Liam’s Lily Read online

  Liam picked up the folder, and, with North looking on, Liam opened it up and flipped through the various pamphlets. There was a bunch of printed screenshots. “What is it you’re disturbed about here?” He tried not to look as confused as he felt. “I see a lot of screenshots from a website.”

  She nodded. “Yes, various pages are showing up when they shouldn’t be,” she said. “I’m confused myself. But a lot of people have said they have tried to make donations, and, when they go through the payment process, a warning sign comes up, saying the place has been known to be a scam and to send the money elsewhere.”

  “It directly called you a scam and redirected people to donate elsewhere?” North asked. He shook his head. “That makes no sense.”

  “Right? That’s what I told my sister,” Lilianna said. “I think we are being targeted because there’s no other reason to deliberately stop donations from coming in. It doesn’t say it’s a security alert to get people to walk away, but it’s a deliberate this site is a charity scam.”

  “Any idea how much money you may have lost?”

  She shook her head. “It’s hard to know,” she admitted. “Normally I would have anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000 brought in at this time of the month. We’re at less than $1,000.”

  Liam stared at her. “You get that kind of donations?”

  She nodded. “And we need them. Keeping the animals, vet bills, feed …” She shook her head again. “It’s very expensive.”

  He stared out the window. “I guess my first thought would be, maybe a disgruntled employee?”

  She sagged back. “That’s what I thought too, but we don’t really have any.”

  He wondered at the truth of that. Whether she knew it or not, very few people were ever 100 percent satisfied with their jobs.

  “How many people do you employ?”

  “Four permanent employees right now, several more on contract, like the vet, and of course I have secondary workers also on contract—a bookkeeper, tax man, stuff like that. Plus a webmaster and people who do marketing for us.”

  “Well, the webmaster would be the first place to start,” North declared. “Do you have contact information for him?”

  She nodded, dug through an old-fashioned Rolodex card file on the side of her desk while they watched in astonishment. She glanced up as she pulled out the card. “I know, right? But I haven’t had time to make my system digital yet,” she confessed. “This is my father’s old system. He never trusted technology.”

  Liam smiled. “That’s not unusual.” He was relieved to see an email address, phone number and a physical address were all on the card. “Can you copy this for us?” He glanced around. “Do you have a printer?”

  “I do. I insisted on one for the business. But my father didn’t like it.” She chuckled, turned around to uncover the copier, copied the card, handed it to him and then refiled the card where it belonged in the Rolodex.

  He took the sheet and added it to the file. “We’ll begin with him. What else do we have as options?”

  They went through the file folder, and, although it was thick, it seemed to be more like a marketing package.

  Just then an alarm rang.

  Lilianna bounced to her feet. “I’ve got to run.” She raced out of the building through a back door. Liam was up and after her in a heartbeat. He knew North was following, presumably with the folder in his hand, but Liam didn’t stop to look. He raced behind her, catching up to her with some effort as she could clip along at quite the pace.

  “What is that alarm for?”

  “We’re having trouble with one of the elephants,” she said, “and that’s the handler calling out a distress signal.”

  She bolted into the barn through the large doors, and he stopped. These were no normal stalls. They were made of four-inch pipe aligned into what would have been the equivalent of a horse barn stall. The ceiling was at least twenty feet high above him, if not thirty feet. The barn was more open than usual with walkways through the center, but the pens for the animals were huge, and each one had a rear door leading outside.

  In one pen he could see an elephant, but the noise it made caught him by surprise. The trumpeting. The elephant had its trunk held up, and it was crying out.

  A man looked up as Lilianna walked in. “There you are,” he said with relief. He looked at the elephant’s foot. “We need the vet here. She’s got something in her foot.”

  Lilianna let herself into the pen, walked over as she gently talked to the animal. “Let me take a look. Take it easy, Billie. You’ll be just fine.”

  But Billie wasn’t having anything to do with it.

