Looked like the world wasn’t ready to learn Miss Poole’s secret yet…
“Let’s get the inside scoop,” she said. “Something is going on in there and we need to know what it is.”
Zak groaned, but he wasn’t saying no. A scoop would put food on the table, and maybe even propel him to the next leveclass="underline" a fixed contract. Anything was better than the piecemeal stuff he did now—being paid as a freelancer.
“Let’s go for it, Zak,” she said. “And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll tell them it was my fault. I’ll take full responsibility.”
“Like you will take all the credit if we hit the jackpot, huh? No way, Lauren. We share the credit this time. And no buts.”
“Sure. Fine,” she said, glad he was willing to follow her into the lion’s den. She eyed the fence with a keen eye. “So how high do you think that thing is?”
Leonora Flake was staring out across the grounds that backed the estate. It was dark out, so there wasn’t a lot to see. She didn’t mind. She needed to put all of her ducks in a row. The words of that horrible old woman kept ringing in her ears: you’re going to destroy this company with your stupid ideas.
Could she be onto something? Was the reason Leonidas Flake had been as successful as it was, the wedding of two minds: her son and his boyfriend’s?
She’d always thought the company was going down the drain, and had tried to save it from Leo’s incompetence many times, even if it turned him against her. She’d always justified her actions by arguing she was doing Leo a favor. And now this woman had offered her a completely different view.
She decided to take a little ride through the grounds. It always gave her a fresh perspective to go for an evening stroll, even if stroll wasn’t exactly the word that applied to the wheelchair-bound sojourn she liked to undertake.
She lived in her own villa, not far from her son’s estate, and also had an apartment in Paris, from where she’d launched her campaign to convince the board that she was the better choice to run the company. It hadn’t worked that time, but now it finally had, even if the price was high: the death of her son. It was something that weighed heavily on her mind. She knew she’d miss him, that stubborn mulish man. But she also knew it was all for the best.
At least that’s what she’d always thought. She wasn’t so sure now.
The numbers didn’t lie: Leonidas Flake was in a bad way. But was it in a bad way because of her son’s mismanagement, or because of her actions?
She took off along the little dirt path that wound its way through the rolling parkland that stretched out for half a mile in every direction. She soon arrived at what she considered emblematic of her son’s silliness: the petting zoo. And as she pushed the wheelchair along the path, she found herself listening to the sounds of the animals. They were soothing sounds, and she had to admit that perhaps there was something to be said for the zoo.
Leo had always told her it calmed his frayed nerves after a long day when surrounded by his little flock, and maybe he had a point. She heard the soft snorts of a horse, the quiet braying of a donkey, and the rustling of straw as the hog dug its snout into its trough. She even heard the grunting of rabbits.
Nice, she thought, and felt her mood improving with leaps and bounds. She’d wanted to get rid of the zoo the moment she took over the house and the company, but now she reflected that maybe she would keep it instead. She’d fired the zookeeper that afternoon, along with the rest of Leo’s staff, and had called a local farmer to pick up the animals the next day. Now she might hire a new zookeeper, or rehire the old zookeeper and tell him that she’d made a mistake, and did he want to stay on at half his salary? If he refused, she’d tell him that the animals were all going to the slaughterhouse. He’d quickly agree, as apt as these half-witted animal lovers all were.
Take that stupid cat Pussy, for instance. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could love a cat the way Leo and Gabe had. And a pretty hideous cat the creature was at that. With those horrible claws and that terrible cat smell. At least for now, though, she needed to keep the foul beast around. To parade in front of the world’s media at next week’s press conference, and for the board of directors. But as soon as she didn’t need the stupid little bag of bones, it was off to the vet for a lethal injection. Or maybe she would put the thing down herself, and have Pussy buried somewhere on the grounds right next to those other two cats, Max and Dooley. Stupid names for stupid beasts. At least if Chris managed to catch them, which he better had, or else there would be hell to pay. Maybe she’d better ask Helga. Her trusty nurse never messed up.
And she was so lost in thought that she didn’t even notice that she’d taken a wrong turn and had gone off the path. She only perceived something wasn’t right when she was riding downhill, unable to stop her progress. The next moment she was crashing into a ditch. When she dropped out of her chair and splashed into the water, she screamed, but to no avail. She’d told Helga she wanted to be alone, and of course Leo’s security people didn’t care what happened to the new owner, since they were all about to be laid off anyway.
Soon she was sinking, and discovered this was no ditch but a pond. And before long the water closed over her head, and she was drowning!
Chapter 25
We’d been wandering around the petting zoo for a while, absolutely lost, I don’t mind confessing. The problem with being locked up and then escaping by the skin of your teeth is that you’re so pumped up on adrenaline that you don’t know which way is up or down. We were so elated to be out of our temporary prison that we’d simply been trucking along, without really looking which way we were going. And we were still pottering about the zoo when suddenly loud voices greeted us. They sounded awfully familiar.
“No, I’m telling you, Max would never be seen dead in a pigsty,” a female voice said.
“And I’m telling you that Max loves all creatures great and small, so this petting zoo is exactly where we’ll find him and Dooley.”
“Hey, isn’t that Harriet?” asked Dooley.
“And Brutus!”
We made for the voices, and when we emerged from a bush found ourselves gazing at a wondrous scene: Harriet and Brutus, sitting next to a very sizable pig!
The pig was munching on something located in a trough, while Harriet and Brutus were arguing back and forth about the strategy they needed to employ to find me and Dooley.
“You guys!” I cried as we burst onto the peculiar scene. “You found us!”
“Max! Dooley!” yelled Harriet, and streaked forward and actually pushed her wet nose into my neck, overjoyed to see me. Displaying affection has never been Harriet’s strong suit and it surprised me to see so much of it now.
“Hey, Dooley, old buddy,” said Brutus with a grin.
“How did you find us?” asked Dooley.
“Well, you found us,” said Brutus, making a good point, “so you tell me.”
“Can you guys take this meeting elsewhere?” suddenly spoke the pig in a deep rumbling voice. “You’re interrupting a perfectly good meal.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Pig,” said Dooley. “I apologize for the intrusion.”
“Yeah, it’s okay,” said the pig. “Just don’t do it again, will you?”
“Of course,” I said.
We moved away from the pigpen and soon found ourselves wandering near a small duck pond. “So what happened?” asked Harriet.
“Oh, we’ve been hanging out all day in a chicken coop,” said Dooley.
“See?!” said Brutus, giving Harriet a light shove. “What did I tell you?”
“The chicken had fled the scene, you see. Her name was Samson,” Dooley continued the narrative. “But then we got tired of eating chicken feed, and so we went in search of something tastier and that’s when we met Pussy.”