Rattlesnake Crossing

For the third time in the space of a half-an-hour, someone had raised the possibility that Belle Philips was somehow responsible for her former husband's death.

'That's why we have homicide detectives,' Joanna said soothingly. 'To find out whether something like that is possible.'

All the while Sarah had been droning on and on, Joanna had been paying close attention to what was happening outside the lace-curtained windows and beyond the two cottonwood trees that shaded Sarah's front yard. Sitting where she was, the sheriff had an almost unobstructed view of the street. In ten minutes' time, a series of cars had come and gone as Mike Wilson's Search and Rescue detail assembled, collected Deputy Sandoval and then left again, Dick Voland's Bronco had also pulled up. It was parked directly behind Joanna's Blazer. Voland and one of the deputies had marched off toward Clyde 's shop at the back of the property. Realizing her chief deputy must have arrived with a search warrant in hand and trusting that he knew what he was doing, Joanna hadn't bothered to traipse after them.

Now, though, she watched as a van with Pima County 's logo emblazoned on its door pulled up and parked behind Dick's Bronco. The pinch-hitting medical examiner had arrived from Tucson, so Joanna decided to go.

She stood up and held out her hand. 'Thank you so much, Mrs. Holcomb. You've been a great help. One of my detectives or I may need to talk to you again, but in the meantime, I'll have to be going.'

Rather than taking Joanna's proffered hand, Sarah simply stared at it without moving. 'If I'da known where all this was headed…' she said, 'that you might end up goin' after Belle… I'da kept my big mouth shut. That's what I shudda done.'

'Mrs. Holcomb,' Joanna said reassuringly, 'depending on the actual time of death, what you've told me may or may not have any bearing on this case. Regardless, let me assure you that you've done the right thing by telling us everything you know.'

Sarah Holcomb shook her head. 'I always did talk way too much,' she muttered morosely. 'From the time I was just a little tyke. You'da thought that by the time a woman gets to be my age she'd know better.'

'But-' Joanna began again.

Sarah waved her aside. 'No,' she said. 'You go on now. I don't want to talk no more. Not to you and not to nobody else, either.'

Feeling as though she'd botched things somehow, Joanna let herself out the front door. She hurried back to Clyde Philips' house in time to see a tall, beefy woman with bleached blond hair disappear through the front door.

Joanna arrived at the bedroom doorway as the woman slammed a heavy brown valise to the floor just inside the room. Planting both hands on her hips, she turned to survey her surroundings. 'I'm Fran Daly of the Pima County Medical Examiner's office,' she told Jaime Carbajal. 'Doctor Fran Daly. Who are you?'

At five-four, Joanna couldn't see over Dr. Daly's broad shoulder, but she peered around the other woman in time to catch sight of a grimy Jaime Carbajal using a metal ladder to climb up and out of the crawl space. Gingerly, he eased himself onto what seemed to be a relatively stable part of the bedroom floor.

'I'm Detective Carbajal,' he replied. 'I'm a homicide detective with the Cochise County Sheriff's Department.'

'All right. So where's the body?'

Jaime nodded back toward the hole. 'Down there,' he said. 'The victim was lying on a bed that collapsed and fell through the floor into the crawl space.'

'Great,' Fran muttered irritably. 'Just what I need. The body's fallen into the basement. What else? It looks like a damned army's been in and out of this room. What the hell happened here?'

'Well,' Jaime explained, 'a woman fell through the floor right along with the victim. As I understand it, she was seriously hurt in the fall. We had to call for help. All told, it took six men-four firemen and two EMTs to get her out- and-'

'You're telling me six men have been tracking through my evidence? Who the hell's the dimwit who authorized that? The least those clowns could have done was worn booties over their shoes so they wouldn't have left these god-awful tracks all over the place. Are you responsible for this mess, Detective Carbajal?'

Joanna couldn't see the superior sneer Fran Daly leveled at Jaime Carbajal, but she heard it well enough.

'No,' Joanna said quietly. 'I am.'

Dr. Fran Daly spun around and glared at her. Built with all the grace and delicacy of a tank, she wore a cowboy shirt and jeans. Her only pieces of jewelry were a man's watch and an immense, turquoise-encrusted silver belt buckle on a wide leather belt.

'And who might you be?' Fran Daly demanded.

'My name's Joanna Brady.'

'Well,' Fran said, 'I was directed to report to someone named Voland-Chief Deputy Richard Voland. Where's he?'

'Outside,' Joanna said. 'Chief Deputy Voland is busy at the moment, but you're welcome to talk to me.'

'What are you?' Fran Daly asked. 'His deputy?'

'As a matter of fact,' Joanna said deliberately, 'it's the other way around. Dick Voland is my deputy. I'm Sheriff Joanna Brady, Dr. Daly. And I'm also the person-I believe you used the term 'dimwit'-who made the decision that it was more important to effect a timely rescue of a seriously injured woman than it was to tiptoe around preserving evidence. When it comes to handling injury situations, the possibility of losing some trace evidence must take a backseat to emergency medical care. What was done here seemed like a reasonable trade-off to me. If I had it to do over, I'm sure that I'd reach the exact same conclusion.'

Fran Daly sighed and rolled her eyes. 'All right then,' she said. 'Just show me where the body is and let me get started. And for God's sake, somebody turn off the damned air-conditioner.'

With that she picked up her valise from its spot in the doorway and started into the room.

'I'd be careful if I were you,' Joanna warned. 'The floor in here collapsed because the whole thing's been rotted out by termites. Underneath the roll flooring, what's left of the wood is little more than powdery cardboard.'

Once again the medical examiner swung around to face Joanna. 'Excuse me, Sheriff Brady,' she snapped. 'My boss sent me here to do this job because I happen to be a trained technician, the senior trained technician in our department. I don't know what that means in your bailiwick, but in mine it means that I know what I'm doing. It also means that I'm qualified to do my job without any unnecessary supervision from you or anyone else. So if you'll excuse me-'

Reaching the center of the room, she slammed the heavy valise down once more. The thud of the case on the floor was immediately followed by a loud, ominous crack. What had appeared to be flat flooring up to then tilted sharply downward. In slow motion, the valise began to move, sliding down a ski slope of worn linoleum toward the jagged-edged and ever-expanding hole into the crawl space.

As the bag of equipment slid away from her, Fran Daly reached down and made a desperate grab for it, but she missed. Eluding her fingertips, the still upright valise slipped out of reach and then dropped majestically from view. When it landed in the dirt of the darkened crawl space some five feet below, it did so with a distinct splat-one that included the muffled tinkle of breaking glass.

'Shit!' Fran Daly exclaimed.

Joanna had a sudden, vivid remembrance of her father, D. H. Lathrop. 'What goes around comes around' had always been one of his favorite expressions. Those words came back to his daughter now with such clarity and meaning that it was all Joanna could do to keep from laughing.

With some difficulty she managed to contain herself. 'If this is your idea of crime-scene preservation, Dr. Daly,' Joanna said sternly, 'then it would appear supervision is very much in order. I'll leave Detective Carbajal here to keep an eye on you. He can give you any assistance you might need.'

Glancing at the young detective, Joanna saw that he was having almost as much trouble keeping a straight face as she was. 'Is that all right with you, Detective Carbajal?' she asked.

Sobering quickly, he nodded. 'Sure thing, Sheriff Brady,' he managed. 'I was just on my way out to the van to pick up some lights. I've been taking pictures this whole time, but it's really dark down there in the crawl space. If Dr. Daly and I are going to do any kind of meaningful work, we'll need more light. If that's okay with you, that is.' He turned deferentially to Dr. Daly.