The Boonhill Murder Case (4)

"Looks like Joey's the killer after all, Kit," Sanderling said.

"But why would a koala bear kill someone?," said Kit. "Where did it get the gun? How did it know where to find the victim?"

"That's for you to work out, Kit. It's all part of a murder investigation. Well I'm glad you've found you're killer. I'd better go to the zoo and speak to Woodcock."

"Is that the zoo keeper? I need to speak to him, can I come with you?"

"Sure. Woodcock's a funny one, spends all his life with animals, you know the kind."

Sanderling drove them both to the Meltonian Zoo.  

"Lot of people about," Kit said.

"Yes, tourists are the main industry in Meltonian. The main source of crime as well. You know the sort of thing, not paying for deckchair hire, eating more than the prescribed amount in the breakfast buffet, stealing soap and furniture from hotel rooms."

"We don't get many tourists on Boonhill," Kit said. "Just the ones down the View. There isn't much to do anywhere else. Just the skateboard park and the duck pond, and that was bricked over years ago."

In front of the zoo gates was a man in orange shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

"This is Woodcock Kit," Sanderling said.   

"You've come in force," said Woodcock. "This your lost koala division?"

"This is Kit," said Sanderling, "He's my equivalent on Boonhill.  

"Nice to meet you," said Kit. "How long has Joey been missing?"

"I'm not too sure. He was gone when I opened up this morning."

"When did you last see him?"

"Not since early afternoon yesterday. I always feed the koala first, if it gets hungry overnight it's not problematic.   I always feed the tiger last, the last thing you need is a hungry tiger. Especially this one, he's forever breaking out. He broke into my house one time and walked off with an entire trifle. We think he got a set of duplicate keys cut. In fact we know he did, it's when he hacked our computer system, he billed it to our Finance team."
 
"But the koala doesn't have a set of keys?" said Kit, a sentence he'd never expected to use as part of any police investigation, let alone a murder inquiry.

"No, the tiger's very selfish that way. Not a team player. What's Boonhill's interest in this, if you don't mind my asking. This is a local matter, surely?"

"Joey's a suspect in a Boonhill murder case," Sanderling said. "His prints are all over the murder weapon."

Kit shot Sanderling a glance, but he didn't notice. 

"So you saw Joey just early afternoon? You've no idea how he could have gotten to Boonhill."

"Not without a plane, or a boat. Not even the tiger's managed that."

"Show me the koala's cage," said kit. 

They walked over the koala compound. It smelt of eucalyptus leaves and koala shit.

"The lock's been forced," said Kit. "You can see the marks, some kind of jemmy."

"You think the koala broke out?"

"No, it's been forced from the outside." Kit had an idea. "Have you seen this man at all?"

"Yes, he was here yesterday, around lunchtime. I remember because he took the last cherry scone in the tea rooms. I had to make do with cranberry and walnut. A very strange combination to find in a scone."

"Was he carrying anything? Luggage perhaps."

"Not luggage, no, but he had a suitcase. Light brown, the colour of marmot poo."

At that moment Megson rang Kit's phone.

"We found the case Kit," he said. "Nothing in it though."

"Does it have holes cut in the sides, like air holes."

"Yes Kit. How did you know?"

"Ask forensics to check the case for koala hairs. I think we've got the case all wrong, Gibson was smuggling stolen koala bears."