  Finally Lilianna got the elephant to calm down enough that she could check the foot. Liam had been around enough horses to know how to lift a hoof to check for rocks in the shoes, but he’d never, ever seen the size of a foot like this elephant had. Lilianna knelt, taking a close look, and between her and the handler, they managed to pull out something that was stuck.

  With that removed, they cleaned out the wound, and Lilianna stepped back. The elephant nudged her big head, plowing into Lilianna’s chest gently. Lilianna wrapped her arms around the trunk and laid her head against the huge animal’s face and said, “It’s okay. It’s not that big of an owie.”

  With an odd chuffing sound, the trunk wrapped around her.

  Liam stared.

  North, standing beside him, said, “Just a big overgrown puppy.”

  Liam shook his head. “Good Lord.”

  With her arms wrapped around Billie, Lilianna took her out the stall’s rear door, and, as if knowing now she would be okay, Billie walked into the sunshine, with no sign of a limp. Lilianna stood there for a long moment, checking her gait; then she came back over and said, “Thanks, Daniel, for giving me a call.”

  “You know? I keep thinking I can handle these guys. But honestly they’re so attached to you, they don’t really like anybody else working on them,” Daniel said. “As soon as I realized she was injured, she caterwauled like a baby and wouldn’t let me even touch her foot.”

  Lilianna chuckled. “She is a big baby.”

  Daniel nodded. “She is the worst for that. I can get almost any of the others to cooperate. But Billie wants you.”

  “Billie is also the oldest here,” she explained to Liam. “She’ll be twenty-one this year.”

  Liam looked at her. “That’s an old age for any pet.”

  She laughed. “Elephants are notoriously long lived.”

  “Her foot seemed to be healthy though,” North said. “Outside of whatever it was you pulled out.”

  “It was a big piece of glass,” she said, anger in her voice. “And I have no idea where she picked it up.” She turned to Daniel. “Was she just in the yard?”

  He nodded. “Yes. And you know we’ve gone over that yard with rakes a dozen times. I don’t know where she got it from.”

  Lilianna walked to where she’d placed the offending piece and picked it up, taking it to the men. “This is the third piece we’ve picked up. I found one in the yard. One of the dogs got cut on another one.”

  “Where did you find the one in the yard?” North asked.

  She motioned toward the entranceway. “It was right at the front entrance, where it was pretty hard for anybody to miss.”

  “Do you think it was done deliberately?” Liam asked. He glanced at the four-inch piece of glass. “That’s a hell of a weapon.”

  “I know,” she snapped. “And it pisses me right off.”

  “How many people have access to this area?”

  Daniel spoke up, answering, “Just those of us who work here. That’s the problem. It’s like somebody’s deliberately making it look like it’s one of us.” He shook his head. “I’ve spent ten years here. I’d never do anything to hurt them.”

  “After ten years, Billie still won’t let you touch her feet?”

  Daniel laughed. “Exactly. She is Lilianna’s baby.”

  Lilianna grinned. “I ha
ve to admit, she does have her fancies. But she’s a good-hearted girl. She’d never hurt a soul.”

  “Where are you getting all these elephants from?”

  She sighed and brushed a few loose tendrils of hair off her forehead. “Anywhere, really,” she said quietly. “A couple are from circuses. A couple are from zoos. We had one come down from Canada. It’s a long journey for these animals. It can easily take a week to truck them. But it’s the only way to get them to us. Here they get to live out the rest of their lives in peace and quiet.”

  Liam was stunned. He’d heard about places like this, but he had never thought to be in one. “Do you think whoever is doing this actively hates that you’re helping elephants? Or do you think it’s a personal affront against you or perhaps your father?”

  The other three looked at him in surprise. Daniel was most stunned. “Well, that’s a horrible suggestion.”

  Liam gave him a bland look. “If somebody’s doing something to destroy the name of the sanctuary, the end result is the animals will suffer. So you have to consider that maybe it’s done for that reason alone. The other option is that it’s done to ruin the good name of the people involved.”

