Alex watched as Erin blinked once, then again. Her eyelids seemed to get stuck on the second blink. Alex jumped forward and grabbed Erin around the waist as she started to crumple, then jerked her toward the bench so that they fell heavily onto it together. Alex jammed her elbow against the wooden back; it would leave a bruise, but one she could easily cover. Erin was taller and weighed more than Alex, so Alex wasn’t able to keep them from slumping awkwardly. Alex loosed a slightly manic laugh—hopefully anyone watching would think they were playing around.
The little girl was singing to herself inside the stroller. She hadn’t seemed to notice that she’d stopped moving. Alex extricated herself from the mother and pulled the stroller closer, angling it so that Olivia was facing away from Erin.
Erin lolled on the bench, her head falling onto her right shoulder and her mouth hanging open.
A third conglomeration of visitors moved past them. No one stopped. Alex was operating quickly, so she couldn’t keep close tabs on any reaction, but no one had raised an alarm yet.
She pulled the bucket hat lower over Erin’s face, shading her lifeless expression. Out of the side pocket of her backpack, Alex drew the little perfume bottle. She reached around the edge of the stroller’s shade and pressed the nozzle down for two seconds. The singing ceased, and then Alex felt the light thud through the plastic frame of the stroller as the child fell back against the seat.
Moving as casually as she could, Alex patted Erin’s shoulder, then stood up and stretched.
“I’ll get her some lunch, you go ahead and rest,” Alex said, smoothing the wig under her hat in case her tumble had disarranged it. She glanced around, eyes hidden behind her glasses. No one seemed to be focused on the little tableau she’d created. She grasped the stroller’s handle and started moving back toward the parking lot. At first she kept the pace easy. She looked toward the animal cages like the others were doing. As she got farther from the bench, she began moving faster. A mother with an afternoon appointment.
Outside the bathroom at the visitors’ center, she parked the stroller and pulled Olivia into her arms. The child had to weigh over thirty pounds and felt heavier because her body was slack. Alex tried to arrange the unconscious child into the same position she’d seen other parents use—straddling one hip, legs on either side, head cradled on the shoulder. It didn’t feel like she’d gotten it right, but she had to move anyway. She gritted her teeth and walked as quickly as she could through the gate. She wished she’d been able to park closer, but eventually, with sweat soaking her T-shirt, she reached the car.
Alex hadn’t had time to get a car seat. She glanced around surreptitiously to see if anyone was watching, but the area of the parking lot she was in was mostly full, and the people arriving now were far away. The early quitters had already left; she was alone.
She laid the child on the backseat and wrapped a seat belt around her waist. Then she covered Olivia with a blanket to conceal her.
Alex straightened up and checked for witnesses again. No one was nearby; no one was watching her. She pulled a syringe from the inside pocket of her pack and leaned in to administer the drug to the sleeping child. She’d calculated the dose for someone weighting thirty to forty pounds. It should keep Olivia under for about two hours.
Alex turned the car on and cranked up the air-conditioning. She started breathing again for what felt like the first time since she’d entered the zoo.
Phase one was successful. Erin would wake up in forty-five minutes, more or less. Alex was sure that paramedics would be attending to her by then. When she woke, she’d sound the alarm about her missing daughter. The zoo would be searched first, then the police would be brought in. Alex had to be in position when Erin realized her daughter had been taken, that she’d not merely wandered off while her mother was having some sort of seizure. Alex was 85 percent sure which call Erin would make first.
She really hoped that Val would be done working her magic by the time she arrived at the new hiding place so Alex would know exactly which plan was moving forward—not because she’d made up her mind as to which outcome she wanted most. Going in alone… that was suicide. But taking Daniel… was that murder-suicide?
Maybe Val’s confidence in herself was misplaced. Maybe Daniel would just look like himself in a wig.
Alex could do it alone. She’d just make it very clear what would happen to Olivia if she, Alex, didn’t live through the night. That would keep Carston in line, wouldn’t it?
She didn’t want to think about the things Carston could set in motion. The traps he could lay so that once he had Olivia back, Alex would be his.