She took a small, soft breath through parted lips.
Garrett said, “She’s doin’ her job, Bubba.”
“Ethan,” he said. “And no, she’s not.” He faced Willow again. “Jeremiah wasn’t implicated in any crime, was he? He wasn’t a suspect. You’re digging into him just because he’s my brother. Is that even legal?”
“You…I…” She shoved her bowl of stew away and stood up. “I thought you’d want to know who he is. Whether he’s a decent guy or a piece of shit like your father.”
Ethan shot to his feet too. “Don’t fuckin’ call him my father!”
Garrett stood up slower and sent his quelling look at them both until they sat back down. Then he did, too.
“Willow was trying to help,” Chelsea said. And then to Willow, “You should’ve talked to him first.”
“Right, even if he killed a guy?”
Garrett got up and left the room. When he came back, he had a folder, which he set beside Ethan on the dining room table. “If he killed the guy, he killed a killer who’d just threatened one of our own.”
Ethan reached for the folder, but Garrett put a hand over his. “Not at the table, Son. I can nutshell it for you. Angus Silver was the muscle for his older brother’s fentanyl trade in Texas and New Mexico. Got paid to rough up the dealers who got greedy. But he was sloppy, messed up so many times, big brother Nathan sent him to El Paso to run his own small time protection racket. He likes hurting people.”
“What people?” Ethan asked.
“People who cross him. Most often it’s the loved ones of people who cross him, usually women. There’ve been murders, disappearances. There’s photos in that there folder, and they aren’t pretty.” He lowered his head, then returned to his own seat. “Seven arrests, but he’s only gone to trial twice and never convicted.”
“Why not?” Ethan asked.
“Witnesses change their stories. Evidence disappears. Somebody forgets to cross a T or dot an I or check their brake lines before a road trip. He’s slippery. Or he was.”
“So when he threatened me…” Lily whispered.
“He wasn’t kidding,” Willow said. She blinked and lowered her head.
Garrett said, “Now you’re getting it. I’ve been worried about repercussions from the older brother, Nathan Silver, so I been lookin’ into things off the books. I went out to pay Nathan a visit. Condolences on your brother dying in my county, we’ve ruled it an accident, call me if you have any questions, you know the drill. Silver said his brother’s driver, Terrence Clay, had told him the same story he told us. Said he was so shaken up he’d asked for time off and was currently visiting family in Florida. I asked if he’d heard from Clay since he left, and he said no and asked if I had. I got the feelin’ he actually had no idea where the kid was.”
Ethan sighed. “I spoke with him for a few seconds, before Angus sped off. Advised him to get away from that crew or he’d end up dead or in prison.”
“Maybe he listened after that wreck,” Willow said. “So are we lookin’ for him?”
“Doesn’t seem necessary,” Garrett replied. “Nathan didn’t seem suspicious about the accident. My plan was to close the case and put his mind at ease.”
Willow shook her head hard and smacked the table. “Well, you might want to clue somebody into your master plan, Uncle Garrett. I already sent the sample out for comparison.”
Garrett nodded. “It’s good police work, I’ll give you that. When, uh, did you send it?”
“This morning. Dropped it into the mailbox in front of the station before I came here.”
“Huh,” Garrett said.
Willow sighed and reached for her stew bowl, and the meal resumed under a cloud.
When Willow left, looking miserable, Ethan noticed Lily follow. The two were on the front porch for another fifteen minutes, and he imagined Lily was doing that thing she did. She had a way of making a person feel better just by being around them. She didn’t like hearing it, but it was the truth.
He helped with the cleanup while his cousin and Lily talked, and then he headed up to his room so he could argue with himself in private. He’d reached the end of his ability to deny Lily whatever she asked of him, even if it was kids and a dog and a white picket fence. But she’d decided to stop trying.
His honest and immediately reaction had been crushing disappointment and anger with himself for waiting too long and missing his chance. And now, with Jeremiah maybe tangled up in a murder, maybe on the run…
Killing was wrong. But this killing might’ve saved Lily’s life. How could he judge Jeremiah for that, if he’d even done it? Hell, Ethan might’ve done it himself if he’d had all the information.
He stopped pacing for a moment when that thought crossed his mind, because it seemed like one he hadn’t had before—the notion that he could do violence in Lily’s defense. That was the way he felt about his family. She’d become every bit as important to him as they were.
