“Yes, and he does have a license, and he is fairly well-known in the community.”
“Great,” she said, “so no crime?”
“There was never a crime,” he said. “The crime occurred when somebody attacked you.”
“Yeah, somebody you didn’t catch.”
“Nope, I sure haven’t,” he said. “Go ahead. Rub it in. It really helps.”
She winced at the sarcasm. “I’m sorry. I know how hard it is to find these guys once they take off.”
“Everybody is out looking.” Hopping out, he walked around his truck, opened up her door, and said, “Come on.” And, with that, they walked up to the front door. The knock was answered almost immediately, and the guy was a decent size, actually bigger than Mack. The two shook hands, as he looked over at Doreen and smiled. She introduced Thaddeus.
“And there is Thaddeus,” he said. “I didn’t know his name before though.”
“I’m really surprised,” she said, “not too many people know this bird.”
“No, not at all,” he said, “but he’s the one who came to visit us before.”
“I’m not sure how he got here,” she admitted.
“I’m not either, but he was quite busy following whatever trail he was following.”
“You didn’t see how he got here?”
He shook his head. “No, and I just saw him on my fence the one day. Then he hopped in to say hi.”
“Say hi to who?”
He looked at her in surprise and said, “Oh, you don’t know?” Walking around, he said, “Let’s go meet him.”
“Meet who?” Mack asked quietly.
“Big Guy,” he said, with a smile.
At that, Thaddeus started crowing, “Big guy, big guy, big guy.”
She looked over at Mack and said, “Well, that’s one mystery solved.”
“Maybe,” he said, following Jerry out to the backyard, where they saw huge cages and pens all around.
“Wow,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting to see something like this inside the city limits.”
“Oh, I have a license for it,” Jerry said, “and these are all rescue animals.”
“Wow,” she said, completely flabbergasted. “And where’s ‘big guy?’” she asked.
He motioned to a large cage on the far side. “This guy.” He opened the cage and out came a huge parrot, not the same type as Thaddeus. He looked like a macaw maybe.
When it flapped its wings and squawked, Thaddeus instantly imitated him and cried out, “Big guy, big guy.”
The other parrot shrieked and squawked several times, thrilling Thaddeus to no end.
“Oh my,” she said, laughing. Thaddeus was clearly starstruck.
“This guy has been around for quite a few years. I take him on a lot of trips with me,” he said. “He loves to go to the beach and to see people.”
“Wow,” she muttered. “I don’t even know what to say.” She looked up at Thaddeus. “Now are you happy?” Indeed, he had perked up beautifully. “Thaddeus seemed to be quite different when I got him home,” she said, “and he kept talking about big guy.”
Jerry chuckled. “And that would be this guy,” he said.
When she reached out her left, uninjured arm, the macaw immediately hopped on and walked up, so he was stood on her other shoulder. He was a lot heavier than Thaddeus and a lot bigger.
Mack looked at the two of them, then shook his head. “That’s not what I expected. Thaddeus has made a friend and apparently was a little lost without this one.”
“I didn’t think that was even possible,” she muttered.
“They’re quite social,” the trainer said. He reached out a hand and said, “I’m Jerry, by the way.” She shook his hand.
“I’m Doreen. Sorry, I should have introduced myself before,” she said. “This is Mugs and Goliath.” He looked at her and at the animals, and then his face lit up.
“Oh, my gosh. You’re the amateur sleuth!”
She winced at that. “Mack here wouldn’t appreciate you calling me that,” she said, “but, if you mean I’m the person who’s been involved in working some cold cases,” she said, “yes, I am.”
“Pleased to meet you,” he said. “Very pleased to meet you.” He looked at the big macaw and said, “Aren’t you, King?”
“Is it King or Big Guy?”
“Well, his name is King, but, because of his size, we tease him about being a big guy.”
“Right,” she said, “and here I thought there was a mystery to be solved.”
“Nope, no mystery here,” he said, “at least none that I know about.”
“What about Isaac?” she asked him.
“Isaac? He’s quite a cutie. A real nice kid.”
“Do you know anything about his history?”
“No, I sure don’t. One of the things that we try to do here is just accept people and not dig too much into their backgrounds.”
“I get that,” she said, “but something seems quite sad about him.”
“Well, his dad, I think, separated from his mom a long time ago, so I’m not exactly sure what the deal is.”
“We don’t ever see him with anybody though. What about the man or whoever is looking after Isaac?” she asked. “Do you ever see him?”
“No, he’s one of the guys who is kind of a loner. We tend to stay away from him.”
She nodded. “Do you mind showing me where he lives?”
“You don’t know that either?” Mack asked.
“I saw where he left, but, from the path side, so I don’t know which house it is.”
“It’s the one with all those buildings on the property,” Jerry said, motioning to the left. “But I don’t know that anybody will answer the door, even if you knock.”
“We’ll go see,” she said, then looked at Thaddeus. “We’ll have to say goodbye to King. Say, Goodbye, King.”
Immediately Thaddeus said, “Goodbye, King. Goodbye, King.” The macaw squawked a few times and flapped his wings. With King now on Jerry’s shoulder, they walked back out to the front yard. “Any time you want to bring Thaddeus by for a visit, I’m sure King would be happy to see you,” Jerry said.
She smiled at him. “You know what? That might not be a bad idea, and it might keep Thaddeus happy.”
“Anytime,” he said. He pulled a card from his back pocket and said, “You can reach me here.”
She accepted the card and said, “Look at that, Thaddeus. You might come for a play day.”
Back in the front yard, rather than getting into the vehicle, they walked over to the neighbor’s place. Mack walked up and knocked on the front door. There was no answer. He knocked again.
Finally a man opened the door, looked at Mack, then looked at her and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
It sounded like an odd greeting to her. She just smiled and asked, “Are you Isaac’s father?”
He frowned and nodded. “Why? What’s that little kid done now?”