Previously on ‘Zookeeper Ernie’:
After Lucy revealed to her husband Alex that she was leaving him for a zookeeper named Ernie, Alex killed Lucy and hacked her up with a saw. He then declared Ernie would soon follow. Retired Detective Vincenzo is visited by a young cop in Canada:
‘A zookeeper found severed female body parts on the zebra hill… It’s Lucy. It’s your daughter, sir.’
Now, on an all new ‘Zookeeper Ernie’, the story continues.
Red. Black. Moist. Silent.
In total blackness, a murderer awakes. The voices woke him up. He is naked, and there’s black on his hands. Still. He forgot to wash it off. He can’t see it, but he feels it. Whenever he thinks back of it, he feels like it was someone else performing the deed. As if he had stepped outside himself and watched his other self perform the deed. He thinks back of it like a teenager would think back at the party from the night before, where he got drunk and kissed the ugliest girl on the block. The metaphor makes him smile.
He knows what has to be done.
Meanwhile, somewhere over the Canadian border, Detective John Vincenzo looks out over the rocky mountainside. He rests his eyes on the chopper’s shadow, casting a dark spot on the pale rocks. He notices the landscape getting more industrial as the helicopter closes in on the American border. This is the detective’s second time ever in a helicopter. He remembers the first time down to the date. It was exactly twenty three years, three months, two weeks and four days ago. The day of Lucy’s birth. He was in charge of an investigation in downtown L.A., in some crack den where a few junkies got killed. He doesn’t remember the case vividly. When he was interrogating one of the tenants of the building, Captain Jeffries (Sgt. Jeffries back then) informed him that Vincenzo’s wife Diane had gone into labor and was rushed to the hospital. Jeffries immediately arranged for a chopper to fly Vincenzo from the crime scene to the hospital. They landed him right on the roof of the Good Samaritan Hospital, and he was in time to witness the birth of his daughter Lucy. Now she’s dead, Vincenzo thinks. And I’m back in a goddamn chopper. God must have a very sick sense of humor.
‘Sir… I’m sorry, sir.’
Vincenzo is lifted from his thoughts and turns to the young cop that came to collect him earlier.
‘Phone call for you, sir. It’s Captain Jeffries.’
The young cop hands over a mobile phone to the detective. Vincenzo puts the phone to his right ear and puts a finger in the other one to block out the chopper’s noise.
‘John… I wish we could speak under different circumstances… How are you holding up?’
‘Hello, Bill. I think I’m alright. It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I guess.’
‘We’re gonna get this guy, John. And when we do, he’s not walking away.’
‘What have you got so far?’
‘Not much. The zoo has been evacuated and the zookeeper who found the body is being questioned.’
‘I don’t understand, Bill. The guy said Lucy was his girlfriend. She’s been married to Alex for three years. Did she have an affair with the zookeeper?’
‘It’s possible. Were they having problems?’
‘Not that I know of. Luce never talks to me about that stuff, though. That’s what her mother was for. What about Alex? Have you spoken to him yet?’
‘We tried to get in touch with him, but we couldn’t reach him.’
‘What do you mean, you can’t reach him? Go to the house!’
‘I sent a patrol car there to bring him in. I’m expecting word back any moment.’
‘Bring him in?’
‘Yes, John. If that zookeeper really had an affair with your daughter it means Alex had a motive. That would make him a suspect.‘
‘You’re right. It hadn’t even crossed my mind.’
‘Understandable, John. You’re not thinking clear. Get some rest on the way to the zoo. I ordered Forensics to keep away from the crime scene until you arrive. I’m on my way there now. I will see you soon, old friend. Good luck.’
Vincenzo hands the phone back over to the young cop and turns back to the window. Could Luce really have had an affair? It was nothing like her. The detective never knew much about Alex. He knew the basic stuff, naturally. But just your usual father and son-in-law stuff. The more he thinks of it, the stranger it becomes. He didn’t know his daughter’s husband one bit. He’s a lawyer, twenty eight years old, and was born in New York City. That’s all he can come up with right now.
‘Sir, we just got a call from Captain Jeffries! He has received word from the patrol unit sent to your daughter’s house! It’s on fire, sir!’
‘What do you mean, it’s on fire?!’
‘The house, sir! It’s on fire!’
To be continued…
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