Kay climbed into the backseat of the SUV along with Cameron while Jordan rode in the front. She could see past Cameron's cheerful facade in the Archive. The make-up he was wearing couldn't hide the tiredness and sadness reflected in his eyes. Cam climbed in from the other side and eyed her skeptically.
Mike pulled the vehicle out into traffic. "I'm fine, Kay," Cameron told her as she opened her mouth. She shut it with a snap and rolled her eyes. It had still only been a few days since Jonathan had left him in the prison, and he was clearly still dealing with it internally. In the front, Jordan was already telling another one of his lame joke to Mike. She felt a quick pang of guilt for making him Jordan's captive audience.
Beside her, Cameron launched into one of his long winded stories. "When we were kids, Dad decided he wanted to try a new trick with a goose. We were, oh, about seven. He had this goose on the stage, and it decided it didn't want me up there and ran right at me squawking and flapping its wings. So it's chasing me all over the stage. No matter which way I ran, I couldn't get away from it. If I let it get too close, it would bite at me. It also chased a couple of the stage hands when they tried to pull it off of me. It was a totally evil bird! It was determined to run everyone off the stage. So finally, Jonathan comes on the stage and starts telling it off!" Cameron smiled as he recalled the memory. "He just lit into that goose for chasing his poor brother. It just stopped and stood there startled for a minute. Jon just kept lecturing it. Then it just turned around and sautered off the stage like nothing happened. Jon had his arms crossed, lecturing it until it disappeared behind the curtain." He laughed a little.
"You haven't had much experience with animals, have you?" Kay asked him.
"Ah, no... I.. We couldn't travel with animals much and we didn't use them in Vegas." Silence descended in the backseat and Cameron turned away to look out the window as they drove through New York. Kay left him to his thoughts, focusing on the case file in front of her.
Both of them could hear chatter from the front seat Jordan continued his mostly one-sided conversation with Mike.
- o -
As Mike pulled into the zoo parking lot, Kay reminded them to keep their heads down and to not announce that they were investigating the missing animals. "Just like the museum, this is probably an inside job, so the less people that know who we are, the better."
The head of security met them in the parking lot. He introduced himself as Thomas Evans and escorted them through a back door of the facility to a room filled with monitors. He introduced them to the director of the museum, Cindy Roberts.
She shook hands with both Mike and Kay. "Welcome. Do you have all the information you need?"
"So far, yes, ma'am," Kay assured her.
"We want to help you in any way we can. Just let myself or Mr. Evans know if there is anything you need."
"Thank you."
The director left, assuring them she would check in with them periodically. Evans and a tech set them up with several stations to examine camera security footage. They started with the first disappearance, a Columbia basin pygmy rabbit that disappeared two months previously.
After an hour, Cameron was nearly nodding off staring at the footage from different cameras. Kay elbowed him awake as the director stopped in to check with the team.
Seeing the magician blinking sleepily and the restlessness of the others, she offered a tour of the zoo.
Kay glance back at the others and then accepted. Jordan waved them on, and Mike decided to stay with Jordan. She agreed with his decision even though he looked like he'd rather explore the zoo as well.
Cameron stood up and stretched. Kay was also grateful for the break and a chance to stretch her legs. She followed the director out the door with Cameron close behind her.
Starting with the outdoor exhibits, they first toured the African plains animals before heading towards a bird enclosure. As they walked they looked for security cameras and examined the electronic locks on the exhibit entrances.
"Have you noticed any patterns with the abductions, such as during special events?" Kay asked the director.
"We haven't, but we can give you a schedule if you'd like to check into it."
"Who has access to the habitat enclosures?"
"Just employees. Supervisors have access to all the animals, but most employees only have access to the ones that they work with. Security has access to everything for obvious reasons." Roberts gestured to some of the animal habitat access points.
Kay nodded and filed the information away for later. "How many endangered species do you have here?" She asked as they approached a large cats area.
