the room to the fireplace. The boy pointed at the mantel to a photo of his father, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a blue tie and an off-white cowboy hat.
“He has on his badge like you. And we have it!” Sammy pulled on Sean’s hand, guiding him to an end table with the star badge framed in a shadow box. “I’m gonna wear one when I grow up.” He thrust out his chest.
“I felt that way when I was a young boy.” Sean turned toward the little girl standing next to Aubrey. “And you must be Camy.”
She nodded but stepped closer to her mother. Seeing them side by side, he noted a strong resemblance between the two.
“She’s shy with strangers,” Sammy said.
Sean smiled and winked at Camy, whose eyes grew round as saucers.
“I’m Camilla Roberts, their grandma, or as Sammy has been saying lately, their abuela.” The petite older woman with black hair and the same dark brown eyes as Aubrey stood and held her hand out.
Sean shook it. “It’s nice to meet all of you.”
“Camy and Sammy, it’s time to get ready for bed.” Camilla peered at her daughter. “The Texas Ranger is here to talk business with your mama.”
While Camy went to her grandmother, Sammy stood still. “I’m not sleepy. I want to stay.”
“Samuel Craig Madison, this isn’t negotiable. Go with Grandma now.” Aubrey’s firm voice emphasized the word now, which drew a big frown from her son, but Sammy left with his grandmother.
“Sorry about that. My son takes his job as the man of the house very seriously. He thinks he’s supposed to know about everything that goes on here. Let’s go back to my office.”
As they left the den, Sean said, “I understand. My father died when I was fourteen. I was the oldest male. I have two sisters, one younger and one older, and a younger brother. I thought I needed to protect them and be the man of the house, too.” Yet he hadn’t been able to protect his youngest sibling. He’d failed to accomplish his dad’s last request.
“Sammy’s only four and a half. He got that idea from a kid at church about six months ago.”
“Kids are growing up too fast today.”
“You don’t have to tell this mother.” Aubrey walked toward the doorway. “I need to put these new clothes in the washing machine. The idea that someone might have handled them in addition to the faint odor of a dead rat are more than enough reasons to wash them before they wear them.”
Sean glanced up and down the hallway before asking, “I wish you had answers to your husband’s death. It’s hard to get closure when there are so many unknowns. Do you mind telling me again about what happened? I haven’t had a chance to work on his case for a couple of months.” The influx of drugs had increased in the past few months, and he was determined to do what he could to stop the flow. He often wished there was more time in a day to do all he wanted. He’d even neglected Jack’s missing-person case.
“Sure. Have you had dinner yet?”
“No. When you called, I’d just arrived home.” He entered the kitchen.
“Knowing my mama, she put the leftovers in the refrigerator for me to have later. It won’t take long to heat them up in the microwave. It’s lasagna. Mama is a great cook, a trait I haven’t inherited from her.” She crossed to the utility room and disappeared inside.
Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was clean and neat, with little evidence they had just eaten dinner. He was glad that Aubrey had help with her children. He’d been there for his mother after his father died in a ranch accident. He’d tried his best to do what his dad had done at the family’s ranch and go to high school, then later college. Being a parent was hard, but being a single one was even more difficult. Reflecting on Sammy showing him the picture of his father and his badge brought a smile to Sean’s face. But then he remembered Camy’s shyness, and he thought about his younger sister, who’d been a lot like Aubrey’s daughter.
When Aubrey returned to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, she shot him a look around the door. “Are you really hungry? There’s a lot here.”
He nodded. “I’m always really hungry when it’s a home-cooked meal. Can I help?”
“Put this plate into the microwave on three and a half minutes, please.” She gave him her meal with plastic wrap covering it.
Ten minutes later, they were seated across from each other at the table in the alcove. The aroma of lasagna teased his senses, but before digging in, he bowed his head and said a silent prayer for help from God in solving what was going on with the dead rat and Aubrey’s husband’s wedding ring. He didn’t have a good feeling about this. Someone was playing games—possibly deadly ones—with her, and it was likely connected to the cartel.
When he looked up, their gazes connected. He realized she’d been praying, too. Sean took a bite of his dinner, savoring the delicious Italian dish. “Mmm. Tell your mom this is great.”
Aubrey smiled. “I will. She loves to hear that. Once she thought about being a chef and having her own restaurant.”
“Why didn’t she?”
Her smile vanished. “My husband was killed. She told me the deal fell through, but I’ve always wondered if that was the case.”
“Speaking of your husband, tell me again what you recall about his death.”
She scooped up a forkful of lasagna and ate it. “When he didn’t come home from work, I tried getting in touch with him, and it went to voice mail. I left a message to call me. I thought I would get a return call, but as the night turned into the next day, I knew something was terribly wrong. Even before the kids were born, he always kept in regular touch with me throughout the day. I called the Weslaco office to see if they knew anything. They didn’t but said they would look into it and get back to me. I then called the Port Bliss Police Department and reported my concerns. That day was the longest twenty-four hours I’ve ever gone through.”
Around the time of her husband’s death, Sean had received the notification of his brother’s disappearance. When the police described Jack’s destroyed apartment and the blood at the scene, he’d known his brother was probably killed, especially given some of the people he’d associated with. “Do you know what Samuel was working on? When I took over shortly after his death, I only found two open cases he’d been looking into.”
“Which ones?” Aubrey reached for her iced tea.
“A shipment of guns missing and the disappearance of Jack McNair.”
She stopped in mid-motion and looked toward him. “Any relationship to you?”
“My younger brother. Did Samuel ever talk about him? There wasn’t a lot in the case file on his death.” On the side, he’d been searching for any information on his missing brother and had come up empty. According to everyone he’d talked to, Jack just vanished one day.
“Not that I can remember. When Samuel died, everything got crazy. I felt for months that all I was doing was going through the motion of living. Attending his funeral was one of the hardest things I’ve done.
