“Don’t shoot me,” she said, raising her hands.
“You get bitten?” he asked sternly.
Getting to her feet, Devora smoothed her skirt and patted her braids into order. “No, I’m fine but the other couple need medical attention.”
“They’re being taken care of,” he said. “They’ll be going to the hospital for a bit but nothing too bad.”
Devora stared at him. “Are you kidding me? I was only a few feet away when that creature attacked the woman—he bit the hell out of her shoulder.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t here so I only know what the Sarge tells me. Can you please step outside, ma’am?”
It wasn’t really a request but Devora was puzzled by his whole attitude. He retreated a few steps but kept the door open so she slid past him to find an entire squad of soldiers deployed in the vicinity. The janitor was nowhere to be seen and when she moved to check on the young couple who’d been attacked, they were gone and two men in decontam suits were washing the pathway with green colored fluids. Looking the other way, where the flu victims had run to the sound of the approaching sirens, she found her view blocked by several vehicles.
“Lieutenant is waiting to talk to you, ma’am,” the soldier said, taking her by the elbow.
He led her to the edge of the marmokat enclosure where an officer was standing, giving orders. “Here’s the civilian, sir.”
Devora extended her hand. “Devora Sims, thank you so much for rescuing us.”
The lieutenant eyed her up and down but didn’t shake hands. “Got your ID?”
Fumbling to open her purse, she got out the requested chit and handed it to him. ”I’m in law enforcement myself,” she said, feeling it was imperative to establish herself as not simply a victim. “I’ve been trained to assess and report crime scene details. In fact I was here in the city for an annual recertification class.”
He gave her a hard stare. “This was simply an unfortunate incident, ma’am. The indigent person got too aggressive about his begging, which by the way is prohibited at the zoo. Sorry you were scared.”
“But the janitor said?—”
“Did you actually witness anything other than what I’ve described?” he asked and Devora sensed the question was a test.
She thought about her time in the cubbyhole. She hadn’t seen anything then. “No.”
Her answer pleased him and he nodded. “I’m afraid the zoo employee got excited and his imagination ran away with him. Maybe he liked frightening a pretty woman at his mercy.”
Now she shivered at the ugly picture the officer was drawing. She didn’t believe it but clearly she was intended to accept the story and move on. He handed her ID back. “I’ll have my boys run you up to the gate in one of our vehicles. The zoo is closed till further notice so please exit the park and return to your hotel.”
“Yes, sir, I will,” she said
“I’m sure the zoo will be in touch to comp your entry fee at the very least. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in New Damarkal,” he said mendaciously as he stepped away.
She was escorted to an open groundcar and as promised driven to the zoo’s entrance, although she noticed the driver took a roundabout way to get there and she was unable to see what had happened to the flu victims. The gates were all guarded by soldiers and she stumbled out with a sense of relief. Shock was setting in and she had a hard time remembering where she’d parked her groundcar but eventually she found it in the vast expanse of parking lot and drove to the hotel. Once she was safe in her room she sat on her bed for a long time and stared at the wall, reliving the entire experience. “I saw what I saw,” she said finally. “I’ll talk to Sheriff Davis about it when I get home.”
After taking a shower, Devora checked out early and drove home to Rosewater under the moonlight, stomach churning, too upset to sleep while the AI drove or even to eat a snack. Her tidy little house in one of Rosewater’s suburbs had never looked so good to her.
In the morning she forced herself to eat breakfast while she checked the news channels but there was no report of any kind of incident at the New Damarkal Zoo. She wasn’t on duty today but drove to the sheriff’s station anyway and knocked on Sheriff Davis’s office door.
“Hey, how was the trip?” he asked jovially after bidding her enter.
“Strange. And it ended in a weird manner. Can we talk for a minute?”
“Sure, have a seat.”
Devora recounted the sequence of events at the zoo crisply, as she’d been trained to report any incident she might witness. Strangely she had the impression Sheriff Davis already knew about it. Could the military have reported it to him?
“Sounds unpleasant,” he said when she finished as he took a sip of his coffee. “Glad you’re okay.”
Taking a deep breath, Devora launched into what was bothering her. “The officer wouldn’t listen to me at all about what I observed, didn’t take any kind of a statement from me. And the woman who was attacked couldn’t have had minor injuries. I saw blood gushing from the bite. And I never got to thank the janitor for saving me—the man in charge implied he was some kind of pervert taking advantage of my fright but it wasn’t like that at all. I want to track him down. I want to read the incident report?—”
Her boss held up one hand to stem the flow of her increasingly agitated plans. “Now we don’t have any jurisdiction over matters in New Damarkal and you know it.”
