Dianne’s handwriting was not unfamiliar, but it sure was unwelcome. There was a note from her in Blane’s locker when he got to work on Monday morning, and he didn’t like the sound of it at all.

Can you come see me in the admin building this morning? —Dianne.

It made no sense to dwell on the worst possible outcome, but Blane still thought it: what the hell would he do if he lost his job? Positions like his didn’t open frequently in zoos.

“Hey, man.” Gregory was dressed for business and looked like he meant it. “Ready to fight the weekend sniffles?”

“Why, what’s going on?”

“One of the keepers was telling me there’s something going around the monkey exhibits.”

“Oh, great,” Blane sighed. “No, I gotta run and see Dianne first.”

Gregory stopped halfway to the door. “About…?” He sounded wary.

“Hell if I know.”

“All right. Come as soon as you can. I should be able to get things started.”

“Yep. See you soon,” Blane told Gregory, his chest tight. There was no reason he should be worried, but fuck it, now he was.

On his way to the office, Blane took a minute to mentally review everything he’d done last week. He couldn’t think of a single issue, or even something he could have handled differently. If this was about the way they’d tranquilized their giraffe, well, they followed every damn procedure every time…

He pushed open the office door and knocked, then let himself in.

“Come in, sit down. Thanks for coming,” Dianne told him, rising to his feet to greet him before she sat again.

“Hi. Of course. What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no. No,” Dianne told him, but it didn’t reassure him. “It’s about the art program.”

It took Blane a few seconds to realize what she meant: the animals’ art enrichment for the auctions. That was starting today, this afternoon, if their schedule allowed. He’d been looking forward to Falcon visiting later today to watch. “Oh?”

“We might have to put that on hold for a week or two. I’ve spoken to the fundraising and marketing teams about it—they said it will be a few months until the next auction anyway.”

“Whoa, wait.” Blane sat up straight. “Do you mean not doing the art with them at all? The meerkats were gonna be tomorrow, and the elephants later this week.”

“That’s what I mean.”

“Why? Don’t tell me someone said it’s animal cruelty, because if someone’s been reading up on the internet…” Blane trailed off, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh, we know it isn’t.” Dianne drummed her fingers against the keyboard. “Some things have been… published about the zoo on the internet.”

“What do you mean?”

Dianne typed for a few moments, then turned her screen toward him.

Blane leaned in to look at the zoo’s Google review average: two-point-something stars. The same on Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

He reeled. “Aren’t we… I mean, I don’t Google us all the time, but…”

“Our average has consistently been much higher,” Dianne agreed grimly. “Until last week, when a campaign of one-stars was begun against us. Now there are people from far away on the internet leaving one-star reviews, supposedly from a wide date range, complaining about all sorts of unrelated things. Upkeep, animal care, signage—hell, even parking.”

“It can’t be a competitor,” Blane shook his head. Not even the shitty for-profit zoos that were barely more than animal prisons engaged in that kind of behavior.

“We don’t know. My bosses have been trying to get in touch with these websites to see what can be done. But it’s been carefully arranged. These are all different accounts and such.”

Blane went cold. “When exactly did it start?”

“It’s hard to tell, but we think sometime mid-last week.”

No way. He had to get proof before he said anything. “I’m gonna look that up later and see what I can find out. But this is seriously… I mean, the animals enjoy it. It’s enrichment.”

Dianne frowned. “I know.”

No, you don’t get it. This isn’t just one-star reviews. Taking away any activity narrows my animals’ whole world. But he couldn’t argue with his boss, so Blane clenched his jaw tightly and nodded.

“I’ll talk with them some more and see what we can do. And, Blane? There’s one more thing.”

* * *

If it weren’t for his habit of stopping in front of the door of the clinic and taking a few deep breaths, letting all his personal stress and tension go, Blane would have burst inside.

As it was, he walked slowly, but he found it hard to compartmentalize that rage.

Gregory was leaning over a notepad, making notes. He glanced at Blane, then did a double-take and looked around to see if they were alone. For now, they were. “What’s up? You look like you wanna punch something.”

“What’s next?” Blane countered. He wasn’t going to get wound up before he worked with an animal.

“I’m going out for a look at the monkeys. You stick here and fill prescriptions,” Gregory told him. “Did it go okay?”

“No painting with the animals this week.”

“No shit. Why?”

“Someone’s leaving fake one-star reviews on the zoo online, and they’re trying to… I dunno. Clean up our image. I guess this is preventative, so people can’t go all, ooh, they must be torturing the elephants into painting.” Blane bit back his anger. “No, those are the assholes in the circuses and shit. Which is why our elephants’ paintings are abstract.”

“Whoa. Deep breath.” Gregory cracked a smile. “Don’t make me break out the tranqs.”

Blane managed a smile in return and breathed in and out for a count of four until he relaxed again. “I think it’s my boyfriend’s ex. It started last week, after he got kicked out of the wedding. And something else she said… made me suspect.”

Gregory nodded slowly. “Have you found him behind it yet?”

“Not yet, but you know what I’m spending my lunch break doing.”

“Right there with you.” Gregory clapped his arm. “I gotta go check out our little buddies. You all right?”

Blane nodded. He couldn’t let the jerk get him into trouble, after all. He had to play the long game. “I’ll be good. We have plenty to do today to keep me busy anyway.”

Which reminded him to send a text to Falcon and tell him not to bother coming in today.

He couldn’t wait for tonight to take that asshole down.