Chapter 15
She’d soaked it in the bath and iced it, but it still throbbed.
Greene had been every bit as difficult as they’d feared, and it was after eleven when Blake left and she crawled into bed.
Watching all that film data had felt a little creepy, and she was jumpy. She should have let Blake sleep on the sofa. He’d
offered, but she thought she’d be fine.
The kittens curled by her feet, and she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes to practice deep breathing. Six would come
way too soon. A memory slammed into her before she could drift off to sleep.
It was dark, so dark. Paradise crouched in the closet with her Rosyshine CuddleBrite puppy clutched to her chest. She could barely hear through her heart pounding in her ears.
She wished Mama was still with her reading Paradise’s favorite story, Where the Wild Things Are, but the door opened, didn’t it? She clutched her stuffie and burrowed in the back of the closet where she could smell the vanilla sachet her mom had put in last week.
She rocked back and forth and whisper-sang the little ditty her mother had taught her. “No monsters under my bed, not with
angels watching my head. No monsters under my bed, not with angels watching my head.”
The song failed to drive away the terror that encased her like ice. She swallowed hard and tried to make sense of what had
just happened. Mama whispered for her to hide, and Paradise had done just that. She slipped out the side of the bed farthest
from the door and slid under the bed.
She saw her mother’s bare feet hit the carpet and saw a baseball bat leaning in the corner lift away before Mama’s toes turned
to face the door.
Paradise slid out on the floor on the other side and crawled into the back of the closet. She closed her eyes and covered
her ears when Mama screamed, but the sound of a smack of the ball bat penetrated anyway.
Paradise covered her head with her hands and stifled the scream trying to bubble up from inside.
And waited for the man to find her. But he never came.
Paradise struggled to remember the man’s face as he’d come through her bedroom door but failed.
She sat up and wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks. It was the most detail of that terrible night she’d remembered
so far. The man’s face eluded her, but she knew he’d been slim and strong. Not big and bulky like Sheriff Davis. And her mother
had picked up the baseball bat. He must have taken it from her and used it on her and Paradise’s father.
But nothing had been her fault, so why did she feel such a sense of guilt? She’d been nine and no match for a grown man.
There would be no sleep now. Paradise got out of bed and went to the kitchen for some cheese and crackers. Maybe a bit of
food would calm down the way her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest.
She so desperately wanted to remember, to bring the murderer to justice. This small memory was an encouragement, but it wasn’t
enough. She had to remember that face.
Blake had bought cubes of cheddar and her favorite crackers, so she prepared a plate and ate on the sofa without tasting the
food. The kittens, delighted she was up, played around her feet. Did all of this even connect, or was everything happening
separately? She didn’t see any threads of the current events connecting to the murders, but the danger had ramped up when
she’d tried to find her brother.
Chad from the DNA center hadn’t returned her call yet from the other morning, and she made a note on her phone to try calling
again when the place opened. He’d been so responsive before, and it was odd he hadn’t called her back, but maybe he was out
of the office. Someone else might be able to help, though, if she couldn’t get him. She wanted to figure this out.
She hugged herself and wished she could talk to Blake, but he should be sleeping. She opened the Photos app on her phone and
scrolled through all the pictures she’d taken since she came to The Sanctuary. Every picture was a precious reminder that
no matter how events changed minute by minute, her life here held fresh and new adventures. Jenna had sent her a shot she’d
taken of Paradise staring up at Blake and him looking down at her. The love on both their faces brought a lump to her throat.
She sighed and put the phone down to carry the plate back to the kitchen.
Merlin put one black paw on her foot, and she paused to extricate it so she didn’t step on him.
A creak came from the outside entry steps.
Without stopping to think, she raced for her bedroom and snatched up the SIG Sauer in her bedside drawer, then stood in her bedroom a moment to gather her courage.
She slipped to the door and peered back into the living room.
The door was closed, and she heard nothing more until a message pinged on her phone.
She kept her gun up and ready as she went to get her phone on the coffee table. It was a message from Blake. Are you up? I saw the lights on. I’m outside on the steps.
Her limbs loosened. Blake was here. Why wasn’t he home in bed? She rushed to the door and threw it open before launching herself
into his arms. “You scared me. I heard your feet on the steps.”
