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figure it out quick. Damrey is getting railroaded. Crandall is riled up and making up rules about stuff he knows nothing about.”
    I swiveled around. The tall elephant keeper looked tense and miserable. “Pull up a chair. Isn’t this your day off?”
    Sam shrugged. “Needed to come in.” He didn’t pull up a chair.
    A young man with long dark hair, a visitor, sat down near us. He didn’t have any food, just sat facing away from us, close enough to overhear.
    â€œWhat do you think happened?” I asked Sam, my voice quieter.
    â€œI have no idea. Damrey would never hurt him, but now Mr. Crandall is treating her like a crazy killer.”
    I spoke as gently as I could. “Sam, it really looked like she was mauling him. If you keep trusting her, you could be next.”
    He looked grim. “Working Elephants could be a lot more dangerous than it used to be. I’m thinking about carrying my .38 until this is settled. I’ve got a concealed permit.”
    In the silence that followed, Arnie said, “A .38 isn’t any use against an elephant.” We let him figure it out on his own.
    Linda said, “The city won’t allow it. Not even the security guards have guns. You really think a person hurt Wallace and not Damrey? ”
    Sam’s shoulders twitched, shrugging her off. “The investigation should clear this up, but Crandall’s not waiting. He’s shoving dolphin training down our throats for elephants. Thousands of years of elephant expertise, all of it full contact. A cow that’s been totally reliable for decades. But he’s tossing all that out and buying into the latest hippy-dippy theories about love and positive thinking. How am I supposed to manage them when I can’t go in with them?” His fierce glance at Ian made it clear who he thought was influencing the director.
    Ian evaded his gaze. He took out a pack of Camels and lit one. Linda leaned away from the smoke.
    Sam scanned us all. “I would appreciate it if none of you went around blaming Damrey.” His gaze lingered on me. “She gets a reputation as a killer, she’s going to get shipped off somewhere. That leaves Nakri alone, after almost twenty years together. You can figure out what that’ll do to both of them. And it would put the last nail in the coffin of a new exhibit.” He looked each of us in the face again, as if searching for the weak link, and walked off toward Elephants. The dark haired visitor got up and walked in the same direction.
    Ian looked at his watch and made no move to follow Sam. Probably he had a few minutes left of his half hour lunch period, but it made me realize that the two elephant keepers didn’t move as a team.
    â€œ
Dolphin
training?” Denny asked.
    â€œOperant conditioning,” Linda said. “You’ve heard of it?”
    This was a sneer. The zoo had brought in a consultant to provide a workshop on modern animal training for all the keepers. The method began in psychology labs and was refined in aquariums and sea parks. Most zoos were using the techniques, which turned formerly stressful events such as veterinary examinations and even injections into opportunities for the animals to earn special goodies. It was amazing what animals would volunteer for if they had the right training and the right reward. Wallace said it was revolutionizing animal management in zoos. Finley Zoo had come late to this, but now we were all expected to incorporate “husbandry training” into our daily routine. I’d started with the lions before I left Felines, and now Linda had them opening their mouths for dental inspections, and she could position them wherever she wanted in the den to inspect all body parts. Calvin and I had the penguins trained to step onto a scale one at a time, rather than grabbing them to weigh them.
    â€œYeah,” Denny said, “I have heard of training, believe it or not. It just