Read The Anteater of Death for Free Online

“Strange place to shoot somebody, at a zoo.”
    “Not really. After the gates close, the only person around is a park ranger. The big cats roar all night, too, which might cover the sounds of any gunshots.”
    “Then I’ll be sure to plan my next murder there. But if the anteater didn’t do it, who did? The wife?”
    “Jeanette?” Despite the seriousness of the situation, I laughed. “She’s eccentric, but as for shooting someone, I can’t see it. She was nuts about her husband and he felt the same way about her.”
    The maid arrived with two glasses of Chardonnay. I took a sip. Yep. Gunn Vineyard, and judging from the too-strong oak, an ’05. Good German Rieslings were more my speed, but on my salary, I took what I could get.
    Sheridan didn’t seem to mind the over-oak, even gave an approving nod after a sip. “I only met them once, and I have to agree with you. They seemed devoted to each other. But if not the wife, who?”
    Good question. “You met them? Where?”
    “In the City. I’m with Braunstein, Steele, and Mohan. That’s all I can say about it, though.”
    A business meeting, then. The very fact that Grayson and the almost-housebound Jeanette had made the ninety-mile drive to San Francisco to transact some hush-hush business made me curious. Did they belong to the faction attempting to break the Gunn Trust? I hadn’t bothered to keep up on who wanted to retain the status quo and who preferred to take the money and run. The only thing I knew was that until this past year, the Trust had been considered unbreakable.
    Before Edwin Gunn died on safari in Africa in 1935, he set up the Gunn Trust to ensure that his twenty-five-hundred acre inland estate would be kept intact for his six children and their descendants. Included in the Trust were the zoo, the vineyard with its attached winery, and the magnificent Gunn Castle, where much of the family still lived.
    Over the years the estate had increased dramatically in value, as had the Trust’s investments, earning the descendants sizeable dividend checks. Now some of the great-grandchildren wanted to cash out. One of the Gunn maids told my mother’s maid that the family dinners had become so acrimonious that most of the aspiring Trust-breakers had decamped to San Francisco or Carmel. To the discomfort of the Trust loyalists and especially Aster Edwina Gunn, Edwin’s sole surviving child, a few rebels remained.
    I took another sip of my Chardonnay and pretended approval. “Nice. Braunstein, Steele and Mohan, hmm? Are they attorneys or…?”
    “Yes, attorneys.”
    “Criminal? Accident?” When I saw no reaction, I added, “Divorce?”
    “Trust attorneys.”
    “Jeanette and Grayson were part of the group trying to break the Gunn Trust?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “Of course you didn’t. But just as a matter of conversation, do you think the Trust can be broken? I heard that one of the sons tried it back in the Fifties and failed. Then he went away to invent TV dinners or something.”
    Sheridan nodded. “That was one heir against the others. Now fifteen Gunns want to dissolve the Trust. To make matters even more interesting, several of the remaining twenty-three are reconsidering their positions. I’m giving no private information away, you understand. The Examiner published those numbers and suppositions a couple of months ago.”
    I noticed he didn’t say the numbers and suppositions were incorrect. Alarmed, I said, “What happens to the zoo if the rebels are successful?” I wanted to kick myself for not staying better informed.
    His eyes were wary. “Any particular reason you’re asking?”
    “I work there.”
    “Oh. When your mother said you had something to do with animals. I thought you were a horse trainer, hunter-jumper sort of thing. So you’re a vet?”
    “A zookeeper.”
    To his credit he didn’t look shocked at my lowly title. “Lucky you, doing what you love. It must be nice being outdoors all day instead of being