The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)(66)
“It’s nothing. Adrenaline letdown.”
He didn’t believe that any more than she did, but if she needed to tell herself that she hadn’t been scared shitless, he wasn’t going to be the one to poke holes in that belief. They each told themselves the lies necessary to get through this situation. And what he was about to tell her was going to shove her day from horrible right over into nightmarish. “He took Rachel.”
She pulled away enough to look up at him. “Say that again?”
“Whoever’s doing this—they took Rachel. She was home alone while her mom was working swing shift, and she wasn’t in her room this morning. Lisa Carpenter went straight to bed when she got home, so we’re not even sure how long she was missing.”
Eden took a step back, and he could actually see her putting her emotional armor back into place. It was both wondrous and terrifying. She took a deep breath, and when she exhaled, the woman was gone, replaced by the fed. “Do we have a time of death on Neveah Smith yet?”
“She was killed between two and four a.m.” He ushered her into the police station, heading for his desk. He’d left Joseph in the second interrogation room, and Lee was still in the first, so there was a little time to bring her up-to-date. Zach flagged Henry down. “Can you grab one of the ice packs from the freezer? And then you need to get out of here for a little bit—go eat a hot meal and grab a nap. You’ve done enough for today.” He knew it killed his senior deputy to babysit Lee while shit was hitting the fan with another body and Zach was storming Elysia to bring in Joseph.
“Yes, Mother.” Henry took the order with more grace than Chase had, but then, he was older—he’d been around the block enough times to know that running himself ragged without the end in sight was a recipe for disaster.
Once Eden had the ice pack, he got back to the case. “The death doesn’t clear Lee, but the time the body was dropped does.”
“Dropped.” Her dark eyes sharpened. “Elouise Perkins wasn’t dropped. She was killed where she was found.”
“There’s a lot of traffic down Prairie Road between six and seven in the morning, and no one saw anything.” He knew. He’d made a couple of calls while driving out to Elysia. He hadn’t really expected someone to have seen the body and not called him, but he couldn’t take anything for granted these days. “There’s no way she was killed and left there.”
Eden shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. Why change things up now?”
“Trying to confuse the trail? I don’t know. But I plan on finding out.” Starting with Joseph. The man had been nothing but belligerent since he’d put him in the back of the cruiser, and Zach was hoping he could play on that arrogance and get him to reveal something. “William will be ready for us in a little over an hour, so I’m going to take a shot at Joseph before then.”
“He’s arrogant.” Hearing his thoughts come out of her mouth was disconcerting, to say the least. Eden dropped into a chair and tipped her head back, the ice pack firmly against her face. “If you can get him to start bragging, he might let something slip. Just don’t threaten Martha—or even bring her up, if that’s possible. Lee’s loyalty to her might be in question because of Elouise, but Joseph grew up in Elysia. If he thinks you’re threatening her or the cult, he’ll shut down.”
Zach filed that away. “Do you need someone to look at that? Concussions are no joke.”
“I’m fine. It sent me for a loop, and I have the headache from hell, but it’s not going to affect my performance.”
It wasn’t her performance he was worried about. It was her. Britton had said Eden was too close to this case, and Zach couldn’t help but agree. His concern wasn’t that she’d be biased—though he guessed that was a very real possibility. It was that she’d push herself to the point of exhaustion and beyond chasing this down.
Because she felt responsible.
It didn’t matter that she hadn’t done anything to bring these murders on. Logic had no part of what she was no doubt feeling right now. He knew, because he was feeling the same thing—at least to some extent. I should have known something was wrong earlier. I should have been smarter, faster, better organized. I should have known the killer would go after Rachel. There was no way he could have done better than he was doing, but that didn’t make a damn bit of difference. He couldn’t protect her any more than he could protect the teenagers who’d gone missing and died under his watch.
The only thing he could do was find and catch the killer.
Joseph sat exactly where Zach had left him, lounging in the chair and chewing on a toothpick he’d had with him when they brought him in. Zach was tempted to take the stupid thing away, but right now he was going to play nice guy and see where it got him. It was much easier to ramp up the aggression than it was to take back harsh words. He just didn’t have time.
He dropped into the opposite chair. “Howdy, Joseph.”
“Sheriff.”
“Don’t suppose you know why I brought you in for questioning.”
“Don’t suppose I do.”
So that’s how we’re going to play it. He should have known this man’s cage wouldn’t be easy to rattle. A man didn’t make it to the top tier in Elysia without a degree of ambition and cunning. I’ve been underestimating Joseph all along. Letting my dislike for him color my views. He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his neck. “How long were you sleeping with Neveah Smith?”