The Marriage at the Rue Morgue (A Rue and Lakeland Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

last. Although orangutans are geared up to explore their meals, the wide open watermelon appealed to the ape even more than the closed cantaloupe it had thrown from the truck.
    While it ate noisily, Lance signaled me to keep an eye on the animal and sped over to Olivia’s passenger door. He mounted the running board and knocked on her window. A few seconds later, she emerged and they ran to me. The orangutan never lost interest in Art’s melon. Lance even had time to run over and shut the truck’s back door. It wouldn’t stop the orangutan from climbing back in, but it might slow it down a little, maybe long enough to target its shoulders, which weren’t clotted with feces.
    Although the orangutan looked up briefly when Lance pulled the truck closed, it didn’t get up to act, and we all three ran back the way Lance and I had come. “Art, we need two more darts,” Lance said into the radio as the three of us sped around the building again. “We both missed.”
    “You didn’t,” I puffed, stretching my legs to their fullest to keep up with his easy jog. Olivia had outpaced both of us, fear spurring her on to safety as soon as we came around the side of the building and she saw Trudy standing at the back door waving us in.
    “Might as well have,” Lance replied.
    “That poor creature.”
    “I know. I could smell it when we were down by the gate. I could
see
it. But we were all more concerned with Art then. The full impact didn’t hit me. I hate to admit it, but I can almost understand why Art tried to let it in like that.”
    I said, “Almost.”
    Back indoors, Art said, “Let’s do this differently.” Trudy had taken Olivia under her wing and led her into Lance’s and my office to sit out the shakes. And Lance had explained how his dart had simply failed to penetrate the thick layer padding the animal’s whole lower back. Art continued, “I think we need to step back. We aren’t going to catch it this way. We’re going to stress it out, and possibly expose it to the heat of the day when we don’t have enough muscle between us to get it inside. We need to lead it off a ways so we can get our lunch crew in here safely, and pretty soon we need to get lunch out to the enclosures.”
    He outlined a perfectly reasonable plan delegating lunch details, explaining how staff should go about safely delivering food to the enclosures, and fleshing out a process to lure in the orangutan in the evening. We would set out a series of tempting treats and blankets, then dart it when we had a better chance of making our shot. “So,” he wound up, “Lance, you and Noel go get your marriage license so we can have a ceremony tomorrow.”
    “What? We can’t
leave
right now!” Lance protested. “We have to work as a team to get it to go far enough away so we can unload the truck and Olivia can get out and everybody else can get in.”
    “We’ll be fine,” Art said. “Please. I’ll be so sad if something stupid
I
did stops the two of you from getting married tomorrow.” As he spoke, he tilted his head and opened his eyes wide, so he looked already bereft. When Art had that expression on his face, I knew who was going to win.

C HAPTER 4
----
    In any case, I agreed with Art. If we didn’t get out of here, the wedding we were so concerned about wasn’t going to take place. “You should still call Florida,” I said. “The Ohio Zoo gave Lance good tips for darting an orangutan.” Perhaps the Ohio Zoo could house this big guy for us until transportation to Florida could be arranged.
    “Very right,” Art agreed, his countenance lightening as soon as he saw that we would comply with him.
    “But Noel and I need to be setting the bait out with you,” Lance protested, not at all distracted by this talk of who needed to be informed and who might help.
    “Not nearly as important as getting married!” Art said. His smile returned. “The ape arrived in a crate. It is conditioned to humans. We will be able to lure it