Page 13 of Maverick Detective Dad
They hadn’t even made it out of the office when his phone rang, and he saw Grayson’s name flash on the screen. Hell. Noah hoped this wasn’t another round of bad news.
“What happened?” Noah asked the moment he answered.
“We got a quick hit on the fingerprints of our latest victim so we were able to ID her,” Grayson replied just as fast. But then he paused. Sighed. “Daisy Reyes, the counselor at Peace Seekers, is the dead woman.”
Chapter Five
Daisy Reyes.
Even though Everly had never met the woman, she had seen the DMV photo of her that Noah had pulled up after Grayson had given them the news.
That Daisy was apparently the latest victim of the vigilante killer.
Everly hadn’t seen any pictures from the crime scene, thank goodness, but her imagination was working too well today, and she had no trouble conjuring up the images of the woman lying dead in her backyard. A location where the killer had no doubt placed her as a way to torment Noah and her.
It was working.
It was hard to think of anything else but the danger that could be heading straight at them.
Ainsley giggled at something she saw in the little book she was “reading,” and Everly tried to latch on to the joyful sound of her daughter’s laughter. Tried to let it anchor her. That and the fact that Ainsley didn’t seem to be afraid or worried that she was in her car seat in the back of a Silver Creek cruiser while Noah drove them to the Ryland ranch.
As promised, Deputy Ava Lawson was behind them in a second cruiser, and she was no doubt keeping watch just as Noah and Everly were doing, but they were on an extremely curvy country road where someone could lie in wait for them.
In the front seat and behind the wheel, Noah continued to make brief eye contact with her in the rearview mirror while he took a call from San Antonio detective Jake O’Malley. Everly didn’t know the cop, but before they’d left the Silver Creek Sheriff’s Office, Noah had called O’Malley and had asked him to run a thorough background on Daisy and the Peace Seekers support group.
“I’ve got that info you wanted on Daisy Reyes.” O’Malley started the moment Noah took the call. Because he’d used the hands-free, the cop’s voice poured through the cruiser.
“Good but keep it G-rated,” Noah advised him. “I have passengers in the cruiser.”
“Will do,” O’Malley answered as if that were no big deal. “Daisy Reyes was thirty-two. Never married, no kids. She got her master’s in clinical psychology from Baylor and at the time of her death was working for a domestic abuse shelter. She ran Peace Seekers on her own time.”
“Did anyone at her work realize she was missing?” Noah asked.
“No. She had three days off and wasn’t due into work until tomorrow. From what I can tell, she didn’t have close friends outside work.”
So, that would explain why no one reported her missing. Then again, maybe the killer hadn’t had her that long.
“Her father’s unknown,” O’Malley went on, “and as you mentioned, eleven years ago her mother was killed in a bar fight by Delbert Washington who’s now deceased. Delbert was charged with negligent homicide, but he worked out a plea deal to get probation and community service.”
It was ironic that Delbert’s sentence of no jail time had likely been what had led to his murder. Had he served time, he might still be alive.
And that only brought back more bad memories of the car crash.
No jail time for her was the reason both Noah and she were now on this killer’s radar.
“You asked me to look for any instances when Daisy was arrested or under investigation, and I found nothing,” O’Malley continued, drawing Everly’s attention back to the conversation. “Either we’re dealing with a copycat, or else there’s another reason this vigilante did this to her.”
Everly was going with option number two.
“What about a list of members of the Peace Seekers?” Noah pressed. “Anything on that?”
“No,” the other cop readily admitted. “I’m working on it, but it’ll be harder to find that now that Daisy’s been murdered. She might be the only person who knew all the members.”
Noah sighed. “Yeah, and that might have been the motive for why she became a victim. I’ve already spoken to one member, Jared Jackman, and I plan on speaking to another, River Parnell. According to Jared, there’s a guy named Bobby in the group so if you see that or any of its variations pop up, let me know.”
“Will do,” O’Malley assured him.
When Noah ended the call, he glanced at her in the mirror again. No doubt to see how she was handling all of this. She wasn’t handling it well.
