“I did. She’s been praying constantly during the search, the boys too. They’re all waiting to welcome you home.”
Her smile widened. “It’s over, Blake. I can’t believe it.”
He turned at a tap on the door, and Jane poked her head in.“I was told our patient is doing well and ready for discharge. I thought you’d like to know Bear and Angela were picked up at the Pensacola airport.”
He exhaled. “That’s great news. What about Creed?”
“Rod chased him into Louisiana, and in the capture, Creed’s truck went airborne and ended up on its roof. He’s dead.”
“I feel bad about the Collins family,” Paradise said softly. “They’ve had so much loss already.”
“Do you feel up to telling me the story? I’m still murky on all of the details.”
Blake wondered the same. All he knew was that Bear and Angela had taken her from the garage, but he didn’t know who had committed the murders and why.
Paradise sat up on the exam table and dangled her feet over the side. There were twigs in her hair and dirt on all her exposed skin. She brushed at the mud on her knees. “I sure need a shower. Do I need to come down to the station so you can record it all?”
Jane held up her phone. “This is fine for now. You’ve been through a terrible ordeal.”
“I’ll take the reprieve.” Paradise took a deep breath, then dove in. “There was something about a photo on the wall of the garage that nagged at me, and I decided to examine it again. I went out to the garage by myself and realized there was fencing in the picture that could have been to contain a big cat. I thought it might lead me to whoever had released that leopard onto our property, the one we found with a collar. While I was there, Bear and Angela came in.”
Blake could see the scene in his head. They’d walked in to her trespassing, and it had escalated into so much more. “How’d they take you?”
“I’ll get to that. Angela snapped when she found out Ben wasleaving Pamela for my mom. The pregnancy was the final straw. She said the baby should have been hers. After all these years, he owed her. She drugged him and bludgeoned him with the golf club. Pamela figured it out and confronted Bear, who confessed. Angela heard and killed her too.”
“And your parents?” Jane asked.
“I think that was simple hatred and revenge. She called my mother a whore. Bear killed them for her. He wanted Ben’s Senate seat, but that didn’t happen. I’m not sure why.”
“I can answer that,” Drew said. “While we were waiting for the nurse to let us come back to see you, I did some research on Bear. The Mississippi governor called for a special election to replace Ben, and Bear ran. He lost. I’m sure he thought sympathy for the loss of his brother would carry the day, but he still didn’t connect with the voters.”
“So he never got what he wanted,” Blake said. “That’s a bit of justice right there.”
“Wow, it’s a testament to what obsession will do,” Jane said. “How did the muscle car play into it all?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t talk about that.”
Blake held up his hand. “I can answer that. I called the governor. She said the car had originally belonged to Angela’s father. He’d sold it to the governor’s father for a song, and then when Ben wanted it so badly, her dad gave it to Ben. We think with him dead, Angela wanted it back. I think she wanted her whole life back—all the time she’d wasted waiting on Ben to ‘do the right thing’ and marry her.”
Paradise nodded. “And Bear convinced her to leave with him, assuming I could climb out. But she smiled triumphantly at me as they left, and I knew it wasn’t over. They’d been gone abouthalf an hour when Creed showed up to finish the job. I’d been trying and failing to climb the fence. Creed opened the gate between the perimeters enough for the jaguar to begin to claw his way through and left me there. That’s when I took another stab at climbing the fence. I got out and started to run. The jaguar was climbing the fence when I looked back last, and I’d hoped once I was out of view, it would give up. But Creed and Bear had trained Abyss to track and kill prey.”
“God had to have protected you,” Blake said.
She took his hand. “Absolutely, and I’m so thankful.”
“This will be a trial that will grip the entire nation,” Jane said. “Jealousy, obsession, and even a black jaguar. What about Bea?”
Paradise glanced at Blake and Drew. “She had been trying to catch Sheriff Davis with my mom. She saw Angela the night of the murders and covered it up. For a price. Angela got tired of paying the blackmail money.”
Jane’s hazel eyes narrowed. “So much pain and death over money and obsession. I don’t see them wiggling out of this.” She turned toward the door. “Get a shower, hold some happy boys, and we’ll get your statement tomorrow. I’m glad you survived, Paradise.”
“Not as glad as me,” Blake murmured as he kissed Paradise.
Drew unwound from the chair and followed Jane. “I’m going to get coffee. Any takers?”
“I’ll have some,” Blake said.
Paradise chimed in with a request as well. “And chocolate-covered peanuts.”
