involved, I would have thought it would take months, it not years, to unload it. Where’d you hear about that?”
“At the luncheon today,” Joanna replied. “Actually, that little nugget of intelligence came straight from my mother, who got it from Helen Barco at Helene’s Salon of Hair and Beauty.”
“Who’s buying the place?” Dick asked. “Most likely someone from out of town.”
“Mother didn’t say,” Joanna told him. “I meant to mention it to Ernie, but we didn’t have time to talk about anything but Hannah Green.”
“It’s probably not that important,” Voland said. “But I’m going by the department on my way home. If Ernie’s still there, I’ll let him know.”
“While you’re at it, there’s something else I forgot to mention,” Joanna continued. “I ran into Terry Buckwalter out at the Rob Roy today, too. When I saw her, she was just coming back from a game of golf. She looked like a million dollars, her wedding ring was among the missing, and it looked to me like she might have something going with her golf pro. The guy’s name is Peter Wilkes. Tell Ernie to check him out, too.”
“Peter Wilkes!” Dick scoffed. “Isn’t he one of the”-he paused, searching for some kind of acceptable phraseology-”gay blades,” he said finally, “who started the Rob Roy in the first place?”
Joanna nodded. “He and his partner.”
“What would he have going with Terry Buckwalter, then?” Voland asked.
“I don’t know,” Joanna said. “That’s what I want Ernie to check out. I le might want to start by talking will Helen Barco.”
“Wait a minute,” Voland said. “Aren’t you reaching on this one?”
Joanna had been right. Word by word, sentence by sentence, the truce between Joanna and her chief deputy was disintegrating.
“What do you mean, reaching?” she asked.
“Look, Joanna,” Dick Voland said reasonably. “I can see where you’re coming from. What happened to Hal Morgan wife is more or less the same thing that happened to Andy. They’re not exactly the same, mind you. But they’re close enough for you to have lost perspective-to be viewing things through some misguided sense of sympathy.”
“Sympathy!” Joanna began, but Voland went right on talking.
“You shot Tony Vargas dead, but it wasn’t a premeditated thing. Hal Morgan came here to Bisbee with every intention of doing exactly what he did-of taking the law in his own hands. This afternoon and tonight, I sent those two deputies over to Saginaw, just like you wanted me to. They didn’t find anything, Joanna-not one blessed thing- to support Hal Morgan’s lame story. Now here you come with this fruitcake business about Terry Buckwalter and Wilkes. It’s just… just ridiculous.”
The heat Joanna felt rising up her neck had nothing to do with either the bubbling gravy on the stove or with the potatoes she had just mashed.
“Leaving no stone unturned isn’t ridiculous,” she said curtly. “It’s called doing a thorough investigation, Dick. At before you start casting aspersions about who has and who hasn’t lost perspective, you might consider that, if nothing else, I’m looking at Hal Morgan with a presumption of innocence. You and Arlee Campbell keep acting like the man’s already been tried and convicted. I want Peter Wilkes checked out, and Terry Buckwalter as well.”
“Right,” Dick Voland said. “I’ll make sure to pass the word along.”
The food was ready to be put on the table. “Would you like something to eat?” Joanna asked in the awkward pause that followed.
“No, thanks,” Voland said. “In fact, maybe I’d better head out and get on this right now. After all, I wouldn’t want any of these valuable leads to slip through our fingers.”
The sarcasm in Voland’s last sentence wasn’t lost on Joanna. She had heard it before on other occasions. She was learning to live with it, and most of the time it didn’t bother her. Tonight it did. For a while it had seemed she might be gaining ground in Dick Voland’s opinion. Earning her stripes. But his parting remark proved otherwise.
Even so, she didn’t want him to go away angry. She followed him as far as the back porch. “Thanks, Dick. Especially for dropping everything and coming as soon as Jenny called.”
He looked back at her. “You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “Of course I came. It’s my job.”
Shaking her head, Joanna went back inside and called Jenny to dinner. The child came at once and attacked her food with more enthusiasm than she had shown in months. She had polished off her very well-done pork chop and was working her way through a mound of peas before she slowed down enough to talk.
“I was watching out the window when Detective Carpenter took Mrs. Green out of the house and put her in his car,” Jenny said thoughtfully. “I felt sorry for her. She seemed more sad than crazy, and she didn’t do anything to hurt us. What’s going to happen to her?”
“I don’t have any idea, Jenny, and that’s the truth.”
“Will she have to go to prison?”
“Maybe. That’ll be up to the judge to decide,” Joanna said.
“Will she have to go to court?”
“Most likely.”
“But she’s poor, isn’t she?” Jenny asked. “She looked poor.”
“I think you’re right,” Joanna said. “She looked poor to me, too.”
“So how will she pay for a lawyer then?” Jenny asked. “Don’t they cost a lot of money?”
“If she can’t pay for a lawyer, the judge will give her one. That’s called a court-appointed attorney.”
“And she doesn’t have to pay then?”
“No.”
All of Jenny’s peas had disappeared. The only thing remaining on her plate was a single helping of coleslaw. Before Jenny started on that, she shot her mother a subtly appraising glance. “Was Mr. Voland mad that I called him?”
“Mad?” Joanna returned. “Not at all. Why do you ask?”
“I heard him just before he left. It sounded like he was yelling at the top of his lungs.”
“We were having a discussion,” Joanna said. “A disagreement.”
“About what?”
“About how to do things,” Joanna answered after a moment’s consideration. “He thinks the department should do things one way, and I think we should do them another.”
“Well,” Jenny said. “You’re the boss, aren’t you? Isn’t he supposed to do things the way you want?”
Joanna had to smile at Jenny’s uncomplicated view of the world. Things either were or they weren’t. Politics hadn’t yet intruded on Jenny’s consciousness. As far as Joanna could tell, neither had the battle of the sexes.
“Do you remember all those old Calvin and Hobbes books that your dad loved so much? Remember how Calvin never wanted to let Susie in his club?”
Jenny nodded.
“Dick Voland reminds me a little of Calvin. He liked the department a lot better when it was a private club with no girls allowed.”
“If he doesn’t like you, why doesn’t he quit and go work somewhere else?” Jenny asked.
“It isn’t quite that easy, Jenny,” Joanna told her daughter. “Not for either one of us. Dick Voland has been in law enforcement a long time. I haven’t. There are all kinds of things I can learn from him that will make me a better sheriff. The only problem is, sometimes it isn’t easy for the two of us to work together.”
“Still,” Jenny insisted firmly, “he shouldn’t yell. It isn’t nice.”
Joanna smiled. “No, it isn’t, but fortunately I’m pretty tough. I can handle whatever he says.”
“Sort of like sticks and stones can break my bones?”
“Exactly,” Joanna said. With a laugh she picked up the two empty plates and carried them to the sink. “It’s exactly like that. Now hurry off to bed, Jenny. It’s late. We’ll leave the dishes until morning.”
Ignoring her overloaded briefcase, Joanna headed for her own bedroom. Setting her alarm for five, she fell into bed and was asleep within minutes. The dream came later.
She and Andy were together once again. The two of then hand in hand, were strolling through the dusty midway the Cochise County Fair while Jenny, carrying an enormous cloud of cotton candy, darted on ahead. The sun shone, at Joanna felt warm and happy. Even in her sleep, she savored the sense of well-being that surrounded her.
The two of them had stopped beside the carousel why Jenny came racing back toward them. “There’s a great
