“Daisy’s from Atlanta, right?” Daphne asked.
“A suburb, but yeah,” he answered.
“Not a lot of snow there,” she commented.
“Weeks and Beeks travel along the eastern seaboard, though,” Ava said, adopting Daphne’s nicknames for the two men.
“I’d be interested in how much time they spend in the snowier climes,” Daphne said. “It may be nothing, but drivingin the snow, especially in a blizzard like we had last night, isn’t something someone only casually familiar with the snow would be able to handle.”
“You think if they’re from somewhere up north, it’s less likely they’re connected to Daisy?” he asked.
Daphne shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe.”
He considered that option. There was some truth to it, but there were also dozens of ways Weeks and Beeks might have learned how to drive in the snow and ice without having to live in it.
“Any updates on Daisy?” he asked Ava.
She rolled her lips. “She visited a private detective two weeks ago, then again seven days ago. We haven’t identified the topic of the conversation yet,” she added, shooting him a warning look.Howshe was identifying it was best left unsaid in front of Ryan.
“Think she paid someone to track you down?” Ryan asked.
“With Daisy, anything is possible. She has the money to do it,” Lovell answered.
“Why was she released early?” Daphne asked.
“Good behavior. And apparently, she found god, too,” Ava answered.
Lovell snorted. “The only god Daisy worships is her trust fund. And maybe her social standing. Such as it is.”
“That may be, but she convinced the prison chaplain otherwise,” Ava said.
“Has she been going to church since she got out?” Daphne asked.
“Yes,” Ava answered. “And volunteering at the food kitchen.”
“Very charitable of her,” Daphne said.
“And out of character,” he added.
Ava lifted a shoulder. “The facts are the facts. We can’t dispute those.”
Daphne tipped her head in thought, the light from the flames highlighting the deep red in her hair. “We can’t,” she agreed. “But facts don’t give us any insight into her motivation.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“That’s a good point,” Ryan conceded. “Is she doing all that because it’s real to her or because it’s part of the act that will keep her out of prison?”
“Could be either,” Ava said.
“What about the gun?” Daphne asked, switching topics. Ava was right; all they could do was watch Daisy, but the gun might lead them somewhere.
Ava wrinkled her nose. “It hasn’t been on the market that long, but there are still plenty out there. That said, six have been reported stolen in the US since they became available. We’re looking into the circumstances around those.”
“You think it was stolen?” Lovell said.
“It fits the story,” Daphne said. “Two men with shady backgrounds but no real steady income hired to kill a man. They aren’t professional hit men, more like amateurs who were hired for the job. It’s not likely they’d be able to afford that kind of weapon.”
“That was my thinking,” Ava agreed.