  Lilianna took a few steps until she was out of the pen. She motioned at Daniel. “Are you done here? Or will you stay with Billie a little longer to ensure she’s all right?”

  “I’ll clean up here for a bit,” he said. “I’ll keep looking for more glass, check on Billie.”

  Lilianna led the way back through the stalls. “I can’t imagine any reason why somebody would do this, but then I don’t understand that mind-set anyway,” she said quietly.

  “Right,” Liam said. “So we have to consider all options.” He stopped and looked around the barn. “How often do you get a new elephant in?”

  “Not very often. The logistics to bring them here are a nightmare.”

  “I remember hearing something in the news about trucking three elephants down from Canada. The cost was like a half-million dollars, although I believe those three went to California.”

  “I know. It shouldn’t be that expensive. But, by the time you add in the trucking fees, the couple dozen men required and all the transportation costs, it comes to something like that. I believe that was for two elephants though.”

  Liam shook his head. “And all the money was donated in that case?”

  “Yes. Gunner donated to the cause. A television personality put the charity event together to make it happen. They get a little more publicity because they’re a little more well-known, but still any organization who needs donations to keep functioning has to continually publicize. That’s why we do the schools. But some of the animals don’t do all that well with people. Even though two of ours were circus animals, it’s like, once they managed to get away from people, they didn’t really want anything to do with humans again.”

  “And Billie?”

  She chuckled. “Billie? …Well, she’s a people person. It’s not that she loves to perform, but she’s like a big puppy dog. She loves attention.”

  “So you let people touch her, things like that?” North asked.

  She nodded. “Absolutely. Mandy is here too, and she’s very similar. She and Billie are best friends.”

  “Is it true they remember each other if they haven’t seen each other in a long time?”

  “Mandy and Billie were from the same herd out of Africa, and, when they saw each other again for the first time here, they recognized each other immediately and were inseparable. The first thing they did when they got close enough was wrap their trunks around each other. We had to separate them in order to get them out of the transport. Once they were outside, they wrapped their trunks around each other and just stood together. Honestly it was incredibly heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes.”

  “And where would Mandy be now?”

  Lilianna pointed toward the yard, the other side of the door Billie had walked out of. “She’ll be out there.”

  “How much space do they have access to here?”

  “A lot,” she admitted. “Almost two thousand acres. And they do travel at various times. But they always like to come back home again. The other three stay together a little farther away from the barn. They come back on a regular basis. We check them over, make sure we can still handle them, but, unlike Mandy and Billie, they’re enjoying retirement. And, of course, that means something different to everyone. In their case, they just want time out in Mother Nature without any interference.”

  “It’s an amazing concept you have here,” North said. “Do you have other animals?”

  She nodded. “We do. We have some horses, which makes it easier for us to check up on the elephants. We have two goats that are always with the three elephants, and of course we have dogs.”

  “But you’re a sanctuary only for elephants?” Liam asked.

  She nodded. “For the moment, yes. I’d like to expand our concept to accept other big animals. But it’ll take a hell of a lot more money than I have right now to do that.”

  *

  Lilianna stared at the two newcomers. She chewed on her bottom lip, wondering how much she should tell them. She’d seen their assessing gazes and realized they were no slouches. But then what would she expect? Logan had recommended Levi. And Logan’s father, Gunner, had contacted Levi on her behalf. She didn’t know what she would do without Gunner. His donations went a long way to keeping these elephants in great shape. She wanted to expand to assisting more animals. But it required a certain expertise and more money for pens and housing. Not to mention ongoing funds for food and medical attention. And yet she was driven to do this. She wasn’t here on the land as much as she should be as she was constantly traveling to drum up funds.

