Chapter 4

Dashiell and Regina went down to the street and walked the block to Regina’s unmarked car. It was a standard dark blue Ford Crown Vic. The official car of police detectives everywhere. He was fairly impressed she found a spot so close. Parking in this neighborhood was a nightmare, which is why he usually took the Metro.

She slid behind the driver’s seat and Dashiell joined her in the front. She pulled out and made a right onto 22^nd, then a quick right onto Decatur Place. She made the left when it turned into Florida, and then another left onto Connecticut. After that, it was a straight shot to the National Zoo.

Dashiell looked down into the green when they crossed the bridge over Rock Creek Park and the Potomac Parkway. It always struck him that there was this huge park in the middle of the Nation’s capital. And it was huge. It stretched from the Potomac, near the Kennedy Center, all the way to the Maryland border and beyond. Parts of it were sectioned off into other parks, but they were all one large connected greensward. They offered horseback rides near the northern end.

They pulled up near the front of the Zoo and Regina pulled into the parking lot on the right. She drove down the long drive and parked near the other emergency vehicles that were already there. The ambulance was just shutting it’s doors, a black zippered bag visible on the stretcher.  Dashiell arched an eyebrow at Regina. She just shrugged.

They entered the zoo through the side entrance, near the panda enclosure. They asked the officer on duty there where the Captain was and he pointed down hill, telling them to head to the tiger exhibit. The zoo had been open since 6 am, but it wasn’t exactly tourist season, and it was still before 9, so there weren’t many people wandering around. They made their way down past the Ape House and Reptile Discovery Center, swinging around to the Sumatran tigers. They had new cubs if Dashiell remembered correctly.

As they came around the final curve in the path, they were spotted by Captain Montgomery. Charles Montgomery was a small, officious looking black man. He’d been a cop since he was 18 years old. A life-long D.C. native, he’d grown up in a rough neighborhood and fought his way out to become the highest police official in the District. In the most political city in the world, he was a master of politics. And right now, he was standing next to a zoo official and a janitor near a pool of blood.

“Ah, Mr. Aldridge, Detective Robins good morning, thank you for coming. This,” he indicated the zoo official, “is Dr. Frederick Matthews. Dr. Matthews is in charge of the zoo.”

Dashiell nodded to Dr. Matthews, indicated the pool of blood. “Someone was murdered?”

Captain Montgomery nodded.

“Any surveillance video?”

Dr. Matthews spoke up. “Actually no. The zoo hasn’t been equipped for 24 hour surveillance yet.”

This surprised Dashiell. After 9/11, he thought most of the popular tourist destinations in the city had been hardened with at least the addition of video cameras. He said as much.

“Well, Mr. Aldridge, we do have heightened security during the day, when the people are here. But at night, with the zoo closed, the feeling is it’s just not that attractive a target. And on the list of government buildings in D.C. to protect from terrorism, sadly the zoo is low man on the totem pole.”

Dashiell nodded. That made some sense. He turned to the Captain. “So what’s my role in all this? You don’t usually call me in on the run-of-the-mill murders, and I’m looking around the spot where the body was discovered and don’t see anything that would call for my involvement. Unless there’s something about the body itself?”

The Captain shook his head. “No, we didn’t call you in for the body, Mr. Aldridge. At least, not that body.”

Dashiell looked a question at him.

He gestured into the tiger pit. “You’re here for that body.”

Dashiell followed the Captain's gaze. He saw up on the grassy hillock of the enclosure the prone form of a large tiger. When he’d first walked up to the cage, he’d been distracted by the blood on the ground. Now that he gave it a closer look, he saw that the tiger, which he thought had been sleeping, was in fact dead. The white fur on its underside was covered in red.

It was hard to tell for sure from this distance, but it appeared the tiger’s belly had been slit wide open.

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