Page 4 of Outlaw Ridge: Shaw (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #5)

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Ava was fighting hard to keep herself together. This particular kind of fight was familiar territory for her since she’d battled panic attacks for the past seven years.

And the godawful night terrors of being buried alive.

It was never easy to deal with her past, but it was even harder now that the past had returned and claimed victim number five. Even if Dell wasn’t out of prison and killing people, someone was, and that someone clearly wanted Shaw and her dragged back into this twisted game.

“Dell killed him?” Lorelei wailed. “He killed Detective Carrick?”

“Someone did,” Shaw replied, and he reached down and helped Lorelei to her feet. “Dell is still in prison,” he tacked onto that.

“Then he hired someone to do this,” Lorelei insisted. “Maybe Valerie.”

The name was very familiar to Ava. To Shaw, too.

Valerie Corbin was Dell’s younger half-sister.

A timid, scared of her own shadow kind of woman who hadn’t uttered a word to the press during Dell’s trial.

Yes, Valerie would need to be investigated, but her name would have no doubt come up in the research and checks that Strike Force was doing on anyone connected to the case.

“We’re not sure who’s orchestrating all of this,” Owen told Lorelei. “But I can offer you police protection.”

That seemed to snap Lorelei out of her meltdown. Her mouth tightened, and she snapped back her shoulders. “I have no reason to trust the cops,” she spat out, and she aimed a glare at all three of them.

Now, here was the venom that Ava had seen and felt when she’d run into Lorelei at that restaurant. The woman was clearly holding a grudge. And had apparently decided it was time to leave. Without saying a word, she turned and stormed out of the office.

Ava considered going after her, but she couldn’t force Lorelei to accept police protection. Then, she groaned. She hated to even voice this since Lorelei had been just as damaged by Dell as Shaw and she had been, but it needed to be said.

“Lorelei could be the copycat. She could be going after anyone she blames for not saving her sister.”

Shaw didn’t show any surprise or shock which meant he’d come to the same conclusion.

“She’d fit the profile of a copycat,” Ava went on. “And she’s familiar with all the details of the first investigation. It also would have been easy for her to lure Donovan into a trap. Donovan probably wouldn’t have seen her as a threat.”

“Shit,” Owen grumbled, and he scrubbed his hand over his face. “What about Dell’s sister? This Valerie? Would she fit the profile, too?”

Ava wasn’t so quick to respond. “Maybe. Seven years ago, Valerie was very much a follower, so I doubt she could have orchestrated Donovan’s murder on her own. But she could have with Dell’s guidance.”

So, they were back to the start of not having a clear suspect. But they did have a crime scene, and the CSIs were there now. Added to that, deputies were out canvassing the town and the area to see if anyone saw anything. She had to hope that something might come of that.

“I can work on the profile,” Ava said a moment later. “If you’ll trust me to do that,” she added to Owen.

“Of course, I trust you,” he snapped, obviously a bit riled that she’d needed that clarification. “But you’re not working on it right now. Neither of you are. You’re both shaken. That’s obvious. And pretty soon that adrenaline is going to vanish and leave you bone tired.”

It was already getting there for her—the fatigue was seeping into every part of her body, and she figured for Shaw, too.

Owen checked the time. “It’s going on six, already well past your shift, Shaw. What about you, Ava? Do you have to be back at your job in San Antonio?”

She shook her head. “It’s my day off. And, besides, I work mainly remotely from home.”

That’d been one of the ways she managed her stress. She lectured at one of the city colleges and did contract work with law enforcement agencies all over the world. Ironically, the publicity from her ordeal with Dell had given her all the work she could handle and then some.

“Good,” Owen replied. “I want the two of you to find a safe place to hold up and rest while all the cops, CSIs, and techs do their thing. You can start up fresh in the morning.”

“A safe place,” Ava repeated under her breath, questioning as to whether or not such a place existed.

“I can arrange for something if you want,” Owen added just as his phone rang. He frowned. “Got to take this. It’s not about the Riddle Killer,” he tacked onto that as he took the call and walked out of his office, heading in the direction of the breakroom.

And leaving Shaw and her very much alone.

She’d made a habit of holding back anything personal.

No mention of what she was feeling because of fear it would ignite a firestorm inside her.

But this was Shaw. The man who’d saved her.

The man who’d gone through hell and back with her.

Just seeing him triggered the trauma, but he deserved to know what was happening inside her head.

“I’m not sure I can do all of this again,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

He stepped closer and surprised her by pulling her into his arms. She surprised herself by not moving away. Still, she had to try to steel herself for the flashbacks.

But they didn’t come.

Just the comfort of him holding her like this. Not as a lover. There was no lust here now. Well, not on the surface anyway. Lust was always around when she was with Shaw. But at the moment, this hug was clearly designed to help. And it was doing just that.

After several long moments, he finally eased back and met her gaze. “My house is less than a mile from here, and it’s secure. Not quite a fortress but close. Instead of driving all the way back to your place in San Antonio, I’d like for us to go there. No strings attached.”

“You mean no sex attached,” she blurted. Oh, God. Why had she said that?

The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. A familiar one. One that could be classified as foreplay. “No sex attached,” he verified. “Just a safe place for us to do that regrouping. If there’s a break in the investigation, Owen will let us know, and we can be back here in no time.”

