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Gene nodded. “Yeah. ” He ran his hand through his hair before replacing his hat and grimacing. “Too damned bad, too. A man doesn’t deserve to die like that. ”
Zeke nodded to that before making his way along the graveled parking lot back to his Tahoe. “I’m heading back to town then,” he told his deputy. “See you tomorrow, Gene. ”
“Yeah, sure, Zeke,” Gene answered pensively. “I’ll see you tomorrow. ”
What the hell was Gene doing following him? Zeke wondered as he pulled away from the wreckage of the mobile home. His deputy hadn’t cared to share a murder case with Zeke in a while. He’d taken patrol while Zeke normally worked with the state or Somerset city police himself to solve the crimes committed in the county.
Gene was hiding something, Zeke knew that. He knew the other man, sometimes better than he wanted to. And he knew Gene was keeping an eye on him for someone else. For the remaining members of the League, Zeke suspected.
Despite the knowledge he could feel burning in his gut, he knew if he didn’t come up with something soon on this case, then he would have to put it aside, close it, and let it stand as a murder-suicide. And that just pissed him off. There was something about this case that had his nerves on edge every time he thought about it. Something he knew he wasn’t seeing, and should.
He’d questioned every associate of the Walker boys that he could think of. He was pushing the coroner to push the investigative coroner, and he was harassing forensics to find something more. The only ones he hadn’t questioned yet were Joe and Jaime’s younger sister, Lisa, and their grandmother. That he would be taking care of soon.
Turning into the graveled lane that led to the Walker house, Zeke grimaced at the sight of the black Harley parked in the barren drive.
It looked pristine and out of place among the straggling weeds and clumps of grass that surrounded the house and the run-down sedan parked next to it.
The house was in need of several coats of paint, maybe a few new boards on the porch.
The home itself was sturdy though. Joe and Jaime had always made certain their grandmother’s home was kept in good repair while Lisa oversaw her care.
As he stepped out of the Tahoe the door opened and Lisa, rounded and somber, stepped out on the porch. Grief had ravaged her pretty, pale face. Weariness gave her blue eyes a bruised, haunted look and thinned her lips as she watched him approach.
“Grandmother’s awake,” she breathed tiredly as he stepped up onto the porch. “She’s been demanding that I call you since we got back from Louisville. ”
Zeke’s eyes narrowed. “Is everything okay?”
Lisa shook her head. “You mean other than the gossip that one of her favorite grandsons killed his brother, then himself? God, Zeke, this is killing her faster than the pneumonia is. ”
Tears sparkled in her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders for a quick hug and looked inside the house where Rogue was staring back at him silently.
“I need to talk to you, and to your grandmother if she’s up to it,” he told Lisa. “Are you up to that, Lisa?”
She nodded against his chest before moving back. “Whatever it takes to find whoever did this. Joe wouldn’t have killed Jaime. It just wouldn’t happen, Zeke. And now even our memories of them are being stripped. What the hell happened to their home?”
Yeah, that was what everyone else was telling him, too. As for the mobile home, he just didn’t have the answers he knew she needed.
Lisa turned away and led him into the house. To face Rogue. He stared into violet eyes and damned if he knew what to do. He wanted her in his arms, he wanted to lower his head and kiss those shimmering lips, and at the same time he was aware of the dangers that lurked there.
Zeke Mayes hadn’t publicly claimed a woman since his wife had died. He kept his affairs hidden and his desires carefully controlled. And controlling them had never been as hard as it was now.
As he stared at her, the heated wonder in Rogue’s gaze seemed to dim when he did nothing. She turned away, her spine stiff beneath the white T-shirt she wore, her hips twitching angrily beneath her jeans as she moved toward the back of the house.
All those long, fiery curls were restrained in a braid that fell below her shoulders. She looked younger than her age, but that did nothing to cool the fire burning in his dick.
“I’ll check on Grandma, Lisa, then make coffee. You talk to Zeke,” she called back.
Zeke nearly followed her. He almost moved to grab her, to pull her back, and give her what he knew she needed. What he needed. A touch, an affirmation that there was more between them than the simple friendship he had claimed for so long.
“She’s not going to wait on you forever,” Lisa said behind him, her voice quiet.
Zeke turned and narrowed his eyes on her as her lips curved into a sad little smile.
“That’s the hazard of living where everyone knows everyone. ” She shrugged. “People start seeing things when they see you every day. And Rogue’s not nearly as good at hiding what she wants as you are. ”
He rubbed at the back of his neck, blowing out a hard breath.
“I need to talk to you about Joe and Jaime,” he told her, ignoring her advice. “I’m sorry, Lisa, but if I don’t get some evidence to the contrary soon, then I’m going to have to rule their deaths as a murder-suicide. ”