The director gave her a sharp look. "Quite a few. We're trying to take more precautions with these species since they are being targeted. Even though only smaller animals have been taken so far, we are boosting security on all national endangered species. We also have several larger animals, such as this jaguar."
"The jaguar is endangered?" Cameron asked.
"Yes, in the United States. It was historically located in southern Arizona and Texas. It is threatened throughout Central and South America." She paused as they approached a young man with a zoo volunteer vest. "Actually, Caleb here can tell you more. He's a student volunteer here doing a project on the jaguar."
Cameron's eyes shifted to the young man as Roberts introduced him. The student's eyes widened as he realized who she was introducing him to and he could see the boy visually cringe with nervousness.
"Caleb McKenzie." He politely introduced himself, extending his hand with his eyes darting around uneasily.
"Cameron Black." He shook the kid's hand, giving him a dazzling smile in an effort to put him at ease. "This is Kay," indicating his partner standing behind him. "You're the resident big cat expert?"
"Not-not an expert,' he stuttered. "Just learning." His voice became more confident, but his eyes still darted back and forth between Kay and Cameron. "I'm doing a project at the university on the effect of the different habitats on the cats. Their natural habitat verses the zoo's replica. New York is a very different environment than southern Arizona."
Cameron nodded with understanding, becoming genuinely interested in the nervous young man in front of him. "What are you learning?"
Behind him, Kay rolled her eyes at how easily he had become distracted. "Cameron, we should keep going. We don't want to keep Ms. Roberts waiting."
Cam turned back to Kay, "Right." Then turning back to Caleb, he apologized, "Sorry, maybe some other time. Perhaps I'll see you later." He flashed him another smile before darting after Kay and Roberts toward the bird area.
Roberts stopped at the one of the fenced sections, indicating a plaque in front of her. "This is the enclosure that the golden-cheeked warbler was taken from."
Kay eyed the birds among the trees and greenery in a smaller enclosure of the aviary. "You have several species in here."
"Yes, that is correct," Roberts affirmed.
"The thief would have had to have been familiar with the bird and finding and catching it." Kay observed. She turned to Cameron. "Any thoughts?"
He had his arms crossed and was staring up into a tree in the peak of the aviary. "Do you have any one person that's familiar enough to catch each one of these animals that have been taken? Especially this one?"
The director sighed. "It's been something we've been looking into, but no one person has stood out in our investigation. When we get back to the office, I can give you the files and the areas that each of our supervisors cover."
After checking the camera locations, they continued their tour until the director had to return for an important meeting. Cameron and Kay headed back to the security room where Mike and Jordan were still staring at monitors. Jordan was in his element with his feet up and relaxed flipping through camera footage. Mike, on the other hand, was looking a little cross-eyed.
"Have you guys found anything yet?" Kay asked as they stepped into the room.
Mike blinked blearily up at them and Jordan swiveled in his seat, gracefully keeping his feet propped up on the table. Kay glared at him, but Jordan was oblivious. Turning back to the monitor, he brought up a video and answered, "Not exactly. I have been finding times when the quality of the video changes, but I need more time to compare it to other videos before I can tell you anything."
Kay frowned and chewed on her lower lip. "Show me." Mike and Cameron gathered around her and Jordan at the computer station.
Jordan pointed at the video on the monitor. It was from the camera aimed at the entrance to the black-footed ferret habitat. It showed a few of the ferrets milling about slowly. Suddenly, the camera seemed to blip and the video seemed less focused. "It stays like this for about two minutes before returning to normal." Sure enough after about that amount of time, it returned to regular focus.
Mike called over the security technician and Jordan replayed the clip for him. "Is this normal?" he asked the tech.
"No, but we have seen a few instances where the camera seems to lose its focus and then re-focuses again. We've had the camera experts look at it, but they can't find anything wrong with the cameras." The tech tapped a few buttons and another video popped up of a reptile habitat. It wasn't any place they had seen and Kay couldn't make out what species it was. The video blurred a little for a few minutes and then returned to normal much like the video Jordan had found.
