A Daughter's Legacy

Dear Kelli,

By now you’ve learned about the trust. You probably think I’m being mean to you. Maybe I am, but not without a good reason.

Your father and I both gave our lives to the preservation of zoo animals. I promise you, the strength of my dedication is no less than his. Will you give us a mere six months to see if you can get a glimpse of our passion? If I could have convinced you to do it while I was alive, I would have. I just didn’t know how. This trust is my way of asking you to share my life.

Only God knows the damage I’ve done to you. I hope He forgives me. I don’t expect you to. Ask somebody to tell you about Cocoa. Maybe you’ll understand.

I do love you, Kelli, more than I was ever able to express.

It was signed in her hurried script, Lillian Mitchell. Beneath her signature she had written, Your Mother. As if Kelli needed the reminder of who she was.

She read the last line again. Tears stung her eyes. Love? Nana loved Kelli and proved it by being there every day as she grew up, by taking care of her, by coming to her band concerts and taking her to Sunday school. Lillian didn’t know what love was. She wanted Kelli to share her life?

“It’s a little too late for that, isn’t it?” Her shout, aimed at the letter, squeaked at the end as her throat squeezed shut. “My childhood is over, and so is your life.”

She tossed away the letter. Tears blurred her vision as she watched it flutter to the floor. Once again, Lillian had proved what Kelli had long known: Her precious zoo animals were more important than her own daughter.

“It’s all about you, isn’t it, Lillian?” She kept her voice low, her whisper masking the sobs that threatened. “Your dedication. Your passion. It’s always been about you.”

Her gaze fell on the trust document, Lillian’s attempt to manipulate her, to bribe her. Well, Kelli wouldn’t play along with it. She refused to sell her soul for money.

An image of Nana rose in her mind. Frail Nana, who moved slower these days. Who sometimes forgot to turn off the gas oven until the next morning. There would come a time, and it might be soon, when Nana couldn’t continue to live alone. Lillian’s money would ensure that she didn’t have to.

“That’s okay.” Kelli lifted her chin, her decision made. “We’ll manage without it.”

She got off the sofa and went to retrieve her cell phone from her purse. Nana would be wondering what was happening, and when Kelli would be returning to Denver.

The zoo was crowded today. Jason passed a string of children in identical yellow T-shirts crowding around the red panda enclosure, and nodded a pleasant greeting at the pair of young women who stood watching them. He’d heard someone from Guest Services say they had a couple of summer camp groups scheduled today. Until a couple of months ago, he would have been assigned the task of introducing them to Samson and the other cats. But that was before Lil got sick enough to hand off some of her duties to him. Now Michael was the zookeeper primarily in charge of big cats.

But Samson had earned a special place in Jason’s heart a long time ago. No matter how busy his day, Jason always found time to pay a visit to the lion. That’s where he headed now, with Lil’s letter folded in his pocket.

Samson dozed on the shaded concrete platform in the corner of his enclosure, as he usually did during the heat of the day. Jason stood at the external barrier near a mother and her two boys, whose fingers were locked in the chain link. He studied the magnificent beast’s golden fur, his shaggy main. As Jason watched, the conspicuous dark tuft at the end of his long tail flicked upward, then collapsed again to its limp position. Besides that, Samson didn’t move at all.

“C’mon,” one boy said to his brother, his tone heavy with disgust. “Let’s go look at the monkeys. At least they jump around.”

Jason hid a smile as the trio strolled away. Samson considered himself too regal to perform for a crowd. He was, after all, the king of beasts, even if he was without a pride over which to rule at the moment.

The nearby bench, tucked into a welcome patch of shade, was empty. Jason fought off a stab of guilt and seated himself. A pile of work lay on Lil’s desk—his desk, unofficially—but that could wait for a few minutes. Here, in front of the animal Lillian had loved so much, was the ideal place to read her letter.

He ripped open the envelope and extracted the single page covered in his late boss’s familiar handwriting.

Jason,

I’ve never been good at telling people how I feel. I’m much better at telling them what to do.

Jason smiled. That was true.

I’m not going to get all gushy, because that will just embarrass you. (I guess I’m beyond being embarrassed now, aren’t I?) But I do think you’re a fine man, and the best person to become zoo director after me. I trust you to carry on the work I’ve started. You’ll get no higher praise from me than that.

I hope you and Kelli get along. I warn you, she’s going to have a hard time with this. I won’t ask you to go easy on her, but try not to make it any harder than it has to be. She carries a lot of pain. Maybe she’ll open up to you one day and tell you about it.

