Negative space, p.19
Negative Space, page 19
As she snapped macro shots of the fence, she glanced down and noticed blood on the ground outside of the enclosure. She walked back to the cub. Her skills lacked much in the way of zoology training, but all the pieces of the cub seemed to be accounted for, so where did the blood outside of the cage come from?
She took note of where the ranger and deputy had gone. The ranger sat in his jeep, frantically barking into his cell phone. Deputy Higgins leaned over the hood of his squad car, filling out paperwork. They were separated. Perfect.
Shandi walked over to Dub and lightly brushed her hand across his back to get his attention. His damp uniform practically dripped with sweat. By the time Dub looked up from his paperwork, Shandi greeted him with a fixed stare and a wide smile.
“Off the record here, Dub. Are the other cheetahs even alive?”
Dub looked her up and down, possibly to figure out whether she hid a recording device, or possibly because her tank top revealed a little too much cleavage and his height gave him a good view.
“Dunno. Maybe. Maybe not.”
“What about that extra blood over there? Is that from one of the other cheetahs?”
Dub glanced over at it. “Oh that. No. That’s from a gazelle. They found it dead there at the opening to the fence. All in one piece and everything. Something managed to snap its neck and then ate through its belly. The ranger thinks maybe they used it to lure the cheetahs into submission or something. He thinks it’s the cheetahs that ate out the belly.”
“Seems strange that someone would kill a gazelle by snapping its neck, right?” Shandi said. “Why not just rope it and lead it over here while it was still alive? Or shoot it.”
Dub shrugged. “I don’t know. The fence is the most suspicious thing to me. I’m not sure how they opened it that way. I would have expected the links to be cut, not broken. And I’d think that dismantling the door would be far easier than going through the middle of the fence.”
Dub offered a good point. Certainly, even in an adrenaline-fueled rage, Shandi would have no hope of breaking the chain link like that, and she suspected few humans on earth could manage it.
Shandi nodded. “Thanks, Dub. I appreciate it. Tell Marie I said hi.”
Dub smiled back. “No problem, Shandi. She keeps saying how we ought to have y’all over for dinner. I’m just always working, ya know.”
Shandi laughed. “Oh, I know. Cam runs a tight ship. Let me know if you hear anything more that you think we should release to the public. You have my number.”
“Will do. Have a good one.”
Shandi returned to her car. Clearly, there had to be some relationship between this and the other mutilations. She would need to compare photos, maybe talk to Steve or Bill again, then cross-reference all the information to get closer to the truth.
Finally, after years of reporting on school lunches, there was something real to report in Rose Valley.
—-End of Special Sneak Preview—-
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Mike Robinson, Negative Space
