“No, I don’t,” I admitted. “Don’t ask me why. I’ll watch myself. Be extra polite to him and all that.”
“Odd,” Michael said. “That's just what your mother said a minute ago. She doesn’t seem that keen on him, either.”
So it wasn’t just me! I felt a surge of relief.
“Well, after all, he's spoiling Dad's fun, or hadn’t you noticed?” I said. “Dad's usually the one who gets to give the wildlife lessons.”
“That's why you dislike him?”
“I don’t Jislike him,” I said. “But I don’t trust him. What's he doing here, anyway? Why isn’t he off in the veldt or the tundra or the bush somewhere, rescuing something in front of a camera?”
“Supposedly, he's here to rescue the Caerphilly Zoo,” Michael said. “Not sure whether he's going to donate the money Patrick needs or find him some other donors or maybe take over the zoo—your Dad was a little vague on what Patrick is expecting. Or maybe it's Patrick who's being vague. But whatever it is,
sounds like a good idea to me. Soon as Patrick shows up and they can work things out, our animal problems will be over and we can move full speed ahead on The Plan.” “I wouldn’t count on it,” I muttered.
“You haven’t changed your mind,” Michael said, looking ashen. At his tone, all the llamas stopped grazing and lifted their heads to stare at us. “We’ve got the license and the plane reservations and—”
“No, I haven’t changed my mind, and there's no threat to The Plan,” I said, raising my voice slightly to be heard over the humming of the llamas. “But I wouldn’t count on Montgomery Blake solving all our animal problems anytime soon.”
“Why not?”
“How long has Blake been in town?” “A few days—why?”
“Blake shows up, Lanahan goes AWOL, and the next thing we know, Dad's digging up bodies in the basement.”
“Bodies! Have they found more than one?”
“No, just the one,” I said. “But one's enough. I gather Chief Burke hasn’t announced whose body it is.”
After a moment, Michael's face turned from puzzlement to dismay.
“You think it's Patrick Lanahan's?”
“I’ve seen it, remember?” I said. “I had to drag Dr. Smoot into the basement. It's Lanahan all right.”
“Damn,” Michael said. “He seemed okay, Patrick. Your father's going to be pretty upset. He’d been spending a lot of time with Patrick, working on the zoo. And what happens to the zoo? It could take a while to sort that out.”
“Let's just hope Lanahan was organized enough to make a nice, straightforward, uncontestable will. One that spells out quite clearly what happens to the zoo and the animals.”
Michael burst out laughing.
“Patrick?” he said. “Organized? You really didn’t know him that well, did you?”
“So much for that hope.”
“Seriously, if he’d been at all organized, things would never have gotten so bad at the zoo to begin with, and we wouldn’t have all these animals underfoot.”
He was looking rather resentfully at the camels. I thought the camels were getting a bum rap—after all, so far they hadn’t been any more trouble than the llamas. But I didn’t expect him to blame the llamas, who were humming gently and wearing expressions of warm sympathy and heartfelt regret.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m sure Dad and the rest of the family can take care of the animals till we get back.”
Michael frowned slightly. No doubt it was dawning on him that if Dad was capable of trying to stash a baker's dozen of penguins in our basement while we were still in residence, there was no telling what lunacy he might commit if we left the house undefended for two weeks while the denizens of the Caerphilly Zoo were still homeless.
“I’ll talk to him,” he said.
“And say what? ‘Please don’t tick Meg off just when she's finally agreed to marry me’ won’t work, obviously, unless you’ve given up all hope of keeping our planned elopement secret.”
“I’ll think of something,” he said. “Meanwhile, I came over to let you know that your mother has arrived with lunch.”
“Excellent.”
“And Rose Noire wanted me to tell you to hurry up if you’re taking her class. She's starting right after lunch.”
“Her class? What's she teaching this time—more aromatherapy?”
“Massage and acupressure for animals.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Oh, come on. She claims it does wonders to calm and mellow animals. Think how useful that would be with Spike.” “I’d sooner massage one of the hyenas.”