“Not too much of a different story,” Ava said, changing the picture from Conrad to the second man. “This is Ronald Beeker.Grew up in Atlanta, very different part of town than where Daisy is from,” she added. “He’s also fifteen years older than her, clocking in at forty-eight. He’s had some tussles with the law growing up, but nothing to keep him out of the military. He joined the army and, like Conrad, served six years before discharging. Nothing hinky about his, though. He works the same kind of jobs as Conrad. We haven’t found any overlapping yet, but suspect we will the more we dig. He’s kept pretty clean with only a couple of speeding tickets in the past fifteen years.”
“Any idea where they might be now?” Daphne asked.
Ava winced. “Theywereat the hotel on the north side of town. You know the one with the really thin walls?” she said, directing the question to the general room. Callie frowned, but he, Mantis, and Wesson nodded. The club had looked at using the hotel for the extracurricular work they did, helping extract people from abusive relationships. But the one night Mantis and Dulcie spent there had been enough to have them bag that idea. Instead, they’d redesigned the clubhouse to add a wing of rooms where the people they helped could stay.
“The one with the doors that open onto the highway?” Daphne asked. Ava nodded. Daphne made a face. “Not a great place to hide.”
“Especially not when you’re driving a stolen car,” Ava said.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” Daphne muttered. “And let me guess, it’s been ditched?”
Ave bobbed her head. “Ryan, the chief of police and Chad’s brother, found it this morning down a ravine five miles south of here. Weeks and Beeker tried to burn it, but the flames didn’t take. Not completely. They’re running the prints and DNA.”
“If the prints didn’t lead you to the men, what did?” Callie asked.
“The details about the car Daphne provided. We traced it to a stolen vehicle report in Reno, which made us think they’d likelyflown into the airport there. Leo did a bit of his magic using our facial recognition scans. We narrowed down the flight they came in on, and from there, we used the passenger manifest to ID them. That’s where Daphne’s pictures came in handy.”
Lovell didn’t ask how they managed to get their fingers on that kind of information. They were all better off not knowing.
“Any idea where they are now?” he asked.
Ava shook her head. “Gone to ground for the moment. Probably taking a day or two to regroup.”
“They’ll need another car,” Daphne said.
“Ryan’s got his ear to the ground for any stolen ones. We’ll only know after the fact where they’ve been and what they’ve stolen, but at least we’ll know what they’re driving and what to look for,” Ava said.
“So what’s next? What can we do?” Daphne asked.
“You’ll do nothing,” he said. Everyone looked at him. Okay, maybe he’d been a little sharp.
One of Ava’s eyebrows slowly lifted.
Fine, it’d been a dumbass reaction.
“I’m not doing anything about it either, so you all can stop looking at me like I’m out of line,” he said with a calm he didn’t feel. Judging by Mantis’s and Wesson’s looks, he hadn’t fooled them. Daphne, on the other hand, seemed to buy it. Not happily, but at least she wasn’t glaring at him anymore.
“He’s right,” Ava jumped in. “These men are after Lovell, and they can recognize Daphne. If they’re going to make another move, it will be against one of them. We’re working quickly on this, though, thanks to Daphne’s drawing, so hopefully neither of you will be housebound for long.”
“You’re not really housebound at all,” Callie said to her sister. “We’re going to dinner at Mantis and Charley’s tonight, and you already made plans to see Luther and Emi tomorrow night.”
“Why would she have dinner with Ava’s parents?” Lovell asked. Luther and Emi Jones were Hollywood royalty; Luther a multi-Oscar-winning director and Emi a multi-award-winning actor.
“Because I’ve known them for fifteen years. Met them at a party in New York,” Daphne replied. “I knew Ava worked hereandthat they’d likely be up frequently because of all the grandbabies, so I sent them a note when I knew I was coming. We’re having dinner tomorrow at Ava and Mitch’s.”
He opted not to think about the growing number of ties she had to Mystery Lake.
“And for other reasons, you have no room to complain,” Callie said, shooting her sister a look Lovell didn’t understand, but that had Daphne pursing her lips.
“I wasn’t complaining, and we’re not discussing this anymore,” Daphne said.
Callie’s eyes narrowed. “That was a comment, not a discussion point. Just because I agreed doesn’t mean I like it.”
“Like what?” Wesson asked.
“Nothing,” the sisters said at the same time.
Lovell glanced at Mantis, who was studying the two. A beat passed, then he shifted his gaze, meeting Lovell’s, and gave a small shake of his head. Philly hadn’t said anything to them today to indicate something was up, but clearly something was.
