Zoe walked with the guards to the main door, then returned to the hall where the others were still gathered. Ignoring Nancy and George, she asked Owen to come into her office.
With a slight shrug to the others, Owen followed Zoe down the hall to an office across from his own. “We can wait in Owen’s office,” George suggested quietly as they followed the other two back down the hall.
“In a minute.” Zoe had left her office door partly open. Motioning George to keep silent, Nancy moved close enough to hear the conversation.
“I have nothing against you personally,” Zoe was saying. “It’s just that World of Africa is a very expensive project, and we can’t afford to have problems.”
Nancy moved over to make room for George, who was standing next to her.
“The project was going so well up until now, Zoe,” Owen protested. “You know I’m not doing anything wrong and that I care about the civets.”
“I know.” The zookeeper paused. “In fact, Tyler says the more involved you get with World of Africa, the more critical you’ve become about the way things are run.”
Nancy leaned forward, frowning at the zookeeper’s accusation.
“I’ve criticized the way Tyler runs things,” Owen replied. “He’s not a responsible—”
“Tyler’s not the problem,” Zoe said, interrupting him. “I’m giving you a chance to tell your side. Right now you do look like our number-one suspect. So, would you like to explain, Owen?”
Nancy and George moved closer to the office door. Inside, Nancy could see the zookeeper’s bookshelves, which contained stacks of papers and books. Zoe Spelios had made an effort to add a personal touch to the office. Next to a framed diploma resting on the shelves was a vase of fresh wildflowers. Beside the vase was a photograph of a handsome older man with a handlebar mustache.
“But that’s ridiculous!” Owen was shouting, bringing Nancy back to his conversation with Zoe. “You know what the research from this project means to me! You can’t do this!”
“I can and I will,” the zookeeper said calmly. “No single project is as important as the good of the whole zoo.”
“But I told you, I care about the zoo, and I haven’t done anything wrong!”
Nancy pulled George back out of sight as Zoe stood up from her desk. “I can’t be sure about that,” she heard the zookeeper tell Owen.
“You’ve got to believe me,” Owen insisted, his voice rising in panic.
“I’m sorry, Owen,” Zoe went on in a cold, businesslike tone. “Until this thing is resolved, I just can’t let you work with the civets anymore. Pack your things. I want you out of here within the hour.”
Chapter
Six
WH-WHAT?” OWEN SPUTTERED. “That’s completely unfair!”
Nancy cast a quick look around the doorway to see Owen leaning on Zoe’s desk. The zookeeper was standing with her hands on her hips.
“We’ve got to do something,” George whispered. Nancy put her finger to her lips and turned back to watch Zoe.
“You heard me, Owen,” the woman was saying. “You can use the research facilities at the main building, but I don’t want you in this exhibit hall anymore.”
“But—”
“No buts. Just clean out your office and go.” Nancy jumped back as the zookeeper strode out of her office, with Owen following. “And take your friends with you!” she called back before heading down the hall to the animal enclosures.
George ran to Owen. He looked dazed. “Did you hear that?” he asked in a hollow voice. “My whole project down the drain.”
“We’ll think of something,” George said, determined. “They can’t keep you away from your project. They just can’t.”
Owen took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening. My project was going along so well.”
Nancy saw a look of utter helplessness pass over Owen’s face before he put his glasses back on. “Don’t worry, Owen,” George told him. “With Nancy on the case we’ll find out who did it.”
Owen snorted. “We’d better, or else I’m going to have to tell my adviser I was booted off my project on suspicion of theft. If that happens, I may as well forget about graduate school forever.”
Once again Nancy found herself distrusting Owen. She knew he cared about the civets, but he seemed to care more about what their disappearance was doing to his reputation. Still, for George’s sake, she had to try to help him out.
“Why don’t we grab a soda? We can pick one another’s brains about who the thief might be,” Nancy explained when Owen and George gave her a curious look.
“That’s a great idea,” George said. “You can come back afterward and clean out your desk.”
Owen smiled and took George’s hand. Nancy followed them to the front of the building and back inside.
“Is the zoo snack bar all right?” Owen called back to her.
“Fine,” she answered, watching out the window as the first visitors of the morning streamed in. Everything looked so tranquil and normal. No one could have guessed that a thief was taking civets from the zoo. What could possibly be the motive? Why civets? Nancy was stumped. What could be so important about a civet that a person would risk stealing them?
Nancy shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. A flash of silver caught her eye. Nancy looked outside, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. She traced it to a man in mirrored sunglasses. It was the same man who had tried to break into her car the day before! As Nancy watched, the man glanced around, then went in the main entrance of World of Africa.
“All right if I join you in a minute?” Nancy said to Owen and George as she took off. She tried to speak casually, even though her heart was racing. “There’s something I want to check out.”
“Sure,” Owen said, and George smiled gratefully. George thinks I’m leaving so she’ll have time alone with Owen, Nancy realized.
She winked at her friend, then turned back and hurried into World of Africa. It was a weekday morning, and the exhibit hall echoed with the shouts of kids on school trips. Nancy worked her way through the crowd, finally spotting her quarry in front of the civets.
