A smooth path extended through the field and stopped at the ring of swamp tupelo trees circling the pond. He parked the Gator. “We’ll have to walk from here.” He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Paradise!”
A lion roared behind him in the predator enclosure as if his shout had startled it. He ran along the narrow flagstone path with swamp privet grasping at his clothes. They broke through the last of the vegetation into the clearing around the pond, and he spotted her at the same time Drew gasped. Why hadn’t she answered him?
Paradise stood motionless on the right side of the pond, staring into a tree. Something glittered on her wrist.
“There’s a leopard,” Drew whispered. “Above her head.” He reached for the tranq gun and aimed.
“It’s got a collar on. It didn’t attack her before.” But the way its tail lashed told him the leopard was agitated and might make a different choice this time. Could he scare it off? “Don’t look it in the eye. Drew, you have your real gun?” When he nodded, Blake exhaled with relief. “The tranq works too slow. Shoot your gun off in the air after I start yelling.”
Blake snatched a fallen tree branch beside the trail and held it aloft. “Hey, you there! Get out of here. We don’t want you here.” He spread out his left arm and waved the branch in his right as he approached the tree where the leopard crouched.
The animal’s blue eyes watched Blake advance, and it flinched when a gunshot sounded. It pinned its ears back and backed away before vanishing into the canopy of trees overhead.
Paradise whirled and ran straight into Blake’s arms. He held her trembling shoulders. “He’s gone. And why are you soaking wet?” She smelled of pond and mud. Had the thing chased her into the water?
She stepped away and held up her arm with something circling her wrist. “It’s a long story. I need to warm up and I’ll tell you what happened.”
Chapter 12
With her wet hair draped over the towel around her shoulders, Paradise sat on the floor in front of the fire crackling in the fireplace with all the kittens on her lap. The aroma of her plumeria shampoo had replaced the stink of pond water. She’d finally stopped shivering and warmth crept through her muscles. Blake, Jenna, and Drew had listened in silence as she went through what had happened out at the pond.
Blake settled beside her and showed her the pet collar in his hands. “Someone put this on the bridge to lure you out.”
Drew paced the floor beside them. “While you were taking a shower, I went out there. I retrieved some of the boards. The bridge was sabotaged to collapse when you got out there. This was no accident.”
Paradise flinched. “I could have broken a leg.”
“Or worse,” Blake said. “That gator could have kept on coming.” He pointed to a small button of plastic. “There’s a tracking device on this collar too. It connects to someone’s smartphone.”
“Did you try easing away from the leopard once you saw it?” Drew asked.
She nodded. “Every time I tried to move a few inches, the leopard’s tail lashed even more. I kept an eye on him but didn’t challenge him with direct eye contact. I’d used the board I had on the gator, and I wasn’t close enough to any tree limbs to arm myself that way. I knew you’d come.”
A lump formed in her throat at those minutes of terror. She would never be at ease around big cats, especially jaguars. She wasn’t frozen in fear now, but she had a healthy fear and respect for them in the wild.
She rose and headed for the kitchen. “I’m going to make coffee. I don’t think I’ll be going to sleep anytime soon. Anyone else want a cup?”
“Me,” the men chorused behind her.
Blake followed her and crossed the kitchen to the fridge. “Mom made brownies too.”
She nodded and got the coffee going. “Someone seems determined to frighten me.” She turned at Drew’s footsteps.
He took down three mugs and set them by the coffeepot. “I’m the catalyst that started it all, Sis. The killer knows he’s in the bull’s-eye of our investigation. He’s afraid the truth is going to come out. Whoever killed your parents—and my father—is still out there. He lives nearby and has been able to observe everything we’re doing to get to the truth.”
The wordsison his lips brought a lump to her throat. This wasn’t only for her to figure out. They were all in this together—Blake, Jenna, Drew, even Abby and her cousins. The truth would have to come out when faced with such a formidable force as all of them bound by love.
Blake set the plate of brownies on the counter and whipped out his phone. “Let’s make a plan of attack. Trisha and Wes were helpful. We need to talk to Donald Phillips, the HR managerwho used to work with your mom at Tupelo Grove University. We could go see him tomorrow after the governor’s aide leaves.”
Drew snagged a brownie. “I’d like to talk to the detectives on the original case. I know the lead investigator died, but others would have been working it too. I’ll talk to Jane Dixon tomorrow while you’re with the governor’s aide.”
“And we have the family picnic on Sunday,” Blake said. “That might give us some new leads.”
“We need to track down neighbors who lived on the street back then,” Drew said.
“One of them works here,” Paradise said. “Evan lived on the block. He was in his teens then. I’ve talked to him, but you’re trained at interrogation. He might remember something he didn’t tell me.”
She took a brownie and bit into it. The soft, chewy chocolate taste was heaven after swallowing too much pond water. She kept remembering the leopard’s blue eyes fixed on her and the way its tail lashed. “I just thought of something. What if the leopard belongs to Creed? If he had a pet lemur, he could have a pet leopard. I think we need to check out his premises.”
