Chapter 6

Puzzling Evidence

As soon as Nikki arrived the next morning, she headed straight for the conference room, where she found both her colleagues sitting around the table with Sadler and Easton.

"Good," Sadler announced when she entered. "You're here, we can start. Now," he continued as Nikki took a seat. "First of all, I found Connie Hooper. Her situation was nearly identical to Mr. Fairburn's, except this time we caught her in the act. The chimp was all dressed up in a frilly pink dress when we got there." Everyone present frowned. "Not only that, but when she was questioned, she gave us the same story; twenty five thousand dollars after meeting on a deserted road… at night."

"Things are definitely starting to connect," Easton commented darkly.

Sadler nodded and said, "Let's go over what we know."

"We have a murdering chimpanzee on the loose," Harry offered, earning himself a warning glare from Leo. "Hold on," he defended. "It's kind of true. The chimp definitely had something to do with the deaths of both victims."

Sadler nodded absently as he thought hard. "Yes, but there's no way it did all this by itself. I mean, it wouldn't have been able to position Conner Wilson back in his car after it shot him and somehow crash it into a tree, which by the way, we still don't know how that was managed in the first place."

Sitting up straight in his chair, Leo's face suddenly went serious. "There was a stick on the floor of the car, just under the accelerator. I thought it had fallen in when it crashed, but maybe someone wedged it to the pedal."

"It's possible," Easton nodded, her frown deepening. "In fact, I've seen it before."

"Still, like you said," Harry motioned to Sadler, "A chimp wouldn't have been able to manage all that."

Running his hands over his face, Sadler sighed. "Lauren Todd is killed by a chimp and perhaps a person, but not any of the chimps at the zoo. Then you," he points in Nikki's direction, "Find those pictures in her flat and DI Curtis goes missing when he tries to talk to Conner Wilson. Not only that, but then Conner Wilson is nowhere to be found, only to turn up dead in what seems to be a car accident but isn't. He was apparently killed by the same chimp and possibly the same person who may or may not have helped kill Lauren Todd." He groaned and sat back in his chair. "This is hurting my head."

"Don't forget that Tom Little seems to be selling illegal baby chimps," Nikki added, earning another groan from the detective.

Easton spoke up again, saying, "She's right. Never mind trying to figure out whatever else is going on right now. We need to bring in the Littles for another questioning. Doing that might lead us closer to the culprit."

"Right," Sadler nodded, turning to the other detective. "You and I can head over to the zoo while you," he said to the pathologists, "can take another look at Conner Wilson's body. We need anything you can find." Leo looked a bit put out at the assumption they could have missed something, but nodded all the same, agreeing that it was a good idea.

"What do you think?" Harry looked over the slab at the question to where Nikki was examining the bullet wound again. He shrugged when she looked up curiously, earning a frown. "Normally you would have a witty reply all ready and waiting," she mumbled, bending down to poke around the exit wound.

He sighed quietly, and shrugged again. "Yeah." That earned him another searching look.

"Are you alright?"

Straightening away from the body, he ground his teeth together as he thought. Nikki flinched and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm just thinking."

"Could you think without making that horrible noise?" she asked with an amused smile as she traveled down Conner Wilson's arm.

Harry stopped grinding his teeth and raised an eyebrow. "Fox ears," he mumbled, returning to his examination of Conner Wilson's left side.

"Found anything?" Leo asked, halting their banter as he returned from the other side of the room where he'd been searching the man's clothes for clues.

"Not unless you count freckles as 'something'," Nikki smiled, glancing across at the clothes. "Do you want me to take a look at those?"

"Sure," Leo nodded. "I'll take over here. You've probably got better eyesight than me anyhow."

"Hawk eyes," Harry muttered as she passed. Ignoring that comment, Nikki began searching the shirt for any helpful information. "You know what I am wondering about though?" he asked, voice louder so she and Leo could hear him.

Leo glanced up. "Do tell?"

"Nikki, do you remember when we were at the zoo and we met Charlie Little, the son?" She nodded, also looking up from the table as a curious expression crossed her face. "He was acting strange," he told Leo, cluing him in. "Like there was something he wanted to tell us, but was too scared."

"He kept glancing around to make sure we were alone, but seemed to lose his nerve and left pretty quickly," Nikki added.

Leo seemed interested by this new information. "Well, if he's got something to say, Sadler might get it out of him."

"Leo," Nikki's voice echoed quietly from the other side of the room. "Come look at this."

Rushing over to see what she'd found, he grinned when his eyes caught sight of the small thread tucked under the collar of the shirt. "Fantastic," he smiled. "Good job."

A couple hours later, Harry and Nikki were sat at their own desks for once, waiting none too patiently for the results of a lab test. Harry was repeatedly taking apart a pen and putting it back together while Nikki drew random shapes on a piece of paper. They both looked up expectantly when Leo entered the room, but from the look on his face, they could tell it wasn't the news they were hoping for.

"Well," their boss began. "It came from a rope, but they couldn't get anything more than that."

"Great," Harry said sarcastically, "and DI Easton called a minute ago to tell us the Littles had been at the horse races at the time of Conner Wilson's death, so that's them in the clear."

"Still," said Nikki, "We've got evidence of Tom Little selling illegal baby chimps, but the police aren't letting on that they know, so he's oblivious."

"Meaning he won't try and run," Harry added.

Nodding slowly, Leo leaned on their desk and sighed. "But that still doesn't help us figure out who killed Lauren Todd or Conner Wilson."

"Who knows," Harry shrugged. "It might take us a step closer. After all, Conner Wilson was delivering the chimps for him, so they're still connected."