Page 11 of Maverick Detective Dad
After hearing Jared’s account and concerns, Grayson muttered some profanity that let Noah know his uncle had had no trouble following that theory straight to Everly and him. Considering both of them had gotten boxes, they were now the killer’s targets.
“Let me know if there’s any way I can help,” Grayson added. “How’s Everly?”
She evidently heard Grayson’s question because she looked at Noah the same moment he looked at her. Their gazes connected. Held. And he saw exactly what he expected to see. The tornado of emotions barreling through her.
“Everly will probably feel better once she can see Ainsley,” Noah decided on saying.
“Hold off on that a little while longer,” Grayson advised. “I don’t have the manpower right now to give you a backup escort, and I’d rather the two of you not be out alone on the road.”
Neither would Noah. Even though the day care wasn’t far, the killer could no doubt figure they’d be headed there and could lie in wait. No one wanted bullets flying or an attack happening near all those kids.
“Once I’m back in the office, that’ll free up Theo to drive with you first to the day care and then to...” Grayson stopped, muttered more profanity. “I’m guessing your house on the ranch. Yeah, I know Everly won’t like that, but the CSIs aren’t going to be finished with her place today.”
Everly’s mouth tightened, confirming that no, she wouldn’t like going to the ranch, but Noah would have to convince her that was the safe thing to do. He didn’t want Everly out of his sight, and if they were at the ranch, he’d have plenty of backup between his family and the ranch hands.
Noah ended the call with Grayson and turned to Everly. He was fully prepared to launch into an argument as to why Ainsley and she needed to stay with him. But she spoke before he could say anything.
“It’ll be just for the night,” Everly muttered. “Just until I can make other arrangements.”
He’d take that. For now. But Noah didn’t intend to back down when it came to keeping her in his sights.
Before he dived into the missing persons reports and the other background checks he needed to do, Noah sent a text to his mom, Darcy, who was also a retired district attorney, and he asked her to get someone to set up a temporary nursery at his house. She didn’t question him as to why he needed that. Probably because his dad, Nate, had already gotten updates from the CSIs or even Grayson. Added to that, getting nursery items wouldn’t be a problem since many of his cousins had young children.
His mother merely responded,It’ll be ready. Stay safe.
With that done, he shifted his attention back to Everly. Since he could practically see the nerves firing off her, he decided to give her something else to focus on. After all, there was work that needed to be done, and it might be hours before they could go pick up Ainsley.
“I’m going to set up a search in the missing persons database,” Noah let her know, “but why don’t you use Grayson’s personal computer to get started on the background checks for River Parnell and Daisy Reyes?”
He motioned to the laptop on the small table behind Grayson’s desk. Unfortunately, Noah couldn’t allow her to tap into official records and such, but he figured Everly had plenty of resources to help. Then, he could fill in the rest.
Everly nodded, and without hesitating, she went straight to the laptop. He’d been right about the work settling her. Well, as much as that was possible under the circumstances. She immediately sat down, opened the laptop and started typing.
Noah did the same, but he frowned when he put in the dead woman’s description and came up with a goose egg. No missing persons reports filed for anyone like that in the past week. So, he broadened the search, going back a month. Still nothing. And that meant it was possible that no one had realized the woman was missing. Or maybe no one cared that she was gone. Jill’s body hadn’t been found for days, and yet there hadn’t been a missing persons report on her either.
Noah tried to push aside the image of Jill’s body. Tried also not to think that the killer wanted to do that to Everly. But Everly and he had an advantage that the other victims likely hadn’t had. They knew someone wanted them dead. That meant they could take steps to make sure it didn’t happen. Necessary steps. Because Noah didn’t want anyone dying because of a vigilante killer who thought this was the way to get justice.
“I have some preliminary stuff on River Parnell,” Everly said, snapping his attention back to her. “I have access to several PI databases, and I used those to learn that he’s twenty-five and is employed by Images, a PR company that builds and hosts websites for businesses. He does indeed live on his late grandfather’s ranch near Bulverde and works remotely from there.”
That was a lot of info for only a couple of minutes of searching, and Noah latched on to the Bulverde location. That was only about a twenty minute drive from Silver Creek. Hell. If this was their man, the vigilante, then he was damn close.
“River obviously loves social media and posting on blogs on the internet,” Everly went on. “I did a Google search, and I’m pulling up some of the pages now.” She stopped and read whatever it was she’d found. “It’s a rant about the corrupt criminal justice system.” She putcorruptin air quotes.
Noah set his missing persons search on auto and went to stand by her so he could see the next page she’d found. Another blog, and River had left another rant about his mother getting awayscot-freewith murdering his father.
Since Noah wanted to see if that was anywhere near the truth, he used Grayson’s desktop computer to search for details about the case. He got an instant hit.
“‘Six years ago when River was at college in Austin,’” Noah read out to Everly, “‘his father, Vance, did indeed die from a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. His blood alcohol level was five times the limit at the time of his death.’”
Everly looked back at him and lifted her eyebrow. “Did River’s mother actually kill him?”
“She’s the one who pulled the trigger all right.” Noah kept reading. “‘During the investigation, River’s mother, Jackie, claimed she’d thought her estranged husband was an intruder and that he hadn’t responded when she’d called out to see who’d broken down her door. So, she ended up shooting him, saying that she had been afraid for her life.’”
Everly sighed. “Yes, I can see where River might have thought it was murder. And it might have been. Estranged?” she repeated. “I’m guessing they were going through a messy divorce?”
“Definitely. Friends and neighbors verified that. Verified, too, that Vance was prone to drinking, and that Jackie was prone to cheating. They had a history of breaking up and making up.”
He’d thrown that out almost casually, but after hearing his words, Noah thought of Everly and him. It didn’t apply. They had no such history. But they had indeed broken up, and every time he was around her, like now, his body wouldn’t let him forget that he was very much open to the making-up part.