It was so tempting and she was so tired. But it seemed like playing with fire to be in close quarters with Shaw. Still, she was leaning toward saying yes when Lexa stepped into the doorway again.

“There’s another visitor,” Lexa said, the concern in her voice and expression. “Valerie Corbin. She asked—politely, I might add—to speak to the two of you.”

Ava groaned. A visit from Dell’s sister definitely wasn’t something she’d expected, but despite the fatigue, she welcomed it. Well, welcomed the possible information that Valerie might be able to give them anyway.

“We’ll see her,” Shaw replied after getting a nod from Ava.

Lexa turned to go back to reception, and Ava went to the door to peer out at the woman who was now going through security.

Valerie was tall, about five-ten and rail thin.

Too thin, she’d always thought. She had none of the strong build of her serial killing half-brother.

But that was Dell’s face all right. The sharp angles of the cheekbones.

The eyes so pail blue that they seemed to have no color at all.

Valerie didn’t try to rush through security as Lorelei had done. It was more like slow motion. And there was no panic or fear coming off her. Just the opposite. That meekness was there in spades.

And perhaps fake.

Ava had just never been able to accept that Valerie was the calm, mild-mannered woman that she presented herself to be. Still waters run deep might apply here.

Valerie stayed right by Lexa’s side as she walked with her to the office, and Ava stepped back so she could enter. “I’m real sorry to bother you,” Valerie said. “But I heard on the news there’d been another riddle murder.”

This time it was Shaw who groaned, no doubt because he wasn’t happy about the media splashing this around. But this had been inevitable. A murder in a big city might not make the news. It would here though in Outlaw Ridge.

“Dell couldn’t have done this,” Valerie went on. “I hope this makes you rethink his guilt about the other deaths.”

“It doesn’t,” Shaw was quick to say. “Dell was at the scene when Ava was taken. His DNA was found there, too, and we uncovered enough evidence in his house to convict him.”

Valerie nodded, swallowed hard. “But maybe that was planted. I know that’s not what you want to hear.”

It wasn’t. And it wasn’t true. Well, it probably wasn’t.

“Where were you all afternoon?” Shaw asked.

Valerie’s eyes widened for a moment, and it was obviously understood that Shaw was asking about an alibi. Which meant Shaw considered her a suspect. Ava did, too. Valerie had motive to do a copycat kill since it could shed some doubt on Dell’s conviction.

“Working. At home,” Valerie added. “I’m a website designer.”

“Can anyone confirm you were home?” Shaw pressed.

“No,” Valerie muttered after a long pause. “But I was there, and I can show you the design I did.”

That would prove nothing since the work could have been done at any time. So, that meant Valerie had means, motive, and opportunity. But Ava wasn’t convinced the woman had the guts to do something like this.

“Look, I didn’t kill that former cop,” Valerie went on. “Obviously, my brother didn’t either so I’m hoping the two of you will reopen the original case and take a harder look at other suspects.”

Shaw jumped right on that. “Like who?”

Valerie squeezed her eyes shut a moment. “It feels like tattling, but this is important, and it’s something I think you oughta know. Lorelei Kane could have done this.”

Now, Ava was surprised. “What makes you think that?”

No quick response this time. Valerie seemed to hesitate.

Seemed . “She’s in this victims’ support group, Healing Horizons, and I’ve noticed she does a lot of posts on social media about how much she blames the cops and the two of you for not saving her sister.

I might have gotten this all wrong, but what if Lorelei set up that first riddle as some kind of prank that went wrong?

When her sister died, she could have snapped. ”

As theories went, it wasn’t a totally out-there one, but Ava had to go back to the evidence. “The police found nothing to point to Lorelei being anything other than one of your brother’s victims.”

Valerie nodded as if that’d been the exact answer she’d expected. “Just look into it, will you? Please,” she tacked onto that.

Shaw stared at the woman for several moments. “We’ll look into it.”

That seemed to give Valerie a rush of relief. She even smiled though it was brief. “Thanks,” she said, turning to leave.

“I don’t trust her,” Shaw immediately said to her. “She could be killing for Dell.”

Ava made a quick sound of agreement but also took out her phone. “I want to check this support group though. And Lorelei’s social media posts.”

“Yeah. Because I don’t trust her either,” he admitted. He looked at Ava. “I’ve got a fully equipped home office that’s still connected to all of Strike Force’s databases. Including Sentry and Cyclops.”

Ava had heard of both. Sentry being the database that had seemingly gobbled up massive amounts of info about everything.

Basically, if the info was unclassified, it had ended up in Sentry.

It’s counterpart was Cyclops that contained a lake of stored camera and drone feed and images that could be assessed to track down a suspect’s movements along with confirming or disapproving an alibi.

“Best to use those to look into whatever Lorelei is doing,” Shaw added. “Eat, rest, research.”

She needed to do all three of those, and Ava was too tired to come up with a faster way to get them done. “All right,” she said.

“Good,” Shaw murmured. “I’ll find Owen and let him know we’re leaving.”

But he didn’t even make it one step out of the office when both of their phones sounded with texts.

Ava’s stomach dropped, and she got another slam of adrenaline before she could try to remind her body that this could simply be a group update about the investigation. But it wasn’t.

God, it wasn’t.

She looked at her phone and saw the message that made her blood run ice cold. Let’s Play a Game.

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