Page 24 of Ambush

“Please, Mom,” Molly said. “Can’t you see how important this is to Paradise?”

Lily pressed her lips together and sighed. “Your mother called me a little after eleven that night. She said someone was trying to break in the back door. I called the sheriff’s office and headed there myself.”

Gerald Davis had been the sheriff at the time. “You found me in the closet.” She remembered that much.

“You were in the far corner rocking back and forth and singing.”

Paradise didn’t remember that detail. “What was I singing?”

“No song I’d ever heard. Something about monsters under thebed and angels watching over you. I always thought you made it up.”

“Where were Mom and Dad?” She’d been too young to ask questions at the time and too distraught and rebellious from the rejection in her teens.

Lily winced. “Your mom was in your bedroom, and your dad was in the backyard with his pistol. He probably had it because he’d seen or heard the intruder. The sheriff thought he’d been killed first. The glass in the back door had been busted in from the outside, and the killer had reached in and unlocked the door.”

My bedroom. The memory of screams echoed in her head, and she wanted to slap her palms over her ears to drown out the noise. She had to have heard those screams in real life when she was nine.

She swallowed. “Was there ever a viable suspect?”

“I never heard of one, but Rod would know. He was on the department then, though not a detective. Still, I’m sure he followed it since it was family.” Lily grabbed hot pads and lifted the plate of apple dumplings. “We’d better get outside before they eat without us.”

The relief in her voice touched Paradise. This couldn’t have been easy for her.

Chapter 12

Paradise’s day with her family hadn’t gone as well as Blake had hoped. The winter sun had begun to sink quickly over the tops of the live oak trees even though it was only five, and there was a distinct chill in the air through the air vent.

A big truck barreled past them, and it backfired as it drew alongside Blake’s pickup. He jerked at the loud sound before he could cover it, and his heart rate accelerated. He hid the calming breaths he took before Paradise could notice. Noises like that took him right back to that last ambush.

His phone dinged with a message as he pulled into the drive at The Sanctuary. “Hez has news.”

Paradise unfastened her seat belt. “Can you call him and put it on speakerphone?” Her voice vibrated with hope.

“Let’s take the Gator over to the pond and watch the sunset. He said to give him a couple of minutes.”

They got out, and he led her to the Gator. They always left the key in the utility vehicle so it was ready for use by any of the staff, but it was universally acknowledged that no one but Blake used it. He’d drive it on the road to town if he could. The green beastate up the mile out to the pond, and he could sense Paradise’s tension build as they passed the tiger enclosure.

“Still scared of them?”

“I’m working on it.”

He took that as a yes. “You could always specialize in smaller species.”

“I’m not going to let fear keep me from following my dream of working with wild animals. The big cats were always my favorite, and I have to get past this. Iwillget past it.”

She settled on the bench under a big tupelo tree, and he pulled out his phone and called Hez. “Hey, buddy, got your text. What’s up?” He put it on speakerphone. “Paradise is here with me.”

“Hi, Paradise,” Hez said in his deep voice.

“Nice to ‘meet’ you, Hez. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Same. I wanted to let you know I was able to obtain copies of the investigation into the murder of your parents. I’m sorry to report I don’t feel it was thoroughly examined. They didn’t talk to many neighbors, and the few leads they had seemed to go nowhere. The notes reveal a very lackadaisical approach to finding the killer.”

“Why wouldn’t the sheriff’s department investigate?”

“I wondered the same thing and did a little poking around on my own. I apologize if the information I’m about to tell you is upsetting, but it’s part of getting to the truth.”

“I want to know,” she said.

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