Peril at Palm Shores (Kristi Cameron Book 7) Page 9

  The zoo director sighed. “I don’t know how we’re going to recover from this,” she said. “The anniversary party is going to have to be cancelled, of course, and it’s going to take us months to rebuild and repair the damage. We could barely hold our heads above water financially as it was, and now we’ll really be sunk.” Tears filled Gretchen’s eyes.

  Bill put his arm around his wife’s shoulder. “Hey, how about just trusting the Lord and see how He works it all out? This is just the first morning after the hurricane. Let’s be patient and give the Lord a chance to show His greatness, okay?”

  Gretchen brushed a hand across her eyes and nodded her head. “You’re right, Bill, of course. Okay, everyone, let’s get back to work, shall we?” They split up once more. Gretchen made her phone call to the police, only to be told, once she finally got through to them, that is, that it would be hours perhaps before they could send a squad car over. They were flooded with hundreds of emergency calls due to the hurricane.

  The teams went on to finish feeding the animals and check all the pens, cages, gates and enclosures. Gretchen had provided each team with detailed lists of what animals should be in which building, and they were able to match the lists with the animals. As far as they could see, no one had tampered with any of the other habitats. Other than the loss of the stable at the Hoofed Animals exhibit, there was only minor hurricane damage here and there, and nothing that looked like the work of human hands. All the locks were secure and the inventory of animals was accounted for.

  “What’s next, Gretchen?” Kristi asked as she and Anna followed the young woman from the Aviary. The birds were all safely in their enclosures, including the eagles. Jimmy had worried about them in particular since someone had tried to cut the wire on their outdoor habitat a few days earlier.

  “Well, I guess the next step is to start mopping up the water from the buildings. The water is starting to recede out here and the sun is drying things out, but we’ll have to wet-vac, mop and sweep the water out of the viewing areas in the buildings. We’re really lucky that the water wasn’t any deeper and didn’t get into the animals’ enclosures. It would have been a lot harder to clean up. All that work you kids did filling and stacking those sandbags really paid off!”

  “Well, I’m glad,” Kristi said. “The blisters on my hands were worth it then!” She looked out over the watery mess that had once been a beautiful park. “It’s too bad all the other work we did this week went to waste, though. When I think of all the painting and repainting we did… Now it’s all going to have to be done again! Can you believe it?” She frowned. “It makes you wonder why the Lord let us go through all that when He knew the hurricane would wipe out all our work.”

  Gretchen patted Kristi’s shoulder. “I don’t know, Kristi. I’m so tired right now that I feel like crying when I think about it. But Bill is right—we just have to pick ourselves up and move on, and most importantly, trust the Lord. He has a purpose behind it all, and whatever it is, it is good. Maybe it is for our good, maybe for the good of the zoo, but even if we don’t understand it, I’m going to go on trusting Him.”

  “Me, too,” Anna said softly.

  “And me, too,” Kristi said firmly. “Okay, where are the mops and brooms? We’d better get back to work. Oh, and we’ll need the work gloves, too. I have a feeling we’re in for more blisters!”

  The girls swept water out the doors as best they could, and then mopped up the rest of the mess. Gretchen used the wet-vac in the places where they couldn’t sweep. The noise of the machine caused a ruckus among the birds. Kristi and Anna laughed at the cockatoos. They spread their wings and squawked loudly, but it was the golden crests on the top of their heads that looked so funny. The feathers rose up straight in the air. “Look!” Anna giggled. “They look like a couple of punk rockers with mohawks!”

  “I don’t think the peacocks are too happy, either,” Kristi said. Their piercing cries sounded like human screams. “I don’t know if it’s the machine that’s upsetting them, though, or just the fact that they’re locked up for now and they’re used to roaming freely around the zoo.”

  They finished up quickly in the Aviary and then went outside into the blessed peacefulness of the park. Their ears were still ringing from the birds. “Where do you want us to go next, Gretchen?” Kristi asked.

  “Would you girls mind going on ahead of me to the Arctic Display? I’ll meet you there in a few minutes, but I want to run back to my office and check on a couple things.”

