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Timothy was a consummate liar Zeke knew the Walkers fed inforht the information to him first

Zeke looked at the Mackays

"They helped us pull in information on that mission last year," Natches revealed At least Natches wasn’t lying to him Yet "Joe and Jaime were always reliable sources of infor to do with that operation?" Zeke asked He knew it did, in part Their murders had been too similar to others over the past twenty years

He hoped for the Mackays’ sakes that it didn’t Zeke was approaching his liard for the chain of infor ops in his county, without his knowledge, not just once but twice, had pushed his level of endurance to its limit And Cranston just took the damned cake That son of a bitch had recruited Zeke ten years before when he had been with the FBI and Zeke had gone looking for an agent he could trust When he’d chosen Cranston, he’d fucked up

Cranston had begun the investigation without Zeke’s knowledge and then had the gall to draw in three other citizens of the county instead of co to him Ex-marines known for their ays

The Mackay cousins had spent the past two years on an investigation into stolenon Cranston to begin taking down And before that, Rowdy had been too daeted his wife They hadn’t told hi to know about his

They ild and arrogant, and they ot involved in trouble He’d hoped e would have settled them down

"We don’t believe it should have," Cranston answered as Dawg’s lips parted to answer

Dawg flashed the little , too

"You don’t believe?" Zeke kept his gaze on Dawg "Dawg, you boys are newly married

The three of you have babies on the way Do you really want to spend a few nights in jail for withholding inforlared back at him "Your jail wouldn’t survive it, Zeke," Rowdy stated

"Don’t threaten us Joe and Jaime were friends and their families are close to us

Grandma Walker and their sister, Lisa, and her two boys are pretty much alone now

The twins took care of them We need to knohat happened"

He stared back at Rowdy Normally, Zeke would have believed him, but several years back, Rowdy had pulled his own bullshit over on Zeke He hadn’t forgotten it There were tiiven it He used to believe he was friends with these men, until he learned how easily they would hide the threats to the county he was duly sworn to protect

They were here, and they didn’t know shit about what he was doing; only Cranston are of it, and only because the otherfor While they were here, he et what information he could

"I don’t knohat happened yet Not fully," he lied as he leaned forward and stared back at the cousins "Did those boys do hard drugs that you knew of?"

They looked at each other in confusion before Rowdy shook his head firmly "Joe and Jaime were hell-raisers, but they didn’t do the hard stuff"

Well, hell, that didn’t help him much where the coroner’s report was concerned

"Do you have the forensics’ or coroner’s report yet?" Special Agent Timothy Cranston leaned forward in his chair, the wrinkledloosely on his shoulders

"Cranston, what’s your business in this?" Zeke leaned back in his chair with a brooding look "If this has anything to do with another operation in ivenice"

And that was Cranston’s only warning The agent was hiding toopatience with hi nice when your buddies in the Justice Depart nice" His sue’s her friend and mine Those tere her friends, and Janey asked me to see what I could find out I’d prefer not to pull in ht need those favors to getbastard "So why don’t we all just play nice, and see if we can help each other here"

Which pretty much meant Cranston was involved up to his beady little eyes in Zeke’s business Playing along was easy enough, for the rowled, lifted the file, and tossed it closer to the edge of the desk

"Initial report Joe was puative coroner still has the bodies, but this is the county coroner’s initial findings Joe was pumped, walked in, shot Jaime, then himself"

Natches lifted the file from the desk, sat back, and opened it Two cousins and one portly Hoent read over his shoulder

"Not possible," Dawg murmured "Joe didn’t do this shit, Zeke And he wouldn’t kill Jai hed "Forensics hasn’t co yet No vehicle tracks were found outside the twins’ trailer, other than official vehicles that arrived that day There was ruirl was There’s just nothing to stand on here but et le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>