Page 20 of Maverick Detective Dad
Everly did as he asked, and once they reached the doorway of the house, Noah moved in front of her until he had a good visual of River. The man was sitting in a recliner. When Noah didn’t spot any weapons, he got Everly inside and shut the door.
“I tried to call Daisy about getting that membership list,” River said, eating from a bag of microwave popcorn, “but she didn’t return my call. Anyone else get it for you yet?”
Noah shook his head. “No, but I have a few names. Who’s Bobby?”
“The red card guy,” River said without hesitating. “I don’t know. And FYI, I don’t trust him.”
“Why?” Noah immediately asked.
River lifted his shoulder. “The guy just sits there and listens. Hell, he might not even need to seek any peace. Some people get off on that, listening to other people’s grief and stories about their misery.”
“You really think that’s what he’s doing?” Noah pressed.
Another shrug from River. “He could be, and now that somebody killed Megan’s scumbag mother, I guess you’re thinking it could be him.”
“Or someone else in the group.” Noah paused, his stare drilling into River.
River finally cursed. “You think I killed somebody?” But the man didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, I didn’t.”
“We’ve read your social media posts,” Noah spelled out for him. “You’re pretty angry about what your mother did.”
“Damn right I’m angry. No justice. But that doesn’t mean I’d turn killer.” He spat out more profanity and looked at Everly. “What about you, Miss Lawyer From Silver Creek? Do you believe I killed someone?”
She didn’t jump to answer, and she met River’s intense stare. “I don’t know, but we need to stop anyone else from dying. That’s why the membership list is so important. Who else is in the group?”
River sank back against the recliner and sighed. “Jared Jackman. The only reason I remember his last name is because in one of the lighter moments in the group, he joked about not being related to Hugh Jackman. He’s all right, I guess. No red card, anyway. He’s there because some careless driver put him in a wheelchair. If you think I’ve got anger issues, mine are a molehill compared to his mountain of them.”
“Oh?” Everly said, and it was obviously enough to prompt River into continuing.
“Yeah, big-time anger issues. Now, that’s a guy who could kill. I mean, if he wasn’t in a wheelchair and all.”
Noah had picked up on that vibe, too, and Jared had been the one who’d pointed the finger at River. He made a mental note to dig deep into Jared’s financials to see if he had the resources to hire a killer. Noah would do the same for River, though if the man had money, he obviously wasn’t using it to make improvements to the ranch.
“That said,” River went on, “if Jared had killed that woman who put him in the chair, then she would have deserved it. I mean, she ended his life, and there’s that whole eye-for-an-eye deal.”
“Does that mean you would have killed your mother had you gotten the chance?” Noah asked.
That earned him an eye roll and a huff from River. “No.”
Noah continued to stare at him, hoping he was making the man nervous enough to spill something he’d rather not spill. “Tell me where you were early yesterday morning,” Noah insisted.
“Here,” River supplied. “And no, I can’t prove that.”
“Did you do some work? Because if so, maybe the work file will give me the time you accessed it.”
River’s mouth went into a flat line. “I didn’t work. I’m not exactly a morning person so I usually don’t start until around lunch. I keep at it until about dinner time.”
Well, that definitely wouldn’t give him an alibi for the time of Daisy’s murder or for the boxes left for Everly and him.
Noah threw out another date and estimated time. This one for Jill’s murder. “What about then? Where were you?”
River’s stare became as flat as his mouth. “I was here. Look, before you rattle off more dates and accusations, the only place I usually go is to the Peace Seekers meetings. I hit the grocery store on my way back from those, and sometimes I hang out with friends at a bar in town.”
The man paused, leaned forward. “Has it occurred to you that the real killer knows I wouldn’t have alibis and is trying to set me up?” River didn’t wait for an answer. “Who in the group told you about me? Who gave you my name to put you on my trail?”
Noah had no intentions of divulging that, but it was possible River might be able to figure it out, and Noah made a mental note to contact Jared and ask if he wanted police protection.
“I’m collecting information from a lot of sources,” Noah settled for saying. “Not just the Peace Seekers. You’ve made a lot of angry posts on social media, and according to what you just said, you don’t have alibis.”
