MICHAEL CRICHTON

PETER ELLIOT REMEMBERED JUNE 14, 1979, AS A day of suddenreverses. He began at 8 A.M. in the San Francisco law firm of Sutherland,Morton & O’Connell, because of the threatened custody suit from the PPA—asuit which became all the more important now that he was planning to take Amyout of the country.He met with John Morton in the firm’s wood-paneled library overlooking GrantStreet. Morton took notes on a yellow legal pad. “I think you’re all right,” Mortonbegan, “but let me get a few facts. Amy is a gorilla?”“Yes, a female mountain gorilla.”“Age?”“She’s seven now.”“So she’s still a child?”Elliot explained that gorillas matured in six to eight years, so that Amy was lateadolescent, the equivalent of a sixteen-year-old human female.Morton scratched notes on a pad. “Could we say she’s still a minor?”“Do we want to say that?”“I think so.”“Yes, she’s still a minor,” Elliot said.“Where did she come from? I mean originally.”“A woman tourist named Swenson found her in Africa, in a village calledBagimindi. Amy’s mother had been killed by the natives for food. Mrs. Swensonbought her as an infant.”“So she was not bred in captivity,” Morton said, writing on his pad.“No. Mrs. Swenson brought her back to the States and donated her to theMinneapolis zoo.”“She relinquished her interest in Amy?”“I assume so,” Elliot said. “We’ve been trying to reach Mrs. Swenson to askabout Amy’s early life, but she’s out of the country. Apparently she travelsconstantly; she’s in Borneo. Anyway, when Amy was sent to San Francisco, Icalled the Minneapolis zoo to ask if I could keep her for study. The zoo said yes,for three years.”“Did you pay any money?”‘‘No.35