  Her sister Brianna was here most of the time. Since they were identical twins, it was easy to get them confused. Her sister had often stepped into her place, not necessarily in a good way. And of course Lilianna’s mind immediately went down the rabbit hole to her ex-fiancé who was now her sister’s husband. Her sister was devoted to this place, but Lilianna wasn’t sure that her husband, Carlos, was devoted to anything but himself.

  It had taken her too long to understand, and it had taken even longer to realize what he was up to. By then her sister was fully hooked and even more so because Carlos had been Lilianna’s first. She turned to the two men. “I don’t know what you need to figure out what’s going on,” she said, “but you should understand there are a few other players here.”

  Liam faced her, nodding slowly. “I would suspect there are,” he said with a drawl.

  Something about his accent sent shivers down her spine. She forced a bigger smile and said, “There are some hard feelings around here, but nothing that isn’t normal within a family.”

  “And what family would that be?” North asked.

  Just then a bang came from the house on the other side. The men turned at the noise to watch another woman striding toward them. Instead of watching her sister arrive, Lilianna focused on Liam’s face, caught the surprise as he narrowed his gaze in assessment. It was an interesting look. She wondered what was going through his mind.

  Brianna arrived just then and glared at the men. “Who the hell are you?”

  Lilianna sighed. “This is my twin sister, Brianna.”

  The men nodded, and Liam offered an explanation. “We’re here to investigate the problems in the sanctuary.”

  Brianna sniffed, raised her nose in the air and said, “Then you can get the hell off the place because nothing’s going on here. My sister is just a worrywart. She has no clue how to run this place.”

  Lilianna rubbed her temple. If there was one thing she would like her twin to do, it would be to stop belittling her in front of everyone. But it had always been that way. Brianna was the bigger, more outgoing, bossier type of person. Lilianna was reserved, one of the doers of the world. She always did the work behind the scenes so other people could step up and take the spotlight from her. She didn’t
mind. She was a worker. She’d rather be with the animals than dealing with people anyway. But, at the same time, this wasn’t the time or place for sibling crap.

  “Brianna, we talked about this,” Lilianna said. “You know perfectly well we are having trouble.”

  “So what? You bring in these two?” She waved her hand carelessly at the two men. “For what?”

  It was hard not to miss the two men’s stiffened backs, as if dismissed as some useless laborers.

  Brianna snorted and stormed toward the barn. “They’ll just screw up everything. I told you, you shouldn’t come back. Everything is fine.” And her sister slammed the door going into the barn.

  In the distance Lilianna heard an elephant trumpet. She shoved her fists into her pockets and sighed. “As you can tell, there’s a little bit of disagreement.”

  The two men stared in the direction Brianna had gone.

  “How does a reaction like that affect the elephants?” Liam asked.

  Startled at the question, she shrugged. “Like any household, strife ripples outward. The elephants are much better away from all of it. However, Brianna does share in their care, depending on Daniel’s schedule. I would normally, but she wanted to handle the business side and to stay here all the time, so I’m now doing the fund-raising and need to travel a lot.”

  “You’re the one who knows Gunner?”

  She nodded. “And Logan.”

  The men smiled.

  She grinned at them. “And, yes, I can see you guys are the same as he is. The thing is? My sister doesn’t have any use for Logan either.” She gave a half grin. “He turned her down. She doesn’t take rejection easily.”

  A curious light came into Liam’s gaze as he studied her. “And you? Do you take rejection easily?”

  She laughed a real laugh. “I’m used to it. I take rejection just fine,” she said, her voice dry. “But then I’m always the one in the background. I don’t expect very much. So, when I get rejected, it’s just the norm.” With the men staring at her as if waiting for an explanation, she raised both hands in mock surrender and said, “I’m always the worker. I’m not the face on the brochures. Even though you probably look at them and see me, it’s her. Some history is in there. We also had an older brother, but he passed away a couple years back in a fire.” She had a sad smile now. “And I think Brianna felt like she had to step in to take care of what would normally have been his role.”