Outlaw Mountain (28 page)

Joanna swallowed hard. “You and Eva Lou don’t mind then?”

Jim Bob put Jenny down and then gathered Joanna into his arms. “Of course we don’t mind, honey bun. Why would we? When Andy was alive, you were the very best wife a man could ask for, but he’s gone now. You have the whole rest of your life ahead of you, Joanna. You’re young and bright and you deserve some happiness. In fact, I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.”

Joanna squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from spilling out. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Jim Bob pushed away and held her at arm’s length. “You’re welcome,” he grinned. “And congratulations.” Then he turned to Jenny. “Come on now, you little hellion. Let’s get going. Grandma was putting a batch of corn bread in the oven as I was leaving the house. On the way home you can tell me all about who you were fighting with and how come.”

Joanna felt a bit left out. “Wait a minute. You mean to tell at Eva Lou’s making some of her world-famous corn and I’m not invited?”

“No, ma’am,” Jim Bob said. “Butch called a little while ago and asked if I could come pick Jenny up right after school. He said two of you had a date tonight—that he was taking you out to dinner.”

“He is, is he? Funny he never mentioned it to me,” Joanna returned. “Which reminds me, where is he?”

“Said he had a bunch of errands to run. That he wouldn’t be able to be here right when school let out. That’s why he wanted me to be Johnny-on-the-spot to meet Jenny.”

Moments later, Jim Bob loaded Jenny into his Honda Civic, and the two of them drove away. Unexpectedly relieved of her parental responsibilities for the evening, Joanna decided to stop by the department on her way back home. After all, it wouldn’t hurt for her to check out what had happened during her absence and try to get a head start on the next day’s business.

Pulling into her reserved parking place, Joanna noticed Dick Voland’s Bronco parked in its usual place. During her long talk with Marianne Maculyea, Joanna had neglected to mention her conflict with Dick Voland, and she wasn’t sure why
.
Maybe she was ashamed and worried that she herself had somehow, unwittingly, brought on the whole mess. Now, though, seeing his parked car, she knew she would have to face the music. She hadn’t brought the situation up in the privacy of Marianne’s living room. Now, though, she would have to do so in public.

She paused briefly at her private entrance and thought about letting herself into the office that way. Then she changed her mind. People might think she was so upset by her chief deputy’s sudden defection that she was sneaking in and out of her office in hopes of avoiding seeing anyone. No. The only way to handle this was to go in by way of the lobby entrance and simply brazen it out.

Dick had tendered his letter of resignation, and she had accepted. Period. That was all there was to it. And since his letter stated no specific reason for his departure, there was no reason for discussion on Joanna’s part, either.

On her way through the lobby, Joanna heard several conversations stop abruptly as she passed by. She also noted several sidelong questioning glances. Stiffening her spine, she smiled, greeted people by name, and marched right on past.

Let ‘em talk, she told herself firmly. All I’ve got to do is show them it’s business as usual. Everything will be fine.

But everything wasn’t fine. In the reception area outside Joanna’s office, a red-nosed and tearful Kristin Marsten barely acknowledged Joanna’s greeting. “Your messages are on your desk,” the overwrought secretary told her boss.

A glance into Dick’s office showed that the place had been stripped bare of every personal item. Relieved, Joanna turned back to Kristin. “Did Mr. Voland drop off the keys to his Bronco?”

“Yes, he left them,” Kristin snapped back. “Those are on your desk, too. Why don’t you go look for once instead of asking me!”

That outburst brought Joanna to a full stop in front of Kris-tin’s desk. Never one to raise her voice when she was angry, she didn’t do so now.

“Let’s get something straight, Kristin,” she said in a voice just barely above a whisper. “Chief Deputy Voland left of his own volition. I did not ask him to leave, but I didn’t ask him to stay, either. There are certain basic requirements for working around here, and mutual respect is one of them. If you’re not happy with my personnel changes, then you have three choices. One: You can learn to live with them. Two: You can quit. Three: You can ask for a transfer to some other duty station inside the department.

“It’s your choice, Kristin,” Joanna continued, “but those are the options. Let me warn you, however. If the choice you make is to continue working as my secretary, you’d better be prepared to give me the respect I deserve. Understood?”

