got problems.”
“You’re tellin’ me,” she said, hauling Tilly along with her.
The odor hit me in the face as the crowd passed us by. “Oh, my God. What’s that smell?”
“Bernice,” said Nana. “The koala peed on her.”
Tilly clucked disapproval. “The handler warned us that we shouldn’t touch the animal anywhere around its face because that makes it agitated. So naturally, when it was Bernice’s turn to hold the little feller, she tried to pinch its cheek.”
“She didn’t know that ‘agitated’ meant ‘go potty’,” said Nana.
I tented my hand over my nose. “That is so foul.”
“I’m told it’s even worse when it dries,” said Tilly, “so we took up a collection to buy her a new T-shirt at our next stop.”
I regarded them proudly. The group might have its differences, but when the chips were down, they could really demonstrate a wonderfully generous spirit with each other. “That’s so nice of you guys.”
Tilly disregarded the compliment. “Our hearing might be on the skids, but there’s nothing wrong with our noses. It comes down to basic survival.”
“You gotta convince Bernice to dump the smelly shirt,” Nana pleaded with me.
“We can’t have people inhaling those fumes all the way back to Melbourne,” said Tilly. “It could make them sick.”
“But she’s gonna put up a fuss, dear, ’cause she’s wearin’ her monster truck shirt, and that’s her favorite. No way you’ll ever get her to trash it.”
I looked skyward, searching for the little black cloud that was hanging over my head. “I’ll see what I can do about Bernice, but in the meantime, do me a favor and get the word out to the group to avoid Jake Silverthorn at all cost. Tell them not to stand near him, eat at the same table, or sit by him on the bus. Especially not to sit by him on the bus.”
Nana sidled close to me. “Did he get peed on, too?”
“No, it’s just that—” I swallowed the end of my sentence, knowing I’d only frighten them by telling them about the escaped redback and Lola’s threat. What if they let it slip to Henry? Would that put them in the crosshairs for Jake’s insanity, too? I needed to be smart about how I handled this, and blabbing the situation to the immediate world didn’t seem the way to go right now. I needed to think about protecting people, not causing panic. “I got it straight from Lola that Jake likes to peddle fear. Look what happened after his little lecture yesterday.” I dipped my gaze toward their feet, putting Tilly’s boots on freeze-frame. “Good God. You could puncture someone’s lung with those things.”
Tilly leaned heavily on her walking stick as she swung her foot out in an uncharacteristically girlish pose. “They spoke to me, Emily. I’ve never had footwear speak to me before. Do you think they’re too over-the-top?”
Black leather? Steel spikes? Silver spurs? Oh, God. “They’re you,” I said kindly. “And who would have thought they’d look so good with madras?” Suppressing a little shudder, I returned to the problem at hand. “Back to Jake. If you hang around him, he’ll fill you with so much fear, you’ll all be donning body armor, so do yourselves a favor and just stay away.”
Nana offered a little salute before craning her neck for a look around her. “Where’s your young men, dear? I thought they was supposed to be smotherin’ you with attention.”
“I’m beginning to think it’s a case of bait and switch. Last time I saw them, they were posing for Guy; then all three of them disappeared from the face of the earth. Go figure. You two better catch up to the rest of the group. Looks like there’s some kind of demonstration going on at the eagle cage.” I nodded toward the Tasmanian devil pen. “Good exhibit?”
Nana shrugged. “We didn’t see nothin’, dear. We heard some fierce crunchin’ from the cave, but he stayed holed up the whole while. David’s gonna be mighty disappointed. He wanted me to take a picture of a Tasmanian devil on account a that’s his favorite character on the Cartoon Channel. You know what come as a big surprise, Emily?”
“Tasmanian devils are shy?”
“The good programmin’ on the Cartoon Channel.”
I yanked my Canon Elph out of the side pocket of my shoulder bag. “Well, we can’t disappoint my nephew. Now that the crowd’s thinned, maybe he’s come out of hiding.”
Approaching the pen from the tree-lined footpath, I discovered the area was deserted, save for Heath Acres and the thousand-year-old woman