Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“That’s a good point,” Ryan conceded. “Is she doing all that because it’s real to her or because it’s part of the act that will keep her out of prison?”
“Could be either,” Ava said.
“What about the gun?” Daphne asked, switching topics. Ava was right; all they could do was watch Daisy, but the gun might lead them somewhere.
Ava wrinkled her nose. “It hasn’t been on the market that long, but there are still plenty out there. That said, six have been reported stolen in the US since they became available. We’re looking into the circumstances around those.”
“You think it was stolen?” Lovell said.
“It fits the story,” Daphne said. “Two men with shady backgrounds but no real steady income hired to kill a man. They aren’t professional hit men, more like amateurs who were hired for the job. It’s not likely they’d be able to afford that kind of weapon.”
“That was my thinking,” Ava agreed.
“If they are amateurs hired to kill, that makes them professional hit men in my book,” Chief Warwick said. Lovell nodded.
She rolled her eyes. “Both of you are well aware of the difference between a professional assassin and Weeks and Beeks. An assassin would have been in and out before we even had a clue. They’d come in on their own and stay under the radar, not stop at Maggie’s for coffee and a chat about their target. ”
Ava nodded.
“Which also means we can definitively eliminate anyone from your military past,” she continued.
“Were we ever looking into my military past?” Lovell asked.
“I considered it. But only briefly,” Daphne said, shooting Ava a look.
Ava nodded. “We did, too. Always good to keep the field wide until there’s a reason to narrow.”
“You really looked into that, Ava?” he asked.
“I’m surprised you’re surprised,” Daphne said. A green glare slid her way. She rolled her eyes at him. “Not taking that back. Seems shortsighted not to consider it.”
Ava chuckled. “A bit, yes,” she said, responding to Lovell’s question.
“Daisy is the obvious suspect, but wearing blinders can be deadly in our world. You put enough terrible people out of commission while on the teams that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone from those circles decided to even the score.
But I agree with Daphne, it’s not a line worth pursuing anymore. ”
“Because of the gun?”
“That’s part of it. Weeks and Beeks are the other part,” Daphne said.
“Someone with a grudge against you would have to make a huge investment to come here and off you. They’d need to organize travel, obtain a weapon, find you in the first place.
All those sorts of things. They’d come with a plan, and skills, and wouldn’t go around stealing random cars and renting houses. ”
“They didn’t rent the cabin where they held you,” Ryan corrected. “They broke in. It belongs to weekenders who aren’t here right now. The owners weren’t likely to show up during the storm, so my guess is they took a chance.”
“Ballsy or stupid,” Lovell muttered.
“Or both. In my experience, those tend to go hand in hand with a lot of folks,” Daphne replied. “But that’s even more evidence that Weeks and Beeks aren’t professionals. They have some skills. They clearly know how to hot-wire a car—”
“And drive in the snow,” he added.
“And drive in the snow. But is anything about this screaming professional hit man?” she asked, mostly rhetorically.
“Not to me,” Ava replied.
Ryan was slower to commit, but after a beat, he dipped his chin. “The evidence does point to something less organized.”
“Which brings us back to Daisy,” Lovell said.
“Finding an assassin isn’t something most people can just do, not without leaving a massive trail.
But she’s been in jail for years. It’s like speed-dating for criminals on the inside.
She had plenty of time to make the kind of connections that would lead her to Weeks and Beeks. ”
They all fell silent, considering the possibility, then a snippet of the conversation she’d overheard came back to her, and she drew in a quick breath. Regrettably.
Lovell’s attention jerked to her from where he’d been staring into the fire. “Do you need more ibuprofen?” he asked as she set a hand on her ribs.
She took another, slower breath, then shook her head. “They said you’d panic,” she said. Lovell cocked his head.
“What?” Chief Warwick said.
Her brow furrowed as she recalled those moments in the cabin.
“They took the picture of me soon after we arrived, but they agreed not to send it for three hours because they said you’d panic.
” She turned and looked at Lovell. “I’ve known you less than three days, and I’m confident in saying you wouldn’t panic.
You might on the inside, but you wouldn’t act out of panic,” she said, giving voice to the thoughts she’d had the night before.
“And?” he asked.
“Wouldn’t Daisy know this about you? Wouldn’t she have told them you were more coolheaded than hot-tempered? Warned them not to assume you’d react like many men would?”
“She didn’t know me that well. I was a toy to her, not a man, and the only personality and character traits that toys have are those given to them by their owners,” he said.
She hid a wince at those words. He hadn’t shared the full circumstances around the marriage, and it was unfathomable how such a strong man ended up in that situation, but clearly, he hadn’t forgiven himself for making whatever mistakes he thought he’d made.
