Page 26 of Maverick Detective Dad
Grayson’s phone rang, and Everly saw Theo’s name pop up on the dash. Theo had stayed behind to assist the Bulverde cops so maybe they had found something to help with the investigation. There wasn’t much left of the box, but the photos were intact. She seriously doubted the killer would have been careless enough to leave his prints on them, but he might have left something of himself behind.
“You’re on Speaker,” Grayson immediately informed Theo.
“Just wanted you to know that the bomb squad arrived shortly after you left, and they’re doing a search now to see if there are any other devices. They’ll send the pieces of the device that were in the box to the lab. They could get a signature from it.”
A signature could maybe help identify who’d made the explosive. Even if that wasn’t the killer himself, it might lead to him.
“CSIs are here, too,” Theo went on, “and the road is closed so as to not compromise any possible evidence. They spotted footprint impressions in the grass leading to the spot where the photos were left. Not the prints any of us left. These were farther to the side of where we’d hunkered down. Unfortunately, they aren’t actual prints, but they can estimate the size of the shoes. They’re estimating a size ten.”
So, they had likely been made by a man. That would help narrow down the membership list to Peace Seekers. If they ever got a list, that is.
“Do they have any idea how the box got in the road?” Noah asked.
“Not yet, but they’ll check for tire tracks. As you well know, the road isn’t wide enough to do a U-turn. He could have parked on a trail, but the box was big.”
“So he likely just stopped on the road, positioned the box and drove a safe distance away,” Noah finished for him.
“Yeah,” Theo agreed. “But he could have used a ranch trail after that so he could watch what was happening.”
Now it was Noah who voiced an agreement. Everly silently echoed one, too. The killer obviously loved to taunt and torment so he wouldn’t have wanted to miss them being killed. He’d probably hoped they’d be close enough to the box to make sure that happened.
“I’ll forward any reports from here as soon as I get them,” Theo added. “You’ll be at the office for a while?”
“A while,” Grayson confirmed. “I’m meeting with the medical examiner in about an hour. He’s already done the autopsy on Daisy Reyes so he might be able to tell us something. After that, I’ll drive Noah and Everly back to the ranch.”
Grayson met her gaze in the rearview mirror, and he seemed to be trying to figure out if she was steady enough to be around her daughter. Everly knew she was nowhere near steady, and Ainsley might indeed pick up on that, but she was hoping to use a little more time to level herself out.
She was certain they all breathed a little easier when they finally arrived at the sheriff’s office. “Use my office,” Grayson immediately told them once they were inside the building. “I can use the break room to make some calls, and then I’ll leave for the appointment with the ME. I can FaceTime that meeting with him if you want to ask him any questions,” he offered.
“Do that,” Noah said, adding a thanks, and he ushered Everly past the deputy on duty and into Grayson’s office.
The moment Noah had her inside the office, he shut the door, and in the same motion he pulled her into his arms. At first, she thought he’d done that because she looked so shaken, but then Everly realized he needed this just as much as she did. A hug like this was a definite risk what with the heat between them. However, with everything they’d just been through, she welcomed it.
“I’m sorry,” Noah muttered, tightening his grip on her for just a couple of seconds before he eased back. He didn’t let go of her but instead looked down at her.
“You don’t owe me an apology,” she assured him. “The plan was my idea.”
“And I agreed to it,” he pointed out just as fast. “I’d thought the killer would want to get close and then I could stop him. This breaks pattern for him.”
It did indeed. Still, if the blast or the collision had killed them, the vigilante probably wouldn’t have minded that he hadn’t personally been able to deliver the fatal blows as he had by slicing into his previous victims.
“The box wasn’t there when we drove to River’s,” she observed. Everly hoped by saying all of this aloud, she’d be better able to work it out in her own mind. “So, River couldn’t have put it there. He could have hired someone to do it though.”
“Absolutely,” Noah agreed. “So far, the killer hasn’t shown that he has any bomb-making skills. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them, but if he had that particular experience, why didn’t he use it before now? It would have been easier to set a car bomb than it would to take the risk of abducting his victims where someone could have seen and reported him.”
True. He could have set a car bomb at night or when the victims’ vehicles weren’t out in plain sight.
“So, he broke pattern with us,” she concluded, “because he likely thought this was the only way he’d be able to get to us. And if the killer is River, he could have not only hired someone to make the bomb but also plant it.”
Noah nodded, and then he stared at her a long time. “It’s too risky for you to be bait,” he finally made clear.
Everly had no trouble figuring out what Noah hadn’t added to that decree. “But it’s not too risky for you to continue to be bait.” She huffed, knowing that’s what he was planning.
He slid his hands up her arms to take hold of her shoulders, and he looked her straight in the eyes. “I have to stop him. Every minute he’s out there means it’s a minute where you’re not safe.”
Everly was on the verge of spelling out to him that he wouldn’t be safe either. Especially if he intentionally put himself in the path of this vicious killer, but Noah lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers. It was only a touch and barely qualified as a kiss, but mercy, it still had a punch to it. Of course it did because after all, this was Noah.
Her body responded. A different kind of adrenaline hit that mixed with the heat. Noah no doubt saw that heat. He must have felt it in his own body as well, and he didn’t step away from it. Instead, he kissed her again. This time, he sank in, pressing his mouth harder against her, causing the heat to continue to build.
