“Not a chance in hell,” Rowdy objected.
“Son, I don’t need you watching my back.” Ray glared back at his son with fatherly reproof. “Put your back down, and keep Natches and the sheriff here company. Me and Miss Dane here will just have a little chat in the office.”
“Damn it, Dad—”
“And don’t curse in front of the women. I taught you better than that.” Ray glared back at him before turning to Chaya and inviting her into the marina office. “Come on in, Agent Dane. These boys can stand out here in the sun and let off some steam while we talk. It’s the best thing for them.”
She liked him. She had liked him the year before, the few times she had seen him. He was protective of his son and his nephews. He had protected them as well as he could when they were children, and he continued to do so after they were grown.
Ray Mackay, for all intents and purposes, didn’t have just one son, he had three.
“Right back here.” He opened the office door as his wife stood by worriedly. “Maria just made fresh coffee. Would you like some?”
“No thank you.” She felt like slime as she took the seat he offered her and waited as he closed the door and moved behind his desk.
Then he was staring back at her with too-perceptive blue eyes and a concerned expression. “You’re sure making a mess of my boys.” He sighed. “I heard Dawg and Natches almost came to blows at the diner yesterday. And Natches is fit to be tied right now.”
Chaya nodded. “I know. It couldn’t be helped.”
Ray Mackay was what Chaya had always thought a father should be. At fifty-nine, he was trim, his hair black and silver, his face weathered. And kind. He had a kind face, and that just made her feel worse.
She pulled the recording device from her briefcase hesitantly.
“I need to record this,” she told him.
He nodded in agreement.
She turned the machine on, stated the date and time, and looked up at him. “Your name is Raymond Douglas Mackay. You were Johnny Grace’s uncle. Brother to his mother as well as to Chandler Mackay.”
“I am.” He nodded.
She swallowed tightly. “Were you at any time aware of Johnny Grace’s illegal activities here in Somerset or outside the county?” She watched his eyes, and he didn’t turn from her, didn’t flinch.
“No, ma’am, I didn’t know Johnny was capable of such activities.”
She nodded to that.
“Mr. Mackay, as stated by Johnny Grace, he’s the half brother to his cousin James Mackay. A product of the incestuous relationship between his mother and her brother Chandler Mackay. Did you know this?”
“I suspected a time or two,” he said softly. “My brothers and sister weren’t my concern after I left my mother’s home, Agent Dane. I lived my life, and I stayed out of theirs.”
She nodded again.
“Would his mother be capable of aiding him in those illegal activities?” she asked him.
“His mother would have aided the devil himself if it meant destroying Dawg. If it meant destroying any of those boys outside there. She hated them. Even more than Dawg’s and Natches’s fathers hated them.”
“Was she also sleeping with her brother Dayle Mackay? Would he have aided her and/or her son in those activities?”
Ray stared back at her silently for long moments. “I’d like to say no,” he finally said.
“But?”
“But I learned with Johnny that nothing is impossible. Honestly, I wouldn’t know, Agent Dane. Dayle’s ex-Marine, always seemed damned patriotic to me. He preaches about it, argues politics, and votes in every election. Hates foreigners, and my first thought would be he’d never betray his country. But after Johnny . . .” He shook his head. “What the hell do I know?”
“There’s a million dollars in cash missing, and connections Johnny or Jim Bedsford couldn’t have had aided in the near sale of those missiles, Mr. Mackay. Who would have helped him?”
Ray scratched his cheek as he thought, then finally shook his head. “I just don’t know. Things like this don’t happen around here, Agent Dane. Somerset is a quiet little town, and this whole thing . . .” He shook his head again. “It’s spooked a lot of folks. Hell, I think it spooked me.”
“Wenden Frakes, Ralph Grace’s half brother, says Johnny spent a lot of time on the lake last summer. Did he use any of the boats off your marina?”
“Not one of my mine.” He shook his head firmly. “I didn’t let Johnny Grace rent out my boats for no reason. He had a tendency to tear them up. Those boats are hard to replace. Besides, Dayle had a boat he kept out at his cabin farther up the lake. Johnny used it some, I think.”
She nodded again and flipped off the recorder. She had what she needed here.
“Thank you, Mr. Mackay,” she said when he stared back at her in surprise. “I know the questions weren’t comfortable, and I apologize for that. They weren’t questions I chose; I want you to know that.”
Ray leaned back in his chair then and watched her with the narrow-eyed intent of a man who knew people and, sometimes, knew them too well.
“Dawg says you’re cold,” he stated then, surprising her. “That you’re just using Natches for whatever DHS has going on here. Is that true?”
Chaya slid the recorder back in her case before lifting her eyes to Ray. She let him hold her gaze, just as he had allowed her to hold his. “Natches is my weakness, Mr. Mackay,” she finally admitted. “And he doesn’t take no for an answer sometimes.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” he said, his voice gentle as he smiled back at her. “Are you using my nephew, Agent Dane?”
“No, Mr. Mackay. I’m trying to protect your nephew.”
And to that, he nodded slowly. “And I believe you. Now I think you have some bridges to repair outside. Rowdy’s got a slow burn. He doesn’t do mad easy, but he’s getting close to mad. Dawg is ready to fight. And Natches will stand between them and you, but I’d hate to see that happen. Fix it, if you don’t mind.”
“And I’m supposed to do that how?”
“By being honest, Miss Dane. As honest as you can be. Those three boys ain’t no one’s dummies, no matter what that Cranston fellow wants to think. And after today, they’re going to block you unless you’re smart enough to work with them.”