  “Sure, that would be fine,” Kristi said. They split up and Kristi and Anna headed one direction on the slippery path, while Gretchen went the other. The water outside had gone down a lot in the last couple hours, but the sidewalks and roadway were covered now in mud and garbage. There were even patches of seaweed here and there, left behind from the water that had been pushed up out of the Gulf of Mexico by the hurricane force winds.

  “This all has to be cleaned up, too,” Anna said, wrinkling her nose. “Wow, what a mess!”

  “I know,” Kristi agreed. “The flower beds have been destroyed, too, and they’ll have to be replanted now, and look at those bushes over there. Their branches are all broken and lying on the ground. There’s trash all over the place, too. Do you see that? You can actually see how high the water got by how much stuff is still clinging to the branches. It must be at least a couple feet—hey, what’s that?” Kristi had spied something caught in the bushes. It looked like a large white box. She gingerly made her way across the soggy grass and through a couple large puddles of water to see what it was.

  She turned the box over. It was heavier than she had expected. Once she got it turned around she could see that it wasn’t actually a box at all, but a large pet carrier—the kind one would transport a dog in on an airplane, or something. She peered through the wire mesh screen into the crate. Suddenly she gasped, “Oh no! Oh my goodness! Anna, quick! Go after Gretchen! Tell her we need her back here right now! Hurry!”

  “Why, Kristi? What is that?” Anna asked.

  “It’s one of the missing chimps! I think he’s dead!” Kristi wailed.

  _________

  CHAPTER TEN

  _________

  Fudge

  Anna ran as quickly as she could up the muddy path. “Gretchen! Gretchen!” she called. Fortunately the zoo director had not gone far and Anna caught up with her quickly. “Gretchen! You need to come back!” she gasped breathlessly. “Kristi found a pet carrier in the bushes. There’s a chimpanzee in it and Kristi thinks he’s dead!”

  Gretchen didn’t say a word, but turned and raced back to Kristi. She fell to her knees on the wet ground and fumbled for the latch on the animal crate. Kristi had been crying, and now Anna wept, too, as they watched Gretchen carefully lift the small limp body out and lay it on the ground. “It’s Fudge,” she said softly. She laid her ear on his chest, and felt for the pulse in his wrist. “He’s not dead! I can’t feel his pulse, but I can hear his heart beating very slowly and faintly. He’s still hanging on! He’s going to die soon, though, if we don’t get help to him quickly!”

  She lifted her radio to her lips and spoke rapidly, “Tammy! Tammy, are you there? I need you now outside the Aviary. We found Fudge in a crate, half-dead and badly hurt. It looks like a near-drowning. His arm is broken, too, and he has several gashes and scrapes all over. You’d better get here quickly, or we may still lose him. He’s barely breathing.”

  Tammy’s voice came through the radio loudly. “I hear you, Gretchen! I’m on my way!”

  It was barely two minutes later when they golf cart came tearing around the corner, but it seemed like an eternity to Kristi and the others. Randy screeched to a halt in front of them, and Tammy jumped out before it had even stopped rolling. “Lucky Randy heard you on the radio and was close by,” she said as she knelt down by the little chimpanzee’s still body. “Let’s get some oxygen on him first thing,” she said softly as she slipped a mask over the small face. Her face was grave as she liste
ned to the faltering heartbeat with her stethoscope.

  “He’s got fluid in his lungs. Let’s turn him on his side—the opposite side of his injured arm—and see if we can get some of the water out of him. Then we’ll get him back to the hospital and suction as much out as we can. Here, Gretchen—hold the broken arm as carefully and still as you can while we turn him. Randy, could you help me for a moment?”

  Kristi and Anna watched helplessly as the adults worked on the young chimp. Very little water came out as they tried to revive him, so they wasted no time in securing him safely on a body board and loading him onto the back seat of the golf cart. Tammy perched next to Fudge on the edge of the seat and held on tightly as Randy carefully set out for the hospital. The others watched as the cart disappeared from view.

