Then, abruptly, the image of calm erupted. Animals started flooding the corridors. The door to the lab was suddenly wide-open. What little staff were on the premises were running out of their offices to see what was happening and then ducking back into their offices. Alarms flashed and blared. But nowhere on the tape was there evidence of an outside intruder. No documented break-in.
And, most importantly, no Barbie on any of the footage.
Dick leaned closer to the screens, squinting. “That’s impossible. The animals couldn’t have just unlocked the door themselves.”
“Okay, so then what happened?” the officer asked.
“I don’t know what happened,” Dick snapped. “Someone had to open the door and get them out of the lab, obviously.”
“Maybe one of your own employees?” he suggested.
“No,” he said, forcefully pointing at me. “They wouldn’t do that. It was her.”
“And exactly how did I do that?” I asked lightly. “By walking through walls?”
He shot me a glare. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“I really don’t, Dick,” I said with special emphasis. “Because according to your own system, nothing unusual happened until the animals started escaping. Maybe the door glitched and popped open of its own accord. Maybe everything was too automated and when something went wrong, it went really wrong.”
The officer made a note but didn’t comment.
“Officer, you must believe me, she is responsible for all this,” Dick said, pointing at me. “Somehow, she broke in and tried to destroy my lab.”
“Officer, I think I might have gotten a glimpse of the source of the problem there on the video,” I said. “Can I show you?”
“Anything you can do to shed a little light on this would be most appreciated.”
“Dick, if you wouldn’t mind backing up to closing time again, I thought I saw something in the animal containment area as you were leaving.”
“What kind of trick is this?”
“No trick. I just think I saw something on your video that could explain everything.”
Reluctantly, he complied. “There, that’s it.”
On the screen we could see Dick leaving the biocontainment area door. “Stop,” I said. “Freeze it there.”
We peered closer and saw the door to the animal lab hang up partially open behind him as he walked away without noticing.
“That’s it,” I said. “The door was inadvertently left open. It looks like you were the culprit.”
Dick stared at the open door with his mouth wide-open. “That’s impossible. I was already gone before that time.”
I peered closer at the video. “This time stamp shows 8:21 p.m. What time did you leave?”
“I was gone by seven thirty, and I can prove it. The system will show I exited the building at that time.” He was pawing furiously at the keyboard, calling up the access log for the day.
“There,” he proclaimed as the log finally appeared on the screen. “My employee number is 101, and you can see that I left the building at…” His voice trailed off.
I leaned over his shoulder and finished his statement. “It looks like 8:35 p.m. That would line up with the video. Would you like me to take a picture of the screen, Officer?”
Dick was babbling incoherently. “What? No. Impossible.”
Barbie, who had been quietly peering over the shoulder of someone in the doorway, spoke up. “Officer, if we’ve resolved how the animals got loose, I have another point to make, since you’re already here. From what research I’ve been able to gather on this lab, they do not have the proper credentials to conduct research on vertebrate animals. And yet, wasn’t that a chimpanzee I just saw in the parking lot, jumping up and down on the hood of a car?”
“What? That? We’re not doing research on chimpanzees,” Dick said. “That chimp is here for different things.”
“Funny, because that’s exactly what Vision Zone Technology said when I investigated their lab for unethical research on animals twenty years ago,” she responded. “Regardless, this lab is not certified to host or use vertebrates as research subjects. And, unless I’m mistaken, all of us just saw cats, dogs, monkeys, a chimp, and a pig come out of your lab. In case you need a science refresher, all those animals are vertebrates.”
