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Marco swirls his straw around the melted ice cubes at the bottom of his glass with one hand whilst searching Google Maps for the Lincoln Park Zoo with the other. He turns the phone to show his mother. ‘Look,’ he says. ‘It’s only two miles from here. Eight minutes in an Uber. We should go there now.’
He glances across at Kris, but sees that he is deep in thought.
After a short silence Kris looks at Lucy and says, ‘So, what’s the deal? Once your brother finds Finn? I mean – what are his intentions? Because, and please don’t take this the wrong way about your brother, I mean’ – Kris touches his heart – ‘he seemed like a straight-up dude, like, totally a nice guy. But there was something quite intense about him, I thought, and there was a moment when we stopped at the lake to watch the sunset where he was kind of crying? He didn’t think I saw it, but I did. And it’s strange, maybe, that Finn has gone radio silent the same time your brother is looking for him. The timing. It feels kinda …’ He trails off and then slaps his legs. ‘Anyway. I’m sure the mystery will soon be solved – and hey! Marco! If you’re up for it, I could take you to the zoo on the back of my bike? If that’s OK with Mom? Mom, that OK with you?’
Marco clasps his hands together in a prayer gesture and widens his eyes at his mother. His gaze has been going to the monster of a bike parked outside the hotel on the street since Kris first arrived; he’s noticed passers-by eyeing it; someone even took a photo of it. It is quite possibly the coolest thing Marco has ever seen and he’s walked down La Croisette, gawping at its lurid parades of fluorescent performance sports cars and gold-leafed Bentleys, many times in his life.
‘Er, yes,’ says Lucy. ‘Sure. I mean, you won’t be going fast?’
‘No. My word, no. I drive tourists around for a living, so I am very circumspect when I’m on the road. I’m not in the business of scaring people or getting into accidents.’
He hits Lucy with a very convincing smile and then they all head out of the hotel and wait for Lucy’s Uber to arrive. Krispasses Marco another helmet to put on and helps him into the throne-like seat at the back of the bike and Marco can see people watching and feels simultaneously incredible and mortified.
The feeling as they sail through town is immense. He holds his phone out in his hand and takes a selfie, just before Kris turns and says, ‘Hey, dude, hands on the bars, remember?’ and then he tucks his phone quickly back into his pocket.
A few moments later they pull up outside the zoo. Lucy has just exited her Uber and is standing waiting for them, hand in hand with Stella, who looks suitably awed at the sight of her big brother on a monster bike in a helmet.
‘Stay in touch,’ says Kris as Marco passes him his helmet. ‘Let me know if you uncover anything. And meanwhile I’m going to keep trying to contact Finn. We can have a race,’ he says, ‘see who finds him first!’
Marco watches Kris Doll mount his bike and reverse back out into the parking lot before changing gear and leaving, one hand raised behind him in farewell.
‘Right,’ says Lucy, ‘who wants to go and see the animals?’
They ask a member of staff where they might find the lions and are pointed towards the Pepper Family Wildlife Centre. Lincoln Park Zoo is a bit like London Zoo, Marco thinks, modern and close to the city with lots of windy paths and nice enclosures. They find the lions and look around for someone to talk to. There’s only one person here wearing a uniform and she looks really, really young, but Marco’s mum approaches her anyway.
‘Hi! Strange question but I’m trying to find someone who wasworking in this enclosure about five years ago. Do you know anyone who might have been working here then?’
‘Five years ago?’ replies the girl. ‘Well. I was still at high school five years ago! But let me think. I’m pretty sure that Peter Lilley would have been here then. Although this enclosure is quite new. But he’s always worked with the lions.’
‘Is he around today, do you know?’
‘Yeah! I saw him just a minute ago in fact. What did you say your friend’s name was?’
‘Phin. It’s Phin.’
‘Hang on.’ She opens a door behind her that’s sort of invisible and disappears. A moment later she reappears. ‘Pete’s just dealing with some kind of drainage emergency in the panda enclosure. He’ll be along in a minute. You can just wait here. He says he knows Phin! So you’re in luck!’
Marco and Lucy glance at each other and Stella runs off to look at the lions, three females and a male who are stretched out in pools of sunshine looking as though they have not a care in the world, and then Pete emerges from the secret door in the wall, wiping his hands down on a towel and smiling. He is tall and slender with soft, sparse blond hair that sticks up like a newborn baby’s and a neatly shaped goatee.
‘Hi,’ he says. ‘Pete Lilley. I hear you’re looking for Finn?’
‘Yes. Hi. I’m Lucy. A friend of Phin’s from London. From years and years ago. He told us he was going to be in an Airbnb in Chicago for a few days. We were meant to be meeting up and I’ve been trying to get hold of him ever since we got here but he’s not answering his phone or his messages and we’re a tiny bit worriedactually. I just wondered if he’d been in touch with you at all, since he got back from Botswana?’
‘Yes! Yes, he has. I collected him from the airport, in fact, just over a week ago. Tuesday before last. I always go and collect him when he’s in town because I live out that way. He came back to ours for dinner and then I drove him back into the city.’
‘Into the city? So, you mean, you dropped him at his Airbnb?’
‘Yes. That’s right.’
‘So you know where he’s staying?’
‘Well, I know which building he’s staying in but it’s a pretty big building. I don’t know which apartment it is. And it’s funny because I’ve sent him a message or two myself these past few days, wondering if we were going to get together again before he goes back to Africa, but he didn’t reply, and I just thought maybe, you know, he was busy doing whatever that boy does. He’s a bit of a riddle, as I’m sure you know. Hard to get a handle on, except when he’s taking care of animals. His lifestyle never made much sense to me, so I didn’t push it.’
‘Would you be able to tell me where the apartment block is? Maybe we could go round now and see if we can rouse him. Make sure that everything’s OK?’
Peter Lilley nods. ‘Sure,’ he says. ‘Though I can’t remember the street number, just the location.’ He gives them a street name and tells them that it’s opposite a ‘brasserie kind of place with a one-syllable name, tables on the sidewalk’ and a few doors down from an organic supermarket called Organic Delightful.
Marco sucks in his breath but doesn’t say anything.Organic Delightful!The same shop that he and Alf had noticed Henry hadgoogled when they were searching his browsing history. His skin flushes with the thrill of the connection.
