“She’s told us more than that. She got him to confess he’s been camped out for a few days, and that he doesn’t feel well. For her to have said that, he must really look like crap.” His eyes widened as he looked at Toby.
“What?” Adam asked.
Anthony thought about what he’d been hearing. Joey’s dry-sounding cough, his raspy breathing, and his confession that he couldn’t get warm—meaning, he felt cold. He shouldn’t be feeling cold today because it was into the nineties. And he wouldn’t feel cold… unless he had a fever.
Oh, God. The implications of all those symptoms, taken together, made Anthony shudder. He ran his hand through his hair.
“Damn it, Adam, I think we have an unexpected complication.”
Chapter Eighteen
Mary sat quietly in the corner of the sofa, facing a very unwell-looking Joey Conway. It was coming up on twenty-five minutes since Joey had announced his presence in her home. He’d managed to drink most of his sweet tea, but the way he winced slightly with each swallow didn’t bode well for any of them.
Her cellphone, which he’d insisted she set down on the cushion beside her, began to ring. The sound startled her, because the silence of the last few minutes had been tense. She looked down.
“Toby.”
“Answer it, on speaker.” Joey’s voice sounded rough as if he needed to clear his throat. He did, and that became a small dry-sounding cough.
Mary did exactly as he asked and nearly wept with relief when she heard Toby’s words.
“Hey, baby, sorry the meeting ran a few minutes late. I should be there in ten minutes. Need anything from the store?”
“She’s got company.”
“Who’s …. Joey? Joey Conway, is that you? What the hell are you doing there?”
“Why don’t you get your ass here, cop, and find out? Hang up now, bitch.”
Mary did and winced as Joey once more erupted in a cough. Closing my eyes and scrunching myself is no way to avoid whatever is coming out of his mouth.
No, it wasn’t. And maybe what was coming out were ordinary every-day influenza droplets. Maybe she’d been doing just a bit too much obsessing about that damn virus lately, but Mary had a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“He said ten minutes.” Joey looked at her. “It takes an hour fifteen to get here from the PD in Waco.”
He’s likely followed the guys plenty to know that. “The meeting wasn’t in Waco. It was at the fitness facility north of town.” Time to try and distract him some more.
“So…how do you know Toby? Are you like, one of the guys he put away when he worked in Wyoming?”
Joey smirked. “Nah. He didn’t have a clue about me back there. I was pulling one over on him and the old man, and neither of them even had a fucking clue. Some detectives they are.”
“Old man? Like, your father?”
“Grandpa.” He got a sour look on his face. “Miserable old coot. Nothing I did was ever good enough for him. But that Toby? Fucking bastard got right in there. The old man couldn’t stop singing his praises.”
He already had a very low opinion of her intelligence. She thought she caught a scratching sound—and understood immediately that what she heard was the sound of the patio door in the bedroom sliding open. The good news is that if Joey hadn’t left my bedroom door open when he revealed himself, I wouldn’t have heard that.
Mary dismissed that totally inane thought and focused on Joey. She tilted her head like she was trying so hard to figure it all out. “Conway…oh! Your grandfather is Beck Conway, Toby’s partner in Casper? Then…I don’t understand. Why the gun?”
“Because Toby Kendall ruined everything for me! I know it was his whispering in my grandpa’s ear that made Grandpa turn away from me, treat me like a loser. Toby was jealous that Grandpa loved me and had me hang out at the department all the time. Before he came along, they called me Beck’s junior partner, and they all treated me with respect. I would have been his real partner, too! But then fucking Toby Kendall came around and ruined everything. Nothing went right for me once he showed up!”
“So…you should have been glad when Toby left Casper. You have your grandfather to yourself, now.”
“No, he ruined it!” Joey jumped to his feet, his arm extended, his hand shaky as he pointed his gun at her.
Mary slowly rose to her feet because at least this way, if his eyes telegraphed that he was going to pull the trigger, she could move. In her peripheral vision, she saw Adam Kendall in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.
Joey didn’t notice because he’d lost himself in his rant. “He ruined everything because I told the gang all about their plans, how they were going to do a pre-dawn raid on the warehouse, and they were supposed to make me a member so I would belong. But after they got away they said I was toxic because of my grandpa! They threw money at me, but I didn’t want their fucking money!”
“Wait!” Mary held her hand out toward Adam, who’d raised his service weapon. Joey didn’t notice. In fact, in that moment, she thought he couldn’t notice anything.
She’d been watching him and wasn’t too surprised when his eyes rolled. Adam had just enough time holster his gun to catch the unconscious man, one arm around him and the other hand grabbing his gun.
“Stay back, damn it!” Adam said.
“But, Adam, I think he might have…”
“We know.” Adam laid the man down on the floor and looked up at her. “Because you’re smart enough to keep your cool and tell us what we needed to know, Warren and Ed are on their way right now…in full protective
