“Okay, okay, good thing I waited until it was done to fall apart. Okay.”
She bent from the waist, braced her hands on her knees to try to get her breath back. Even her legs were quivering, she realized, and tipping her wrist, she saw with some shock that only sixteen minutes had passed since the alarm sounded.
Minutes, not hours, not days. A handful of minutes only.
She made herself straighten. Whoever had broken the lock, baited the tiger out of containment would be gone now. Logic demanded it. If he’d stayed to watch, he’d have seen her immobilize the cat, make the calls. If he was smart, and he was, he’d know she’d called for help, called the police. He’d want to be well away before that help arrived.
Back to his hole, back to his lair.
“Stay away from what’s mine,” she called out, more in fury than in any hopes he would hear. “I’ll find you. I swear to God I’ll find you.”
She paced the path, checking the near cages, and counted off the minutes. When another ten had passed, she risked leaving the unconscious cat. She made the dash back to the compound, into the equipment shed to load the harness and sling into one of the carts. Even as she backed the cart out of the shed, she heard the truck roaring on the road. Lil leaped out of the cart, waved her arms to signal Coop when his headlights slashed over her.
“I want to move fast. I’ll explain. Just get in the cart.”
He didn’t waste time, didn’t ask questions until they were both back in the cart and she was speeding toward the habitats. “What happened?”
“Somebody got inside, compromised the lock on the tiger’s cage, baited a trail to lure him out. He’s okay. I tranquilized him.”
“He’s okay?”
“Yes. My priority right now is to get him back inside, to get him contained and the door secured. I called Willy, but let’s not get into all the whys and hows. I want the cat back inside before the interns get here, if possible. I don’t want a bunch of college kids freaking on me.”
She stopped the cart, jumped out. “I can’t move him by myself. He weighs close to five hundred pounds. I’m going to rig up this harness, and we’ll back the cart up as close to him as we can. The two of us should be able to lift him on.”
“How long will he be out?”
“About four hours. I gave him a strong dose. Coop, it’ll be easier to tell the interns if he’s secured than if they start coming in and see this.”
He looked as she did at what remained of the young elk, at the blood smearing the tiger’s muzzle.
“Let’s get it done. Then, Lil, I’ve got a lot to say to you.”
They worked to rig the harness on the unconscious tiger. “I bet this is something you’d never thought you’d be doing.”
“There are a lot of things I never thought I’d do. I’ll get the cart.”
He backed it over the plantings that lined the far end of the path, over the river rock, into brush. “We could rig these cables to drag him across.”
“I’m not dragging him.” She checked his respiration, his pupils. “He’s old and it’s rough ground. He didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m not having him hurt. We’ve used this method before, for transferring them from the habitat to Medical, but it takes two people.”
Three or four, she thought, would’ve been a hell of a lot easier and faster.
“A tiger is the biggest of the four big cats,” she said as she hooked the cables to the harness. “He’s Siberian, he’s protected. He’s twelve, and did time in a circus, in a second-rate zoo. He was sick when we got him, four years ago. Okay, okay, you’re sure the brake’s locked.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“Sorry. You need to run that winch while I run this one. Try to keep him level, Coop. When he’s up, I can maneuver him on the cart. Ready?”
When he nodded, they both began to crank. As the harness lifted, she watched, eagle-eyed-to be sure the cat was secure, the harness holding. “A little more, just a little more. I’m going to lock my side down, move him in. I may need you to give me more play. There you go, there you go,” she muttered as she guided the harness over the cart. “Ease your side down, Coop, ease it down a few inches.”
It took time, and some finesse, but they transferred the cat to the cart, drove it into the enclosure. The first streaks of dawn bloomed as they lowered the tiger to the mouth of his den.
“His respiration’s good, and his pupils are reactive,” she stated as she crouched to do another quick exam. “I want Matt to run a full diagnostic on him. The bait might have been doctored.”
“You need a new lock, Lil.”
“I got one out of the equipment shed. I’ve got one in my pocket. It’ll do for now.”
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” She stroked a hand over the cat’s head, down its flank, then rose. Outside, she snapped a new lock on the chain securing the cage door. “The interns and staff are going to be coming along soon. So will the police. I need, really need, coffee. Coffee and a minute to breathe.”
He said nothing while she drove the cart back to the shed. As he started toward the cabin with her, he lifted his chin toward the headlights far down her road. “You’re not going to get that chance to breathe.”
“I still want the coffee, which is smarter than the three fingers of whiskey I really want. Did you relock the gate?”
“No, it wasn’t at the top of my to-do list this morning.”
“I guess not. I think it’s the law.” She nearly managed a smile with it. “One more favor? Will you wait for him while I get that coffee? I’ll get you one, too.”
“Make it quick.”
Funny, she thought, as she paused inside her own kitchen, her hands were shaking again. She took a moment to splash cold water on her face in the kitchen sink before filling two insulated mugs with black coffee.
When she went back out Coop was standing with Willy and two deputies.
“You doing all right, Lil?” Willy asked her.
“Better now. But Jesus, Willy, this son of a bitch has to be crazy. If that cat had gotten away from here, away from me… God knows.”
“I need to take a look at things. What time did the alarm go off?”
“About a quarter after five. I’d just glanced at the clock before I left my cabin, and I’d only gotten as far as the porch when it sounded.” She walked with them, leading the way. “Tansy and Farley left pretty much on the dot of five, maybe a minute or two after. Tansy was anxious to get started.”
“You’re sure on that? It was about five-thirty when you called me, and that was after you’d put the tiger down.”
“I’m sure. I knew where to find him. I’d switched on the computer, the cameras when I went in for the drug gun. I saw the cage open, I saw the cat, so I knew where to go. It didn’t take long, only seemed like a year or two.”
“Did you maybe give a passing thought to calling me first?” Willy demanded.
“I had to move fast. I couldn’t wait, risk losing the cat. If he’d left the compound… They can move damn fast when they want, and by the time you’d have gotten here… He needed to be contained as quickly as possible.”
“All the same, Lil, any more trouble, I want you to call me before you do anything else. And I’d think you’d know better than to go walking all over a crime scene, Coop.”
“You’re right.”
Willy puffed out his cheeks. “It’d be more satisfying if you’d argue a little.” Willy paused before they hit the blood trail. “Get some pictures,” he told one of the deputies. “Of the broken lock over there, too.”
“I left it where I found it,” Lil said. “And kept out of the tracks as much as I could. We didn’t touch the bait. The tiger’d only had ten minutes or so on it when I got to him, but he’d torn in pretty good from what I could see. It was a small elk.”
“You’ll do me a favor and stay here.” He signaled to his men and moved into the brush in the tracks of the cart.