see that no reliable plan could ever include forty animals. They were just too quirky and unpredictable.
He could feel fate closing in on him. Something was going to go wrong. The only question was when.
If there was one thing Darren Vader couldn’t stand, it was to be left out of something big.And this was big. He could smell it. Bing, his sawed-off sidekick, and their flock of sheep definitely had those animals. Somehow, they had found a way to pull off the zoobreak without him.
Griffin was a loser, but Darren had to give him credit. He obviously knew how to recognize a business opportunity. This may have started out as a rescue for Drysdale’s monkey. But when Bing got aboard the zoo boat and looked around at the animals, he had to see dollar signs. What else could explain going for one critter and coming back with the whole kit and caboodle? It was all about the Benjamins — the kind of money his old man was never going to make with his fruit pickers and orchard scooters.
Darren knew he had to get in on this scam. But how? Blackmail didn’t work. But he should have expected that. He had almost as much to lose here as Bing. If Darren ratted to the cops, sure, the zoobreakers would get in trouble. But then the jig would be up. The animals would go back to the paddleboat, and nobody would make a buck off them.
He walked to the window and peered out over the rooftops of Cedarville. Griffin and the others were biding their time, waiting forthe right moment to cash out. That meant that somewhere hidden in this boring little town was a fortune in stolen animals. If he could somehow get his hands on one — just one …
A sound reached him out of the distance. A muffled — hooting? He recalled Griffin’s words the previous morning:
I didn’t say owl; I said towel
.
He had a grainy vision of a great horned owl asleep in its cage at
All Aboard Animals
.
Smiling now, he powered up his computer and opened the browser for a Google search. Keywords:
owl trap
.
22
T he cages were piled in a corner of the main compartment that had once been the floating zoo.
“It’s a write-off, boss,” Klaus rumbled in his deep baritone. “They’ve all got at least a few bars cut.”
Mr. Nastase added the item to his list of losses for the insurance company:
31 state-of-the-art climate-controlled animal habitats with electronic locks
.
If he couldn’t have his animals back, at least he could make a killing on the insurance claim. And there was one other advantage to the theft of his zoo….
“You know,” he commented, “I never thought I’d be able to breathe through mynose on this boat. I don’t think I realized how bad the stink was till it was gone.”
“Amen,” his security man agreed. “Still, I kind of miss the little guys. I didn’t think I was the type to get attached. But that’s what happened with some of them.”
“I don’t miss a single one,” the zookeeper said flatly. “I miss the lines of paying customers. I miss the feeling of their money in the cash box. I miss the sight of a spoiled brat in an
All Aboard Animals
T-shirt, overpaying for a souvenir and giving me free advertising at the same time.”
Klaus laughed. “You’re a hard man, boss.” The smile clouded. “But there
is
one kid I’d like to see again.”
“I know.” The lines of Mr. Nastase’s mustache sharpened to a spear point. “Ferris Atwater, Jr.”
“Right, him, too, I guess. But I was thinking of the little snot-nose who went commando on me and then lured me into the ceiling.”
The zookeeper added a note on the insurance paper about the damage done to the ceiling and bulkhead while cutting this muscle-bound lunkhead out of the ductwork.Aloud, he said, “I hope you know, Klaus, how much I appreciate what you went through for this company.”
His cell phone rang. From the display, he recognized the number of Detective Harrigan, the lead officer investigating the robbery.
“I hope you have some good news for me,
He could feel fate closing in on him. Something was going to go wrong. The only question was when.
If there was one thing Darren Vader couldn’t stand, it was to be left out of something big.And this was big. He could smell it. Bing, his sawed-off sidekick, and their flock of sheep definitely had those animals. Somehow, they had found a way to pull off the zoobreak without him.
Griffin was a loser, but Darren had to give him credit. He obviously knew how to recognize a business opportunity. This may have started out as a rescue for Drysdale’s monkey. But when Bing got aboard the zoo boat and looked around at the animals, he had to see dollar signs. What else could explain going for one critter and coming back with the whole kit and caboodle? It was all about the Benjamins — the kind of money his old man was never going to make with his fruit pickers and orchard scooters.
Darren knew he had to get in on this scam. But how? Blackmail didn’t work. But he should have expected that. He had almost as much to lose here as Bing. If Darren ratted to the cops, sure, the zoobreakers would get in trouble. But then the jig would be up. The animals would go back to the paddleboat, and nobody would make a buck off them.
He walked to the window and peered out over the rooftops of Cedarville. Griffin and the others were biding their time, waiting forthe right moment to cash out. That meant that somewhere hidden in this boring little town was a fortune in stolen animals. If he could somehow get his hands on one — just one …
A sound reached him out of the distance. A muffled — hooting? He recalled Griffin’s words the previous morning:
I didn’t say owl; I said towel
.
He had a grainy vision of a great horned owl asleep in its cage at
All Aboard Animals
.
Smiling now, he powered up his computer and opened the browser for a Google search. Keywords:
owl trap
.
22
T he cages were piled in a corner of the main compartment that had once been the floating zoo.
“It’s a write-off, boss,” Klaus rumbled in his deep baritone. “They’ve all got at least a few bars cut.”
Mr. Nastase added the item to his list of losses for the insurance company:
31 state-of-the-art climate-controlled animal habitats with electronic locks
.
If he couldn’t have his animals back, at least he could make a killing on the insurance claim. And there was one other advantage to the theft of his zoo….
“You know,” he commented, “I never thought I’d be able to breathe through mynose on this boat. I don’t think I realized how bad the stink was till it was gone.”
“Amen,” his security man agreed. “Still, I kind of miss the little guys. I didn’t think I was the type to get attached. But that’s what happened with some of them.”
“I don’t miss a single one,” the zookeeper said flatly. “I miss the lines of paying customers. I miss the feeling of their money in the cash box. I miss the sight of a spoiled brat in an
All Aboard Animals
T-shirt, overpaying for a souvenir and giving me free advertising at the same time.”
Klaus laughed. “You’re a hard man, boss.” The smile clouded. “But there
is
one kid I’d like to see again.”
“I know.” The lines of Mr. Nastase’s mustache sharpened to a spear point. “Ferris Atwater, Jr.”
“Right, him, too, I guess. But I was thinking of the little snot-nose who went commando on me and then lured me into the ceiling.”
The zookeeper added a note on the insurance paper about the damage done to the ceiling and bulkhead while cutting this muscle-bound lunkhead out of the ductwork.Aloud, he said, “I hope you know, Klaus, how much I appreciate what you went through for this company.”
His cell phone rang. From the display, he recognized the number of Detective Harrigan, the lead officer investigating the robbery.
“I hope you have some good news for me,
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