Ashen-faced, Kristin nodded bleakly and said nothing.

“All right then,” Joanna finished. “I’m going into my office to return some calls. Is Frank Montoya still around?”

“He’s in his office.”

“Good. Ask him to come see me when he has a minute.”

With that, Joanna stalked off. She knew she had lashed out at Kristin, probably harder than the young woman deserved. After all, Kristin had worked with Dick Voland for years, and she obviously liked him. Still, Joanna had to make the point so word would get around. If there were any other die-hard Dick Voland loyalists in the office—and he had worked for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department long enough that there were bound to be some—then those people needed to know exactly how the wind was blowing. Joanna Brady was in charge and she wasn’t going to be stepped on. That was the way it was, by God, and she had to let people know!

Dick Voland’s keys sat on top of the stack of messages in the middle of her desk. Putting the keys to one side, Joanna sorted through the messages. On her way home from the Kiwanis meeting, when Joanna had decided that she was going home for the day, she had shut off her pager and shifted her cell-phone calls to the office. As a consequence, all of that day’s calls had been routed through the office and had been transcribed by Kristin.

Sorting through them was a bit like dealing out a hand of solitaire. There were sixteen in all. Three of them were from Butch. The first one from him contained an invitation to dinner. The second set the time and neglected to tell her where, while the third worried about whether or not she had received either of the first two. Seven were congratulatory calls from people around town who had read about her expected engagement and who were calling to wish Joanna well. Two of the remaining six were from Marliss and two were from Eleanor, with one each from George Winfield and Dr. Fran Daly.

Deciding to return the congratulatory calls later, Joanna set those aside. The messages from Marliss and Eleanor went straight into the circular file under her desk. The calls from the two medical examiners were the only ones she actually tackled.

“Oh, it’s you,” George said, when he recognized her voice. “When I didn’t hear from you, I called Ernie Carpenter. He sent Jaime Carbajal up here to pick up the preliminary report on Mark Childers.”

That was Joanna’s first hint that Mark Childers hadn’t survived the night, but she didn’t let on. “So what was it?” she asked.

“Heart attack,” Dr. Winfield answered wearily. “His heart was already badly diseased to begin with. And I’m sure the drugs didn’t help.”

“Drugs?” Joanna repeated.

“You bet. I’ll bet Mark Childers was a long-time recreational drug user—cocaine and/or heroin. He was a heart attack waiting to happen. And sitting locked in the dark in a crapper with somebody outside taking pot shots at the door was enough to do him in. I did that one first thing this morning, and just finished up with Flores a little while ago. I’ll be sending that paperwork along as well, but since you were right there when it happened, I suppose that one is pretty self-explanatory.”

“Right,” Joanna said. “But Ernie and Jaime will need a copy all the sane.”

An awkward pause followed. “I’m sorry as hell about the way things worked out,” George Winfield said finally. “That bit in the newspaper was ridiculous. I told your mother—well, never mind. Suffice it to say, we’ve had words about this. She had no right to do that to you, Joanna, or to Butch, either. I’ve always given Ellie the benefit of the doubt where you were concerned. To hear her tell it, you were always a handful from the day you were born and always a step or two out of line. Now—what can I say?”

He sounded so genuinely upset that Joanna felt sorry for him. “You don’t have to say anything, George. It’s all right. Butch asked me to marry him and I said yes. That’s all there is to it. An item in Marliss Shackleford’s column certainly wouldn’t be my first choice for letting the world know, but now the word’s out, and it’s all right.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Have you talked to your mother then?”

“Not yet.” Joanna laughed. “I talk a good game, but maybe not quite that good.”

“I understand,” George Winfield said with obvious relief. “But do call her as soon as you can. For all our sakes.”

“All right,” Joanna said. “I will.”

As soon as she ended that call, Joanna tried returning Fran’s call, only to be told that the assistant medical examiner was unavailable.
Well,
Joanna thought,
it turns out so am I.

She stood up and started into the lobby to tell Kristin she was leaving. Frank Montoya met her at the lobby door. “For someone who didn’t come to work today, you’ve had yourself quite a day,” he observed.