He was a tall man, with dark hair and olive-colored skin. Nancy guessed he was about thirty years old. That day, instead of jeans, he was wearing an expensive-looking suit.
As she watched, the man stared at the five remaining civets for about five minutes. Then he turned and made his way swiftly to the outside door.
Nancy trailed the man outside and around to the staff door, where he let himself in with a key. That’s funny, Nancy thought. Zoe said that only she, Owen, and Tyler had keys to this entrance!
Pausing only a few seconds to let the man get inside, Nancy ran up and managed to catch the handle just before the door swung shut.
Inside, the staff reception area and long hallway were empty. Nancy thought she saw a movement at the far end of the hallway, near the entrance to the civet exhibit.
Her heart pounding, Nancy stole down the hall. What if she was on the trail of the thief!
As she passed Zoe’s office, Nancy thought she heard two voices. One of them definitely was Zoe’s; the other belonged to a man.
Nancy had to make a quick decision. She looked down the hall. No sign of the movement she’d seen before. The male voice coming from inside Zoe’s office could very well be the man in the sunglasses, she reasoned.
A door right next to Zoe’s office, marked Authorized Personnel Only, helped Nancy make up her mind. Thinking she could hear better from in there, she tried the door, which was unlocked. Nancy felt a steely hand come down on her shoulder as she pulled on the door.
“If it isn’t Harris’s little friend!” said a harsh, unpleasant voice.
Nancy struggled to get free as the hand tightened its grip. She twisted around and found herself staring into Tyler Mack’s eyes.
“You really should be more careful, you know,” Mack said in a cold voice. He gestured to the door Nanc
y had her hand on. “Do you know what’s inside? It’s a holding room for sick or”—he smiled nastily—“vicious animals. Right now there’s a rare African cobra in there. Its bite could kill you in an instant.”
“I didn’t know—” Nancy began.
“Of course not. You couldn’t. It’s so typical of how this place is run!” Mack said angrily.
“Is that so, Tyler?” Zoe had come out of her office, carefully closing the door behind her. She gave Tyler an icy stare.
Tyler looked nervous. “I just meant—”
“I know what you meant. It burns you up that I’m the boss, doesn’t it?” Then Zoe noticed Nancy. “What are you doing here?”
Before Nancy could reply, Tyler cut in. “Courting disaster. She was about to open the holding room when I found her.”
Zoe gasped. “You could have been killed!”
“Isn’t that door supposed to be locked?” Tyler challenged. “That’s the kind of bad management I’m talking about.”
Zoe turned red and clenched her fists in anger. “Get back to work, Tyler,” she said finally, “before I do something I regret.”
“Like what?” Mack asked. His nervousness was gone, and now he was acting like the aggressor. “You can’t fire me, and you know it!”
“Don’t push your luck!” she said, lashing out at him. She turned to Nancy. “I know Mr. Berry said you could come back here, but from now on, please call before you come.”
“All right.” Nancy nodded. There was no point in arguing, she realized—tempers were running too high. Why were Zoe and Tyler so antagonistic? she wondered.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’m in the middle of some important business. Tyler, show Ms. Drew out,” Zoe instructed him as she went back into her office and closed the door.
Tyler muttered something under his breath as he walked Nancy to the door. He silently pushed it open for her, then pulled it shut with a resounding slam.
Nancy stared at the locked door for a second and considered waiting around until the man with the sunglasses came out. She decided to get back to George and Owen, who would probably be worried about her by now. She could watch out the window for the man in sunglasses—he’d have to pass that way again.
When she got to the snack bar, George and Owen were sitting at a corner table, talking in low voices. They hardly seemed to notice she’d been gone.
“Is this seat taken?” Nancy asked jokingly, pointing to a chair next to them.
“Oh, Nan, hi!” George blushed as she looked up from what was obviously an intimate conversation. “Owen was just telling me about his school.” She gave her friend a puzzled look. “Are you all right, Nan? You look a little shook up.”
Nancy said, “I’m okay, but I just had a run-in with Tyler and Zoe.” She described her encounter with the two zookeepers.
When she was finished, Owen said, “I knew Tyler was jealous of Zoe—he’s made several comments about wanting her job. The weird thing is, for two people who can’t stand each other, they spend a lot of time together.”
Nancy leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“You know, after work and stuff. I’ve seen him follow her out a couple of times, and once I ran into them together at the snack bar.”
“I wonder why,” Nancy mused. “There’s definitely no love lost between them.”
“It could be about the exhibit,” George said. “After all, they need to work together.”
“But why would Tyler have told Zoe she couldn’t fire him?” Owen wondered. “I thought she could do whatever she wanted.”
“There’s more to this than—” Nancy broke off as a glint of silver flashed outside the snack bar. “There he goes! That’s the man I saw earlier.”
“What man?” asked George, confused.
“The one who followed Bess and me yesterday. I’ve been waiting for him.” Nancy jumped up. “I have to follow him.”
“We’ll come, too,” George said quickly. Owen threw some money on the table for their soda, and the three of them left the snack bar.