Jordan pointed back at the video he had been looking at. "This video is from the window of time that the ferret was estimated to have been taken. I bet that's when it was taken. Could that video also be from when another one of the animals was taken?" He asked the technician, indicating the reptilian habitat.
"No," the tech answered. "Although this one was where the Alabama red-bellied turtle went missing about a week later."
Mike's eyebrows furrowed. "Test run?" Jordan nodded thoughtfully.
"Makes sense," Kay added. "Good work, Jordan. Can you find and put together all these occurrences of the out of focus video?" Jordan nodded and turned back to the computer.
"Actually, let's take a break and get some lunch, first," she said, checking her watch. "And then we can take a look at more of the zoo. The director gave us a partial tour before she was called away, and I'd like to look at the other locations that the animals were removed from."
Mike especially looked relieved as he blinked and yawned. Jordan almost looked annoyed that he had to move from his comfortable position, but he was hungry too, so he jumped up and headed for the door.
Kay scoffed and smiled. She and Cameron exchanged grins and followed Jordan out the door with Mike close behind.
- o -
Over sandwiches at the zoo's restaurant, the team discussed theories and traded barbs. Cameron was quieter than usual, but threw in a few comments too.
"Good thing they won't take an eagle. It would be illegal." Jordan announced.
"Eagles are no longer endangered." Kay answered without looking up from what she was reading.
"No, no. It would be an ill eagle—get it? It would be sick!" Everyone around the table groaned.
Cameron grinned the tiniest bit. "That was so bad!" he told Jordan.
"Yeah, it was." Jordan grinned back.
After lunch, they checked out the reptile area that the Alabama red-bellied turtle disappeared from and the ferret's habitat before heading back to the security monitor-lined dungeon.
The director was waiting for them. After updating her on what they had found so far, all four settled in to continue watching video feeds.
After watching what seemed like hours of footage, Kay's mind began to wonder. She had told Cameron during their first real case together that most investigative work happens at a desk, going through paperwork. Or staring at a computer screen watching video footage, or something else equally boring. She tried to re-focus on the drudgery of sifting through the hours and hours of footage from the zoo. People walking the paths, stopping to tap on glass, making faces at the animals. Adults were more or less holding squirming children. Young kids that cried if an animal scared them. Parents were yelling at children of all ages to behave. Older kids and adults walked around staring at their phones or pointing at some of the animals and laughed. The videos began to blur together again.A sudden foreign noise broke into the monotony of the silent videos, startling her. It took her a second to recognize Cameron's voice, "Wait a minute…"
She sat back and shook her head. "What did you find?"
"This group, a um, woman with a kid. I saw them earlier. They've got an extra bag here."
"Really?" She came to stand beside Cameron at his computer.
"Yeah." He pointed at an adult and young child looking at grizzly bears. The woman had both a shoulder bag and a child's backpack. "See that backpack? She didn't have it earlier."
"Oh?"
"I can find it. Um, here." Cameron brought up a video with the same woman and child wandering through the African plains exhibit.
Mike too joined the party gathering around Cameron's computer. "When was it?" his voice gained a little excitement.
"When the ferret disappeared." Kay answered, laying out a map of the zoo on the table and pointed at it. "Here they are at the African exhibit. Here's the ferret's habitat, and here's where you saw them watching the bears with the backpack."
"Can you track them all the way through the zoo, figure out precisely where they picked up that bag and get as detailed picture of her face as possible?" Mike was already zooming in on the lady's face that held the child's backpack.
Jordan answered for him, "Let me do that."
"What, you don't think I can do that?" Cam was offended.
"Nope, no offence, boss." Jordan looked entirely too smug.
Cameron considered it. "Fair enough. I don't want to do it anyway." Jordan just grinned, swiveling in his chair to face Mike.
Kay smiled. Now that they had a lead on the case, the tension had disappeared. "Let's get to work."
- o -
Okay, so I made a little bit of changes based on the constructive criticism I got. If anyone has any more suggestions to improve, let me know, if I'm going to do this—I want to do it right.
