I Heard Animals' Voices novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Lower It, Lorna

Derrick was out of bed and into his coveralls before I had finished waking up.

He called three numbers on the way down the outside stairs.

The first was the night security guard, and the second was the director.

The third was a hotel, where he asked for the inspector by name.

"Stay at the doors," he told each of them. "Nobody goes in until I say. Come now."

We ran.

The zoo at three in the morning is full of small sounds, and none of them were friendly.

The cat house had its side door propped open with a chair.

I heard Duke before I saw him.

"AT THREE IN THE MORNING!" Duke roared, in my ears and everyone else's.

"Duke," said Poppy, from the next cage. "Quieter."

"She brought a CHAIR! She is going to SIT while she does it!"

"Duke."

"She isn't even wearing a COAT!"

We stopped at the end of the corridor.

Dr. Bramhall was standing in front of Duke's cage in her khakis.

The long gray dart gun was against her shoulder.

She had set up a phone on a little tripod, pointed at herself.

A red light glowed at its edge.

She was whispering into it.

"Three-oh-five a.m.," she whispered. "The animal has become aggressive. I have no choice."

"I am protecting my former colleagues from a tragedy."

Duke, behind the bars, was sitting down.

He was sitting bolt upright.

"I'm not aggressive," he said to me. "I'm furious. There's a difference."

"It's three-ten," I said, aloud.

Dr. Bramhall went rigid.

She turned her head.

She saw Derrick in the mouth of the corridor, with me beside him.

"Hargrove," she said. "Stay back. He's about to charge."

"He's sitting," said Derrick.

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