Page 31 of Her Baby, Her Badge

“A strong possibility, because shortly after Delaney’s death, Keith Cassaine changed his name.” The PI paused a heartbeat. “These days, he goes by Brian Waterman.”

CHAPTER TEN

Dutton forwarded Grace the email of the report that Jake had just sent him, and then he moved a chair next to hers so they could read the arrest report on Keith Cassaine, aka Brian Waterman.

The man who was probably now at the top of Grace’s suspect list.

He’d never read an actual police report and saw that it was broken into four sections. The first contained the names and photos of those involved, the date and the arresting officer, Sheriff Aileen Granger. Below that were sections labeled Details of the Event, Actions Taken and Summary. Grace skipped to the summary that her mother had written eleven years ago.

On her way home from work around ten on a Friday night, Aileen had witnessed a car driving erratically, so she’d pulled it over. Brian had been driving and Delaney was the passenger. There was an open bottle of tequila on the console, and both teens were visibly intoxicated. They both failed breathalyzers. Aileen had called for backup, and when Grace had arrived, they’d taken the pair into custody, putting them in the back of Aileen’s cruiser.

On that fateful night, Grace had followed Aileen in her own vehicle to the police station, but along the way, Aileen had stopped to try to resuscitate Delaney. Grace had been the oneto call the ambulance, but by the time it arrived, Delaney was already dead.

Maybe out of shock and grief and fueled by the alcohol, Brian had become violent and had attempted to assault Aileen. He’d failed, though, because Grace had managed to restrain him. After they’d returned to the police station, it’d been Grace who’d actually arrested him because Aileen had likely been dealing with the aftermath of Delaney’s death.

“I need to talk to my mother about this,” Grace said. “Give her a heads-up that this old case could be linked to the current murders.” She paused. “She’ll realize right away that she could be the motive for the killer and that she could also be the actual target.”

Yeah, Aileen would understand that. “Any chance your mother will let you put her in protective custody?”

“None,” Grace quickly responded, and she sent a text to her mother to give her the basics. “This is better than a phone call since she won’t want to discuss it until she’s had a chance to refresh her memory.”

That didn’t surprise him about not nixing the protective custody. In fact, it would likely feel like an insult to the woman who’d been a sheriff for three decades.

“There’s a separate report on Delaney,” Grace continued once she finished the text. She pulled up that report as well and put it side by side with the one they’d been reading.

It was all there. More details of Aileen’s attempts to revive the teenager, along with toxicology reports. Delaney’s blood alcohol content, BLC, had been 0.40 percent. Since anything higher than 0.08 would be legally over the limit, Delaney had obviously had way too much to drink. Brian was over the limit, too, but nowhere as high as Delaney.

Dutton switched his attention to the mug shot of the then sixteen-year-old Brian. Obviously, he wasn’t looking his best inthe photo. He was probably still drunk and in shock, and he was well past the disheveled stage. What stood out about him was his mop of ginger hair. It fell in shaggy chunks all around his acne-scarred face.

“Brian looks nothing like he did when he was a teenager,” Dutton pointed out.

Grace made a sound of agreement. “Different hair color, and he’s at least fifty pounds heavier now than he was back then. He must have had some cosmetic procedure to get rid of those acne scars. And he legally changed his name when he was eighteen.” She stopped, then sighed. “Still, I should have recognized him.”

“Yeah, because you should have special cop powers that allow you to recall every feature of every face you’ve seen over the past eleven years.”

Dutton added a smile and enjoyed both the roll of her eyes and that sliver of heat he saw when their gazes met. He was tired of cursing that heat. Tired of having to fight it. But even the heat couldn’t override that Grace and he should keep fighting it for no other reason than to focus on the here and now. On this investigation, that might just save some lives.

“I’ll question him about this when I’ve got him back in interview,” she said, obviously moving the conversation in the right direction.

No smiles now. Minimal heat as well. And she kept the focus on the job as she downloaded the report from the PI. Still sitting side by side, they read it together, but they’d barely gotten started before Grace got a text.

“It’s from Rory,” she said as she continued to scan the report. “Brian’s lawyer is here. I’ll give them a few minutes before going in. That’ll give me time to get a better picture of what Brian’s been doing for the past eleven years. Wow,” Grace said when something obviously caught her attention. “He had a second arrest a year after the one here.”

Yeah, he had. And it had been for assault on his sister. So Brian had a temper and could be violent. First, the attempted attack on Aileen and then this. “But no jail time,” Dutton pointed out.

“No, because he was charged as a juvenile. A surprise because of his previous conviction for what happened here. I’m guessing either he had a very lenient judge or a very good lawyer. Maybe both.”

“His family comes from some money,” Dutton said, referring to the man’s parents’ net worth, which Jake had included in the report. They were worth nearly a million. However, the same couldn’t be said for Brian, who seemed to be living paycheck to paycheck.

“Yes,” she muttered. “It’ll be worth the time to have a quick chat with his parents to see if they’ve cut him off financially.” She paused. “I’d better let Livvy or Eden handle that, though. They weren’t deputies eleven years ago, and Brian’s parents might not want to speak to anyone who’d been involved in his arrest.”

Good idea, and he continued to read the PI’s report while Grace texted Eden to contact the parents. Maybe they’d be able to give Eden some insight about their son. Since Brian had changed his name, it was possible there’d been a rift.

“So Keith changed his name to Brian during his first year of college,” Grace stated, continuing with the report. “I’m guessing because he might have wanted a fresh start. And there are no more arrests. He got a degree in business and works for a real-estate company. SAPD has agreed to send someone to get a statement from Brian’s boss. Austin PD is getting a statement from Felicity.”

Dutton figured Grace must have requested that, with two of the many texts and calls she’d made in the past twelve hours.

“And you’ve got Brian’s vehicle,” Dutton reminded her. “So if the carpet fibers are a match to those the CSIs found, then you can make an arrest this morning.”

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