Page 44 of Maverick Detective Dad
“This could have happened?” Noah asked Grayson, and he saw that his uncle was reading over the death certificate for the woman they’d thought had been killed.
“Yeah, it could have happened,” Grayson verified. “I believe she is Helen Fleming.”
Even though Noah had already come to the same conclusion, it still felt like a hard punch to the gut, and he had no doubts that Everly was feeling the same thing. She took hold of his left arm, leaning into him, probably because it felt as if her legs were ready to give way.
Grayson took his attention off his phone and put it back on Helen. “Why are you here?”
Good question, and Noah didn’t think it was because she’d finally wanted to clear her conscience and give Everly and him some peace.
“I heard about the murders,” she murmured and then dragged in a long breath. “It’s all over the news, and when I saw that Everly and Noah had been nearly killed in an explosion, I thought that maybe what was happening was connected to me, to the car crash.”
“Is it?” Everly demanded.
“Maybe,” she admitted, but her expression said it was a lot more than just a maybe. “I found Bobby’s address, and I went to his place first, but he wasn’t home so I called him. He’d put his number on one of his social media pages.”
Everly made a soft sound of surprise. “Bobby knows you’re alive?”
She nodded, and a fresh wave of weariness spread over her face. “He didn’t believe me at first, but when I gave him personal details of our lives that only I would have known, he realized I was telling the truth.” She paused. “He didn’t take the news well. He was upset. Rightfully so,” she quickly added.
“Rightfully so,” Noah spat out.
Part of him knew he should have some sympathy for this woman who’d endured the abuse at the hands of her husband. But another part of him wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive her for what she’d done. Bobby likely felt the same way.
And that led Noah to another thought.
If Bobby was the vigilante, how was he reacting to the news that hisbelovedstepmother was actually alive? Would he stop killing now that his motive for going after Everly and him was gone?
Maybe.
Or maybe this would just enrage him so much that he’d start a killing spree that would include this woman who’d let him grieve and suffer all these years.
“How long has Bobby known the truth?” Noah pressed.
“Only a couple of hours. I told Bobby I was going to come clean with Everly and you,” Helen went on. “Since Isaac’s in jail and can’t hurt me, I intend to come clean with everyone. No more hiding.”
Noah nearly blurted out that her confession fell into the too little, too late category, but that would just be the anger talking. It was possible that once all of this sank in and they had the killer behind bars, that Everly and he might be able to find the peace that they hadn’t had since that night when they’d thought they had ended a life. They might finally be able...
Noah stopped and let that play out in his mind. Without the strangling guilt, they might finally be able to look at each other the way they once had. He had to push that aside though. Couldn’t let himself dwell on that. Yes, the guilt might be gone, but there was still a killer at large.
“How did you know Everly and I would be here?” Noah asked, going back into the cop mode.
“Oh,” Helen muttered, and she paused before shifting to the change in subject. “I stopped for gas just at the edge of town, and the clerk mentioned there’d been some trouble, that Everly had been hurt.”
It didn’t surprise him that there was already talk about the latest attack. Things like that didn’t stay secret for long, which was the very reason Everly had been so anxious to get out of here. Of course, she’d been willing to do that so she’d be bait, but that was something he’d need to talk to her about after he had finished this conversation with Helen.
“I decided to come to the hospital first and check,” Helen went on. “If you hadn’t been here, then I planned on going to the police station.” She glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the ER doors. “The storm’s getting worse, and I wasn’t sure I could make it out to the Ryland ranch. And I didn’t have Everly’s address.”
Noah searched the woman’s eyes and expression to see if all of that rang true. It did. That didn’t mean, though, he was simply going to trust her. He seriously doubted she was responsible for the murders and attacks, but since they were almost certainly linked to the car crash fourteen years ago, then it meant the killer likely had a connection to her. Just as that last thought crossed his mind, proof of his theory came hurrying in through the ER doors.
Bobby.
Unlike Helen, the man didn’t have a raincoat or umbrella, and he was soaked, his clothes clinging to him. One look at him, and Noah saw the anger that’d tightened his face.
“Don’t come any closer,” Noah warned him, and even though he didn’t take aim at Bobby, the man stopped. Good thing, too, since the small Silver Creek hospital didn’t have metal detectors, and Noah had no idea if the man was armed.
Noah hurried to Bobby who lifted his hands in the air, and Noah frisked him. No weapon. Well, no actual one anyway, but Bobby was sporting a lethal glare. Not aimed at Everly and him. No. This glare was for Helen.
Tears sprang to the woman’s eyes, and she angled herself so she could face him. “Bobby, I’m so sorry—”