Get Samson out of that cage, Jason. Don’t let them take him.

Lillian Mitchell

Jason looked up from the letter, his gaze drawn to Samson’s enclosure. Lil’s use of the disparaging word cage spoke volumes. Samson’s home was pathetically small for such a glorious animal. True, it met the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ minimum requirements, barely. But Samson deserved so much more. On that, Lil and Jason had been in complete agreement. Samson was a perfect specimen, healthy and virile, and easily met the AZA’s strict breeding qualifications. But without a proper habitat, the AZA would never allow them a female lion, would never approve Cougar Bay’s application to initiate a lion breeding program. In fact, because all zoo animals technically belong to AZA, it was within that organization’s power to move Samson to another facility, one with a habitat more suitable for breeding. And Lil had been sure they would do it. Her determination not to let that happen had flickered like gray flame in her eyes whenever the subject came up.

Had she taken that determination too far? Kelli’s image rose in his mind.

“Maybe she’ll open up to you one day and tell you about it.”

Jason slowly shook his head. “You sound pretty sure she’ll accept your conditions, Lil.” He wasn’t convinced. He’d glimpsed a touch of obstinacy in the set of that lovely chin, much the same as he’d seen her mother display. Kelli Jackson wasn’t the kind to be pushed into something she didn’t want to do. Surely Lil knew that about her own daughter.

He refolded the letter and slid it back into the envelope. In the days before she died, Lil had made no secret of the fact that she expected him to be ruthless in his execution of her trust. Even though he’d been reeling from the discovery that she had a daughter, he’d tried to talk her out of the crazy scheme.

“Lil, why don’t you just leave the poor kid her half and be done with it?”

The wasted woman in the hospital bed had been a mere shadow of the boss he’d known for years. But she’d leveled a stubborn look on him and rasped with some of her precious remaining breath, “For her own good. Everybody has to face their fears.”

“But why me? Surely there’s someone else who could do a better job, as trustee and as director.”

The soft pat on his hand held so little strength it felt like a breeze. “You’ll take care of Samson. Nobody else will.”

Jason thrust away the memory and abruptly rose from the bench. He crossed to the chain-link barrier and stared into the lion enclosure. But instead of Samson, he saw a beautiful dark-haired young woman with pain lurking in the gray depths of her eyes. A young woman who would probably end up hating him, according to Lil, although she wouldn’t explain why.

Well, seemed he had a knack for rubbing beautiful women the wrong way. Aimee couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him.

“This is your fault,” he told the lion. “I don’t know what fear Kelli has to face, but Lil was right about one thing. She already blames me.”

Samson snoozed on, oblivious. Jason put the letter back in his pocket. He was used to taking the blame where women were concerned. If he had to be the bad guy with Lil’s daughter, he’d do it. Especially if it meant Samson would get a new home, as Lil and he both wanted.

Chapter Five

Despite Kelli’s fears, the office wasn’t in complete disorder. The top drawer of the filing cabinet held a series of neatly labeled folders containing various zoo records. Those, she would box up and turn over to Jason. But the rest were her responsibility to sort through.

The bottom of the file cabinet and all the desk drawers had served as a catchall into which Lillian had apparently tossed her personal documents: bills, bank statements, even junk mail. Kelli frowned at the piles, her accountant mind trying to perceive her mother’s system. After a few minutes, she gave up.

“I must have inherited my organization skills from Daddy,” she muttered.

A movement in the doorway drew her attention, and she looked up into Leo’s golden gaze. The sound of her voice must have attracted his curiosity. After barely a second of eye contact, the animal dashed away, in the direction of his closet. Kelli chuckled and returned to her task.

“What a mess.” Tsking in disapproval, she cleared the surface of the desk, then began the tedious process of sorting the clutter into a semblance of order. Time to find out if Lillian’s finances were as big a mess as her office.

A couple of hours later, Kelli started to breathe a little easier. Her mother had left surprisingly few outstanding bills. Her medical coverage—the policy was in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet—was comprehensive. There would probably be a few medical bills, but the bulk of the treatment would be covered. And she’d carried mortgage insurance on the house.

“A free and clear title. How nice for the zoo.” She didn’t bother to filter the sarcasm out of her voice. The cat didn’t care, and there was no one else to hear.

Her mother had carried several credit cards, and Kelli felt a grudging respect as she inspected the statements. Lillian paid the balances off every month.