The Marriage at the Rue Morgue (A Rue and Lakeland Mystery) Read Online Free Page A

then another, and a third to follow before it stopped again, looking around at its environment in complete befuddlement.
    And then it bellowed, a furious belch vocalization that startled me backwards several steps.
    The animal’s meaning was clear. It considered Art an intruder into its territory and wanted him out. When Art suddenly stopped moving backwards, the orangutan charged, screeching threats as it ran. It used both its hands and feet to surge forward. Before any of us could act, one great hairy arm shot out and batted Art out of the way before the animal passed him and bolted into the trees, still vocalizing loudly.
    Art staggered a few feet and landed beside the road with a soft whuff. Darnell shoved open his door and jumped out to race forward with Lance. Art jumped up almost as soon as he hit the ground and hobbled toward the SUV, his common sense seemingly restored by the rough landing. So Darnell scrambled back in and leaned across to open his passenger door instead, while the rest of us piled gracelessly into the back.
    Art reached the vehicle as I dragged myself out from under the pile of me, Lance, and Trudy. Art was scolding us: “You came too soon! You came too soon!”
    The orangutan had stopped short at the tree line, and it now stood huffing at our vehicle, deciding whether or not it was, in fact, a threat.
    Art and Lance slammed their respective doors simultaneously, suddenly dampening the ape’s noise and cutting back the smell.
    “We came too soon?” Lance said. “You wanted us to let that thing mangle you in the cart?”
    “What?” Art seemed to shake something off to hear Lance. “I wanted you to . . . no . . . no . . . of course I needed help.” Then, Art’s face cracked open in a grin. “Did you
see
that? It was so
gentle
putting me in my place. It could have
killed
me instead of pushing me out of the way. Ha ha!” He ended on a gleeful laugh that suggested he hadn’t learned much of a lesson from getting too close.
    “We need to lure it down to the barn,” Art went on, strategizing now. “It’s not ideal. But until we can . . . until something more appropriate . . . with food . . .”
    While Art was talking, the orangutan offered one last shout at the SUV, then took off into the trees.
    “There he goes,” Lance said as we watched it vanish. “Now what?”
    “It’s fine,” Art said. “It’s all right. It looks half starved. My God, it needs our help. Did you see its backside? I think it should be pretty easy to draw in. I thought, but I never expected . . . something like
this
to happen. Darnell, can you take us back up?”
    Darnell put his SUV in reverse, but he stopped immediately when we all felt a thump.

C HAPTER 3
----
    “Oh damn,” Lance said. “We forgot about the carts.”
    I hadn’t set the brake, so the golf cart rolled back a few feet and one wheel bumped off the road. We waited until we were at least reasonably sure the orangutan wasn’t coming right back, and then Lance and I got out and pushed the one cart back onto the road while Art returned to the other. Lance performed a cursory inspection. “It’s fine.” We led the parade back up to the barn.
    By the time we arrived, Art’s good humor had been fully restored. He zipped around to park first, then jumped down and clapped his hands. “Now,” he said, leading us all into the barn. “Here’s what we need to do. Noel and Lance, you’ve only got a couple more hours today. This could take all afternoon.” He paused, laughing. “Did you see that beauty?” he asked us. “My God, when we get him back in shape he’ll be three hundred pounds. He was so close. He touched me.”
    “I’ll say he touched you,” Darnell said. “He almost ripped your head clean off.”
    “No, no, no.” Art chortled his way over to food prep, where he continued the work Trudy had been engaged in before the orangutan’s arrival. “That’s the thing. It
didn’t hurt me.
It could have done exactly that, Darnell.