14
A battered and bleeding Isabelle managed to escape,
The iron gate slammed shut, and the animals returned to their enclosures.
I sat once more on my throne, calmly tending to my wounds. Red was still leaping around in a frenzy, perhaps worried about his monkey queen.
Next door, Flingo was roaring and throwing anything he could get his hands on, his chest puffed out with rage.
Echo the macaw flew over, his vocabulary reduced to a single, eloquent phrase: “Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!”
Hours later, Isabelle returned.
Chapter 2
09.33
She was covered in bandages, her face pale and drawn, but her eyes burned with a venomous hatred. She stood just outside the enclosure, stari- ng at me. The director was with her, pleading.
But Isabelle just pointed at me. “I want it dead! This whole zoo is insane! I’m calling the police. Not a single one of these monkeys will be left alive!”
The director was sweating bullets. “Miss Hawthorne, please, we don’t need your donation. We’ll pay for your medical bills. I’m begging you, have
mercy.”
“Mercy?” Isabelle spat. “You want me to spare it? In your dreams! I’ll have it skinned and mounted as a trophy!”
She was so consumed by her rage that she didn’t notice the people approaching from behind.
My mother, father, and brother had arrived.
Their faces were grim. They were flanked by their own team of bodyguards, who were dragging someone between them.
Dr. Evelyn Reed.
I smiled. So, she had confessed after all.
Let the show begin. k, unsteadily, toward the monkey enclosure.
