“You’d be very good at it.”
Blake stepped out of the tupelo tree’s shadow. “There you guys are. Is there room for me?”
Paradise patted the spot beside her. “I’d even share the pups with you.”
“You can’t have my pup,” Isaac said. “His name is Dale.”
“Like the famous chipmunk?”
His little brother nodded. “And Levi’s is Chip. They’re best friends like we are.”
“That’s pretty perfect.” Though he was itching to talk to Paradise alone, he hid his impatience. The boys needed calm and assurance after the trauma of what had happened. He picked up the closest pup and settled it on his lap. “What’s this one called?”
Isaac eyed the pup. “That’s Gaston. Paradise has Newt and the other one is Pug.”
“Excellent names.”
Tension radiated through Paradise’s form, and she kept glancing at her phone. What was up? He set the pup back on the grass. “I think we’ve probably handled them enough today. They need to go see their mama, and Mom has some lessons waiting for you.”
Levi set his pup down. “Is it painting? Mom said we could paint this afternoon.”
Isaac nodded. “She did.” After moving the pup off his lap, he jumped up and both boys ran off toward the house.
Blake leaned back on his hands. “What’s wrong? Well, other than Greene is an idiot and he’ll be pinning Ivy’s death on me before he’s done.”
The capybara on her lap hopped off and went to join its siblings. Paradise reached for her phone. “I got DNA results back but haven’t had a chance to see if there’s a match.”
He scooted closer as she called up her mail program. A frown crouched between her eyes. “The email is there, but earlier there was an attachment with the results. I know I saw it.”
“Let’s check your computer. Maybe your phone ate it.” He got up and held out his hand to help her to her feet. “It has to be there somewhere.”
Paradise settled on the sofa beside Blake with her MacBook and called up the DNA website on her browser, but it showed no results, just like on her phone. “Blake, it’s not there, but there’s an email telling me the results are in.”
“Maybe it went out in error?”
“Maybe.” She went back and reread the email, which clearly stated the results were available. “I think I’ll call them.” She punched in the digits for customer service and explained the situation to the friendly man on the other end.
“This is quite strange,” he said. “Our system shows the results were received, but when I try to call them up, the document is missing. Yet I can see where we had something last night when the email went out. I suggest waiting another day and seeing if it shows up. Maybe we have a glitch on our end.”
“I’ll do that.” She ended the call and updated Blake. “He seemed puzzled too.” She snuggled against Blake’s side and inhaled the scent of his eucalyptus soap and spicy cologne. “How are you doing? Finding Ivy had to be hard.”
He tensed. “It’s hard to get that image out of my head. Andyou know Greene will try to make this our fault somehow. Lacey and Owen are behind bars, facing charges for Danielle Mason’s murder, but it’s clear Greene isn’t convinced we had nothing to do with it.”
“He makes up his mind and tries to find evidence to support his viewpoint. That’s not the way investigations should work.”
“And we were just recovering from the media storm after the Mason woman’s body was found here. This new incident will ramp up the social media nightmare again.”
“I’ll work on new posts. What is our official stance when asked?” She watched the wheels turn in his head. What did someone say about this kind of awful discovery? It would be better to say nothing, but they likely didn’t have that luxury.
“Maybe we should put out a statement about it. I’ll ask Hez to help me craft something.”
“Good idea.”
Chairs scraped across the kitchen floor, and moments later his little brothers burst into the room waving painted pictures. Isaac had painted a sloth, and Levi showed them a picture of a giraffe. What must it be like to grow up in such a close family—and on a wildlife refuge like this with all those wonderful animals in their backyard? The boys had no idea how blessed they were, but they’d all look back on these magical days with nostalgia.
“I love your pictures,” she told the boys.
Isaac thrust his in her face and Levi presented his big brother with his giraffe. “You each can have one,” Levi said. “Want me to stick it on the wall so you can see it in the night? Aren’t you getting tired of sleeping on the sofa?”