  They were just about to follow it on foot when Jimmy pulled up in the truck. He leaped out and ran up to them. “Where is he? Is he okay?” he asked. Kristi could see the anxiety and concern on his face. These people are so totally dedicated to this place and the animals, she thought. It’s like they are their family.

  Gretchen shook her head. “Tammy and Randy just took him to the hospital. I don’t know, Jimmy. It doesn’t look good.”

  “What happened? This is the crate you found him in?”

  “Kristi found him. Where exactly was the carrier, Kristi?

  “Over here, in these bushes. I almost didn’t see it because it was covered with these broken branches. I just saw one corner. The crate was upside down when I found it. I turned it over and saw the chimp inside. I thought he was dead.”

  “He probably would have been very soon if you hadn’t found him when you did, Kristi!” Gretchen said grimly. “It is a miracle he’s still alive at all, as it is. It looks like one of the thieves was probably trying to carry the crate through the flood waters and lost it. The water could have carried it all the way from Monkey Jamboree, rolling it over and over. No wonder poor little Fudge was all battered and broken, and half-drowned!”

  “How could anyone be so stupid as to think he could make it through a flood, in a hurricane—let alone carrying something like that, as well?” Jimmy asked angrily. Suddenly he said, “What about Brownie? Maybe he’s around here somewhere, too! Come on! We have to see if there’s another crate nearby! They took Fudge and Brownie, so Brownie must have been in a separate carrier.”

  They scoured the bushes and area around the Aviary, hoping desperately that they’d find another carrier—but with a chimp inside in better condition than poor Fudge. The other teams showed up to join in the search. They spread out to look in a wider area, but in the end they were disappointed. There was no sign of another animal crate anywhere.

  “Gretchen and I need to go check on Fudge,” Jimmy said. “There are four more buildings that still have water in them. Bill, why don’t you and the boys do the Reptile House and Monkey Jamboree, and Steve and the girls can get the Small Mammal exhibit and the Arctic display. Is that okay with all of you? Good! I’ll see if Rachel and Randy can come and help you now, too. Keep your eyes open for any signs of Brownie and Bejo while you’re out there.”

  “Bejo?” Robyn asked.

  “The orangutan. The one that looks like Skeeter.” Skeeter looked at the zookeeper. He couldn’t tell if Jimmy was teasing or not. He looked entirely serious. Robyn and Kristi snickered. Skeeter knew he was never going to live this down!

  The teens split up once more to finish the cleanup in the flooded buildings. It was the same in each of the exhibits. The viewing areas had several inches of standing water in them, but the actual enclosures themselves were dry. The animals in each of the exhibits seemed to have recovered since breakfast from their traumatic experience of the night before. The girls took a few minutes to watch in delight as a trio of small raccoons tumbled and played in the leaves of their display. A skunk pressed its nose curiously to the glass, peering out at the girls and sniffing the air as if perhaps they were the ones with a suspicious scent!

  They were still mopping the floor when Rachel walked in. “Hi, honey! Hey, girls!” she greeted them. “How are you doing here?”

  “We’re just about done,” Steve answered. “We’re going to the Arctic display next. Are you here to help us?”

  “Well, no. To tell you the truth, I’m here to steal one of your helpers away. I’ve been over at the gift shop and office, helping Gretchen to clean up the mess there. We were about to go check on the refreshment stand and start cleaning up in there when the police department called to say they were finally sending some officers over to investigate the break-in. I told her I’d go on without her, but then I thought maybe I could get one of you girls to give me a hand.”

  “I’ll go, Mom!” Kristi volunteered. “Hey, have you heard anything about Fudge yet? Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know, Kristi. The last I heard he’s still alive, but in bad shape. Tammy’s afraid he’s going to have pneumonia with all the water that went into his lungs. She’s still working on him, and Grandma is helping. Tammy called a specialist to come and help, but she hasn’t heard back from him yet. Everything is still in chaos from the hurricane, so communications and transportation are pretty impossible still. It could be that the guy even left the area ahead of the storm.”

  “We’ll just have to keep praying for Fudge,” Anna said. “I know he’s important to the Lord, too—even if he is just a chimp.”

