?”

“Just asking. It’s an animal truck with lots of cages inside.”

“Are there any animals in those cages?” I asked.

“Empty,” he said. “I looked inside. What do you think that means?”

It seemed pretty obvious to me. If the truck was empty, it was perhaps coming here to get filled.

“Strange thing,” Nick said. “I saw the driver get out of the truck, and he looked familiar to me.”

“He did?”

Nick nodded. “And it’s bugging me that I know I know him, but I just can’t figure out where or why.”

“Where is he now?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. He and Anthony went off together.”

“He knows Anthony?”

“Looked like it. Either that or he came here to meet with him.”

Anybody who knew Anthony or was here to meet him made me uneasy.

“I was thinking that if you think you know this guy, then maybe I know him, too,” I said. “If you showed him to me, I might be able to solve the mystery.” I wanted to see what was going on. Maybe I was my mother’s daughter because I was looking for evidence.

“That makes sense,” Nick said.

I closed the door of the freezer. “Where do you think they might be now?”

“Could be anywhere, but I know how we can find out. Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the place with the best view in Tiger Town,” Nick said.

“We’re going to the silo?”

He laughed. “The control room.”

I hadn’t been in there, but Nick had told me that the control room was where all the cameras fed back their pictures.

“Those cameras see almost all of the farm,” Nick said.

“But won’t it be locked?” I asked.

“It’s always locked. There are tens of thousands of dollars of equipment in there.”

“Then it’s not going to do us any good to go there.”

“I said it was locked. I didn’t say I don’t know the combination to get in. Let’s go.”

I trailed Nick out of the stable and around the side of the barn. He cut between two pens, each holding a jaguar. There were pairs of green eyes staring at us from both sides as we moved down the narrow aisle between the enclosures. I knew neither cat could get out to pounce on us, but I wondered if either could hook out a paw far enough between the bars to take a little swipe as we passed.

“I can’t wait until we get another elephant,” Nick said. “That’s why I went to check out the truck. It was big enough to hold an elephant.”

Or take one away, I thought, but kept silent. “You went to check out the truck because you’re nosy,” I said.

“That, too. Vladimir said he’ll even let me help train the new ones.”

“That’s exciting,” I agreed. Assuming there were going to be other elephants. Then again, why did I doubt Anthony? It wasn’t as if animals didn’t keep appearing. At last count — and that count changed regularly — we had added four tigers, two lions, a bear, some gazelles and over two dozen parrots. He’d said that parrots were going to increase our “revenue stream” dramatically.

I thought it would have been nice to let Polly play with or talk to the new parrots, but he wasn’t allowed. Anthony said he was protecting Polly from possible “infections” that the new birds might be carrying. I thought it had more to do with the fact that he didn’t want Polly to “infect” the new birds with any of his language.

Nick stopped at the door of the control room. It was at the back end of the new snack bar. The building had been finished three weeks ago, and I’d never been in either part of it. Nick bent over and punched some numbers into the keypad. The door beeped and then popped open. Nick pushed it open, and I followed him inside.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but this wasn’t it. On the wall was a bank of television screens, six in all, showing different views of Tiger Town!

“Pretty impressive, huh?” Nick asked.

“Pretty scary. I knew there were cameras. I just didn’t know how much they were watching.” My eyes jumped from one screen to the next to the next. “But I don’t see Anthony on any of the screens.”

“We’ll just have to look around a little.” Nick sat down on a chair in front of a big control console underneath the screens. He pushed a button, and one of the screens changed to a different scene. Nick continued to hit buttons, and the different screens switched to different views.

There had to be dozens and dozens of cameras. It was amazing … and troubling. Why would anybody want that many cameras?

“There they are,” Nick said, pointing up at one of the screens.

I moved closer, but the figures were so small that I couldn’t make out much of anything. If it wasn’t for that big black cowboy hat, I wouldn’t have been able to tell it was Anthony, so I certainly couldn’t make out the features of the other man to see if I knew him. They were standing in front of the pen of one of the new tigers.

I’d asked Anthony what the tiger’s name was, and he had told me it didn’t have one and that it wasn’t necessarily going to be around long enough for us to give him one. Was this guy a potential buyer?

“Does he look familiar to you?” Nick asked.

“Familiar? From what I can see I can hardly tell he’s the same species as us. Let’s go and have a closer look.”

