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Blake had taken full buses on the safari tours today, and his smile felt broken. Paradise’s new social media blitz must be

having some positive effect. He loved the job, but the weight of the refuge having a target on its back pressed down on him

and made it hard to be himself with the visitors. After a shower, he went in search of his mother and found her with Paradise

on the back deck cooking chicken on the grill.

The late-January day was a warm seventy, perfect for an outdoor supper. The boys dug happily in the sandbox in the middle

of the backyard—far enough away for them not to hear the questions he intended to ask.

He gently elbowed his mom out of the way. “I’ll take over that duty. Go sip some iced tea with Paradise.” The aroma of grilling

chicken made his mouth water, and he lifted the lid and flipped over the pieces before brushing on barbecue sauce. Veggies

steamed in foil packets on the top shelf. “What else are we having?”

“Paradise made potato salad and I made white chocolate– macadamia cookies with the boys for dessert. I think there are still some left after the boys ‘helped’ me.”

His mom’s chuckle was relaxed and happy, which eased his worry. Blake shot a glance at Paradise, who nodded for him to go

for it. “Um, Mom, Paradise and I were talking last night about everything hitting the refuge at once. She pointed out that

we haven’t taken a hard look at Hank’s death.”

She trailed a finger over the lip of her glass of sweet tea. “You mean you still think Hank’s death might have been the first

attack?”

“It’s possible,” Paradise said. “We thought we should talk about the months leading up to his fall from the hayloft. Had he

mentioned any incidents that puzzled him? Had there been any threats against him?”

His mom’s forehead creased. “No threats that I’m aware of. He did seem strained the month before he died. Kind of skittish,

peering out windows—that kind of thing. I asked him why he seemed tense, and he brushed it off as employee problems at the

clinic in town.”

“He maintained his vet business after acquiring the refuge?” Paradise asked.

Jenna shook her head. “Hank signed the vet business over to Owen Shaw for quarterly payments on its worth. Owen was gone for

three weeks on an anniversary trip, and Hank agreed to fill in for him. I thought his stress was from trying to keep everything

going.”

“Did anyone talk to Owen about Hank’s death?”

“Not in relation to it possibly being murder. He got back the day before Hank died.”

Blake flipped the chicken again. “Did you ask him about the employee issue?”

“He dismissed it when I tried, and things were hectic here with starting to homeschool Levi. I should have pushed it more.” Mom’s voice wobbled.

Paradise reached over from her chair and took his mom’s hand. “It wasn’t your fault, Jenna. Don’t ever think that. And maybe

it’s not connected, but it seems very strange for such a weird accident to happen and then for all this stuff to start.”

Mom sighed and stood to tell Isaac not to throw the sand out of the box. She settled back in the chair. “It’s been six months

though. If it was connected, why the delay?”

“Maybe to let things die down,” Blake said. “I think I’ll talk to Owen. He likely has heard of our troubles, at least some

of them. It’s possible he knows something.”

He removed the food from the grill and turned it off. “Food’s ready,” he called to the boys. “Go wash up.” While they ran

into the house to wash their hands, he carried the food to the table under the pergola. Tableware and bright blue plates had

already been set around the glass-top table along with the cookies in a covered plastic container to keep the bugs out.

The boys came running out of the house in high spirits, and Levi wrapped his arms around Blake’s waist. “Blake, can we go

fishing after dinner?”

Blake lifted him in his arms. “It will be dark, buddy, and we just went two days ago.” He pointed to the sun already sinking

in the west over the tupelo trees. “But it’s a clear night. We can bring the telescope out and search the skies. We can see

Jupiter.”

“And its four moons!” Levi hugged his neck and Blake put him down.

“You’re right. You’re getting good at astronomy.”

“Mom’s been teaching me. Did you know Daddy wanted to be an astronomer when he was a teenager? I think I should be one.”

“I didn’t know that.” Blake glanced at his mom, whose eyes had misted over at the mention of Hank.

The boys wolfed down their dinner so they could have cookies, and Paradise helped Jenna clear the table while Blake set up

the telescope. He’d forgotten it had been Hank’s. Somehow it had always seemed to be here, and he thought maybe Jenna had

gotten it for the boys. As he adjusted the lens, he stopped and stared at it. This was a high-end piece of equipment and it

took pictures. Hank had been using it with the boys the night before his death. Could he have snapped any suspicious photos

of the area around the yard? It was unlikely, but after Blake was done here with the boys, he wanted to check it out.