  “Sure he is! The Bible says the Lord knows when a tiny sparrow falls from its nest, so if He cares about a sparrow, I’m sure He cares about a chimpanzee, too!” Robyn said matter-of-factly.

  “Why don’t you all meet us over at the refreshment stand when you get done at the Arctic exhibit?” Rachel suggested. “We’re all going to need to eat lunch soon, and if things aren’t too badly destroyed over there, maybe we can make some hot dogs or something for everyone. I’ll see if I can get in touch with everyone else, and we can all eat together.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Steve agreed. “We’ll meet you there around one o’clock then.”

  Rachel and Kristi left the Small Mammal House and headed for the front of the park. “Let’s go by the Monkey Jamboree first, Kristi, and tell the guys what we’re doing for lunch,” her mother said. “It’s right across the way from the refreshment stand.”

  Bill Janus and the boys had just begun the work in the primate exhibit. Pete and Dan were both sweeping water out the front doors with wide push brooms as Rachel and Kristi came up the walk. They could hear the dull roar of the wet-vac from outside. “Hi, guys!” they called.

  “Mom! Kristi! What’s going on?” Dan said.

  “Mom? Is Mom here?” they heard echoing from inside the building. A moment later Skeeter stuck his head out the door. “Hey, what are you guys doing here?” he asked with a big grin.

  “We’re going to work over there at the Tiki Hut,” Rachel explained. “We just stopped by to tell you to meet us over there at one o’clock. We’ll all have lunch together then—hopefully. It depends on what kind of mess Kristi and I find inside.”

  “One o’clock! Aw, man! I’m starving now!” Skeeter protested. “Could I come over to the refreshment stand and help, Mom? Maybe I could get a snack or something to hold me until lunchtime.”

  “Skeeter! Do you think I’m crazy? Turn you loose in the snack shack? That would be like bringing a pride of lions into the butcher shop!”

  “Aw, Mom! I promise—just one little snack to hold me until lunch, okay? I’ll work really hard to make up for it, I promise! Please?”

  Rachel laughed. “Well, alright, my Bottomless Pit! I’m sure you’ve already been working hard all morning. You can help, but only if Mr. Janus says he can get along without you here. We could probably use all those muscles of yours to move some boxes, anyway.”

  “I’ll go ask him.” Skeeter dashed back inside and a moment later they heard the wet-vac go off.

  Bill appeared at the door then. “Hey, there, Rachel! Have you seen my wife lately? I can’t get her on the radio.
”

  “She’s probably at the office with the police. They were on their way over when I left her. They’ll probably be over here any time to look at the crime scene.”

  “No one’s been back there or touched anything since we discovered the apes missing. We’ve only been here in the viewing area. I was just wondering how Fudge is doing.”

  Rachel told him what she had related to Steve and the girls. “I think we’ll just have to wait, and hope and pray for the best,” she added. “If he can make it through the next day or so, maybe he’ll pull through.”

  Bill didn’t say anything else, but they could see he was a bit choked up. “Poor little fellow,” he finally muttered. He shook his head and then said, “I told Skeeter to go on and give you a hand. These other young men and I can finish the job here. All these kids are terrific, Rachel! I’ve never seen such hard workers!”

  “Thanks, Bill. Yeah, they’re pretty special, aren’t they? Okay then, we’ll let you get back to work here. We’ll meet you at one at the Tiki Hut. Come on, Skeeter and Kristi. We have to get busy too.”

  They had turned to cross over to the refreshment stand when they heard Bill’s radio suddenly crackle to life. “Hello? Hello?” a voice came across. It was Kristi’s grandmother. “Hello? This is Elizabeth. Has anyone seen Rachel?”

  Bill held the radio out to Rachel. “Mom?” she spoke into it. “What’s the matter?”

  “Oh, hello, dear! I was just wondering if you’re not busy if you could come back to the nursery and help me a bit. Tammy’s still working on Fudge, and I’ve been helping her, so I’m a bit behind in taking care of the babies. Could you come and give me a hand for just a little while?”