In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue #4)(98)

“But who? And how?” Daisy repeated, unable to wrap her head around the idea that someone hated her enough to try to kill her. “No one ever comes inside. Only my dad, Chris, our workout group, Tyler Coughlin, and that real estate agent.” As she listed off the names, Lou wrote them down.

“Real estate agent?” Rory repeated.

Daisy grimaced. “We need to have these meetings more often. The real estate agent was showing the house across the street, and they found blood on the ceiling. Chris wanted to get a warrant to search the place, but the sheriff refused.”

“Why?” Lou turned from the notepad. “I would think blood would be suspicious enough to call for a search, especially after what you saw.”

“Tyler Coughlin was here?” Rory interrupted.

A little startled by the change in topics, Daisy blinked at her before answering. “Yes. He’s my grocery-delivery boy.”

Looking grim, Rory stared at the names on the list. “When was he here last?”

The room suddenly felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of it. Daisy barely found enough air to speak. “Yesterday,” she said in a tiny voice. “Right before the gas leak.”

“Tyler?” Ellie sounded shocked. “The sheriff’s son? But he’s a kid!”

“He’s sixteen.” Lou drew a circle around his name. “Old enough to know how to start a fire. And that would explain why the sheriff would try to cover for him.”

“Including the missing arson reports,” Rory added.

Swallowing hard, Daisy thought about bashful Tyler, all gangly arms and legs, who pretended he was grown up enough to like coffee. “I don’t know. It fits, but… Do you think he murdered Willard Gray, too? I don’t think he’d be capable of killing someone, do you?”

“If it was him, he tried to blow up your house,” Rory said flatly, “with you in it.”

Everyone went silent. Daisy tried to wrap her head around the idea that Tyler had tried to kill her. The Tyler she’d seen—the awkward, lonely boy—was a murderer. And Tyler’s father…how much had he known?

“The sheriff knew about the arsons,” she started carefully. “Do you think he also knew about Willard Gray? Or my gas leak?”

“He couldn’t,” Ellie said firmly. “There’s no way. To cover up something like that, Rob would have to be just as much of a monster as his son.”

Rory looked uncertain, but Lou added, “I agree. He seems to really care about people. I don’t think he could have known what Tyler was doing—the killing part, at least—and allow it to continue.”

“What do we do?” Daisy asked, her heart thumping like she’d just sprinted a mile. She wasn’t as sure that the sheriff wasn’t complicit in his son’s murderous activities, but the other women knew Rob better than she did.

Carefully capping the marker, Lou placed it on the coffee table. “You need to call Chris.”

*

Chris stared grimly at the notebook with unseeing eyes. “Give me until tomorrow.”

The women looked at each other. “He’s killed people,” Daisy said carefully. “If it is Tyler, we need to make sure he’s stopped before he hurts someone.”

“I know.” When Chris turned his head and met her eyes, she almost flinched. Instead of his usual cheery expression, he just looked tired and sad. “Just give me a little time to figure out how to tell Rob, and then we can bring this information to the BCA.”

“Don’t tell him tonight,” Lou warned, her knee jiggling up and down. Since she’d abandoned the notepad, she hadn’t been able to sit still. “Rob is a good guy, but this is his son. We’re pretty sure he’s been covering up the arsons. Murder is a whole different thing, and we don’t think Rob would defend Tyler for that. If we’re wrong, though, he could take Tyler and run.”

“I know. I’ll tell him first thing tomorrow, and we’ll call in the state investigators immediately afterward.”

Ellie had been chewing on the side of her thumbnail until she’d grabbed her arm with her opposite hand and pulled both into her lap. “What if it’s not him? We don’t have any proof.”

“At the very least,” Chris said, “the case needs to be taken over by someone who’ll be objective. If they find that Tyler’s innocent, I’ll be very happy.” He didn’t sound like he expected that outcome, though.

“Should we meet here tomorrow at nine, then?” Rory said, and everyone’s eyes went to Chris.

“Yes.” His cop mask had fallen into place. “I’ll plan to talk to him at eight.”

“I’ll see if Cal’s up for a stakeout,” Lou offered. “We’ll keep an eye on Tyler’s house to make sure he doesn’t sneak out and commit any felonies tonight.”

“If you take from now until midnight, Ian and I’ll take the graveyard shift.”

Ellie leaned forward. “I’ll see if George can do the last four hours with me. If he can’t, I’m kind of useless. George doesn’t like me to go anywhere alone without asking Rob for a deputy, and telling the sheriff I’m right outside of his house, spying on his son, would be…uh, bad.”

Although there were a few chuckles at that, the laughter quickly died. Subdued, the other women left. It was strange, Daisy thought, when normally the group was so loud and boisterous. She looked at Chris, who hadn’t moved.