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“How are you doing, Teddy?” Zeke removed his hat as he took the seat Teddy waved to.
“I’m doing good, Zeke. Real good. ” Teddy nodded his bald head before wiping a hand over it. “I heard about Callie, how she died and all. I got to thinking about those grandsons of hers and them dying. There’s word going around, you know, that they were murdered. That concerned me some. ”
Zeke sat forward in the chair and watched the old man.
“Why did that concern you, Teddy?”
“Well, Zeke. ” He rubbed his gnarled hands together before clasping them slowly.
“Callie called me that morning. The morning she drowned. ” His hazel eyes darkened with sadness. “She said she thought her grandsons had been murdered because of some girl they were seeing. She asked me if I knew who it was. ”
“Why would you know who it was, Teddy?” Zeke asked.
Teddy sighed. “I always know when folks come and go up this road. And Joe and Jaime, they did a lot of fishing here behind the house in the creek. Sometimes, they’d be drinking and talking and their voices carried real good here. ”
Zeke nodded encouragingly. “Did you hear something before they died?”
“Well, see, that’s the problem. ” Teddy scratched his head thoughtfully. “I heard them the night before they were killed. They were drunk as skunks out back, laughing and cutting up. I opened the back door so I could hear better. ” He grinned unapologetically.
“Old folks like to live vicariously through young, dumb kids like that, you know. ”
“I can imagine, Teddy. ” Zeke chuckled. “What did you hear Joe and Jaime talking about?”
“Well, they were talking about a girl. Joe said he was getting serious about her, and Jaime laughed, said if Joe was serious, then he would get serious, too. ” Teddy shook his head. “Those two got into some wild games with the girls, you know?”
“I know. ” Zeke nodded again.
Teddy shook his head and breathed out roughly. “I told Callie what I’d heard and she said she was going to call you. But when I got hold of her granddaughter the other day, she said she thought maybe Callie hadn’t had a chance to talk to you. ”
“Callie didn’t have time to talk to me, Teddy,” he affirmed. “I wasn’t aware she was trying to contact me until after her death. ”
Teddy’s eyes glittered with moisture then. “She was killed, wasn’t she, Sheriff? Because she was trying to figure out who killed those grandsons of hers. ”
“I don’t know, Teddy. Until I find out who the boys were seeing and if she had anything to do with it, then I can’t say,” Zeke stated.
Teddy breathed out slowly before rubbing the side of his wrinkled face.
“What else did you hear the boys say that night, Teddy?” Zeke asked.
“Just between me and you, Zeke?” Teddy asked. “Callie was going to talk to you and she ended up drowning in her bathtub. I don’t want to drown in my bathtub. ”
“I can understand that, Teddy. ” He nodded. “This stays just between the two of us. ”
Teddy nodded again. “I didn’t hear much, and that was what I told Callie. They were talking about being serious about this girl, and Joe said they’d have to be real careful for a while, because her daddy would kill them if he found out. They seemed to talk like they might be a little worried about that. Then Jaime said he had a way to take care of it.
That he knew how to keep her daddy quiet. He told Joe he had information, that he knew that her daddy was a part of those men they were looking for last summer and that her daddy wouldn’t want anyone to know just how deep he was in that group.
Now, I took it at first as just talk; you know how young boys get, and Joe and Jaime could be a little paranoid sometimes about stuff. But when I told Callie what was said, she went real quiet for a long time. And she says, ‘That was what I was afraid of, Teddy.
That was what I was afraid of. ’ And she hung the phone up then. Next I heard, she was dead. ”
The girl’s father was a part of what happened last summer. Joe and Jaime had given the Mackay cousins and DHS information then that led to uncovering the identities of several citizens involved in the Freedom League.
“That’s all she said? She didn’t give you a name, Teddy?”
Teddy shook his head. “She didn’t say a name, Zeke. She hung up and that was the last time I talked to her. ”
Zeke stared back at Teddy thoughtfully.