“We can have a closer look without going anywhere.” Nick reached over and turned a knob on the console, and as he twisted it, the camera zoomed in closer and closer until the images of the two men filled the screen. “Is that better?”

“If seeing more of Anthony is better, then it’s a whole lot better.”

“I don’t know why you don’t like him,” Nick said.

“How much time do you have? Because it’ll take a long time to explain it.”

“I’ve got no time to waste listening to you. So just tell me. Do you think that guy looks familiar? Do you know who he is?”

I’d been focusing so much on my bad feelings about Anthony that I’d forgotten why we were here in the first place. I turned my attention to the screen.

The other man was older and heavy-set. He wore a white safari suit — the kind you see people wear on those animal television shows where they track wild beasts or play with poisonous snakes or crocodiles. His hair was thinning and his face was bloated. His skin seemed to glisten as if it were oily.

“He looks
so
familiar,” Nick said. “Does he look familiar to you?”

“He looks like a whole bunch of people who — oh, my goodness!” I gasped. “I
do
know who he is.”

“You do? That’s great! So who is he?”

As I watched, the stranger and Anthony both broke into smiles and shook hands as if they’d come to some sort of agreement. If that man was who I thought he was, that agreement could mean the death of one of the tigers.

“Sarah!” Nick said, tapping me on the arm and breaking me out of my trance.

“Yeah?”

“You said you know who he is.”

“I do and I think I know why he’s here.”

“Why? Why is he here?” Nick asked.

“He’s come to buy one of the tigers … so he can slaughter it.”

“Sarah, where are you going?” Nick demanded.

“I’m going to save the tiger!” I yelled over my shoulder as I ran from the control room. “We have to find Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy!”

“Sarah, stop!”

“There’s no time to —” I was suddenly halted in my tracks and spun around as Nick grabbed my arm.

“We better have time, because I have no idea what you’re talking about and we’re not going anywhere until you tell me. Who is that man and why do you think the tiger’s in danger?”

For a second I thought about shaking Nick off, breaking free and running away, but I didn’t have time to fight him right now. It was better to explain quickly. “Let go of my arm and I’ll tell you.”

He released his grip.

“You recognize that man from last summer,” I said.

“I met lots of people last summer, but I don’t think he was one of them.”

“I didn’t say you met him, but you did see him at the Armstrong animal camp.” Nick and I had spent a week at an exotic animal camp — a present from our father. He thought that because of all the contact we’d had with Mr. McCurdy and his animals we’d just naturally want to go to that camp. We’d gone. What we’d found was a rundown place with animals on the verge of being sold off into illegal trade. Through the help of Vladimir — the one employee of the camp — and Mr. McCurdy, we were able to foil the plans of the owners and rescue the animals. Many of those animals had come with Vladimir when he started working with Mr. McCurdy.

“The only men I remember from last summer are Vladimir and that awful Mr. Armstrong,” Nick said.

Mr. Armstrong and his wife had inherited the camp from his father. He didn’t like animals. And the only things his wife had seemed to like were new shoes. Mr. Armstrong kept selling off the animals to pay for her shopping sprees.

“And unless Mr. Armstrong gained a lot of weight, lost most of his hair and got thirty years older in two months, this guy isn’t him,” Nick said.

“It isn’t Mr. Armstrong, but you saw him when he was
with
Mr. Armstrong.”

“I did?”

“It was at night and it was dark.”

“Isn’t it usually dark at night, Sarah?” Nick asked.

“Shut up, quit being such a smart aleck and think!” I snapped.

“I still don’t —”

“That’s the guy who was trying to buy Kushna so he could kill him and sell off the body parts!”

Nick’s eyes widened and his mouth opened, but he didn’t say anything. Wow, Nick shocked into silence. Where was a camera when you needed one?

Finally, he spoke. “Sarah … are you positive?”

“Not a million percent, but I know it’s him. I’m positive … almost completely.”

“It was dark and it was just in the headlights of the car and we didn’t see him for long and we weren’t even that close,” Nick said.

“Long enough, close enough and enough light for you to recognize him and for me to see and remember him.”

“Enough of all of that for me to think that
maybe
I recognized him,” Nick said. “But that doesn’t mean I recognized him from there.”

“It’s
him
and it’s from
there
,” I said, stressing my words. “And that means he can only be here for one reason. We have to get Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir and we have to stop him.”

I turned away with the intention of moving again, but Nick grabbed my arm once more to stop me. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

“I’m stopping you from making a total fool of yourself.”

