I Heard Animals' Voices novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Seven Days

The vet stays the order for seven days, Tierney becomes his shadow, and Duke dictates his demands; Poppy says the gate between them is chained every morning.

Dr. Bramhall's finger stayed on the trigger, but her eyes went past my shoulder.

The young vet had walked up beside me without a sound.

He put one hand on the barrel and pushed it toward the floor, gently.

"Derrick," Dr. Bramhall said. "Stay out of this."

"I can't," he said. "My name goes on the form."

He nodded at the director. "No animal in this building is put down without a veterinarian's signature."

"Mine isn't on it. It won't be on it today."

The director patted his forehead with the handkerchief again. "Derrick, we have a procedure."

"We do," Derrick said. "It has a line for me."

Behind the bars, Duke had stopped throwing himself at the door and was breathing hard.

"I like this one," he said. "Whoever that is, I like him. Tell him I like him."

I did not tell Derrick.

"The animal is dangerous," Dr. Bramhall said, as if repeating it made it heavier.

"The animal has been in this house for six years," Derrick said. "Three handlers were hurt. All three were hurt at the gate between the yards, during transfers."

"Nobody was hurt in his cage. Nobody who feeds him at the bars has a mark on them."

Dr. Bramhall's jaw moved. "That's a pattern in my report."

"It's a pattern in my report too," he said. "We read it differently."

The director looked from one of them to the other, then at me, then at the dart gun.

"And who," he said, "is this young lady?"

"Tierney Ainslie," I said.

"She bought an eight dollar ticket," Dr. Bramhall said, "and diagnosed my tiger."

"He isn't sick," I said. "He's lovesick."

A keeper behind the crowd made a noise that was almost a laugh and turned it into a cough.

Dr. Bramhall's face went tight. "Director, I will not stand here and be corrected by a teenager."

"Then don't stand," Derrick said mildly. "Sit down and look at the gate log with me."

"Seven days."

The director blinked. "What?"

"Seven days. I stay the order, and Dr. Bramhall keeps the case." He looked at me for the first time. "Miss Ainslie has seven days to show us she's right."

"If Duke hurts anyone before then, it's done," Dr. Bramhall said quickly, "today, and she's banned from the property."

"Agreed," said Derrick, which surprised me more than it should have.

The director rubbed his temples, slumping in defeat. "Fine. Seven days. On the eighth morning I sign whichever paper is left."

Dr. Bramhall handed the dart gun back to the keeper like it had disappointed her personally.

She looked at me for one long second.

"Enjoy your week, sweetheart," she said, and left with her heels clicking down the corridor.

The crowd drifted off, whispering.

I stood there with my heart going.

"Rules," Derrick said.

He had a low, even voice, the kind you could fall asleep to, and he didn't look at the tiger when he talked.

"You come in with me and you leave with me. You don't go into a cage, a yard, or a holding area unless I'm standing next to you."

"You don't feed anyone. You don't touch anything with a latch."

"That's four rules," I said.

"I was going to make it five. Eat lunch."

I almost smiled.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Because I've worked here two years and he has never lunged at me." He shrugged. "That's a fact, and I trust facts."

"What does he say?" he added.

I looked at him, waiting for the trap.

There wasn't one, only a tall man in gray coveralls, with tired eyes and the kind of stillness that makes birds land on you.

So I told him exactly what Duke said, because I always do.

"He says he'd like a date," I said. "In writing, with a time, so nobody is ten minutes late."

"He says he is not a liability, he is a gentleman."

"He wants Poppy to get a written apology for the shouting, from him, which he will dictate."

"He's also asking whether the one in the coveralls has any sausages."

Derrick's mouth did something small and quickly corrected itself.

"No sausages," he said.

"I hadn't told you he said sausages," I said slowly.

"You said it a second ago."

I thought about it.

I had.

Over the bars, Duke sighed, long and offended. "Fine. Tell the tall one to stay."

Then, from the next cage, a quieter voice said, "Tierney."

I turned.

Poppy was sitting very straight, with her tail wrapped around her front paws.

"He won't tell you this because he's too busy dying," she said. "The gate between our yards is chained every morning at twenty to six."

"From the keeper's side. By her. I have watched her do it for a month."

I opened my mouth. "She says Dr. Bramhall shuts the gate between the yards from her side, every morning at twenty to..."

"Chained?" said Derrick.

He said it before I had finished the sentence.

I had not yet said the word chain.

I turned and looked at him, and he was already looking at the floor, checking his bag.

"Vets are fast," I told myself.

Then I forgot about it, because Poppy was still talking, and she had a lot more to say about the chain.

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