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When Janey had opened the restaurant to six nights rather than four, Rogue had signed on to help her with it until she could find a dependable er

Alex chuckled,the vehicle in gear and driving off Turning, Zeke surveyed the vehicles in the meadow and watched as his deputy loped back to him

"Coroner is ready to collect the bodies and forensics is ready to release thehtest sarcasm to Gene’s voice

"Tone down the sarcas me off," Zeke told him "If you have a problem with how I run htened as he glared back at Zeke "You’re turning into an asshole, Zeke,"

he accused hiood taxpayer money on a cut-and-dried case of murder-suicide You act like those Walkers are scions of the county and you have proof of murder"

"They’re citizens of this county, and they paid their tax dollars," Zeke inforure we can allot a certain a certain what happened here; what do you think?"

Gene was one twitch of the lip shy of a sneer "Well, you obviously don’t needmy time, too I’ll head back to the office while you oversee this"

"You’ll head out on patrol," Zeke told him softly "I have this to take care of File your report before you go off duty, and I’ll check it over when I come in later"

Gene’s blue eyes glittered for the barest second with calculation "Gonna go question that Walker girl? She’s faoing to regret it," Zeke snapped "Haul your ass out of here and get on patrol I don’t need your advice or your opinion on the Walkers or this investigation"

"Murder-suicide doesn’t constitute an investigation," Gene argued, his face flushing beneath the hot spring sunlight "Son of a bitch, Zeke Just ’cause you have a thing for Rogue Walker don’t ue Walker There it was, that knowledge that obviously so more than what it was Simple friendship, he told hi hi the face?

"You need to take a few days off," Zeke said carefully "Several actually Until you can rein in your et back to the office Maybe, in a few days, we can discuss your problems with how I run my department and my life and whether or not you can keep your da to be sporting a broken nose Before he could follow through with that thought, Zeke strode away from his deputy and headed to the trailer, where the coroner was having the bodies reht Those two boys, as wild as they were, weren’t the murder-suicide type For the most part, Walkers were just ornery Not lazy soand laid-back They played hard, worked as much as they had to, and had fun They weren’t troublemakers, and they weren’t violent But they were valuable sources on a silent investigation that was still ongoing And they had been murdered

"Sheriff" The coroner, Jay Adams, nodded as Zeke stepped up to his didn’t play a part, but it looks pretty conclusive in there"

Jay was ray brows His weathered face was creased with laugh lines and his hazel eyes were so as Zeke had been sheriff, and he was daood at his job

"I appreciate it, Jay" Zeke nodded as he watched the assistants load the bodies into the coroner’s hearse

"Think we need to pull in the coroner’s investigator from the city?" Jay asked then "We could transport to their facilities I could get you more information"

Zeke crossed his ar h the chief" Alex wouldn’t argue the decision; he kneell as Zeke did what they were looking at "Transport to their facilities and see e can get"

"Your gut is working on this one, huh?" Jay grunted "Hate it when it does that, Zeke

Means we’re gonna end up squabbling with city hall You kno they like to hly, wishing he could trust Jay, that he could discuss his suspicions with the older , Jay, and I don’t like it"

"Eh That looked a little suspicious to rinned "Hell, you know a body just ain’t gonna sit there when soun

And you know, between here and town, I’ht about those wounds They can’t naysay ot it, Jay" He clapped the other man on the shoulder

"Leton your report"

"I’ll try to be quick about it," Jay drawled "Helps though when the city coroner happens to be your daughter, huh?"

"That doesn’t hurt a bit," Zeke agreed with a s his attention back to the oing through it hi it, but feeling it, just to be certain it was the work of the same man that had committed countless other murders in the county over the past twenty-odd years

Maybe it was hiin the investigation, he thought as the forensics teaue when he hadn’t seen her in over aair had descended on thethe Harley to the restaurant And he hated adhts a week he had been driving her back to the bar each night Missed her teasing and her laughter when he had no right to it