Toby all but heard the puzzle pieces falling into place. His brain got it faster than he could make his mouth work.
“When did he go away, Beck?”
Just as he still could read his former partner, Beck could read him. The man sat up straighter. “Why? You got trouble down there? Joey never did like you, not one bit. He didn’t like anyone he thought was better than him. Son of a bitch, I’m right, aren’t I?” He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hands. After a moment, he looked at Toby straight-on.
“Tell me what’s going on, and why you think it’s…. oh hell. Yeah, Joey was in the background enough when we were talking things through on that last major case we were on, wasn’t he? When we were tossing ideas back and forth about how to go about taking the Rats down—and I know we talked about that warehouse when he was there.”
“I only just remembered that part myself, about Joey being there. And, yeah, he might have been our ‘leak.’ And, Beck, that’s not on you. We all talked some in front of him. Even the captain. None of us thought to toss him out.”
“You know it’s on me, partner. Everyone accepted his presence because of me. You think he might have headed in your direction? What’s been happening down there, Toby, that’s worrying you?”
Toby left nothing out, even including the fact that whoever their stalker had been, the guy had planted a tracking device on his partner’s car.
“Joey’s always loved gadgets. He’s also always had an inflated opinion of himself and his abilities. I’m going to make some inquiries and see if Jason or any of his cousins know where he went and who his contact for a tracker might be.”
“I’ll talk to Adam—my cousin Adam Kendall, who’s the sheriff here. Let him know what we’ve been kicking around. You think he might have flown here or driven out?”
“Well, he ditched his car in that storm we got about a week before you left, and he never replaced it.” Beck’s expression morphed from heartbroken grandfather to pure cop in a heartbeat. “My bet would be he would have flown. He knew the Waco PD had hired you, because, well, hell, I let the family know. I was pleased they snatched you up so fast.”
“That jives with what we surmised, that we picked up our stalker in Waco.”
“Son of a bitch. Damn it, Toby, I’m sorry.”
“Damn it, Beck, it’s not on you. You’re not responsible for what your grandson does. He’s a grown-ass man.”
“I know that. I’m just sorry none of us realized how much of a screw-up he was.” Beck ran a hand through his hair, something he did when he was feeling especially frustrated—or let down.
Toby was sorry for the pain his former partner felt. He wished his words to Joey during their confrontation weren’t going to come true, but he had a really bad feeling they were.
“You love him, partner. And that can make twenty-twenty vision nothing but hindsight.”
“Yeah. I’ll hold off on saying anything to Jason and Rhonda until we know for certain. Joey’s not especially clever, but he can be sneaky. Be careful.”
There really was nothing more to be said. Toby nodded. “We will be. I’ll keep you informed.”
* * * *
“What do you know about Joey Conway?” Adam sat back in the armchair in Mary’s living room. He’d crossed his legs, and rather than using a tablet or his smartphone, Lusty’s sheriff had an old-fashioned pad of yellow notepaper on his lap.
She had offered to take herself into the bedroom while Toby spoke to Adam, but of course, her lover would have none of that.
“I can describe him. He’s about six feet, blond hair, brown eyes. No distinguishing marks or features that I ever saw.” Because she was watching him, she noticed Toby’s eyes widen. “I actually might have a photo of him.” He pulled out his phone. It didn’t take him long to thumb through his photos.
Then he handed the phone to Adam. “He’s the one in the middle. The older man is Beck, my former partner. The other is Jason, Beck’s son and Joey’s dad.”
“He’s got attitude,” Adam said. “Smug is all over him.”
“That sums him up pretty well, except to say it’s smug for no reason whatsoever.”
“College?”
“No. I remember Beck was mad as hell about that. But Joey never could see any reason to go to school to learn something he was confident he could pick up and perform with expertise after maybe one day of on-the-job training.”
Adam snickered. “Bet he had trouble holding down a job.” Adam handed Toby his phone. He took a moment to show the photo to her and Anthony.
Mary agreed with Adam’s assessment of Joey Conway. The look on his face was easy for her feminine mind to identify. He thought he was God’s gift to the world.
“You’d win that bet,” Toby said to Adam. “I think his record was four months.”
“Any charges, even juvie?”
“No. Beck would have told me. Just, as you guessed, a lot of attitude.” Toby sighed and set his phone on the end table. “I can tell you, he hated my fucking guts. Whether he thought I took his grandpa away from him—stupid really—or whether I did something to piss him off, I don’t know. I sure as hell wasn’t Beck’s first partner, and hell, it was the job.” Toby shrugged.
“Oh, don’t go there, sweetheart.” Mary patted his hand. “When Beck trained you and then chose you as his partner, you likely looked young enough to be Joey’s older brother. That might have been all it took. Joey looked at you and—according to the personality sketch you just gave us—figured he could do a better job than you. You didn’t do anything. It was all in
