Page 63 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“Are we seeing these first?” Shaw asked, a bit surprised.

“Yeah. As soon as we’ve reviewed them, they’ll post them online, but for now, they’re confidential until we give them the nod. Once we do, all law enforcement will have access to them. But this gives us a few hours to get our legs under us.” Cruz glanced over the papers several times. “Oh, boy.”

That scared Shaw a little. “What?”

“It seems there wasn’t enough DNA evidence in the trace at the apartment where the woman was killed to make any kind of formal identification. But…” Cruz held up another paper and looked at it. “There was enough in Ms.Travis’s car and on Frankie Travis’s body.” He pulled out another sheet of paper. “Whoa! Jackpot! Got a CODIS hit.” Aaron and Dax both already had their laptops up and were waiting. “Looks like he was originally an inmate in the Texas corrections system. Man by the name of WarrenTalbot.” Aaron and Dax’s fingers were flying across their keyboards. “Armed robbery, domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, auto theft. And,” he said with a smirk, “attempted murder. I think we’ve found our guy.”

“Got a picture?” Shaw asked.

“Oh, yeah.” The sheet of paper fell in front of Shaw onto the table, so he pulled out his phone, snapped a picture of it, then sent a text to Cherilyn with the photo. His message was short and sweet.

Know this guy?

His phone rang almost immediately, and everyone in the room could hear her before Shaw could even say a word. “Do you have him in custody? Have you found him? Please, god, tell me you have.”

“No, but at least now we know who we’re looking for. I take it that’s him?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s him. RodneyFrymire.”

“Nope. His name is WarrenTalbot, and it appears he’s no stranger to the Texas corrections system. He’s got a rap sheet the length of my left leg.”

“Not surprising. Just one more example of Frankie’s poor judgment. But how did he know my neighbor?”

“Bar maybe? Convenience store? I don’t know if we’ll ever get an answer to that question, but at least we know who we’re dealing with.”

“Yeah. Somehow I don’t feel a bit better, Shaw. Not one bit.”

He sighed into the phone. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I hope they can find him pretty quickly. I’m just glad you could confirm that he’s the guy we’re looking for.”

“Yes. That’s definitely him.”

“Good. And babe?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a plainclothes in an unmarked at the end of the driveway. You girls are safe. Try not to worry too much, okay?”

He couldn’t miss the fear in her voice. “You think that’s going to stop him?”

There was no good answer for that question. Based on the laundry list of offenses the guy had committed, seeing an officer sitting there was probably not much of a deterrent, and he realized in that moment how much danger the officer at the end of his driveway could be in. “I have no idea. I’m getting off here to listen to their plan. I’ll give you a call back later. Stay inside and be safe, okay?”

“Yeah, um, okay. Thanks. Talk to you in a bit. Bye.”

“Babe?” Shaw turned to find Aaron grinning like an idiot at him. “So now she’s babe? You move faster than anybody I’ve ever seen. Good work, officer!” Shaw rolled his eyes at the man who’d become a good friend. “Don’t misunderstand me. Nothing wrong with that.”

“No. Nothing,” Dax echoed.

“Good. For a minute there, I thought I was going to get the lecture on professionalism,” Shaw muttered.

Cruz gave him a quick head shake. “Nope. Not at all. Honestly, she’s in the best possible place for her to be right now.”

The three men backed him. He had nothing to worry about from them. “So what’s our plan?”

“There is no ‘our plan.’ As much as we’d like to include you, you have a different kind of job to do, but yours is on two fronts, both the professional and the personal. That’s plenty for you to handle.” Shaw started to say something, but Cruz stopped him with a raised palm. “No. I know what you’re going to say, but no. We’ll keep you apprised of everything that’s going on, but you’ve got your hands full. We’re here specifically for this, so we can totally focus on it.”

“I have to side with Cruz on this one. He’s right,” Aaron added.

Dax nodded. “Me too. You’ve got three women and?”

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