“Suicide attempts,” Martha said, “are a sign you need more holding time, Dennis. It is apparent you are not ready for a new home. But it’s okay. I can keep you as long as we need.”
Dennis did not reply. His eyes looked like a dead cow’s.
“Put him in an isolation room,” Martha told Ralph, then walked away. She was worried. Some of the boys at Axis had become suicidal too. She didn’t understand why.
19
The morning the paper came out, Amanda was outside the Mystic Sea Aquarium. It was in an old building on the promenade in Seaside. The clapboard was peeling, and through the front windows, Amanda could see tanks of seals. Visitors were throwing them pieces of fish out of tiny paper cups.
Inside, Amanda found a smiling woman behind a turnstile and a foggy window lined with postcards and bags of marbles. The smell was very strong and reminded her of the penguin habitat at the zoo.
“Five dollars,” the woman said.
“I’m here to see Pete Ashoona,” Amanda said.
“I’ll call him.” The woman turned to a phone beside her. “May I ask who is here to see him?”
“Amanda Dufresne. I work at the Oregon Zoo. With Molly, the polar bear.”
The woman soon hung up.
“He says to go inside. He’ll be right down.”
The dark interior was lined with tanks filled with fish. In the middle of the room there was an exploration tank for children, with sea anemones and starfish. Another open tank housed a giant octopus. He was tucked under a red rock with bubbling seawater, looking out malevolently.
“You came to see me?”
Amanda turned to find a large man wearing a faded denim vest over a plaid shirt. He had long gray hair and a broad, sun-stained face. He wore a faded red bandanna knotted around his neck.
“Amanda,” she introduced herself. “I work with Molly.”
“Long time since I heard that name.”
“I was hoping you could help me.”
“How so?”
“I’d like to hear what happened.”
“Weren’t there enough articles?”
“Yes,” Amanda said, pausing. “I have a few questions.”
“Such as?”
“We know now that polar bear mothers rarely abandon their young,” Amanda said. “It only happens when the cub is sick. Molly was not sick.”
He didn’t answer.
“Plus, Molly was only two months old when she was found. Her mother would not have broken her den for another month, at least. Maybe something happened that got her mother spooked. But I don’t see her just leaving her like that.”
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said.
They left the aquarium for the wet, windy beach. The ocean at Seaside was much calmer and flatter than at Eagle Cove but, Amanda imagined, just as cold. The town was bigger than Eagle Cove, but only a few people were out on the sand.
“What made you look for me?” he asked.
“You were the only one who didn’t talk to the press.”
