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“Can’t hurt to check.”
He did so, somewhat surprised to find she indeed had one. “Here she is.”
Elly leaned closer. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. Kyle always mentioned how she won the Miss Wisconsin pageant a few years back.” He poked around on the page. “I see lots of sympathy comments here,” he said, scrolling through them. “Nothing unusual about that. But I can’t see all her posts because she has privacy settings in place. I’m glad she took that much of a precaution.” Maybe being a former Miss Wisconsin had taught her there were creeps out in the world.
More than one, he silently amended.
“You know, some people like to stay in touch with friends or family,” Elly said with a hint of defensiveness. “It’s not all about posting pictures of your recent meal at a nice restaurant or selfies on vacation.”
He let out a laugh. “I truly don’t get it. Especially the part where people tell the entire world they’re on vacation, announcing to the world their house is empty. That’s an open invitation to all criminals. But then again, in my line of work, I’ve seen social media used to trick women and kids into being trafficked.”
“That’s horrifying.” Elly shook her head. “I’m glad Rhy always made us stay off those sites.”
“He’s like a father to you,” He hoped that saying the words out loud would remind him to keep his distance.
“He held the family together and has always been supportive of me and the twins as we were the youngest of the bunch. But no, Joe, he never tried to take over the role of my father.” She held his gaze steadily. “Our parents died; he made sure we remembered them. And even as he was guiding us, he reminded us that this was what our parents would have wanted.”
He didn’t believe that, mostly because Rhy had warned him off the way a father would, but he let it go. Just because Elly didn’t see Rhy as a father figure didn’t mean her brother hadn’t taken on that role. Quite the opposite.
Joe was firmly convinced Rhy had.
He turned back to the computer, deciding to move on. Then he had an idea. He pulled out his phone again and sent Assistant Chief Michaels a text, asking him to check with Eloise for her permission to review all her social media posts.
Michaels responded with a brief, “Okay.”
It wasn’t a priority now, but he felt the need to check off all the boxes.
To search every single victim for a connection, no matter how remote, to the shooter.
“Maybe we should go back to the skaters’ profiles,” Elly mused. “They must have been the main target.”
“Sure.” He did as she’d asked, even though he desperately wished she’d try to get some sleep. Or go anywhere that was farther away from him.
Her scent was driving him crazy.
They were both silent as he made his way through their social media pages. Although several times he had to go through them twice.
Yeah, this wasn’t working. He needed to put an end to this forced togetherness for a while. He needed time to regroup. And maybe by morning the shooter will have been picked up by one of the thousands of cops searching for him.
“It’s no use, I don’t see anything new.” He made a show of glancing at his watch. “It’s getting late. We need to get some sleep.”
“I’m too wired to sleep.”
He hesitated, wondering if she was afraid of having more nightmares. But then she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
“I—uh,” he floundered, trying to come up with an excuse. “Need a break.” Gently disentangling himself from her, he rose and moved away from the computer.
She sighed loudly, without bothering to hide her exasperation. “Okay, okay. I’ll take the hint and leave you alone.”
He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he would be much better off if she would leave. At least for a while. He stood awkwardly for a moment, debating taking the computer into his room and shutting the door.
Elly rose and walked over to the window, the one he’d stared out earlier.
“No. You know what?” She abruptly spun away from the window, heading toward him. “It’s not okay...”
The sharp crack of gunfire had him instinctively lunging toward her, taking her down to the ground like a linebacker sacking the quarterback. He heard the muted sound of a slug embedding itself in the sofa that was right next to them, followed by yet another retort of gunfire. “Stay down!” he shouted hoarsely.