“What?”

“You think that everybody is up to no good with these animals. You’re getting paranoid about everything.”

“I’m not getting paranoid about anything!” I shouted.

“Aren’t you? What about Anthony? You think he’s bad and you see him shaking hands with this guy, so you figure he’s bad, too, and then your mind clicks back to a bad guy who looks like this guy. You put two and two together and you get five.”

“Are you crazy?” I gasped.

“I’m not the one making strange connections and leaping to wild conclusions,” Nick said.

I opened my mouth to argue, then stopped myself. I knew there was nothing I could say to convince Nick. His mind was made up, and it was such a tiny place that there wasn’t much room for facts or information. Actually, I didn’t have any more facts or information. But I knew I was right. I was positive.
Completely
positive. Well,
almost
completely positive. Nick had planted a seed of doubt in my mind.

“Nick, I want you to listen to me very closely.”

“I’m listening.”

“First, I know you don’t believe me, but believe
this
. If you don’t remove your hand from my arm, I’m going to break it off.”

Nick looked shocked, but his hand stayed put.

“Now!” I yelled, and Nick let go. “Second, I don’t care if you don’t believe me because you’re still going to do what I tell you to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“You’re going to go up to the farmhouse and find Mr. McCurdy and Vladimir — that’s where they were headed the last time I talked to them. And you’re going to tell them there’s an emergency and get them down to the tiger pens as quickly as possible.”

“And what are you going to be doing while I’m doing that?”

“I’m going straight to the pens. I’m going to delay things, maybe even explain to Anthony who this guy is and —”

“Who you
think
he is,” Nick said, cutting me off.

“Who I
know
he is.”

“Sarah, you need to stop and think things through a second time before you do anything.”

“This is coming from you?” I cried. “The king of act first, think never?”

“Especially coming from me. I’ve had lots of practice being wrong. Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in if you’re wrong?”

“Not as much trouble as that tiger is going to be in if I’m right and we don’t do anything.”

Nick didn’t answer right away. That meant he was thinking. That probably meant he knew we had no choice. “Okay, I’ll go, but you make sure when this explodes in our faces that everybody knows that none of this was my idea.”

“I’ll explain everything to them if you just hurry.”

“I’ll hurry. After all, it’s not every day that it’s you who looks like an idiot instead of me.” He turned and began to run off.

“Nick!” I yelled. He skidded to a stop and turned around. “Tell Mr. McCurdy to bring his gun.” Nick nodded, then started off again.

I ran in the other direction. It was a good distance from here to the far side of the barn. I just hoped I wasn’t too late. I had to get there in time. Of course, what was I going to say when I did arrive? At least I was reassured to know that while I’d seen this man before, he’d never seen me. I had been hiding in the trees in the dark, so he’d never seen my face. He probably didn’t even know I existed. I just had to slow things down, sort of get in the way so Anthony and the man couldn’t talk or conclude any business before Mr. McCurdy arrived. If worse came to worst, I’d just pull Anthony to the side, tell him I had something very personal to talk to him about and explain it. It would be worth it to see that smug little smile wiped off his face. That is, if he believed me. It was a pretty wild story … unless he already knew who this guy was. I put on the brakes.

My mind was filled with a terrible thought. Maybe Anthony would have no difficulty believing me because he already knew who this guy was and why he was here and he was part of it. Perhaps this was the evidence I’d needed that he was up to no good himself and was planning on selling the tiger for body parts. That was how he was going to pay for all those expensive gadgets and still make a profit!

What was he going to say when I barged in and tried to put a stop to his business and cost him tens of thousands of dollars? He’d already warned me not to get in his way. Is that what he had meant?

More important than what he might say is what he might do. I couldn’t even let myself think about that because if I did I wouldn’t be able to act and do what I had to do.

I started running again. I just had to hope that Nick had found Vladimir and Mr. McCurdy and had convinced them to come and that they’d be there soon. That was assuming Nick had even found them. What if they weren’t at the farmhouse anymore? They could be anywhere, including here. Maybe they were close, within earshot of me right here.

“Vladimir!” I yelled as loud as my lungs would allow with the oxygen that wasn’t driving my legs. “Mr. McCurdy! Vladimir!”

It wasn’t that much farther now. It was just up ahead, just around the barn and — I was grabbed from behind, a hand was clamped over my mouth and I was lifted right off the ground!