Amos immediately nodded, but Pauline bit her lip, looking upset. “I don’ understand. You don’ suspect Charisse of any wrongdoin’, do you?”

“I don’t want news of this to get out during an investigation of a serial killer. We’ve got to be careful. I don’t want to put Charisse or anyone else in danger by shining a spotlight on them.” Drake chose his words carefully.

Saria glanced at him sharply as if she might protest, but subsided when he lifted his hand in a subtle gesture to stop her. She pressed her lips together and swallowed as if choking on her obvious need to defend Charisse. She knew he hadn’t exactly answered Pauline and truthfully, he couldn’t answer her, not right at that moment.

Pauline seemed to accept his explanation at face value. “Okay. I won’ say anything, but Drake, you get to the bottom of this fast.”

“Yes, ma’ am,” he agreed.

“I’m goin’ up to see the damage in Saria’s room. Do you really think whoever was here is the serial killer?” Pauline asked.

“Yes,” Drake said. It was the stark, raw truth. He knew the killer had been in the house—that he’d come for Saria. The evidence in the room showed rage—a very personal rage. The killer knew Saria, or at least he fantasized that he knew Saria. Whatever the circumstances, her being with Drake was some kind of betrayal in the killer’s mind.

“I’d rather not go back up there if you don’ mind,” Saria said.

“Drake can come with me,” Pauline decreed. “Amos, you stay here. Your ribs are cracked and climbin’ all those stairs won’ be good for you.”

“Joshua, Jerico, stay with Saria,” Drake ordered.

Her eyes glittered at him a little dangerously, but she didn’t argue, which was good, because as far as he was concerned, she was getting protection. He wanted to warn her brothers as well. If the killer planned on making this personal, anyone she loved could be at risk.

Pauline led the way up the sweeping staircase, stopping at the top in the circular library to turn back toward him. She rested one hand on the stone fireplace and looked him in the eye. He waited, knowing she’d maneuvered the situation to get him alone.

“Do you think this man came here to kill Saria?”

Her stare was direct and for the first time, Drake could see the leopard in her. She was as fiercely protective of her chosen daughter as any birth mother could possibly 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.