A Daughter's Legacy

She opened the door and exited the car. Jason stayed in his seat for a long moment to let her decision sink in. The zoo would receive Lil’s entire estate. Once Kelli’s half of the assets were liquidated, Cougar Bay would have enough money in the fund to begin construction on the African Lion Habitat. Samson would have a new home. It was really going to happen.

Then why was he so disappointed?

The moment the elevator doors glided open, a strong antiseptic smell stung Kelli’s nostrils. She stepped onto a sparkling white floor and paused to read the sign on the wall in front of her. Jason didn’t hesitate, but took off down the wide corridor to the right, obviously familiar with the place.

He probably visited Lillian several times in her weeks here.

A bitter taste invaded Kelli’s mouth at the thought. He’d visited, while Kelli herself had been left out at her mother’s request.

He stopped and turned when he noticed she wasn’t beside him. “It’s just down here.”

She nodded and hurried after him, her eyes fixed politely ahead to avoid looking into the rooms she passed. The sound of voices drifted toward her through the open doorways. Halfway down the corridor, they approached a nurse’s station on the right, where a woman in pink scrubs sat in a rolling chair, tapping on a computer keyboard. She looked up. Recognition flashed onto her face when she caught sight of Jason, and she greeted him with a nod. Her gaze slid to Kelli and a smile lit her features. She stood and extended her hand.

“Hello. I’m Terri Wainright. And you’re Ms. Mitchell’s daughter.”

The hand felt warm. “That’s right. Kelli Jackson.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I was your mother’s nurse on the day shift.” The woman’s expression sobered. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.” Kelli felt like an impostor accepting the sympathy of this woman who’d cared for Lillian during her final days. Surely, that was a daughter’s responsibility. She looked down at the floor.

“I have her things right in here.” Terri crossed to a doorway behind the nurse’s station. In a moment she returned carrying a white plastic bag with handles. “She didn’t have much with her when she arrived.”

Kelli took the bag. She could feel the contents through the sturdy plastic. Clothes and a hard, flat object in the bottom. She set the bag on the counter and opened the handles to peer inside. A green cotton T-shirt and a pair of jeans lay on top. She pushed them aside and pulled out an inexpensive leather wallet.

“She didn’t have a purse?”

Nurse Terri shrugged. “That’s all she brought with her.”

Beside Kelli, Jason leaned an arm on the high counter. “I never saw Lil carry a purse, only that wallet.”

Kelli opened it and inspected the contents. Three credit cards, as she’d expected. A few dollars in cash. An insurance card. And…

She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. A driver’s license. She slid the card out and studied the small image of her mother. Same straight gray hair. Same eyes. Same lean face. No, not exactly the same. There were more lines in evidence, and her cheeks had thinned to the point of gauntness. She’d lost weight since Kelli saw her last. How many years ago was that? Four. Lillian had flown to Denver for Kelli’s college graduation.

Oh, Lillian. Unexpected tears stung Kelli’s eyes. If only I’d known, I wouldn’t have let so much time pass.

The nurse and Jason were both watching her. Blinking to clear her eyes, Kelli shoved the license back into the wallet and snapped it shut. When she put it back in the bag, her fingers touched a sharp edge buried beneath the clothing.

“What’s this?”

She grasped the object and pulled it out. It was a picture frame, the inexpensive drugstore kind with a cardboard stand on the back to prop it upright. When Kelli turned it over, her heart twisted in her chest. The face that laughed up at her was achingly familiar. A larger version of this same photograph hung in a place of honor on Nana’s living room wall. Daddy.

“There should be another one.” Terri pulled the bag toward her and reached inside to extract a second frame, identical to the first. “There it is.”

Kelli took the picture with numb fingers. She stared, unable to tear her gaze away from the image of herself dressed in a cap and gown, laughing into the camera with her father’s smile. Tucked in the corner was a smaller photo, Kelli’s second-grade school picture. Same smile, only with a hint of sadness in the eyes and a gap where the front teeth had been. Her last school picture before she went to live with Nana.

Terri’s voice was soft. “She kept those with her constantly at the end.”

Jason peered sideways at them. “She wouldn’t show them to me until two days before she died. When she told me about—” He gulped and shot a quick glance at the nurse. “You know.”

