“This would have taken minutes,” Drake said. “An angry leopard can da tremendous amount of damage in a confined space in seconds. He was in and out of here right under our noses. There was only one guard awake at a time and this is a big property to patrol.”

Pauline closed the door and leaned against it. “Saria is an unusual girl. She didn’ have a mother and barely had a father. Her brothers were consumed with grief and far older, leavin’ the house to get away from all the death there. Saria took care of her father. It wasn’ all bad. He took her into the swamp, huntin’ and fishin’, treatin’ her like a son. I was never sure he noticed she was a girl. She just took over runnin’ things while he drank himself to death. She would come here, this little girl with a mop of blonde hair and eyes too big for her face. I never had children and she wormed her way into my heart.”

Pauline looked at his face and read his reaction. He couldn’t help it. Saria should have been looked after as a child—cherished, not left to take care of a drunken parent.

“Saria knew no other way of life. I tried to get her father to let me take her—and he agreed—but she refused to go. Every night she went out the window and went back to her house. I gave up. Maybe it was wrong of me, but there is no arguin’ with Saria. She doesn’t argue, she’s stays quiet, says no once, and then does what she wants. She was determined to take care of her father and she did.”

“Saria deserved a childhood.”

“She had one, Drake, just not one the world would approve of. She went everywhere with her father as a toddler, and young child. She learned to shoot so she could help him hunt alligators. She knows how to track game, trap, fish and hunt. She can take care of herself and for all his failin’s, LeRoy gave her that. She’s a strong woman and when the boys came back and actually noticed they had a younger siblin’, it was too late to take control of her. She did what she always did, she goes her own way quietly. There’s no drama with Saria and she’s as honest as day. The only thing I can take credit for is convincin’ her that school was important.”

Drake smiled at her. “I doubt that was the only thing you did for her. It’s obvious you’re her mother, Pauline. She loves you with everything in her.”

Pauline’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Why would this killer single her out?”