Skeleton Canyon

“Oh, there’s a reason, all right,” he conceded bitterly. “I tried to outwit God, and this is what it got me. As far as I can see, I’ve got nothing left to live for.”

“What about your wife?”

“What about her?” He shrugged. “Katherine’s had one foot out the door all these years. With Brianna gone, there’s no reason for her to stay. And there’s no reason for me to hang around, either. I built all this for my daughter,” he added. “If I can’t give it to her, what’s the point?”

^“There may be another answer,” Joanna told him. “One you’ve missed so far. The problem is, suicide is a permanent solution. If you’re dead, you’ll never have a chance to find out what that answer might be. Talk to a counselor, Mr. O’Brien. Or to Father Morris from St. Dominick’s. You need some help.”

“What I need is for you to get out and leave me alone,” David O’Brien said wearily. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ernie met Joanna at the door. “What happened?” he asked. “I got all the way to the door before I figured out you weren’t right behind me. What’s going on?”

^“Where’s Mrs. O’Brien?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s home now. The Lexus was just driving into the yard when I started back to find you.”

“Good,” Joanna said grimly. “We’d better have a word with Katherine before we go see Maggie Hastings.”

“Why?” Ernie asked. “Is there a problem?”

“There will be if someone doesn’t do something to prevent it,” Joanna replied. “Unless I’m mistaken, David Mitten is right on the brink of blowing his brains out.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to tell his wife.”

As it turned out, they met up with Katherine O’Brien in the entryway. She had just come in the door and was depositing his keys and purse on a gilded entryway table. She was dressed in a sedate navy blue shirtwaist dress. There was makeup on her face. Her graying hair was swept up into an elegant French twist. The cumulative result made Katherine O’Brien far different from the casually attired, makeup-free woman Joanna had met on two previous occasions. The one hung that remained constant, however, was Katherine O’Brien’s ironclad emotional control.

“What’s going on, Sheriff Brady?” Katherine asked. “I saw two sheriff’s cars out in the drive. Has something happened? Did you catch Bree’s killer?”

“No,” Joanna said hastily. “Nothing like that. We’re here on another matter-to see your husband about Alf Hastings. But Mrs. O’Brien, I must warn you, I think your husband is taking vow daughter’s death very badly.”

“Of course he’s taking it badly,” she returned. “It isn’t the kind of thing you take well.”

“I believe your husband is suicidal,” Joanna added. “You need to talk to him about this. Or find him some help, someone to talk to-a priest or a counselor. Unless you want to be planning two funerals instead of one.”

Katherine O’Brien seemed to draw back. Her eyes narrowed, her lists clenched. “God helps those who help themselves,” she said.

The woman’s brusque response was so different from what Joanna expected-so different from the concerned and hovering helpmate Katherine had appeared to be previously-that Joanna was momentarily taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“Just that. I mean David’s a grown-up. If he wants to find someone to talk to about this, he’ll have to find help for himself. It’s not up to me.”

“But isn’t-”

“Look,” Katherine interrupted, her eyes blazing with anger, “I spent eighteen years of my life walking a tightrope and running interference between those two. While Brianna was here, nothing she did ever quite measured up. No matter what, she wasn’t good enough to suit him. If he’s going to go off the deep end now that she’s gone, it’s up to him. He’ll have to come to terms with his own guilt for a change. I’m finally out of the middle, and I have every intention of staying that way.”

Looking at Katherine, Joanna couldn’t help remembering David O’Brien’s words. Katherine’s had one foot out the door for years. Was that what was going on here, then? Was this one of those cases where an incompatible couple had stayed married for the sake of a child? And, now that the child was gone, did that mean the marriage was over? Unfortunately, in trying to help David O’Brien, it seemed Joanna had only succeeded in pouring oil on the flames.

She decided to take one last crack at smoothing things over. “We all have to learn to live with the consequences of our actions,” she said.

Katherine nodded. “I figured that out a long time ago,” she said. “David never has. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She turned toward the kitchen. “Olga,” she called, “I’m going to go lie down for a little while. Please don’t let me sleep past three. I have a four o’clock appointment with Father Morris.”

Left alone in the foyer, Joanna and Ernie let themselves out the front door. ^“Whew!” Ernie exclaimed, once the door closed behind them and they were alone on the verandah. “What the hell was that all about? Katherine O’Brien isn’t what I’d call your typical grieving mother.”

“Maybe there’s no such thing,” Joanna said thoughtfully. “Come on. Let’s go see Maggie Hastings.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Taking two separate cars, Ernie and Joanna drove back up the road to the Y that led off through the lush grass to the Green Brush Ranch employee compound. It consisted of five separate fourteen-by-seventy mobile homes. They were set in a slight hollow, out of sight from both the road and the main house. The mobile home sites were newly carved from the desert. The trailers were surrounded by raw red dirt punctuated by baby landscaping of reed-thin trees, tiny cacti, and leggy clumps of youthful oleander.

The first trailer on the left-hand side of the road was flanked by a six-foot-high chain-link dog run. As soon as Joanna stopped her Crown Victoria and stepped outside, the German shepherd she had seen on Saturday threw himself against the gate, barking and growling.

Ernie, joining Joanna beside her car, gave the dog run’s fierce occupant a wary look. “Let’s hope to hell the damned thing holds,” he said.

The dog was still harking furiously when a woman opened the door in answer to Ernie Carpenter’s knock. “Yeah?” she said, holding on to the doorjamb with both hands and swaying unsteadily on her feet. “Whad’ya want?”

“Maggie Hastings?” he said, opening his wallet and displaying his ID. “Would it be possible to speak to you for a few moments? Could we come in?”

Maggie Hastings was a disheveled, dark-haired woman in her mid-to-late forties. Her graying, lackluster hair was pulled back in a greasy ponytail. She wore a soiled man’s shirt over a pair of too-tight shorts. She was also quite drunk.

Stumbling away from the door, she allowed Joanna and Ernie to enter. “Whaz this all about?” she slurred.

The room’s curtains were tightly closed. The difference between the interior gloom and the brilliant exterior sunlight left Joanna momentarily blind. The stench of booze combined with a lingering pall of cigar and cigarette smoke was so stifling that Joanna could barely breathe.

“Sorry the place is such a mess,” Maggie muttered, kicking something aside. “Haven’t had a chance to pick up today. Waddn’t ‘xactly expecting company.”

From the sound, Joanna suspected that the invisible object was an empty bottle of some kind. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she was shocked by the disarray. To the outside world, Alf Hastings presented a neat, well-pressed countenance. It was hard to believe that his starched khaki uniform could have emerged from such filth. The living room wasn’t merely a mess. It was a disaster. Empty bottles-gin mostly, but some beer as well- littered the newspaper-strewn floor. The dining room table, visible from the living room, was covered with stacks of dirty dishes, milk cartons, margarine containers, and bread wrappers-several days’ worth at least. A line of what seemed like mostly can-and-bottle-filled garbage sacks lined one side of the room, marching from the kitchen doorway toward the front door.