***

Paradise and Jenna watched Blake with the boys at the telescope. The clear night would provide great viewing. With no breeze

it was a comfortable temperature as well, and the peaceful setting with the buildings and enclosures around them made for

a perfect evening. Paradise was envisioning a walk with Blake again tonight. Maybe this time they wouldn’t be interrupted

by the knowledge of another break-in.

“He’s so good with his brothers,” she said.

“He was a kid magnet even when he was ten. I’ve always thought he would make a great father, and he jumped right in when Hank

died. There aren’t many men who would give up their career and rush to help out.”

“He’s pretty wonderful.” She cleared her throat to give her a moment to push away the images of Blake with his own children.

With their children. “What do you think of our theory that Hank was the first casualty of this war against the refuge?”

“I’ve never thought it was an accident, but I tried not to dwell on it. The thought made me a little crazy. And honestly, I couldn’t think why anyone would want to harm him. You remember what he was like—always kind to people and animals alike. He often took care of animals for free when the owners didn’t have the money. After his first wife died, the trauma made him even more considerate of others. Why would anyone deliberately toss him out of the hayloft?”

“Why would anyone send a dead body to the park? Or shoot at us at the grizzly enclosure, or try to tempt a tiger to hurt someone?

All the attacks have seemed random and unrelated, but there has to be a reason for all of it.”

“To get me to sell.”

Paradise gave Jenna a one-sided hug and released her. “Hold tight, Jenna. We will figure it out.” Blake gestured for them

to join him. “I think we’re being summoned.” Jenna on her heels, Paradise got up and walked across the deck to where Blake

and the boys clustered around the telescope. “See something exciting?”

Isaac took her hand. “You have to see Jupiter’s moons, Paradise! Look.” He dragged her to the telescope, and she peered in.

It took a moment to adjust to what she was seeing. A bright star with four pinpricks of light, one on the top left and three

trailing off the bottom right, came into focus. “Wow, you’re right.”

“Can we show her Polaris?” Levi asked. “It’s my favorite.”

“Sure.” Blake moved the telescope to accommodate his brother. “Have a peek.”

She peered into the eyepiece again. “It’s so bright through the telescope.”

“That’s the North Star. It’s like the Bible of the sky. It helps sailors navigate,” Isaac said. “Just like the Bible helps

us navigate life.”

The total trust in his voice struck her, and she took another peek at the bright star. Until now she hadn’t been navigating her life by any sort of standard, yet these boys had been taught so much about faith already. She had a lot to learn.

“Boys, bath time,” Jenna said.

“Oh man,” Levi complained. “Can I see Polaris one more time first?”

“You have two minutes,” his mother said.

Paradise stepped out of the way for him to take another peek. She studied it with bare eyes. “The Big Dipper points right

at it.”

“It makes it easy to find,” Isaac said. “I want to see too.”

Levi stepped out of the way for his brother, and when both boys were finished viewing, they turned to run to the house with

their mother. Their happy voices faded as they went inside, and the chirping of crickets took their place.

“Could you shine the flashlight on your phone this way?” Blake asked. “I’ve been waiting to search the SD card in the telescope.”

“Sure.” She turned on the app and focused the beam on the telescope. “It takes pictures?”

“Yeah, and I wondered if Hank could have caught anything suspicious on it. He sometimes used the telescope to snap pictures

of the animals out in their enclosures and the buildings in the distance. It’s a long shot, but I have to check. I didn’t

want the boys here when I did it in case there was something problematic to see.”

She watched him fiddle with the compartment and pop out a micro SD card. “I’ll grab my laptop and card-reader adapter.” She

rushed inside and retrieved the equipment, then hurried back where she found Blake waiting at the table.

He took the laptop and slipped the card into the adapter, then opened the files. “There are twenty-one pictures.”

The screen changed to pictures of the night sky, and he flipped through sixteen of them. The seventeenth photo was of tigers prowling the enclosure, and Paradise’s pulse blipped. Blake studied it before moving to the next one, hyenas staring at the fence.

He studied it. “Nothing out of place there. I think he was taking pictures for social media.”

The screen changed to the barn where he’d died, and she leaned forward to study it with him. “Is that someone in the shadows?”

She pointed out a dark blob on the west side of the barn.

“It might be.” Blake enlarged the picture. “I think it is. The person is short. See what appears to be the head and its relationship

to the light switch on the barn wall?”

“Maybe it’s a woman?” They had ten female employees. “Check the next photos. There should be two more.”

He advanced to the next picture, which showed the same scene as the prior one. “The figure is still there.”

In the last photo the figure was illuminated by the overhead light. “That’s Lacey,” Paradise said.

“She often wanders around at night.”

Was that all it was? Paradise had her doubts.