“You think Ty got hold of one of Kirby’s deliveries,” she said. “That’s what we’re dealing with here. He took it, stashed it somewhere, and they killed him before he could give it back.”

Rengo looked uneasily at Burke. “Well, yeah. But knowing Ty, he was probably out for his end.”

“Of course he was,” Jess said, disgusted. “And look what good it did him.”

Burke shifted his weight, Lucy watching him, her ears perked. “This is good,” he told Rengo. “But Ty never told you any of this directly?”

“No, sir,” Rengo replied. “He was pretty buttoned up about it.”

“He must have told someone. Did Ty have any other friends, anyone else he ran with besides you?”

Rengo gave him a pained look. Glanced at Jess and sucked in his breath. “I don’t—I don’t know if she wants to hear about it.”

Here it comes, Jess thought. Ty, you worthless sack of shit.

“I want to hear it,” she said. “Spit it out.”

Rengo didn’t know the full story.

“He was pretty tight lipped about this, too,” he said. “Even while we were cooking, I’d try to get him to open up, you know, guy stuff. He never said much about her.”

Her. Despite herself, Jess felt it like a knife in her chest. Figured that pretty well marked the end of any residual sadness she’d felt over Ty’s passing. She felt pissed off, instead, that she’d let him play her like he’d done. That she’d fallen in love, and all she’d gotten in return was a goddamn drug dealer who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants or even stay alive.

The men were watching her like they were scared she was going to break down, and she hated them for it.

“Go on,” she said, avoiding their eyes. “Tell me what you know and quit being a pussy about it.”

“Wellll, she was younger—”

“Damn it.”

Rengo wilted. “I mean, she was young. Like, too young for Ty, he kept saying. She worked in the cove, lived in town there. I could never get much out of him.”

“Name,” Jess said. “Give. Me. A. Name.”

Rengo looked at Burke, a helpless expression on his face. Looked to the dog, like she could somehow save him. But Lucy couldn’t, and Burke wouldn’t, and eventually Rengo sighed. “I guess her name’s Shelby.”

“Shelby Walker? The little tramp who works at the sheriff’s detachment?”

Burke started. “The teenager?”

“I mean, I think she’s about twenty,” Rengo said. “And I sure as hell didn’t know she worked at the detachment. But that would make sense, wouldn’t it? Give Ty a pair of eyes on the inside?”

Jess stood. “I know where she lives,” she told Burke. “We need to get her story.”