“I don’t know you well,” she pointed out instead.
He held her gaze, his both contemplative and raw.
A feeling crept up on her that she couldn’t explain.
In less than three days, did she already see him better than his wife had?
That couldn’t, shouldn’t, be possible. And yet she might not be able to tell someone his favorite color or meal, but there was no doubt he was a man she’d want by her side in a crisis.
“She has a point,” Chief Warwick said, breaking the odd moment. “Again, not hard evidence, but something that doesn’t fit the picture.”
Lovell’s phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket. After glancing at the screen, he silenced it, then set it on the table. “Daisy wasn’t that perceptive, but even if your point is valid, Daphne, it doesn’t rule her out entirely.”
“It doesn’t,” she agreed. “Like Chief Warwick said, though, it’s a piece of evidence that doesn’t totally fit the puzzle.”
“Call me Ryan, please,” he said. “Where do you two want to go from here? We held back on releasing the photos HICC dug up on Weeks and Beeker because you wanted a chance to lure them out.”
“But now that they know we know who they are and I’ve escaped their lair, it would be weird not to make them public,” Daphne said.
“Agreed,” Lovell and Ava said at the same time.
“It will probably send them to ground,” Ryan pointed out.
“Or out of town,” Daphne chimed in. “But if this really is Daisy, she has the money to send different people.”
“We’re not taking any chances, though,” Lovell cut in, his gaze slicing her direction in a way that had her blood zipping through her system at hyper speed.
She’d been around enough über-protective men in her life that his directive didn’t surprise her, but her reaction did.
She riffled through her memory, trying to recall if she’d ever responded the same way to another man.
When she couldn’t easily remember anything similar, she shoved the question in a box and focused on the moment.
“No, we’re not,” she agreed. Lovell’s brow creased with a wary kind of curiosity. “I have a place I’ll move to today. It’s secure and now hooked up to HICC. It even has a safe room.”
“You can’t stay locked up alone in a fortress,” Ava pointed out. The two men shared a look Daphne decided to ignore.
“I won’t,” she replied. “But I won’t go anywhere without someone.
” She shot Lovell a look, silently asking him not to bring up Callie.
Her sister was the obvious choice of companion, but after the events the night before, they both knew she wasn’t the right choice.
And there was no way to have that conversation without telling Ryan and Ava why.
Her shoulders relaxed when he gave her a tiny nod.
“Callie and Philly will stick to you,” Ryan said. “Both are capable of protecting you.”
“From what I can see, there’s no shortage of protection options around here,” she replied. “And if worse comes to worst, I can hire someone from HICC.”
“You’re being very amenable,” Ryan said. “Not a criticism, just not what I would expect when telling an independent woman—or man—that they will suddenly have a shadow.”
Daphne huffed a laugh. “I had personal protection for years. I still have it when I go to certain industry events. I mostly live a quiet life on my own now, but I know how to have someone in my space. This won’t be new to me.”
“Glad to hear it,” Ryan said, rising. Lovell and Ava followed. Both gestured for her to stay seated, but she pushed herself to her feet.
“Sore?” Ava asked.
“It’s almost like I trudged eight or so miles through a blizzard,” she said on a chuckle. “Walk with me, I want to hear your spa recommendations before you leave. I’m thinking of booking massages for Callie and me later today.”
Ava slipped her arm through Daphne’s, and the two shuffled toward the door. When they were out of earshot, Ava leaned in. “What do you really want to ask?”
“Something about the Daisy situation doesn’t seem right to me,” she replied. “The fallout from their marriage was terrible, and I don’t doubt she has the capability of coming after Lovell again, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“And?” Ava said, reaching for her coat. Daphne shot a look across the room. Ryan and Lovell were deep in conversation.
“To my way of thinking, he’s had four stages in his life.
His childhood, his time in the military, his marriage, and his time here.
If it’s not about something that’s happened since he arrived in Mystery Lake or his time in the military, that leaves his short marriage or his childhood as the origins of whatever is going on. ”
“You want me to look into his life before he enlisted? If he’s like the others, he went in right after high school graduation,” Ava said, tugging her coat on.
“It seems far-fetched, I know. But assuming he’s around Gabe’s age, that means he left home twenty years or so ago. That’s a long time for something to fester, and something would have had to happen to make it come to a boil now.”
“But you think it’s a possibility?”
Daphne appreciated the curiosity, rather than doubt, in Ava’s voice.
She exhaled. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
Her gaze flickered back to Lovell, tall, strong, confident, accomplished.
But still capable of not seeing the forest for the trees, especially with his emotions as mixed up as they were about the role he played in Daisy’s life.
“I don’t know,” she repeated. “But something doesn’t feel right to me. ”