“Is everything under control?” she asked.

“As much as it can be.”

“Good. I may not look sick, but I’m having a sick day nonetheless. Since you’ve done a great job of handling things so far, keep right on doing it. We’ll talk about all this tomorrow morning. What do you say?”

“You’re the boss,” Frank replied. “Tomorrow it is.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

With that, Joanna left the office and rushed home, where she showered for the second time that day. This time she worried over her makeup and spent the better part of half an hour trying to get her hair just right. When it came time to dress, she chose with care, settling at last on her pearl-gray suit with an off-white silk blouse. She liked that outfit especially. It made her seem taller, and it showed off her red hair and green eyes to good effect.

Pausing in front of her dresser after spraying on one final spritz of perfume, she opened the top drawer and pulled out a tiny velvet-covered jewel box. She opened it and stared .it the contents for some time before dropping the box into her pocket. Minutes later, the dogs’ frantic barking announced Butch’s arrival.

She hurried out to the car before he had a chance to come inside. “So, Mr. Unemployed,” she said, getting into the Out back. “Are you sure you can afford to take me out to dinner?”

Butch grinned at her. “At least Marliss spelled my name right.”

Joanna rolled her eyes. “What did you do with Junior?”

“Moe and Daisy Maxwell,” Butch answered. “As soon as I told them what kind of a bind I was in, they offered to take him, and I accepted. Besides, Junior knows Daisy and he likes her. She promised him another chocolate shake.”

“And where are we going? Not Daisy’s, I presume.”

“The Rob Roy, of course,” Butch said, naming a recently built golf course out near Palominas. The clubhouse contained an upscale dining room that had quickly become one of the hot-spot dining places in all of Cochise County.

“Since I’m a sentimental slob, where else would I take you? After all, that’s where we had our first real date. You look beautiful, by the way.”

“Thanks,” she said.

Their table was in a secluded corner of the elegant dining room. A chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot was waiting for them when they arrived, as was a beautiful bouquet of roses—a dozen of the delicately colored apricot ones that were Joanna’s favorite.

“There’s only one thing missing,” Butch apologized, as they sipped their first glass of champagne. “I love you. I’m thrilled that you’ve said yes, regardless of whether or not it was under duress because your mother was holding a gun to our heads. But you were so damned busy today that I couldn’t catch up with you long enough to drag you to a jeweler. Which I’m sure I should have. After all, with our engagement already public knowledge, you’d better turn up with a ring pretty damned soon or we’ll be in even more trouble.”

Joanna fingered the stem of her champagne flute. “Have you priced engagement rings lately?” she asked.

“Well, yes. I have. But I’m fearless,” he added. “I’m. sure I can handle it.”

“What would happen it I told you I already have an engagement ring?”

His face fell. “You don’t mean that there’s someone else ...”

Had Butch not been so serious, it might have been comical. Reaching in her pocket, Joanna fished out the tiny box. She flipped it open to reveal the diamond engagement ring that lay inside, then she slid the open box across the table.

For a long moment Butch stared at the ring with its glittering emerald-cut stone. “What’s this?” he asked finally.

“Andy gave it to me,” Joanna explained. “I never had a diamond before we were married. We couldn’t afford it. And with Jenny coming along so soon, we couldn’t afford one for a long time afterward, either. Andy bought it for me for our tenth anniversary, but by the time it arrived, he was in the hospital dying. I tried wearing it for a while. But finally I just put it away in a drawer and left it there. Andy gave it to me, Butch, and it was exactly the kind of ring I would have chosen for myself. But it never meant what it was supposed to mean. Or what it can mean now—for us.”

“It’s very beautiful,” Butch said. He was still staring at the ring with downcast eyes.

“Yes, it is,” Joanna agreed.

“And you’re suggesting that we use this ring—Andy’s ring—for our engagement, yours and mine?”

“It was Andy’s anniversary present,” Joanna said. “It would be our engagement ring. Don’t forget, you and Andy are both a part of my life now, Butch. You always will be.”

For what seemed an eternity, he continued to stare at the ring. Then, carefully, he pried it out of its velvet-covered bed. When he looked up at her, he was grinning.