The man in sunglasses had turned onto a walkway. They followed him, careful to keep their distance.
“Do you know where this path leads?” Nancy asked Owen.
“To the parking lot, I think,” he said. Sure enough, a few minutes later they came out in a field of cars.
The man was hurrying across the lot. When he got into his car, Nancy saw it was the same green van he had driven the day before.
“I’m going to tail him,” she told George and Owen. She ran for her car, with the other two right behind her.
The blue Mustang was parked on the other side of the lot, near the street exit. As she came up to it, Nancy saw that she was hemmed in by another car.
“Rats! Someone’s double-parked, blocking me in,” she called to George, who was running to catch up with her.
“We can take my car,” George called back. Without breaking stride, she doubled back to it.
Nancy followed. She was almost across the lot when she saw the van in the distance.
It backed out, spun around, and began to pick up speed. George looked around and gave a frightened scream.
“Nancy, look out!”
Nancy watched as the green van came speeding straight for her!
Chapter
Seven
GEORGE SCREAMED AGAIN. Nancy’s leg muscles tightened, and she sprang into action. Instinctively she darted to the left.
But when Nancy looked up again the van had swerved and was still aimed straight at her. It kept coming. Owen and George were too far away to do anything but watch in horror.
Desperate, Nancy dropped and rolled between two parked cars just as the van passed. Its tires sent grit flying at Nancy’s face.
When Nancy heard the van roar off and fade in the distance, she exhaled the breath she’d been holding. Her breathing came in ragged gasps. George and Owen rushed over to her.
“Are you hurt?” George’s face was pale.
“Nothing broken.” Nancy crawled out from between the cars, wincing a little at a pain in her leg. She must have pulled a muscle when she threw herself out of the van’s way.
“That was some move,” Owen said with admiration. “But I think you should stop working on this case,” he said grimly. “I appreciate your wanting to help out, but it’s getting too dangerous. That guy wasn’t kidding around—he tried to kill you.”
“I’m sorry I ever asked you,” George added.
“Don’t be,” Nancy replied with a faint smile. George didn’t look reassured. “Besides,” Nancy pointed out, “it’s too late for me to quit the case now. The guy with the sunglasses obviously thinks I’m involved, so he’d keep trying to get me no matter what.”
“You could leave town,” Owen suggested.
Nancy shook her head. “Look, this isn’t the first time I’ve been involved in something dangerous.”
“That’s the world’s biggest understatement.” George smiled, and Nancy smiled back as she remembered all the cases they’d worked on together.
“So don’t worry,” Nancy told her friend. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day. I thought I’d call Bess and fill her in on everything,” she added.
“I don’t think you’ll need to call her,” George said, looking past Nancy. “Here she is now.”
Nancy turned around to see Bess pulling into the parking lot. She drove up to Nancy, George, and Owen and rolled down her window. “Hey, guys! I got your message, Nan,” she said. She turned and looked at George, giving her a big, knowing grin and nodding in Owen’s direction.
George smiled back at her cousin, who had gotten out of the car and was stomping her feet now to stay warm. “Wait till you hear what you missed. Tell her, Nancy.”
Within a few minutes Nancy had filled Bess in on the reappearance of the man in the sunglasses.
“That’s really creepy.” Bess was quiet for a moment. “It seems to point more and more to his havi
ng something to do with the missing civets,” she said.
Nancy bit on her lower lip. “Well, we don’t have any proof. In fact we don’t even know why the civets are missing. I’m totally stumped, I admit it, but I do agree. He has something to do with the civets—but what?”
“Look, Nancy,” Owen said. “Why don’t we all meet later this afternoon, after I clean out my desk? Together we might come up with some real answers.”
“That sounds good,” George said excitedly. “We use that technique all the time, don’t we, Nan?”
Nancy grinned. “Maybe with what he knows about civets, Owen can help us figure out why they’ve got so much appeal for our thief.”
“I’m glad that’s settled,” Bess said. “Does that mean you’re up for a trip to the mall?”
“Shopping?” Nancy groaned. “After what I’ve just been through?”
“There’s no better cure.” Bess went around to the passenger side of her car and held the door open for Nancy. “Hop in.”
The last thing Nancy wanted to do when she was on a case was take time out for shopping, but Bess was a faithful friend. “Oh, all right,” she said, “but it had better be fast.”
Bess smiled at her friend. “It will be. I just have to return some of the perfume we didn’t use at my party to Ms. Willert, the woman who helped me set up the party. It won’t take more than a few minutes.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” George asked as Nancy got in Bess’s car. She glanced at Owen. “I told Owen I’d wait for him while he cleaned out his desk, but . . .” She left the sentence hanging.
Nancy shook her head. “No, go ahead. We’ll be fine. Call us at Bess’s house later. We can arrange a time and place to meet.” She waved goodbye to Owen and George as Bess pulled out of the parking lot.
The two friends were quiet all the way to the mall. Nancy was enjoying the warmth of the car after standing out in the cold for so long. Bess pulled into a spot, and she and Nancy darted into Daly’s, a large department store. Daly’s had everything, not to mention really good sales.