Page 104 of Tiger Queen
Mary Beth grunted in the affirmative. “The service has been trying to get someone on the inside of Crazy Carl’s Zoo for years. Tough to do when the owner is a paranoid psychopath!”
“We weren’t as thorough with the hiring process.”
“Nope! It’s funny, because I was disappointed at first. You guys were doing everything right. You ceased all breeding, closed the zoo, and stopped the dangerous photos. You even insisted on moving the animals to accredited locations, instead of just selling them to whichever private buyer you could find. Working undercover is boring when nothing illegal is going on!”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I said with a grin.
“We were going to drop the case entirely, but one of the analysts back at the office was certain that Carl Haines was still alive. It wasn’t the first fishy plane crash death out of Costa Rica, so they let me stick around at the zoo in case he popped back up. Good thing I did, huh!”
“Wow,” I shook my head. “This makes me feel better about yelling at you in the trailer. I knew you were hiding something all along.”
“Oh man, yeah!” she replied. “I thought I was caught for sure! It would’ve looked really bad for me to blow my cover. The boys back at the office never would have let me live that down. I’m glad Brandon finally tipped his hand and got you guys off my back.”
“Me too.”
We drove to a police station outside of Fayetteville. I was led into an interrogation room where Mary Beth and another US Fish and Wildlife agent questioned me about everything that had happened. I spent an hour answering their questions and detailing the events of that morning, from finding Carl in the house to almost being decapitated by the band saw to the car crash on the main road. It was an intimidating process even though I knew I was innocent, and I was when it was over.
While the boys were questioned, Mary Beth brought me some coffee in the police waiting room and told me what they knew. Carl had been using a fake name in Costa Rica: Carlos Vaquero. He returned to the United States four days ago, driving up through Mexico before crossing the border. It turned out that he had been using the fake name for over a year to siphon money into a separate bank account to use after he faked his death. It wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment plan.
“He even had a safety deposit box at a bank in Fayetteville,” Mary Beth told me. “We’re waiting on a judge to sign a warrant to let us open that up. God knows what we’ll find inside.”
“None of this feels real,” I admitted. “Hours ago I was sitting in bed, unable to sleep. Now the whole world has been turned upside-down.”
“You’re in shock. It’ll wear off in a few days and hit you like a sucker punch. Be ready for it.” Mary Beth held her coffee with both hands and studied me. “Can I give you some advice?”
I frowned. “Advice about what?”
She looked around to make sure the desk officer wasn’t listening, then lowered her voice. “This thing you have going on with the Haines boys? I’ll admit: it’s weird as heck! Dating three men at the same time…”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Rachel. Come on. I’ve been watching everything at the zoo for weeks. And you guys haven’t exactly kept it a secret. Kissing every chance you get, playing grab-ass in the zoo while working…”
“Okay, okay, you caught us,” I said. “What about it?”
“Like I said, I thought it was crazy at first. Especially since they’re brothers. I thought it would blow up in your face and they would fight over you, but…”
She paused as two officers walked by, and waited until they were gone to resume.
“The way they’re sharing you… It looks like it works. If anything, the three of them get along better while they’re with you than they did at first. And I’ve never seen three men so devoted to someone as they are to you. They care deeply about you. Maybe it’s love, even.”
“I don’t know about all that…” I said, though everything she said felt true.
“The advice I wanted to give you: find a way to stay together. What you have with them is special. Don’t let it slip away.”
“I’m going to Kenya,” I said. “When we move the animals, I’m going with them to work in the park for three years. It’s my dream job.” I took a deep breath, because what I was going to say next hurt to say out loud. “I can’t just give up my dream job for them, even if it’s true love.”
Mary Beth winced. “Yeah, good point. The last thing you want to do is sacrifice your whole future for them. Deep down, you’ll always hold it against them. I don’t know, then. That’s tough.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It is.”
The three men came walking down the hallway then. Jake looked furious, Anthony looked stoic, and David appeared disappointed.
I jumped up and hugged them. “How was it? Did you get to speak to your father?”
“Oh, we spoke to him alright,” Jake growled angrily.
“They gave us five minutes,” David said. “We spent the time asking him about everything. Why he abandoned the zoo and faked his death. Why he didn’t tell us about it, even when he returned early this morning.”