Hunting Death

Chapter 1

"Hello, I'm Madison, and you are?" She asked, warning bells going off in her head as the man's eyes roamed her body from head to toe, taking stock of her khaki shorts and tank top with an odd smile.

"Forgive me," he apologized, his voice heavily accented. He sounded like he came from New York. "My name is Alfred Demello, but you may call me Al. And you are Ms. Adams?"

"Yes, sir."

He held up a hand, smiling sleekly. "Please, call me Al."

"Alright," she agreed, motioning for him to sit in the chair in front of her desk as she made her way around it and took her own seat. "Al, what can I do for you?"

Al opened a briefcase in his lap, shuffling through the contents before pulling out a small stack of papers, and closing the briefcase, laying them on top. "It's not so much what you can do for me Ms. Adams, but what I can do for you." He said with another of those smiles that really gave her the creeps.

"Pardon?"

"I'm a lawyer, Ms. Adams."

Ah, a lawyer, well that explained it. Of course, that left her wondering if she might have been in some kind of trouble. The Zoo had been sued in the past, a common occurrence actually, but lawsuits rarely included individual employees. She supposed if it had something to do with the animal ambassador program that it might make sense, but no incidents came to mind right off hand.

"I'm here to talk to you about your father's estate."

"My father's what?" She blurted, even more confused.

"Estate. I'm an estate lawyer for Mr. Robert Melton. Are you unaware of Mr. Melton's passing?"

Mr. Melton. Her father. Her biological father. Aware of his passing? No. Hell, she'd only known he'd even existed for the last decade. She'd never met the man, for that matter, she'd never had any communication with him at all, so how did anyone, especially a man she'd just met, expect her to know that a virtual stranger had died?

"When did he die?" she heard herself asking.

"About two weeks ago. He had a stroke." Al said, filling her in on the details.

With a sad smile that softened his hard features, Al explained how he'd known Robert, her father, who he described as a very stubborn man, for many years. He called him his long-standing golf partner and said he managed all of his estate or legal matters for over a decade. But Robert, who hadn't seemed himself for the past six months or so suddenly became determined to get his affairs in order.

"Sadly, two weeks ago, he suffered an aneurysm that led to a stroke, one of his employees found him too late I'm afraid." Al finished, pulling himself together again.

Despite this man being a complete stranger, and knowing she didn't owe him anything, Madison found herself defending her lack of a relationship with her father anyways. "I've never met my father." She told him candidly. "My stepfather adopted me when I turned four, he's the only dad I've ever known. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't seem more upset about the news. It's hard to miss someone you've never met."

"I'm aware of the dynamics involved in the situation, Ms. Adams. Your father told me everything."

Madison scoffed, a little offended by his remark. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" She nearly demanded.

Al chuckled. "Simply that I am aware of the dynamics, Ms. Adams. Now, shall we get down to business?"

Madison shrugged.

The lawyer handed part of the paperwork over to her, a second copy still lay in his lap. Madison accepted it gingerly, afraid it might bite her.

"If you'll turn to page three, we can try to get through this as quickly as possible so that you can get on with your day."