Page 74 of Tiger Queen

We went through our morning routine after that. Jake announced that it was too fucking early for him, and went back to the house to sleep. While preparing the food, David kept commenting on how high the quality of meat was. He still seemed shocked by the whole thing.

Mary Beth showed up for work shortly before the zoo opened. She looked embarrassed, and wouldn’t meet my gaze. But when the zoo opened the visitors began filing in, she gathered the first group by the visitor’s center and gave her tour like it was any other day.

“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” I asked Anthony later that morning. We were sitting on a bench near Caesar’s enclosure, watching her from a distance.

Anthony shrugged. “It’s suspicious that she wouldn’t let us look at her phone or laptop. She doesn’t have to show us. Legally, I mean. But it would have cleared everything up.”

“It would have.” I sighed unhappily. “I still think she’s guilty. All signs point to her, and I’m positive she’s hiding something. But she was very convincing in her denials last night.”

“Are you supposed to give a tour soon?” Anthony suddenly asked.

“No. Why?”

He nodded. “Those two people have been staring at you awfully hard. Like they’re waiting for you to begin a tour.”

It was a middle-aged couple over by the visitor’s center. A balding man with a beer belly and a stick-thin woman with red hair that ran down her back in waves. For a moment, the sight of them didn’t make any sense. Not here.

Then they smiled and started walking over.

“Oh my God. Mom and dad?”

32

Rachel

My parents walked over and hugged me excitedly. “Rachel! We’ve missed you so much!”

“Mom! Dad! I’m so surprised to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, honey,” dad said with a big grin.

“I’ve been trying to call you,” mom said. “But you haven’t picked up. You know, back when you were an undergrad you always picked up for mom. But now it’s like pulling teeth to get you to answer the phone!”

“I’ve been busy. I can’t believe you’re here!” Then I remembered that I hadn’t told them where I worked. “How did you, uh, find this place?”

Mom pursed her lips the way she always did when she was about to tell a long story. “Liz Thatcher called me the other day. You remember Mrs. Thatcher? The nice widow who lives down by Mary Washington? She was at the university visiting her old colleague and got to talking about private zoos. Her colleague mentioned a place down here, and showed her a video of a page to donate money… And wouldn’t you know it! You were on the page! When Liz showed me I almost couldn’t believe it. But there you were, holding open a tiger’s mouth and brushing the teeth. Wasn’t it incredible, Frank?”

“It was something!” dad said.

Mom’s expression changed as she gazed around. “Rachel, when you said you were working at a zoo I imagined a real zoo. But this place?”

“It’s not as bad as it looks!” I quickly said. “It was much worse before I got here. We’ve been making improvements and taking better care of the animals.”

I had forgotten Anthony was standing next to me until he cleared his throat. “Hi! I’m Anthony Haines. I’ve been working with Rachel for the last few weeks. I have to say, she’s a huge asset for the zoo. We’d be lost without her.”

Dad shook his hand and frowned. “Haines? Wasn’t that the name of the weird guy who owned this place? Psycho Steve or something?”

“Crazy Carl,” Anthony said with a chuckle. “And yeah. He’s my dad. Was my dad, I should say, seeing as he passed away a couple weeks ago. Just about a month now. Wow, has it really been that long?”

“I guess so,” I said.

Anthony ran a hand through his hair and laughed nervously. “Well. I guess I’m going to see how the gift shop is doing. You two have a nice stay.”

“He seems nice,” mom said as he walked away. “Better than that Crazy Carl in all the videos. But Rachel… I can see why you didn’t tell me where you were working. This place isn’t at all what we expected…”

“It’s not what you think,” I began.

Dad leaned in close. “Honey. Are you working against them? You can tell us. We saw the videos posted by that animal rights group, and when we realized you were working here secretly… Well, it would explain a lot.”

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