There were too many people there for me to risk approaching. They’d ask questions, and later they’d remember that I not only came in to work early, but appeared to conveniently “discover” the body with the rest of them. I turned away, pulling my phone from my pocket, as I walked slowly back toward the reptile house. I didn’t want to get her involved. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to speak to her right now. And that didn’t matter, because I needed the backup.

“Shelby? Hi, it’s Alex. We’ve got a problem at the zoo . . .”

Chandi and Dee were both alive when I stepped through the reptile house doors. That was a comfort. They were shouting at each other. That wasn’t.

“—can’t keep me out! I’ll tell my father! I’ll tell everyone! I’m allowed—”

“—believe your parents will be mad at me for looking out for your best interests? You need to think about your safety—”

“—am I supposed to develop a proper immunity if you don’t let me—”

“—will be time for that—”

I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled shrilly, bringing both sides of the argument to a crashing halt. The two turned to stare at me, eyes wide. For a moment, the only sound was the hissing of Dee’s hair.

“Both of you, listen up,” I said. “Lloyd is dead. Chandi, did you notice anything about the body when you came in?”

“Just that his eyes had turned to stone,” she said, as dismissively as a human child might report an adult with a visible booger.

“What?” said Dee. “But that’s—”

I cut her off. “That’s what I was afraid of. Dee, is there any way we can smuggle Chandi out of the zoo before the police get here?” I raised a hand to cut off her protests before they could begin. “You didn’t check in at the gate, Chandi, because if you’d tried, Lloyd would have made you wait until we opened. That means the police will be really interested in how you got inside, and why you didn’t call 911 as soon as you saw the dead man. Do you want to go through all that?”

“No,” she admitted sullenly.

“I can probably get her out one of the delivery gates if I take her now,” said Dee. “But, Alex, really, we need to talk about this.”

“We’ll talk about it when you get back here. Right now, getting Chandi to safety is more important.”

“I thought you might say that.” Dee frowned. “What are you going to do?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” I shrugged. “I’m going to get us ready to open.”

Dee looked briefly like she wanted to protest, but thought better of it. Instead, she took Chandi by the shoulder and walked her to the door. For once, the young wadjet didn’t object or try to bargain for five more minutes. She just went with Dee, leaving me alone with the reptiles.

I looked at the enclosures around me, sighed, and said, “All right, fellows. Let’s get ready for an opening that’s never going to happen.”

Shelby showed up five minutes before the reptile house doors were supposed to officially open. She was wearing her uniform and looked as fresh as a daisy, even though I knew she’d been awake almost as long as I had the night before. “The zoo’s closed,” she announced without preamble. Then she paused, looking around the open space. “Is Dee in her office?”

“No,” I said. “Dee had to deliver a package to one of the gates. She should be back any minute.”

Shelby’s eyes widened. “You let her go out there alone? Alex—”

“Why shouldn’t he have let me go out alone?” asked Dee, stepping through the door behind my girlfriend. “I’m his assistant, not his prisoner.”

“Oy!” Shelby whirled, taking a large step backward in the process, so that the three of us wound up standing in a loose circle. A loose, extremely tense circle. Shelby eyed Dee suspiciously. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Don’t stand in front of the door and maybe I won’t,” snapped Dee. She took a deep breath, calming herself, and said, “I’m sorry. That was rude. Did you hear about Lloyd?”

“What do you know about Lloyd, then?” asked Shelby.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That’s about as subtle as a hammer, Shelby.”

“Sometimes subtle isn’t the best plan,” Shelby shot back. “Sometimes subtle gets you killed. But you didn’t let me go on. The dead man—it’s not Lloyd.”

“What?” I lowered my hand. “What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not Lloyd. It’s one of the other guards. They must have traded off before whatever happened.”

“Oh, thank God.” I realized how bad that sounded as soon as it was said. I didn’t waste time trying to take it back. Someone I knew and liked was alive; someone I didn’t know as well was dead. Being relieved was only human. “Dee, did you get Chandi out of the zoo without her being seen?”

Dee nodded, looking incredibly relieved for some reason. “She was really unhappy about it.”

“We’ll make it up to her somehow.”

Shelby blinked, looking more confused than suspicious as she asked, “Chandi? Isn’t that the little girl who’s always lurking about in here?”

“Every chance she gets,” I confirmed. I looked back to Dee. “Do you trust me?”

“You’re the boss,” said Dee.

“Okay. If that’s the case . . . the zoo’s closed. The police should be coming to talk to us all soon, since we were some of the last people to come into the zoo before the murder. Do you have my address?”

Dee nodded.

“Good. When we’re done here, we meet up at my place. All of us.” I could explain the situation to Grandma during my drive home, and Sarah would be fine as long as we distracted her somehow. This was getting bad. This was no longer the sort of thing I could take care of on my own, if it ever really had been—something I now sincerely doubted. Shelby was the closest thing I had to backup. I was going to be stuck with her for the long haul.

Dee’s eyes widened, and she darted an uneasy glance at Shelby. “All three of us? You know, if I’m not going to be working today, I have some things at home that could really use—”