The Secret of Tayburn Zoo: 11.2

Patrick shakily transferred his weight to his feet and shuffled over towards the hut's doorway. He peered round the corner, and immediately his eyes locked onto three figures walking along the bridge over the frog pond. One was the squat bulk of Crothers, one the tall slim figure of MacLean. The third was an average height woman with pale skin and short black hair.

Patrick hadn't been sure he'd ever see Sue Haldane again. More importantly, he hadn't been prepared to see her for at least another hour.

He followed MacLean's movements most closely, with a leaden lump of sorrow in his stomach. Sure, he understood Aurora's anger. She'd played cleverly on his disdain for Crothers and completely tricked him. But instead of his blood boiling, his eyes burned as tears sprang forth. He let them out, slowly, quietly, as he watched the approach of the Neuromax representative he'd briefly thought of as his friend, but who must have betrayed them.

"Patrick," Aurora whispered.

Patrick jerked his head round to face her. Through the blur of tears the lines between the black and white patches of her fur blurred together.

"Right, yeah," he said, "I should go see why they're here early."

Aurora sprang unsteadily to her feet and fell on Patrick in a haphazard hug. "Don't worry about me, okay?"

Patrick managed a smile as he desperately attempted to balance her weight into something approaching upright, and ended up falling awkwardly onto his backside, with one hand bracing against the wall.

"Guess I'm not going to be an acrobat any time soon," Aurora murmured.

Patrick giggled, a high pitched nervous laugh. "Okay, I'm basically already in the ladder now. I'll see you later."

His hands and feet bumped against the sides of the ladder as he stumbled down it, but he barely gave a thought to the welts and bruises that might spring up the next day. He had to make it through this one first.

He grabbed his mobile phone out the tight pocket of his suit trousers as he hurried down the corridor. The paintings blurred into a rush of bright colours as he focused on the little screen, bashing the glass to enter his passcode because he did not have time to get the goddam stupid fiddly little fingerprint recognition to work. He bent his fingernail backwards as he hammered his finger against Crothers' number and whacked himself in the side of the face as he brought his phone up to his ear.

"Hello, McAfferty," Crothers greeted him, before Patrick had a chance to say anything.

"Sir?" Patrick's voice came out in a dry wheeze, and he realised that for the last few minutes he'd been running far faster than he had in years, possibly decades. "I... sir. I thought you weren't getting here for another hour."

Crothers cursed. "One moment, McAfferty."

There was a rustling sound, possibly of a sleeve covering a phone's mic. Then Patrick was sure he heard Crothers' deep, rough voice mutter something, perhaps something about Patrick seeing them. It certainly sounded like gloating, Patrick reflected, as he leaned against a narrow strip of grey wall between two paintings. His tired head drifted town towards his shoulder but jerked away at the smell of sweat coming from his shirt.

"McAfferty, you still there?" Crothers barked.

"Yes," Patrick said, his breath still too short to say much more.

"We'll meet you in your above ground office."

"I - alright," Patrick started, then realised from the low white noise on the other end of the phone that Crothers was gone.

He closed his eyes, imagined Aurora's face, imagined Scott and Holly's faces if they were to find out what was happening, and kept running.

---

Sue Haldane was sitting at Patrick's desk as he burst through the door. He gasped, which quickly turned into a hacking cough, and before he knew it he was doubled over, slumped against the door frame.

Panting, he looked up at Haldane. "Ma'am, what's going on?"

The red spots at the sides of Patrick's vision subsided, and he jumped as he realised Crothers had been standing just to his right the whole time.

"Dreadfully sorry, Mr McAfferty," Haldane said, carefully removing a file from a big black briefcase on the cluttered table. All Patrick's stuff was covered in the bright happy tones of a multi-coloured ballpoint Scott had got him on Father's' Day, not really understanding the concept of "grandfather". This briefcase came straight from Neuromax.

"We didn't mean to shock you," Haldane went on. "We just thought we'd get a head start on things."

Crothers leaned forward, an enormous grin plastered across his face. "Without you."

Haldane rolled her dark brown eyes. "That was my implication, Frederick."

Crothers shrugged and went back to leaning against Patrick's bookshelf.

"You weren't planning on telling me, I assume?" Patrick spoke a little louder now, glaring at Crothers. "Were you going to tell us about the panda, or just hide it away forever?" Crothers snapped. "She practically told you herself. You just never pay attention!" Patrick shot back. The adrenaline from running started belatedly to kick in. A little late for his breathing's recovery, but he felt like he was growing an inch by the second as his hatred for Crothers pounded through his veins.

"But it didn't tell me," Crothers said. A snarl twisted his lips and nose. "It told MacLean."

Patrick sighed. MacLean indeed then. He whirled around to face Haldane, who had one well trimmed eyebrow raised in his direction.

"Where is she?" Patrick exclaimed.

Haldane frowned. Her eyes flicked from Patrick to Crothers and back. "Well, she agreed to ensure none of the animals are able to disturb us while we examine the panda, Aurora. She'd probably halfway through securing the trap doors as we speak."

Patrick's anger started to subside to make way for cold, heavy dread. "She... she volunteered to go do grunt work?"

Haldane shrugged. "I guess? It was her or Fred."

"Oh, come on," Patrick muttered, "Clearly she's the more valuable for you out of the two of them."

"Oi!" Crothers shouted, but Patrick didn't look around.

"What are you suggesting?" Haldane said in a much lower tone. "I doubt she's out sabotaging your frog game, or ripping up your elephants' watercolours."

There was a piercing flash of pain in Patrick's chest, and he had to concentrate hard to swallow a lump in his throat. "I don't know what she'd do…”

"Right..." Haldane said, slowly placing her hand back on top of the file. She flipped it open without looking away from Patrick, then went on, "So, we're here to modify Crothers' original assessment of Aurora, since clearly there was some missing information. Depending on the outcome, we may have to remove her from the zoo for further investigation."

Patrick was barely listening, still thinking about MacLean and how little he knew her. She could be doing anything right now. The way she'd manipulated them... she didn't care about the zoo, she thought it was a freak show. And unlike Crothers she actually had the initiative to do something about it.

"Ma'am," Patrick said, very quietly. Even so his voice cracked halfway through. "I think I need a moment. May I be excused to go to the bathroom?"

Haldane sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, whatever. But you're not getting out of this, Patrick."

"No, I know," he said, backing out the door. "I just need to think."

He stepped out of the room and strode off to the left, hoping to God that they didn't know the nearest bathroom was in the opposite direction.