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And he asked that you keep it to yourself. ”
“Did you tell anyone he called?”
She tilted her head and stared back at him in disbelief. “Not hardly,” she said mockingly. “I didn’t even tell Gene when he called in. ”
“I’ll head on out there then. ” He nodded. “Let the deputy on duty tonight know that I’m on call if he needs me. ”
“Will do, Boss. ” Kendal flashed him a smile as he left the outer office and moved quickly along the hallway to the exit.
Minutes later he was in the Tahoe heading out of town toward the Winfred place.
Teddy Winfred was eighty if he was a day. He didn’t venture out of his mobile home often and he didn’t like visitors. He’d damned near run Gene off with his cane when the deputy dropped by to question him aft
er the Walker twins’ bodies had been found. He was also a close friend with Callie Walker.
Heading out to the Winfred place had put his plans to drop by Rogue’s apartment on hold though. The past two days had been hectic, for himself as well as Rogue as she worked at the restaurant well past closing. He’d picked her up after work and returned to her apartment with her where he stayed the night, but there was still an edge of tension between them that he hadn’t had time to deal with yet.
The appearance of her brother wasn’t going to help matters. He had a feeling John Walker was going to be more trouble than he was worth and definitely more than Zeke wanted to put up with at the moment.
If he was anything like his father, Calvin Walker, then he could become a hazard if he stayed in Somerset long. Calvin Walker had been a hellion when he was younger, more often in trouble than not, simply because he hadn’t known when to keep his nose out of others’ business. It hadn’t surprised Zeke at all that Walker had become a lawyer, and one in Boston nonetheless. Zeke bet he kept all the feathers ruffled there.
He grinned at the thought of it. He remembered Calvin, though the other man was a good decade and a half older than Zeke was. He also remembered how much his father and Gene’s had hated the other man.
James Maynard had been Thad Mayes’s deputy for several years when Thad had held the sheriff’s office. The two men had made it a point to harass Calvin as often as possible. They considered it a game, a way to feel superior. Thad hadn’t always run his office with any sense of justice. Unlike Zeke, he had seen it as a means to power, a way to keep others beneath him, and a way to ensure that he was accepted in the upper-class level of the county at the time.
Thad’s dreams hadn’t been Zeke’s, but his father had drawn him into the dark underbelly of that life anyway. He wasn’t the county’s sheriff; he’d been Dayle Mackay’s sheriff, and what Dayle wanted, Dayle got. When Dayle had ordered Thad to prove Zeke’s loyalty to the League, Thad had done it in a way that had destroyed the boy Zeke had once been.
Blood stained his hands. It wasn’t innocent blood, but it was still murder. It was still a nightmare for the fourteen-year-old child he had been at the time. And it still held the potential to destroy him.
It had left a legacy that Zeke was still sometimes forced to fight. Through those years, Gene had always been a phone call away. A friend that knew the darkness and shared it with Zeke. For a while, Zeke had been certain that Gene had gotten out of the League.
Recently though, Zeke had been forced to wonder if that were indeed true.
There were times Zeke wondered if Gene would ever be fully out from under his father’s thumb. There had been a time when Zeke had thought Gene was his own man; now, he wasn’t so sure of it.
Thoughts of Gene brought Jonesy to mind. Danny Jones was another wild card, and one who had been a part of Thad Mayes’s inner group of friends at one time. Danny
“Jonesy” Jones had slipped out of that group when he had defended Calvin Walker against Thad Mayes and James Maynard. That had finished Jonesy’s friendship with Zeke’s and Gene’s fathers.
That information had come through the investigation the previous year. It was in the files his contact in Washington had finally gotten for him. Jonesy had once been rumored to be in the selection process for the League when he had learned what it was and how it would affect his friendships and his life. He’d chosen the friendships and had been targeted by Thad several times because of it.
It wasn’t surprising that when Rogue had found herself in trouble after arriving in Somerset, Jonesy had stepped in. And now that Rogue was involved with Zeke, Jonesy felt threatened, both personally and for Rogue. That didn’t excuse his treatment of her, and Zeke would never forget how Jonesy had bruised Rogue’s delicate arms. He didn’t trust the other man; there was something about his temper that bothered Zeke. It wasn’t just anger that drove Jonesy. There was something more. Something that had Zeke’s nerves on edge.
He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind to consider later as he pulled into Teddy Winfred’s driveway.
The white single-wide mobile home sat peacefully within a small clearing surrounded by oak, pine, and dogwood trees. The yard was neatly cut, and old Teddy’s late- model Ford pickup was parked next to the mobile home.
Zeke parked the Tahoe, turned off the ignition, then moved from the truck and strode up the graveled driveway to the front door.
The door opened as he stepped onto the faded porch, and a grizzled Teddy Winfred met him with a wide smile on his wrinkled face. Teddy still possessed most of his natural teeth and didn’t mind bragging on them with his wide smiles.
“Teddy. ” Zeke shook his hand. “Kendal said you called and asked me to drop by. ”
“Come in. Come in. ” Teddy’s smile flashed again as his faded hazel eyes sparkled with humor as he led the way into the scrupulously neat little home.
A threadbare couch and recliner sat in the living room, facing a wide-screen television.
Zeke knew Teddy’s sons, one a minister in the county, the other a store owner, made certain their father was well taken care of. It was one of their biggest gripes that their father refused to give up his independence and move in with one of them.