His strong arms sheltered her, and he held her close before glancing around and leading her back into the apartment. “I was
trying to sleep in my truck. I didn’t like leaving you alone now that we know Adams is around.”
Ever the protector. She both loved that he was eager to protect her and hated that she needed protection when she wanted to
stand on her own. He’d never thought she could hold her own against Adams, and maybe she was fooling herself that she was
sure she could.
By 3:00 p.m. Blake was feeling the effects of very little sleep last night.
He’d spent 2:30 to 5:00 a.m. on Paradise’s too-short sofa, and he didn’t think he’d closed his eyes.
But at least she was safe. This morning he’d also found the binoculars left behind by the intruder and had asked an employee to run them to Jane.
Maybe they would provide some kind of information.
He parked the safari vehicle in the utility truck lot and chatted with his passengers as they disembarked and left tips in
the coffee tin. Several had been generous, and his small stash of cash for an engagement ring was growing. Still not enough,
but he had to start somewhere.
Most of his salary he redirected back into the business. The fear in his mom’s eyes had been increasing, and he wanted to
do what he could to lessen her worry about the future. What would any of them do if they lost The Sanctuary? A couple of donations
had come in this past week, but it still wasn’t enough to overcome the bad publicity Ivy’s death had brought to the park.
He gathered the tips from the can and stuffed the cash in his pocket. His phone dinged with a message, and his pulse blipped
when he read what his cousin Hez had sent over.
Interesting soil test report. Need to talk ASAP. Come by the hospital when you get a minute.
Blake had had a slim hope the test would reveal another source of income for Mom and the park. Could it be happening? He texted
back that he would come as soon as he could, then jogged past the amphitheater to listen in on Paradise’s informative talk
on lemurs. He stopped behind the bleachers and watched her interact with the lemurs.
A group of children from a local elementary school pressed close to the three-foot-high fence. The lemurs were always popular,
and Blake had loved them since he first saw one at age three. Paradise had brought in the new babies, and he itched to hold
one himself.
Paradise caught a glimpse of him and smiled. “Here’s our resident lemur expert, Mr. Blake Lawson. Come join us, Blake.”
Caught. He smiled and strode past the bleachers and into the amphitheater with her and the two primate keepers. He faced the audience.
“Anyone know how old these babies are?”
A boy in the front row shot up his hand. “Over two months? They aren’t on their mom’s back right now.”
“Very good. Mom mostly carries them around on her back until they turn two months old and start exploring. And they’re also
starting to snatch bites of fruit like the older lemurs. Where are lemurs found in the wild?” He suspected they all knew that,
and many hands waved in the air with shouts of “Madagascar!” Thanks to the movie, most people knew that one. “They’re very
endangered, and we’re lucky they breed well in captivity. What exactly are lemurs?”
“They’re primates,” a girl in the back called out.
“They’re more than just primates—they’re a type of prosimian, which means they came before monkeys and apes. They’re super
smart and live in troops. We call a group of lemurs a conspiracy.” He pointed out a lemur grooming another one. “Lemurs are
the only primates to have special tools for grooming each other. They use an elongated nail on the second toe, called a grooming
claw, and finely spaced teeth, referred to as a toothcomb, for grooming.” He paused to let the audience watch the activity.
“Do you know what the word lemur means?”
The kids looked at one another and said nothing. One of the moms seemed to start to raise her hand, then put it back down.
“It means ‘spirits of the night.’” The phrase made him think of The Phantom of the Opera.
Could there be any connection? He turned the lecture back over to Paradise and settled on the ground for the young lemurs to come over and interact with him.
A dominant female was in charge of each troop, and the babies waited for permission from Mama to approach.
It didn’t take long because Mom Loki adored him.
He let the lemurs scamper around his lap and climb up his head, much to the delight of the kids.
Paradise ended the lecture, and he glanced at the time. He needed to go see Hez, so he dusted off his shorts before approaching
Paradise. “Do you have time to come with me to see Hez in the hospital? He says there’s something interesting about the soil
tests that just came back.”
“I’m done for the day.”
He took her hand and they strolled toward his truck. “You don’t even look tired.”
She squeezed his fingers. “I probably got more sleep than you did.”
“Hez wants to talk to me about the rare earth report. Trust him to be taking care of us even while injured. Thanks for coming
with me.”
“I’d go anywhere with you.”
The one place he really wanted to take her was to the altar, but that had to wait.