“See you later.” She smiled at him, and his eyes darkened before he kissed her again, this time on the mouth. It was short, but intense, kicking up her heart rate just as she’d gotten it under control.
“I won’t be long. Half hour, tops.” He continued to hesitate while watching her carefully.
“Sounds good.” When he still didn’t move, she made shooing motions with her hands. “Now go, so we can discuss you and your buddies.”
That must have proven to him that she’d be fine, since he grinned at her and headed for the door. As she turned back toward the other women, she saw Lou was frowning as she watched Chris through the front window.
“How’s he been?” Lou asked, her eyes still on Chris as he got into his truck. “He seems…sad.”
Before she answered, Daisy took a moment to consider how he really was. “It’s going to take a while, I think, before he’s back to his usual level of happy. Until the whole mess exploded, he really admired…his boss.”
“Will he run in the emergency sheriff election?” Ellie asked, taking a sip of her latte.
Daisy shook her head. “Not unless he changes his mind. Chris likes responding to calls and being in the middle of the action. Turning into a paper pusher would drive him insane. Even having off these last couple of weeks during the state investigation is making him twitchy. He’s ready to get back out there.”
“Too bad,” Lou said, spinning a plastic cup lid on the counter. “He’d have made a good sheriff.”
Just the word “sheriff” made her skin clammy, so Daisy turned to Ellie. “How are you doing?” She hadn’t gotten a nighttime call from Ellie since before the shooting.
“It seems kind of coldhearted to say.” Ellie bent her head over her latte, absently twirling a stir-stick in it.
“Don’t worry about offending us,” Lou told her. “I’m the one who referred to a deceased person as Headless Dead Guy, remember? And Daisy’s been dating a cop forever. I’m sure she can handle some plain speaking.”
Shooting a wary glance at the other customers, Ellie leaned closer to the two. Lou and Daisy mimicked her until their heads were almost touching. “Ever since the sheriff was killed, and I found out King was dead, I’ve been so…relieved.” She leaned back, leaving Daisy and Lou in their craned-forward positions.
“That’s it?” Lou said. “That’s your confession?”
Looking uncertain, Ellie nodded. “Well, yeah. Two people are dead, and I’m more relaxed than I’ve been for months. Isn’t that a sign I’m a sociopath?”
Since Ellie asked the question so seriously, Daisy tried to turn the amused sound that came out of her mouth into a cough. “No,” she answered after clearing her throat. “You are definitely not a sociopath. I’d be relieved if the person who’d shot me and tried to kill me was dead.”
“Um…” Lou sent her a sideways look. “The person who tried to kill you is dead—at least one of them.”
Carefully placing her coffee on the counter, Daisy flattened her shaking hands against her thighs, trying to force them to be still. “I’m glad Tyler’s going to be okay…physically, at least.”
“I guess.” The other two looked at Lou, and she grimaced. “I don’t wish he were dead or anything, but the little brat burned my truck…and my house. Sure, my stalker probably watched him do it and didn’t stop him, but Tyler confessed to being the one who lit the match.”
“Why’d he go after you? It’s a ways out to your place—how’d he even get there?” Daisy asked.
“Apparently,” Lou said, still sounding bitter, “he didn’t like that I was investigating Willard Gray’s murder. He thought he was protecting his dad. And he’s known how to drive since he was thirteen. He stole his dad’s truck to drive out to my place. That’s how he got out to set the wildland fires, too.”
“Wow.” Daisy shook her head. “I’m not sure why I’m surprised, though. He did burn and try to blow up mine. He thought he was helping his dad, but there are still some pretty big chunks missing from the kid’s moral framework. Deputy Macavoy’s parents filed a missing-person report, and no one is optimistic about finding him alive. They’re looking into his mom’s disappearance, too.”
“Tyler’s mom?” Lou asked. “I thought she left them voluntarily.”
Pity for the kid rushed through Daisy, almost smothering the anger toward him. “There’s no proof she didn’t, but Rob walked in on his wife abusing Tyler. After that, no one saw her again. It’s enough that the BCA is checking into it.”
“How sad,” Ellie sighed.
Lou made a sound of agreement. “Who told you that?”
“Strepple,” Daisy said. “He called to update me on the investigation.”
“Where’d they take Tyler?” Ellie asked.
“A psych facility outside of Denver.”
Ellie’s eyebrows rose. “Which one?”