Hirano stared at him blankly for a long moment, and he almost thought she was going to deny it, but finally her eyes flicked between him and Park, and she almost resignedly said, “Yes. Yes, he was here often. But I wouldn’t say I knew him well.”

“Your curator Mr. Basque said James had a talent for handling animals,” Cooper said, nodding at Ryan, who had joined the efforts to coax the titi monkey back. “He said they loved James and people like Genevieve appreciated his presence here. Would you say that’s true?”

Hirano’s eyes narrowed. “Undomesticated animals don’t love people. They’re not your pets. They can become accustomed to us, even occasionally playful with us. But the quality of the relationships is based on what service the human provides them and how well their signals are respected. James understood that. And he understood them. When to approach and when to back off.”

“Would you say he ever received any signals to either approach or back off regarding Ms. Crane?” Park asked.

“You work quickly.” Hirano laughed and her gaze drifted in the direction that Genevieve had disappeared. “I think you’ll find more clarity in that regard if you go speak to Crane now. But I will say that today is the first day in a long time that her husband is not hovering on set, so if he was worried about something, that something no longer seems to be an issue. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have feathers to unruffle.” She left to speak with the crew.

“Seems like that’s two people who believe Arthur had something to gain from James’s death,” Park noted.

“And two people who have avoided giving a clear answer as to how Genevieve might have felt about it herself,” Cooper added. “Shall we ask her ourselves?”

They started walking in the direction that Genevieve and Neil had left in.

“I did manage to catch her scent when she opened the door,” Park said as they did the same, leaving the bright open monkey space for the dark interior of the building with another whoosh of air. “She’s human.”

“Which doesn’t exclude her as a suspect. It is possible that none of this has anything to do with James being a werewolf or ex-rebel pack leader,” Cooper mused. “He was blackmailing at least one if not two people and possibly mixed up with embezzlers who are being watched by the FBI. Not what I’d call a quiet retirement.”

“But to be slit in the belly like that?”

Cooper touched his own stomach reflexively, feeling it clench and swoop. “A number of weapons could have been used to do that. Someone hoping to pin it on a werewolf. Or even a zoo animal. Local zookeeper mauled to death. Accident. Then whatever made his face slip made the killer panic. Change of plan.”