Chapter 14: Tuesday, Oct. 31

In which two more bodies are discovered along with an odd video hookup, and a gorilla and a nun approach Norman's house.

By Alfred Alcorn

Jul 30, 2001 | There has been a shocking development. Bert and Betti, two of our remaining chimpanzees, were found dead in a cage this morning under circumstances remarkably similar to those of the Ossmann-Woodley case, only worse. They were found by Dr. Angela Simone, the very responsible young woman who took over from Damon Drex as the Keeper of Great Apes. The poor woman was in a state of considerable shock when she phoned me at home just after eight this morning to tell me what she had found.

I came over immediately in a cab and secured the area as a crime scene before calling in the Seaboard Police Department.

Dr. Simone took a moment to compose herself. But she is a tough professional, and she soon related to me the simple facts. Upon her arrival she sensed immediately that things were amiss. Lights, normally dimmed, were on full. Doors normally closed were open. The other animals were in a state of considerable agitation. Then she discovered Bert and Betti dead in the cage.

We went into the area, and I can tell you it was not a pretty sight. I forced myself to look at it carefully and take mental notes. Betti lay sprawled in one corner of one of our larger cages, most of her left ear missing, one eye hanging from its socket. From her bloodied mouth protruded what might have been the genitals of Bert, who lay face down in the opposite corner, his hands clutched at his crotch. In their struggle they had wrecked the exercise tree and tipped over the bowl for water. There were blood and feces everywhere.

"What about Mort?" I asked, referring to the security guard who has kept watch over the Pavilion and the Museum proper since before I came on board more than thirty years ago.

"I haven't seen him," she said, alarm making her eyes go large. "I hope he's okay."

We were just about to go down the spiral staircase to the basement where Mort has his office when Lieutenant Tracy arrived with his crime scene crew. We left the crew in charge and clattered down the steps with the Lieutenant to the enclosure equipped with an array of television monitors that Mort watches when he's not out making his rounds.

He was slumped in his chair, his old graying head back, his mouth wide open. I feared the worst. "Mort," I said, shaking his arm. "Mort, wake up." As the Lieutenant and I stood over him, he opened first one and then the other eye. He sat forward, his disorientation obvious as he moaned and put his hands over his eyes.

"We should call an ambulance," Lieutenant Tracy said.

Mort shook his head. "Please. No ambulance. No hospital. No doctors."

Dr. Simone disappeared for a moment and came back with a cup of black coffee. Mort sipped the coffee, rubbed his eyes and the back of his neck, and answered our questions.

We determined that Mort, who came on duty at midnight to work a twelve-hour shift, as is his preference, found everything normal as of 2:30 a.m. when he went to the staff room for the lunch he had brought with him. There, in a refrigerator used by the staff, he had left a sandwich and a large bottle of Coke with his name taped to it. He said he warmed his sandwich, a cheese and tomato, in the microwave, poured himself a paper cup full of Coke, and brought it back down here. He ate the sandwich and drank the Coke and that's the last thing he remembers.

I asked him had he noticed then that the monitor covering the area of the cages had gone blank. He replied that he is certain all of the monitors were in working order when he started his meal.

After directing one of the crime scene officers to secure the Coke bottle in the staff refrigerator, and after seeing that Mort had a ride home, Lieutenant Tracy and I went with Dr. Simone into her office.

Taking notes, the Lieutenant with firm gentleness took Dr. Simone through what she had found upon arriving at work. I must say I admired again the thoroughness of his questioning. However, I was able to make one important contribution. I asked if Bert had been in the larger cage alone when she had left in the evening.

Dr. Simone nodded. "He still gets moody and at night we usually put him into that cage by himself."

"How would someone have enticed Betti to leave her cage and go into Bert's?"

"They may have used M&Ms."

"M&Ms?" the Lieutenant asked.

"M&Ms were used in the writing program that was in place before I came here," Dr. Simone explained. "Betti participated in that program and, like the others, developed a real craving for them. We still use them as little bribes to get the animals to do things."

"Who would have known about that?" I asked.

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