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Would Lisa have killed her brothers and grandmother for the insurance? Zeke had seen it happen before.
“I’ll head out then,” Gene told him. “See you later, Zeke. ”
Zeke rubbed at his jaw as he turned back to the bedroom and focused his gaze on the oxygen tank, its lines hanging forlornly to the pillows of the bed.
Lisa didn’t kill her brothers. She didn’t kill her grandmother. Zeke could feel it, despite the evidence of the insurance policies and the attempts to make it look as though each death had an explanation. Someone had killed with such perfect precision that not even a trace of an intruder had been left behind.
As he stared around the room the cell phone at his belt beeped demandingly.
“Sheriff Mayes,” he answered.
“Sheriff?” Lisa Walker’s voice came
through the line, timid, husky with tears. “I wanted to ask. Grandma mentioned calling you last night; she said she might have known who the girl was that Joe and Jaime were seeing. I wondered if you would tell me who it was?”
Click. He felt it now. Like a piece of the puzzle falling into place.
“She didn’t call me, Lisa,” he said calmly. “She didn’t tell you who the girl was?”
Lisa sighed. “She said she wanted to talk to you first, to be sure about something before she said anything more. You know how Grandma was about gossip. ”
She had hated gossip. She didn’t gossip, and she didn’t hesitate to berate anyone who came to her with idle talk. This time, Zeke wished she had gone back on those principles.
“She didn’t mention anything?” he asked.
“She said Joe had come to see her a few days before he was killed. He was laughing, said he and Jaime had a date Saturday night. Grandma was giving him hell over it and Joe told her that sharing what they loved was better than fighting over it and neither of them having it. It was the first time he’d ever mentioned love in regard to a woman, she said. When she asked who it was, she said he wouldn’t give her name, but he said something that made her suspect who it might be. She wouldn’t tell me what he said. ”
She hadn’t tried to call him, Zeke knew, but she might have called the office.
“I’m sorry, Sheriff. ” She sighed. “I should have pushed her. ”
“Don’t worry about it, Lisa,” he said. “If you can though, could you bring the insurance policies you had on your grandma and brothers into my office? I’ll need to go over this to make sure everything’s taken care of on my end. ”
“I can bring them in tomorrow. ” There was no hesitation in her voice or her attitude. “I need to get that taken care of anyway for the funerals. ” Her voice broke.
“Yes, you do, Lisa. ” He sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow whenever you’re ready. Just give me a call and let me know when you’re coming in. ”
“I will. Good-bye, Sheriff. ” She disconnected and Zeke folded the phone before placing it back in its holster and moving for the front door.
Lisa didn’t kill her family for the insurance. Zeke had a feeling whoever had killed Joe and Jaime had done so because of a woman they were sharing, and now their grandmother was dead because she suspected who it was. Now Zeke had to figure out who it was before anyone else died.
THIRTEEN
Jonesy was back behind the long counter servingdrinks when Rogue stepped into the bar that evening. A scowl was etched into his face as he glared at her, but his brown eyes weren’t filled with fury. She thanked God for that, because she didn’t have the nerves to deal with another of his snits. He had never become rough with her in all the years she had known him, but she admitted he had spooked her a little the night before.
She gave him a sharp nod but kept her gaze cool before moving around the dance floor and checking with the bouncers. She’d just spent the evening on the phone with her parents and grandparents to let them know about Grandmother Walker’s death.
Her father had been saddened, but Rogue knew he wouldn’t grieve for the woman he had once known. He worried more about her and the rash of Walker deaths now than he did anything else. He had begged, bribed, and ordered her to return to Boston. She had declined sweetly. At least as sweetly as possible as they screamed and yelled at each other over the phone.
It was how she got along with her father. Calvin Walker wasn’t the most diplomatic of men. Tact wasn’t a word in his vocabulary outside a courtroom. And Rogue admitted, she was too much like her father some days rather than her soft-spoken Bostonian mother.
It had put her in the perfect mood to make a meeting that a friend had called for after her discussion with her father though.
Timothy Cranston wasn’t really a friend, she corrected herself. More of a friendly adversary. He didn’t seem to really like anyone except Janey Mackay and Alex Jansen.
He more often seemed to only tolerate others. The Homeland Security suspended agent was a thorn in everyone else’s side. But Rogue liked him. He was snarly and grouchy and rarely seemed to smile when it was appropriate. When he did smile, he tended to cause others to shudder in wariness.
Rogue didn’t shudder; privately, she was usually laughing at others’ reactions. Until now. Now she felt that little shiver of wariness herself.
