Shallow Grave. Karen Harper

      “It was real bad,” Duncan added. “Like someone getting beat up and real hurt.”

      “Okay, that’s all true,” Claire put in, feeling it wouldn’t take much for this to “go over Niagara” as her father used to say. “Remember that Brittany, the tiger talker, told us that tigers are wild animals. When they live in the wild, they have to kill to get meat to eat.”

      Nick nodded in encouragement, and Darcy bit her lower lip. Claire still didn’t know how she would have survived her own childhood without her younger sister, when their father took off for parts unknown and their mother became such a recluse, escaping reality through books. Sad that the two men Claire had cared for had father issues too. And what was the truth about Ben Hoffman’s relationship to his daughter and son—even to Jace?

      “Well, Mr. Hoffman, Brittany’s father,” Claire went on, struggling for words, “the man we met in the parking lot, made a mistake when he went to feed the tiger its meat. Somehow he didn’t know Tiberia was in its cage and he walked inside, and the animal thought it was still in the wild, and he hurt Mr. Hoffman. Sadly, he died.”

      Drew asked, “You mean the tiger or Mr. Hoffman?”

      “It was a terrible accident, but Mr. Hoffman died.”

      Lexi said, “Then isn’t the tiger a murderer, not just a hungry big cat?”

      Claire tried to keep her voice steady. “But you know that’s how animals are. They aren’t like people, who decide whether they will hurt or kill someone. Animals don’t know right from wrong like people do.”

      “Bronco sometimes kills gators and those big snakes that are out in the Glades,” Lexi said. “Is he a murderer? And do you mean that Tiberia ate Mr. Hoffman—like—like—for dinner?”

      “My dad hurt and killed someone,” Duncan said, “and that’s why he ran away, but the tiger’s in a cage and can’t go anywhere.”

      Questions, protests followed, some rational, some off the wall. Lexi and Jilly cried. Claire and Nick, Darcy too, tried to calmly, carefully explain animal instinct and carnivorous vs. herbivorous to the children. Though she’d thought she could handle this, Claire scolded herself. She could have done better actually testifying before a hostile lawyer in court right now.

      Besides, in the middle of this terrible day, Claire remembered that last week she and Nick had invited their friends and South Shore team members Heck and Gina, Bronco and Nita for dinner in—she glanced at her watch—three hours. At least the women were bringing dishes to go with salmon steaks on the grill. She bet, with all this going on, Nick had forgotten too.

      But despite it all, she refused to cancel the dinner because it was going to be a big night for Bronco, and he had wanted those closest to him there. He was planning to announce his engagement to Nita after he proposed to her out by their pool, under the gazebo he had built for them. No going back to reschedule, since Bronco had picked this date because it was also Nita’s birthday and, he’d said, there would be a full moon tonight.

      Full moon. Perfect! Wasn’t that when people supposedly went crazy?

       5

      “Welcome,” Claire told Bronco and Nita as they came in the front door. “So glad to see you under much better circumstances.”

      Bronco nodded. Nita carried a basket with a salad. Little did she know that she’d be going home this evening with a diamond ring. Surely she’d accept Bronco’s proposal. All they needed was more upheaval of any kind today.

      Bronco and Nita had fallen in love when they’d first worked for Claire and Nick. They had known Bronco longer, ever since the first South Shores “murdercide” case they had worked together. They had hired Nita as Lexi’s nanny when their family was endangered, so they had been blessed to have both Bronco and Nita as aides and friends.

      Bronco was a big, burly guy with the proverbial heart of gold, one who used to make his living hunting gators and the huge constrictor snakes that bred in the depths of the Everglades and, like other animals, were encroaching on civilization. Nita was a young widow, a pretty Hispanic woman who was cousin to another of Nick’s employees, his tech guru Hector Munoz, called Heck, who was just getting out of his car in the driveway with his girlfriend, Gina.

      Bronco was telling them, “Nita said we should cancel since we all been through too much today—’course, next to the Hoffman family, it’s nothing. But it’s her birthday, and we can be happy as well as sad.”

      Nick took Nita’s basket while Claire and Nita hugged. “I agree,” Claire told them. “I think friends need each other at times like these.”

      Bronco looked so nervous. She hoped that was from planning to propose, not from the terror earlier today. Much too up close and personal, she’d seen Bronco snap under pressure once, and she didn’t wish that on Nita or herself again.

      Nick took their guests to the great room, where Claire had laid out appetizers and wine on the big glass coffee table surrounded by the grouping of leather sofas. Lexi was still up, but she’d agreed Nita could put her to bed tonight, “just like the old days,” as if the almost-five-year-old were ancient.

      Claire held the door open as Gina and Heck came in, Gina with the coconut cake she’d made for Nita’s birthday. More greetings and hugs all around. Both Heck and Gina were of Cuban heritage and looked great together, though Heck had been in the States much longer. Sadly, he was more in love with Gina than she was with him, but Claire prayed things would work out for them.

      They didn’t know about Bronco’s surprise for Nita tonight, so maybe that would spur on Heck and Gina, Claire thought, though Gina was starting med school in Miami in January. Both Nick and Heck were helping to finance that. Gina was living with a friend of theirs who had recently moved to South Florida from Michigan, Liz Collister, and Liz’s elderly father who had Alzheimer’s. Gina helped to tend him in exchange for living there until she left for med school.

      Claire kept an eye on her baking scalloped potatoes, which Lexi had helped her fix after they both took a nap earlier. It hadn’t really refreshed Claire because she kept seeing the cage, the tiger—all that blood. So how must it be for poor Brittany? At least, like she had Darcy, Brittany would have her brother’s support soon.

      Claire steadied herself with her hands on the granite counter of the kitchen island before joining the others just in time to kiss Lexi good-night as she disappeared with Nita down the hall to get tucked in—after being promised that they’d save a big piece of birthday cake for her.

      Claire sat on the sofa next to Nick and picked up a glass of sparkling water, forgoing the wine.

      “Bad day to have someone lose his life when I’m just starting a new one,” Bronco said, digging into the taco chips and spinach dip. Although Nita had left the room, he kept his voice low.

      Gina, bright as ever, tossing her long, black hair, picked up on that. “Are you two going to make a big announcement?” she asked, lifting her wineglass as if in a toast.

      “Hope so, but don’t you let on,” Bronco warned. “Got the ring here,” he said, patting his jacket pocket. “After dinner. In the gazebo.”

      “She’ll say yes,” Gina said. “You’re her perfect catch.”

      Heck said, “Like a fish or one of those denizens of the Glades he catches?”

      Before Heck could make things more tense as he always seemed to lately, Claire put in, “Like a good man is hard to find, and Bronco’s a good find.”

      “Sure. That’s what I meant, right, boss?” Heck asked Nick. “So you gonna end up taking this BAA case, if it comes to charges?”

      “I don’t think it will, not serious ones anyway. I was just on scene—sadly—so I wanted to help out if I could. I can’t imagine a case