Page 69 of Tiger Queen

“What about a background check?”

“I told her not to bother,” David said. He sounded annoyed with himself. “We thought it would be quicker and cheaper to skip it. Damnit.”

“We couldn’t have known,” I said softly. “She looks like a ditsy cheerleader.”

Concern was plastered on Anthony’s face as he looked back and forth between us. “So what do we do?”

“Let me think about it,” David replied. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”

David stayed up to do some work, so Anthony and I slept together. But we only slept. Neither of us were in the mood for anything sexy. Simply cuddling together and taking comfort in each other’s presence was enough.

If they’re not your boyfriends, then what would you call them? Jake had asked me. While being spooned by Anthony, I wondered about the answer to that.

David and I walked into the zoo together the next morning. “Thought about it?” I asked.

“I want to monitor her throughout the day. See if she does anything suspicious that removes all doubt. And if not…” He shrugged.

“I can keep an eye on her throughout the day. I’ll talk to Anthony and have him—”

I stopped talking as we rounded the corner. Mary Beth was standing in front of the food preparation building, face illuminated by the glow of her phone screen.

“Hi, guys!” she said cheerfully. “Hope I didn’t scare you waiting out in the dark like this. I was hoping I could shadow you again while you feed the animals? If that’s okay?”

“Yeah, totally,” I said. “We can definitely do that. No problem.”

I shared a look with David as we got to work.

I tried to act normal around Mary Beth but it was hard. I wasn’t good at this kind of clandestine behavior! She asked me plenty of questions about the zoo again, just like yesterday. It was easy to believe that she was sincerely interested in learning more about the animals so she could pass the knowledge on to the visitors during her tours.

But she also asked more questions about Crazy Carl and the way he treated the animals. She was sneaky about it too, slipping these questions in among the more innocent questions. Now that I suspected her of working with the AFF, the strategy stuck out like a sore thumb.

Despite that, she didn’t do anything overtly suspicious throughout the day. I kept a close watch on her, and even had Anthony jump in with a fresh pair of eyes when I needed a break. She gave tours of the zoo, explained lots of information to the curious guests, and never veered into the employee-only sections.

After everyone had left for the day, I told David and Anthony what I had seen. “No smoking gun. Not even anything remotely suspicious.”

“Fuck. I was afraid of that.”

“I ran some diagnostics on the computer in the office,” Anthony told us. “There’s no microphone installed. I even used my Wi-Fi interference device to search for anything giving off stray signals.”

“Like a bug?” I asked.

“Like a bug or any other recording device, yep. There was nothing. The office is clean.”

“So the audio had to have come from one of us,” David said.

Jake came storming into the office like the devil himself. “Were you not even going to fucking tell me?”

“Jake…” David said.

“One of them recorded us! And you haven’t done anything about it all day? The fuck?”

“We’ve been thinking about what to do,” David said calmly. “Choosing our next move wisely.”

“I’ve got our next fucking move. We march into her trailer and confront her.”

I could see David preparing to tell him no. Rejecting the idea because it had come from Jake. Before he could, I cleared my throat.

“I agree with Jake.”

---