“I appear to have some siblings from my father’s marriage as well,” Drew said.
“I’m not surprised. I always wondered if he was already married. He was old enough to be.”
“There’s one thing we’ve been puzzling over.” Paradise pulled out the baggie holding the cuff link. “We found this mixed in with Drew’s baby clothes. Does theCring a bell on Ben’s name?”
Lily pursed her lips. “That man she was seeing wore a fancy suit, so I would imagine cuff links might accompany one. But I don’t know Ben’s last name.”
Paradise quelled the shaft of disappointment. She should have known better than to get her hopes up that Lily would be more forthcoming. “I’d love to get that box of items that belonged to my parents. You mentioned it a few weeks ago.”
“I brought it with me. It’s in the trunk. Here comes Rod. I’ll have him get it.”
Rod came their way and stopped to extend his hand to Drew. “So you’re the new cousin. I could have picked you out anywhere. And I heard you’re a police detective in Atlanta. You must get a lot of interesting cases.”
Drew gripped his hand. “We see our fair share. I deal with homicides, and we have way too many of those. We’ve been working to get drugs and gangs off the streets, and our homicide rate has been falling.” His hand fell back to his side.
Paradise glanced over at the food table and caught Blake’s gaze. He gave a nod as if to say she should go ahead and ask her cousinabout Creed. “Um, Rod, Creed came out here mad as a hornet. He wanted his lemur back, and we didn’t give it to him.”
“He came to me about it too, and I told him to let it drop or face charges. He stomped out of my office, and I haven’t heard any more out of him about it.”
“That’s a relief. There’s one more thing though. We’ve seen a loose leopard roaming here on park property. It wears a collar and isn’t ours.”
Drew folded his arms across his chest. “And what Paradise is not saying is that she seems to be a target. We have drone footage of Creed’s property that shows some interesting fencing and possible meat chunks behind an enclosure that make us think Creed might be the one keeping the leopard as a pet. We’d like to get on the property and find out.”
“No pictures of leopards, no indication he actually has one?” Rod shook his head. “I don’t think I can get a court order without more proof. And you know he won’t agree to letting you roam there.”
“What if you urged him?” Paradise asked.
Rod lifted a brow. “You’ve met Creed Greene, right? I keep hoping he’ll quit, but he hangs in there, and I don’t have grounds to fire him.”
And that would be the end of it unless they could get more proof. Maybe a drone video at night with an infrared camera would be in order.
“Rod, would you get that box I brought for Paradise out of the trunk?” his mother asked.
“Be right back with it.”
Paradise had to check the impulse to go with him. There would be no time to look through it until late tonight or tomorrow.
The food had been eaten, and one by one family members said their goodbyes and left. Blake hadn’t been able to keep his attention off Paradise as she moved from person to person. She’d changed so much since she arrived nearly six months ago. She’d been wary, a little angry, and a whole lot off-putting. Now her place in the community was firmly established, and it showed in the glow of her amber eyes and the confident smile on her face.
Twilight softened the edges of the trees and buildings, and the scent of impending rain hovered in the air. Paradise sat on the deck glider with a little boy on each side of her as she read them a story. Her presence had been a balm for all of them.
She closed the book and caught his intense gaze. A blush settled in her cheeks, and she smiled. “Isn’t it time to feed the predators?”
“It is. Want to come with me?”
“I’d love to.” She hugged his brothers. “Time for you guys to take a bath and brush your teeth. I’ll be back in time to tuck you in.” They protested but slid off the cushions and headed for the door. She descended the steps to where he stood and took his hand. “What a great afternoon. Thank you for making it happen.”
“I saw you talking to Rod. Did you get anywhere with searching Greene’s property for the leopard?”
She shook her head. “Not enough evidence. I’d like Mason to try the drone at night with his heat-seeking camera.”
“I’ll text him.” Blake released her hand to tap out a quick request to Mason, who answered immediately. “He’s already on the road near the house waiting for full darkness. Good kid! Let’s hope if he’s got a big cat, it’s roaming outside and not in the building.”
Hand in hand, he and Paradise fell into step to head for thepark. By the time they reached the predator area, the darkness had deepened. They neared the small building where the food storage fridge was housed, and he peered through the darkness. “Someone left the door open.” Blake held her forearm. “Wait here.”
He tried to flip on the light, but nothing happened. A power outage? He turned on his phone’s flashlight and shone it around the space. Everything looked normal in the sweep of the light. He stepped to the breaker box and opened it. The breaker was off, so he flipped it and the overhead light came on. Nothing appeared out of order. He unlocked the cabinet for the tranq guns and found them safely nestled inside. The predator food appeared intact inside the fridge.
“Blake?” A tremor shook Paradise’s voice.
