Leopard 05 - Savage Nature

be. She might not be able to shift, but her leopard was strong.
    “Yes I do,” he said, respecting her with the truth.
    It wasn’t what she wanted to hear and he could see her take the blow, but she took a breath and nodded, still studying his face.
    “You look at her the way my Amos always has looked at me. You won’ let anything happen to her.” She made it a statement.
    “No, ma’am, I won’t.”
    She stared at his face for a few more long moments and then, apparently satisfied, she led the way to Saria’s room. “She’s a good girl, you know. Smart and funny and filled with courage. She won’ ever be happy away from her swamp for too long. It’s always been her refuge.”
    “Tell me why her family didn’t pay attention to her.”
    “You mean Remy and the boys? Saria was a mixed blessin’ for her parents. They had five sons and then Aimee got sick. Her health had never been good, you understand, but LeRoy he wanted lots of children. He was very old school, a very hard man. Don’ get me wrong, he loved his wife and his children, but he ruled and he just never saw that Aimee was weak. She became pregnant with Saria and she just sort of slipped away. She retreated from reality. The boys knew and loved her and it was a tryin’ time for them, losin’ her that way. She stopped talkin’ and just took to her bed.”
    “Saria’s father didn’t mistreat his wife?”
    Pauline shook her head, one hand on the doorknob to the room. “No, he wasn’ like that at all. Stern, but he would never have laid a hand on Aimee, he adored her. When she died, he took to drink. He withdrew just as Aimee did. In a different way, but he was determined to drink himself to death and he did.”
    Pauline pushed open the door and stepped back, one hand to her throat, staring at the damage. Saria’s clothing was in shreds, much like his had been the first night he’d arrived. There was no doubt a leopard had been in the room and had thrown a temper tantrum.
    “How could he do so much damage and no one hear him?”
    “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?”
    “I have no