?Chapter 41
“What the fuckwere you thinking?” Captain Daniels bellowed.
Vaughn didn’t know what the man was talking about. He knew, however, that Daniels would expound. And the man did—after a pregnant pause.
“Bringing a civilian into a crime scene? A fuckinggasscene?”
Vaughn felt Darnell’s eyes on him.
He didn’t look at his partner, but he knew what the man was thinking.
How did Daniels know? Delaney? It had to be Delaney. That’s why the prick wasn’t in the bullpen waiting for you, like he usually is.
Puppy dog dick-riding simp.
Captain Daniels had a hands-off approach. Let the detectives, and to a lesser degree the officers, go about their business without interfering.
But the one thing the captain hated was being left out of the loop.
Daniels waved a hand indicating that it was Vaughn’s turn to speak.
“Dr.Ivy Reeves is from Princeton—a math professor. She helped us understand the first scene.”
Daniels’s icy eyes narrowed.
“How?”
“Our unsub is using some weird math games to kill his victims. They seem random, but Dr.Reeves says that there’s a way to increase their odds of winning. In the most recent crime scene, she’s fairly certain that one of the participants made it out.”
“You need her help?”
Vaughn nodded.
“Yes. I think—”
“Wait—Dr.Reeves? Did you say Dr.Reeves?”
“Yes. A prof—”
“Dr.Reeves?” Daniels repeated a third time.
“Yes, Dr.Ivy Reeves.” Vaughn couldn’t mask his annoyance.
“Dr.Ivy...” Daniels shook his head. He was pissed before but now the captain bordered on furious. “I want you to listen to me: under no circumstances is Dr.Reeves to be involved in the case.”
Why?was on the tip of Vaughn’s tongue.
Never got the chance to say it.
Daniels got worked up about a lot of things. Had a resting blood pressure of 200 over 100. But this was extreme even for him.
“Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
Even though the captain’s anger had peaked at the mention of Ivy, his reaction didn’t make sense to Vaughn. The man’s fury had to be the result of the press getting wind of this. The only thing that pissed Daniels off more than being left out of the loop was the press getting on his ass about something.
Vaughn was surprised it had taken this long. Delaney had spoken to the caller about her missing husband. When she didn’t hear anything about her husband’s murder on the news, she probably went looking.
