The Edge

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## Plot

The deceased is identified as Luke Shannon. And that's not the worst part; Luke's family are suing the park!

In response to this, the heads of staff converge to deliberate this. Drew and Kyle are quick to protest this unwelcome development, but Nikolai insists that they must let the suit be handled in court, and, surprisingly, Rick is quick to back him up, pointing out that their handling of the situation is very important for public relations; they cannot be seen to flout the law. Josh’s assistant also speaks up in favour of their argument, pointing out that such behaviour will only make them look like the bad guys. Alice offers to speak in PP and Baloo's favour.

Khatin is deep in thought over research notes in his office when Will comes knocking. Still convinced that Baloo is innocent, Will is requesting Khatin’s expert help in investigating the case. Khatin is a little incredulous, keen to blame Will’s close bond with Baloo for his convictions, but eventually relents; there is little he has to lose if it turns out to be a wild goose chase.

Will and Khatin begin their investigation by questioning Jack, who found Luke’s body in Baloo’s enclosure. Jack comments he was alerted to the incident by the sound of something being dragged along the floor of Baloo’s den; he investigated and found Baloo eating Luke’s body. Jack takes Will and Khatin to Baloo’s den. After a brief search for evidence, Khatin realises Jack was right; Baloo had dragged Luke’s body a considerable distance from where he could have fallen. Furthermore, there are no signs of a struggle in the den, which would be expected if Baloo had attacked him. Now convinced that Will was right, Khatin comes up with a theory; Luke committed suicide in the bear house and Baloo found and partially ate, his dead body. Will is apprehensive about further investigation, reasoning that if Luke did commit suicide, the reasons might not be Khatin’s place to investigate, but the pair are momentarily given another concern when Alice contacts them from the courtroom, revealing that the prosecution are calling for Baloo to be euthanized!

Meanwhile, in the courtroom, the prosecution has bought Baloo’s history of behavioural problems and aggression to attention and are using them as arguments for Baloo’s euthanasia. Alice’s tearful attempts to steer the trial away from the issue are rapidly failing, only complicated when Josh gets his turn on the witness stand. He is there to speak in both the park’s defence and Baloo’s —in a sense. Although he starts off with some unrepentant grandstanding, for which he is reprimanded, he eventually delivers a speech that paints Baloo as an aggressive, unpredictable large predator who the park staff are barely able to control of at the best of times. However, Josh notes, these are a consequence of Baloo’s predatory instincts, not of any purposeful planning; Baloo does not deserve to be feared, Josh opines, but to be pitied. Subsequently, the trial is put on hold for thirty minutes; during the downtime, Josh gloats to his assistant at his moral besting of the prosecution.

Now in a race against time, Khatin interviews the family of Tina Jacobs, Luke’s girlfriend, hoping that they will be of use in finding possible reasons why Luke could have killed himself. He gets virtually nothing out of them; none of them know of any reason why Luke would have committed suicide. However, there is one possible lead; Sadie, Tina’s eight-year-old sister, briefly expresses shock at Khatin asking her of her closeness to Luke and alludes to something that was “our little secret”. Khatin is briefly curious at this and asks Lucy Jacobs, Tina and Sadie’s mother, how close they truly were; Lucy reveals that Sadie initially liked Luke, but was nervous around him for some reason.

Meanwhile, in the courtroom, Alice gets surprising news on how the trial is being received by the general public. Her emotional outburst when the prosecution was calling for Baloo to be euthanized was recorded and, because of this, the general public are expressing sympathy for Baloo and Prehistoric Park.

Khatin, with no concrete leads and his main theory overruled, ponders the potential reasons on how Luke could have turned up dead in the cave bear den, eventually coming to nothing. However, this soon changes when Jack reveals why he was near the cave bear house that night; he had been looking for an Anzu, which had escaped whilst being transported from the vet offices. Khatin finds the Anzu, which mimics an argument between Tina and Luke it had overheard. Khatin’s attention is drawn to Luke’s remark that someone is a “lying little brat”, in response to Tina calling him “a monster”. After leaving, Khatin talks to Will over the phone, revealing that he believes that Sadie may be the key to discovering what happened to Luke.

Meanwhile, the jury are deliberating their final verdict; to decide the consequences for the park… and Baloo’s fate. Alice is warned by her defence lawyer that, even if the general public are siding with her, that doesn’t mean the jury will be sympathetic to her.
Khatin, now convinced that Baloo is innocent, interrogates Sadie. Sadie reveals that Luke came in to “say goodnight to her” regularly, but trails off and bursts into tears before she can finish what he did. Spurred by this, Khatin looks at both Sadie’s diary and the search history on Luke’s iPad and, after several hours of trawling, comes to a shocking conclusion. Khatin immediately takes Sadie to the nearest hospital and asks the doctors to check her for sexual abuse.

Khatin discovers that Sadie was being sexually abused, causing him to interrogate Tina again. Tina reveals that she found out Luke was molesting Sadie and killed him in order to protect her from his abuse. Tina admits that while she learned to cope with a lot of bad aspects about her and Luke’s relationship, when she found out he was molesting Sadie - enough was enough. She tricked him into a meeting at the cave bear house, stabbed him and pushed him into the cave bear den, leaving him to die.

In the courtroom, the jury are getting ready to deliver their verdict when Khatin bursts in, revealing that he has new evidence for the defence. In order to protect Tina and Sadie from repercussions, Khatin falsely presents Luke’s death as an accident. The jury deliver their verdict; Prehistoric Park will not suffer any repercussions from the incident and that Baloo will not be euthanized. Will and Alice are jubilant.

At a party to celebrate the trial’s successful outcome, Khatin says goodbye to Tina in his office and revealed to her the reason why he lied; Will and Alice went through this because they wanted to protect Baloo, who they had a close bond with. It would have been hypocritical of him to condemn Tina for trying to save her sister.

## Quotes

“Despite Miss Denham’s attempts to underplay the incidents listed, I will tell you the truth; Baloo is a large, aggressive, unpredictable predatory animal. In fact, he is one of the main candidates for the park’s most dangerous animal. His almost daily rages, set off at the tiniest things, are a constant source of vexing for the keeping staff and security team; at the best of times, they can barely control him. And, one night, the deceased tapped into the bear’s territorial rage; and he was singularly unprepared for what happened next.
And that is where I beg pause. That is where I say consider this; Baloo is driven by impulse to behave in the way he does. He is not a creature of purposeful planning, but one of impulse; he is a slave to territorial and predatory instincts thousands of years old. He can no more choose not to maul a perceived interloper to death anymore than the Earth can stop orbiting the Sun. Surely, an animal must not be sped to its death for those reasons. He does not deserve to be feared… he deserves to be pitied.”

**Josh Winkler**s “defence”

“The public are the biggest idiots on the planet. They’re used to people pontificating; they’d have tuned out in thirty seconds. What they’ll remember is the bear was saved because of me; my testimony convinced the court to spare his life. The hero of the trial.”

**Josh** has a very low opinion of the public as a whole

“A palaeontologist and a forensic investigator are very similar; it’s the mystery we chase. Just as a dinosaur skeleton is a statement to a palaeontologist, a dead body is a statement to a forensic investigator; a whodunit. The difference is that a palaeontologist’s whodunits may never be resolved.”

**Khatin** has a little introspection time..

## Notes

### Real-life references

* The story is one big homage to detective shows, especially from the *CSI* franchise.