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Chapter Three
Rafe stood at the far back corner of Bree’s office at Canyon Ridge PD, while she was on the phone. This time, getting an update from the gas company.
Before that, there had been calls to Davy at the fire department and the hospital to check on the wounded. And before that, Bree had fielded calls from the mayor and members of the town council who had wanted to be certain that pipelines all over town weren’t going to explode.
She had given all of them the reassurance, along with some for her father, too, who’d called her after someone in town had let him know about the troubles going on.
Bree had had to do some fast talking to prevent her father from coming back from a month-long European vacation. A much needed one from all accounts with Bree’s mom, her brother and sister-in-law. Even though Rafe was certain Bree could have indeed used her father’s help, she had convinced him not to cut the vacation short, that she could handle things.
Rafe had listened to Bree dole out all those attempts to comfort and soothe. Had heard the fatigue and stress in her voice. But Bree had held strong, giving out what was actually very little info as to what had happened.
Yes, it was likely Tessa’s body.
Yes, there’d been a blast.
Yes, there’d been another body that was yet to be identified.
Rafe was working on all of that and more, but this was the stage of the investigation where there was a flood of info, and he wasn’t sure what was useful and what was white noise. Still, he’d gotten his own reports on the injured. Ollie, Wade, the construction workers, and both CSIs had already been treated and released.
The two deputies were a different matter.
Both had concussions, serious ones, and Alice did indeed have a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder. Carson had two broken ribs and had needed stitches for the gash on his head. Rafe wasn’t expecting either of the deputies to return to duty, which left Bree and the two off-shift cops she’d called in.
They were drowning in that flood of info, but so far, Bree hadn’t asked him to help. And wouldn’t. Well, not unless she got desperate, and it very well might come to that.
Especially once they had an ID on the other body.
Rafe had been looking into that angle as well, and he’d asked his boss, Ruby Maverick, to find out what she could. Ruby was retired special ops, but she also had a knack for hacking.
Something Bree definitely wouldn’t approve of.
Of course, nothing learned from the hacking would hold up in court. But Rafe wasn’t looking for the letter of the law here. He wanted an ID since that info could blow this case wide open.
He listened to the side of Bree’s phone conversation he could hear, with the CSIs this time, and he drank more of what had to be the worst coffee he’d ever had in his life. And that was saying something since he’d had some bad stuff. He figured it was eating away at the lining of his stomach, but he needed it.
Bad.
The adrenaline had long since come and gone in the three hours since the explosion, leaving him with a familiar bone-deep exhaustion.
One that he couldn’t do anything about.
He sure as hell wasn’t going home, not until he had some answers about Tessa, that other body, and the blast. Bree clearly felt the same way because once they’d been given a somewhat hesitant clearance from the EMTs, she’d come straight to her office to get started on the investigation.
Bree hadn’t exactly invited him to come along, but Rafe had invited himself. Besides, he’d needed to give his statement of the incident, and since there hadn’t been an available deputy to do that, he’d written it himself.
Like Bree, he was getting constant updates, too, that he’d requested from his boss, including a report on Gavin McCray that Ruby had just texted him. So far, there was nothing to indicate the construction worker could be a killer, but it was early yet.
Things surfaced.
So far though, nada. Gavin had no criminal record and had worked for the construction company for nearly six years. An unblemished record and all that. He was married and had four kids, all under the age of eight. The man had no savings and was living right on the edge financially, and that could make him vulnerable to some things.
Murder? Blowing shit up? Attempting to destroy evidence?
Maybe.
It would require further digging, along with hearing what the man had to say once he was in interview. That might not happen for a while though since Gavin had apparently slipped out from the hospital and gone home.
Bree had nearly blown a few gaskets about that, but there’d literally been no one to keep an eye on all the people and all the moving parts of this investigation. So, Bree had called Gavin and had insisted he come into the station to give a statement.
