Page 12 of Maverick Detective Dad
Something that probably would never happen.
Because whenever Everly was around him, her thoughts probably went in a whole different direction. For her, he was a reminder of that night when they’d accidentally killed a woman.
“River has a record for assault,” Noah went on, forcing his attention back on the work. “It happened during a heated argument at a party.”
Which didn’t necessarily prove the man had a violent streak. It could have been a one-time deal, maybe an argument that had gotten out of hand. Still, the assault charge didn’t play in his favor.
Noah sent the files about River to his own computer, and he’d pore over them later. For now, he did a search on Daisy Reyes, and the moment her background info came up, he spotted something. And he groaned.
“Daisy Reyes is the daughter of the woman killed in the bar fight by Delbert Washington,” Noah relayed to Everly.
That got her more than just glancing at him. She stood and looked at the screen. “Mercy, that’s not a good connection.”
No, it wasn’t, and of course, it made Daisy their new person of interest. She could have killed Delbert out of revenge for her mother’s death and then continued her vigilante cause. Or she could even be using the other murders to cover her tracks.
“I need to get my hands on records for Delbert’s murder,” Noah muttered, already emailing Houston PD to request the files.
Hoping that it would cause someone there to put a rush on it, he added that it was pertinent to his current murder investigation. Since Delbert’s case was still unsolved, maybe it wouldn’t take too long for the request to go through. If he didn’t have the files though by midafternoon, Noah would have his lieutenant make a call to speed things up. The sooner he had info, the sooner he could do something to stop another murder.
“Here’s something interesting on one of River’s social media rants,” Everly said. “Megan Ritter commented on it.” Everly gave Noah another glance, and there was fresh concern in her eyes. “A post about the corruption in the courts, and Megan said, and I quote—‘The courts are filled with people who don’t give a damn. They don’t care who gets hurt. Something has to be done to stop the injustice.’”
Noah definitely didn’t like the tone of that. It was possible that Megan was just trying to be supportive of River, but thatsomething has to be donecould mean she’d taken matters into her own hands.
“You’re positive Megan’s alibi is airtight?” Everly asked, obviously considering exactly what he had.
Noah nodded. “She was at the movies in San Antonio with a group of friends. Security cameras confirm it. And there isn’t anything to indicate that Megan hired anyone to do the job.” He stopped, shook his head. “Of course, she could be working with River or someone else.”
Everly made a sound to indicate she was giving that some thought. “Could one person have done the murders and moved the bodies? I mean, were there drag marks or something to indicate someone could have done it alone?”
“No drag marks on Jill, and if there’d been any on this latest victim, Grayson would have mentioned it. I’ll check on Winona and Delbert to see if there were any. But to answer your question, yes, it’s possible one person could have done this if they were strong enough to lift or had some way of moving an unconscious person. The drug the killer used on Jill would have incapacitated her within minutes.”
“Minutes,” Everly repeated in a mutter, and she shuddered. She was no doubt imagining just how it’d all gone down. “I have to protect Ainsley,” she added, and even though her voice was mostly breath and little sound, Noah heard her. He felt the sickening dread from her fear.
“And you will. We will,” he added.
She looked at him. “By going to the Silver Creek Ranch.” She paused, gathered her breath. “Ironically, I have good memories of that place. I certainly went there enough when we were in high school. But the good memories could possibly trigger the bad ones. It took me five years of therapy just to be able to cope with the bad ones. And sometimes, the coping doesn’t work. Sometimes, it all comes back.”
Yeah. It was the same for him. He’d had the therapy, too, because his mom had insisted, and it’d helped. But nothing washed away the bone-deep guilt. Nothing. Guilt that had to be even worse for Everly.
He’d known about her therapy, but what she’d just left out was that she’d had a mental breakdown as well. That’d happened shortly after the accident, and her doctor had sent her to stay at a mental health hospital in San Antonio. Since Noah hadn’t had any contact with her when she’d been there, he didn’t know how it’d gone. Well enough for her to get out, eventually. However, she hadn’t returned to high school but had instead finished her courses online.
Noah heard the footsteps heading toward the office, and he automatically got to his feet, going into defensive mode. No threat though. It was Deputy Ava Lawson. Before becoming a Silver Creek deputy, she’d been a cop at San Antonio PD so Noah knew her. Knew, too, that she was darn good at her job.
“I thought I heard Grayson say this was your day off,” Noah said to her.
Ava nodded. “Noah, Everly,” she greeted. “But I spoke with Grayson, and he filled me in on what’s going on. If you’re ready to go to the day care and then the ranch, I can follow you as backup.”
“Yes, please.” Everly got to her feet, too. “I really need to see my daughter.”
Ava made a sound to indicate she understood that. “Grayson suggested Noah and you use one of the cruisers.” She handed Noah the keys. “There’s one parked just out back.”
Good idea about the cruiser, but Noah immediately thought of something. “When we pick up Ainsley, we’ll need a child’s car seat.”
“Grayson already thought of that, and on the way over here, I called the daycare, and Sara said she could lend you one.”
That was good, too, because it meant they wouldn’t have to go back to Everly’s to get hers from her vehicle.
Noah saved the searches they’d already started, and he shut down his laptop and gave it to Everly. She didn’t ask why he’d done that because she no doubt knew he’d want to keep his hands free in case he had to draw his weapon. He prayed it didn’t come down to that, but it was best not to take the risk.
