Chapter 1
A young woman dressed in army green whistled to herself as she walked through the room, stopping at every pane of glass to peek in on her charges, smiling lightly to herself. As she neared the end of the row, her cheerful tune stopped, her head turning slightly over her shoulder. She closed her eyes, listening harder, another shuffling sound echoing around the silent room, prompting her eyes to pop open.
"Chris?" she called quietly, turning to back toward the door. "Is that you?" Her breath came in short gasps, a sweat breaking out on her forehead as the room remained silent. "Jimmy?" Her back rammed into something hard and warm as she took another step back. She started trembling, knowing she was a good yard from the back door. A scream leapt from her throat as a hand clamped on her shoulder, throwing her backwards. She stumbled, tripping over an empty cage and barely catching herself before she smacked her head on the corner of an aquarium cabinet, finding herself face to face with a very angry Gaboon viper, only a thin sheet of glass separating them. She blinked quickly, picking herself up, feeling blood drip from a gash in her shin. As she righted herself, the black clad figure stepped toward her. The last thing she saw was a chunk of wood swinging toward her head.
-
Ryan Wolfe swore to himself as he steered the Hummer toward the reptile exhibit at the Miami Zoo, shaking his head as the lights atop the responding police cars appeared from around a corner. The Hummer pulled to a stop next to a matching one, Lieutenant Horatio Caine already out of the car and talking to a zoo security guard, hands on his hips and sunglasses perched on his nose. Wolfe hopped out of his vehicle and strode over to Horatio, his metal collection kit in hand.
"What do we got?" he asked quietly, stopping next to Horatio.
"I'm not sure yet," Horatio said in his usual cryptic manner. Wolfe's eyebrow rose. "Either theft or kidnapping."
"Kidnapping at the reptile exhibit?" Wolfe asked. "The storage shed?"
"Not a storage shed, Wolfe," Horatio said with a tiny smile. "The snake barn."
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Well, whoever it is knows what they're doing. We're missing fifteen rare and expensive specimens," Horatio said, nodding toward the building where police officers were stringing up crime scene tape. "None of which are poisonous, and all of which would catch a nice price on the black market."
"Snakenapping," Wolfe said. Horatio only nodded. "Any witnesses?"
"Maybe. Why don't you go start processing the barn," Horatio suggested. Wolfe nodded, clearing his throat and adjusting his grip on his kit before heading into the building.
"Whoa," Wolfe whispered, clicking on his flashlight. Broken glass littered the floor, a small pool of blood just inside the door. He blinked quickly, stepping around the blood to inspect the shattered aquariums. The building was all a single room, cabinet style aquariums lined up along all four walls with several rows down the middle, only about five feet tall. A metal cage was turned on its side near the door, looking to be slightly crushed. His eyes narrowed as he crouched down, turning his flashlight to a smear of blood on one of the bars of the cage. "Hmm." He swabbed it, along with the blood on the floor, and turned back to the glass.
"Anything interesting?" Wolfe glanced up at the door, where Delko now stood, lowering his kit to the ground.
"Looks like there was a struggle," Wolfe answered after tucking his blood samples away. "Broken glass, blood on this cage and the floor." Delko nodded.
"Glass looks like it's from the aquariums," he commented. "Breaking it's faster than unlocking and propping the doors open." Wolfe nodded, reaching for a wooden stake with a smear of blood. "Especially when you've got a warm body on the floor." Wolfe's head snapped up.
"Dead?"
"Knocked out," Delko answered with a shrug. "Cold. Out when the head veterinarian came in this morning."
"Who?"
"Assistant vet. Bailey Devlin. Closed up and never went home," Delko said. "Do we know if there's a chart of what's supposed to go where?"
"I haven't found one," Wolfe said. "Maybe our victim has it."
"The victim?" Delko asked, turning to Wolfe with a smirk.
"In his head," Wolfe clarified. "If he's the assistant vet and closes up every night, there's a chance he knows this place from memory. But why'd the thief leave all these others behind?"
"Looks like most of the ones left are poisonous," Delko answered without looking up from dusting the floor. "And I have a shoeprint."
"Nice." They both returned to their work, photographing and collecting anything that could possibly be evidence.
"How's it going guys?" Horatio asked, stepping into the darkened building.
"Judging from the shoeprints I lifted, there was just one assailant," Delko said, picking up shards of glass with blood smeared on them. "Suspect may have cut himself on this glass." Horatio nodded. Wolfe looked up, his brows furling.
"Think it was someone here? An employee maybe? It'd almost have to be someone familiar with snakes," he said.
