He watched her cross the room to the small attached bath. His phone dinged with a message, and he glanced at it.Hey, Blake, I found something at Creed’s this afternoon.“I heard from Mason.” Blake quickly tapped out a response.Can you send me the file?
Sure.
Paradise returned with the shampoo in her hand. “He found the leopard?”
“He didn’t say what he found. He’s sending the file.” His phone dinged with another message. “Let’s open it on your desktop.” He forwarded the file to her email, and they went to the office down the hall.
He flipped on the computer. “I’d feel a lot better if we found that leopard.”
She perched on the edge of the twin bed in the room and hugged herself. “I keep watching the trees and shadows. I’ll be glad when I don’t have to do that any longer.”
The computer screen illuminated, and he settled on the chair in front of it and called up her email, found the file he’d forwarded, and opened it. It took a minute to orient where the property was located. Greene lived out near Elberta, and Blake spied a pond circled by trees. In the woods he glimpsed a metal roof. “Looks like a shed in the woods by the pond. It’s enclosed by high fencing like we have at The Sanctuary.”
She stood and leaned over his shoulder to look at the video as the drone moved and the camera panned over the site. Her finger touched the screen. Her breath whispered against his ear. “Blake, that’s a tranq rifle.”
He saw it then. “You’re right. And are those chunks of raw meat just inside the fencing?”
“I think so. It’s hard to tell for sure. He’s got a predator behind that fence though. I’m sure of it.”
“We can talk to Rod about it at the cookout tomorrow. Maybe I can get permission to go look when Rod knows you seem to be the leopard’s target. That can’t be an accident. Creed has had his sights on you since you arrived.”
“I wonder what would happen if I talked to his wife. Maybe she’d rein him in.”
“Or it would infuriate him so much that you’d be in more danger. Let’s talk to Rod before we do anything else.”
She put her arms around his neck from behind and leaned against his back. He relished the feel of her against him and the kiss she pressed against his cheek. They’d weather this and find their future.
Chapter 17
The aroma of Old Bay seasoning in the shrimp boil bubbling away wafted on the breeze. The yard bustled with family members greeting each other. Paradise hung back with Drew, waiting for the hubbub of laughter and initial excitement to die down, though she was eager to introduce him to everyone. She wished Blake was by her side, but he was tending to the food.
As they waited she pointed out various members to Drew. “That’s Mom’s cousin Lily.” Lily’s lustrous shoulder-length salt-and-pepper hair gleamed in the sunlight. “And that’s Rod. He’s the sergeant in charge of the Bon Secour sheriff’s substation and is Lily’s son. You’ll have a lot in common with him. His wife is Sheila.” She motioned to the smiling woman with red hair and brown eyes. “His sister is Molly, the one with brown hair and hazel eyes. You can’t miss her because she and Rod look so much alike. She’s a schoolteacher.”
Drew stood with his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts. “They seem happy to see each other. Who will be most helpful for me to learn more about our mom?”
“Probably Lily. She was always a little jealous of me for somereason and has been less than forthcoming, but there’s a good chance she’ll open up to you. Let’s start there.” Paradise walked with him across the freshly mowed grass to intercept her cousin. “Lily, I know you’re as eager to meet Drew as he is to get to know you. This is Drew Bartley.”
Lily’s hazel eyes narrowed before she smiled. “I heard you found him, but I didn’t expect the two of you to look so much alike. You both take after your mom.”
Drew gave her a quick hug when she opened her arms, then stepped back. “I heard you and our mom were very close.”
Lily nodded. “First cousins. We were more like siblings though. Her death devastated me.”
But not so much that Lily had been willing to spare Becky’s child from foster care. Paradise kept the words locked behind her teeth. The past couldn’t be changed now, and she’d forgiven Lily.
“What was she like?”
“Becky was wonderful. Terribly creative—she made pottery and quilts. Any kind of craft interested her. She did a lot of baking and took pies and cookies to neighbors.”
“Who was my dad?”
Paradise tensed when Drew spilled the crucial question. Lily had always claimed she didn’t know, but if she was like a sister to their mother, wouldn’t Mom have told her things she didn’t tell anyone else?
Lily thought for a moment. “I don’t know his name, but I saw him pick her up in a shiny new Camaro after volleyball one night. He had to be ten years older than she was. At first I thought it was a friend of my dad’s, but she leaned over and kissed him before she shut the car door. The interior lights showed it was no friendly peck on the cheek.”
Paradise was already aware of those details. “We heard his firstname was Ben and Mom called him Benny. Did you ever hear that name?”
Lily hesitated before inclining her head. “I really can’t say. It was a long time ago.”