“She was hugging them when she passed.” Terri placed a warm hand on Kelli’s arm. “I don’t know what happened between you, but I know she loved you very much.”

The happy images blurred as tears filled her eyes. Was it true? Did the mother she always thought indifferent really love her? Or was it only the looming specter of a solitary death that caused Lillian to regret abandoning her only child?

A tear slid down her cheek, followed quickly by another. Kelli couldn’t bear to put down the pictures long enough to wipe them away, so she let them go.

Oh, Mom! Why didn’t we fix this before it was too late?

Or was it too late? Would this crazy condition of Lillian’s trust help her to finally understand what had gone wrong between them? If she agreed, maybe she would discover, once and for all, if the fault had lain with Lillian or with her.

A tear dropped from her chin onto Daddy’s picture, followed a second later by another. Jason put an arm awkwardly around her shoulders and squeezed. She found his silent embrace oddly comforting and leaned into his warmth.

In the next moment, she stiffened. No! She couldn’t let her guard down around Jason Andover, even for an instant. No matter how nice he seemed, she must remember where this man’s loyalties lay. He was a zookeeper and he would always choose his precious animals over everyone else. Just like her parents.

Well, she’d show him. Even if it killed her, she’d last the whole six months. And then she’d walk away without a backward glance.

She stepped sideways, out of his reach. Still clutching the photographs, she lifted her face to look up at Jason. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m staying.”

Chapter Six

Jason arrived at the zoo at seven o’clock Friday morning, like he always did, and took his customary walk around the grounds to check on the animals. Everything looked normal, nobody injured or sickly. He examined the repair job on the wolves’ fence, satisfied that it seemed to be holding Bob, their resident escape artist, in place. The goats bleated and kicked up a dust storm as they trotted around excitedly. Samson paced the length of his enclosure, eyes fixed on Jason as he passed, as did the cougars. The capuchin monkeys rushed toward his side of their exhibit, calling to him as he strode by.

“Hang on, fellas, food is on the way,” he promised.

The radio on Jason’s belt erupted with sound. Angela, from the office.

“Jason, Raul just called. He sprained his ankle last night. Won’t be in today.”

He stopped on the path, digesting the news. Raul, the fiercely possessive zookeeper who’d been at Cougar Bay longer than anyone else, ruled the Small Animal building like a tyrant. He even came in on his days off to check on “his animals.” The man’s injury must be severe to keep him away from his beloved charges.

Jason conducted a quick mental review of the day’s staffing chart as he unclipped his radio. Each keeper took care of a group of animals from a specific natural habitat. They developed a relationship with each animal in their care, feeding them and cleaning up after them regularly, so they could spot a potential problem before anyone else from changes in the animal’s behavior or eating habits. Of course, Cougar Bay made sure the keepers were cross-trained, so a person could step in to care for other animals during the regular keeper’s absence, a policy Lil had implemented long before Jason joined the team.

The lemurs in the exhibit up ahead saw him stop walking and, alert to the change in the daily routine, raised their voices to a screech as Jason pressed the radio button to answer to Angela.

“When Stephanie gets in, let her know she needs to pick up Small Animals today.”

Radio static and then Angela’s voice. “She’s covering the Canyon and Penguins for Erica today.”

Great. And the other keepers were already stretched thin to cover a couple of vacations and the absence created by Jason’s reassignment to the director position. They were going to be short-handed on a Friday, the busiest day of the week outside of weekends.

Besides that, Jason had planned to team up Kelli on her first day with Stephanie, the most outgoing and friendliest of the keepers on staff, but he couldn’t saddle an already-overworked keeper with a newbie. Especially one with no training and a chip on her shoulder when it came to animals.

Well, he’d just have to take care of the Small Animal building himself. And Kelli would have to hang with him. A memory surfaced, of her pulling away from him at the hospital last night. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking to put his arm around her like that. She’d just looked so sad, so forlorn, with tears running unchecked down her cheeks. Until he offered a simple gesture of comfort. Then she’d stiffened like a Popsicle.

She wouldn’t like working with him today.

“Tough,” he told Casper the cockatoo as he passed. “She’ll have to get used to it.”