"I've got Calleigh interviewing all employees with access to this building," Horatio said. "If one of them was in here, he'll have a piece of this building on him and Calleigh will find it."
"Any idea when we can talk to the victim?"
"Bailey Devlin," Horatio said. "Taken to University Hospital for treatment. Unconscious, head injury, not a clue, but Yelena will call the minute we can make a visit." Wolfe nodded. "Wolfe, I want you to do that."
"Yes, sir."
"Horatio." All three looked up as Calleigh approached, pen and paper in hand. "I talked to all of the employees working in and around the reptile exhibit, and all of them check out. Supervisor is sending over the timesheets."
"Good work."
"One more thing," she added. "I asked what the species would be worth if someone were to try to sell them, and we're looking at an excess of a hundred thousand dollars."
"For a collection of worms?" Wolfe quipped. Calleigh sent him a deadpan look.
"They have two eyes, Ryan. That alone makes them a bit more advanced than worms," she said flatly. He and Delko snickered, Horatio shaking his head.
"What about surveillance?" Horatio asked.
"Outside of the building only," Calleigh answered. "And depending on which direction our intruder chose, the tapes may not show anything, but they're on the way to the lab right now."
"Good. Get back there and help out with those."
"You got it," she said, smiling brightly up at Horatio. For the umpteenth time since he started at CSI, Wolfe wondered if there was something going on there. He shook his head, tucking his evidence bags into his kit.
"I'm gonna get started on this stuff," he said, snapping his gloves off and dropping them into a bag. Delko looked up, watching him label the envelope and drop it into his kit, closing up and standing. Wolfe paused, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes. Delko followed his gaze, standing with a small smile.
"Looks like that's the way in," Delko said, nodding toward an open window just above one of the aquarium cabinets. All the others were closed.
"They lock from the inside," Wolfe pointed out.
"Which means the assailant has regular access or someone helped him out," Delko said. "Maybe he left something behind on his way in." Delko moved toward the window, glancing around for a stepladder or something. "I'll call you if I find anything," he threw over his shoulder. Wolfe nodded, glancing at Horatio.
"Meet me at the hospital when our victim wakes up?" Wolfe asked. Horatio nodded once, and Wolfe walked back to his Hummer.
-
Wolfe sat at the table, leaning over the printouts of the DNA analysis on the cage, floor, and piece of wood. Delko hadn't gotten back from the zoo yet, and he had the glass shards with the blood. Wolfe sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. His phone spun a circle on the table as it rang, and he snatched it up.
"Wolfe, CSI."
"Horatio. Listen, our victim just woke up. Head over there and take over. Yelena's meeting you there. I'm going to talk to the supervisor again."
"Yes, sir." Wolfe let out a sigh, tucking the DNA reports into the case file he'd started and set them aside, shrugging off his lab coat and heading for the door. The hospital was only fifteen minutes away, and Yelena met him in the lobby, both heading for the elevator. "Did you find anything out?"
"Waiting for you," Yelena answered. Wolfe smiled, gesturing for her to lead the way as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. He stopped in the doorway of the hospital room, jaw hanging slack. "Bailey Devlin?" Yelena asked. The woman in the bed stirred, groaning a little as she shifted under the sheets. A deep gash in her forehead had been stitched shut, a dark purple bruise already surfacing. Her lip was split, brown hair tousled with dried blood, and her hands were bruised and cut as well. Yelena glanced at Wolfe, and he cleared his throat, taking the chair next to the bed.
"Miss Devlin, I'm Ryan Wolfe with the crime lab." She turned her head toward the voice, struggling to open her eyes. The right side of her face, battered with the wooden stake, was so swollen she could only open that eye to a tiny slit, but her left eye opened to reveal a bright green iris flecked with yellow. "How are you feeling?"
"Like someone dropped me into a jar of molasses," she drawled, glancing up at the IV bags. He followed her gaze, smiling as he read the name of a heavy duty sedative. "Doctor says I have a concussion. Gotta rest."
"I just have a few questions," he said, an apologetic tone to his voice. She nodded, shifting onto her side to face him.
"Who's that?" She asked, lifting a hand toward Yelena.
"Detective Yelena Salas," Yelena said with a smile. "We're glad you're okay."
"Better than dead, but hardly okay," Bailey answered with a snicker, which quickly turned into a heavy sigh. "The nurse already took my clothes to the crime lab," she said. "Wish she'd left my damn socks." Wolfe cracked a smile. "Hope she didn't take pictures while I was out," she added.
"Why's that?" Yelena asked.
"Probably drooled," Bailey answered with a tiny smile and a shrug. "Not pretty." She sighed. "I was checking on the kids like I always do," she started.
"The kids?" Wolfe asked.
"I'm a herpetologist working on a vet degree to actually make money working at the zoo," Bailey answered. "All the cold blooded, scaled, crawly creatures are my babies. I specialize in constrictors. Anyway, I heard a shuffling sound behind one of the middle rows and thought it was Chris."
"Chris…"
"Another veterinary intern. He works the same shift, but I usually check on the animals not on display." Wolfe nodded, jotting that down. "Chris Parker. No one answered, and I got a really bad feeling. So I started backing toward the door and ran into someone." She paused to swallow with a wince, tucking a chunk of hair behind her ear. "I'm pretty sure I let out a yelp or something, and then he threw me around. Tripped over an empty rodent cage and cracked my shin open. And then all I remember is hearing a whooshing sound, like when you swing a bat or something." Wolfe nodded.
"So this guy you ran into," he said.
"Um, probably about six foot. I didn't see his face, but he seemed pretty solid when I ran into him. Felt like a warm wall. And I smelled cologne."
"Cologne?" Yelena asked.
"Yeah." Bailey closed her eyes, her forehead crinkling. "Adidas for men, I think. I had a boyfriend that wore it. Damn amegdulla."
"Connects smell to memory," Wolfe said with a grin. "Do you know what was taken?"
"Taken?" she asked, her eyes popping open. "Wait, they took the snakes?"
"Some of them," Wolfe said. She sighed, shaking her head. "All nonpoisonous."
"Well, at least the assholes were halfway intelligent."
"We need to know which ones were taken," Wolfe said. "Do you know where each animal was kept off the top of your head? I have a sketch of the broken aquariums with missing specimens." He held the sketches out to her, and she stared at them, flipping from one page to the next slowly.
"I'd have to see the aquariums," she said. "They broke the glass? Poor babies."
"What do you mean?"
"Those snakes never had any contact with anyone other than Dr. Rhodes, Chris, and me," she said. "The most excitement they ever get besides food is some punk kid coming through the exhibit and knocking on the glass to fuzz them up. The glass breaking would seriously freak them out." Wolfe glanced at Yelena. "They're used to their routines," Bailey continued. "They stress out really easily."
"So you're worried about… snakes," Wolfe said slowly.
"Yes, I am," she sighed. Her eyes closed again. "Can I get out of here and go check it out? Find out who's missing?"
"You really should rest," Wolfe said, flipping his notepad shut. "I'll take you over there once you feel up to it."
"I feel up to it right now," she insisted, opening her eyes and staring up at him again. "I'm terrified it's too late to find them already."
"What do you mean?" Yelena asked.
"Black market. Zoos and sanctuaries have become a prime target for the reptile trade recently. Ever since U.S. Fish and Wildlife started cracking down on the importation of wild species for sale as pets." Bailey shook her head, probing the gash in her lip with her tongue. "Even private breeders." Her forehead crinkled. "Can someone stop by my house and check on mine?"
"You keep snakes at your house?" Wolfe asked. She nodded.
"I just put an ad in the paper. I've got a female incubating a clutch of eight." Wolfe looked to Yelena, who was already out in the hallway on the phone.
"Do you have someone that can pick up some clothes for you and bring them to the hospital?" Wolfe asked. "The clothes you were wearing are at the lab, right?"
"Yeah, I can call my cousin," she said. "Don't worry about it."
"Do you know anything about this black market operation?" Wolfe asked.
"Yeah, I took a seminar at the New York Zoo a few months ago," she said with a small nod. "They think it's a big operation, actually. Work regionally from a warehouse. When they have a collection big enough to fill a moving truck, they ship them off."
"Where?"
"I don't know," she said. "But it's a risky business. Most of the animals die before they reach the distribution center. In a warehouse that's not temperature controlled, most of the time they're not fed, don't have enough water or clean water, and then they travel for days in a truck that's not temperature controlled. Most reptiles have a specific temperature range they're comfortable in. Too much time outside that range, their metabolism slows and then they eventually die," she said quietly. "Not to mention injuries, infections, and pests. Mites and ticks, mostly."
"Not very cost effective," Wolfe said.
"Doesn't cost them much to steal. And not taking care of them saves that much more money," she explained a little sadly.
"Well, that really helps. Thank you," Wolfe said, adding a small smile.
"If there's anything I can do besides map out the barn for you, let me know," she said. "I'm sure you can figure out how to get in touch with me. All your little toys and stuff," she said with a smile. "I want to help however I can, I mean it."
"And I'll remember that," he said, nodding once. "Get some rest." She nodded, letting her eyes close.