remember, so now he thinks he was functioning in a blackout. No, he’s absolutely convinced of his own guilt. If I’d been smarter, I would have seen it coming a long time ago.”
“Seen what coming?” Joanna asked, still in the dark.
“Don’t you understand?” Linda Kimball pleaded, her voice cracking with suppressed tension. “I’m afraid. Scared to death. And I don’t know what to do.”
“Please, Linda,” Joanna said, shaking her head. “You must be leaving something out. I don’t understand what you’re talking about, what you’re afraid of.”
“That if it comes to a choice between Ivy and me, he’ll choose her.”
“Come on, be serious. That’s ridiculous. You’re married to the man, for God’s sake. You’re the mother of his children. Ivy is just Burt’s cousin. How could he possibly choose her over you?”
“If Ernie arrests him, if Burt… How is it they say that on TV? Fall? Rap? That’s it, the rap. If Burt takes the rap, Ivy is home free. And if it came to that, I don’t think Burt would lift a finger to help himself. He as good as told me so tonight in his office. And what happens then? Whoever really murdered Harold Patterson gets away with it, and all because Burton is looking out for his precious Ivy!”
“Linda,” Joanna began, “believe me, that’s not going to happen.”
“Oh, yeah? I can even tell you how. Burton says that since he was blind drunk at the time it happened, the worst any judge in the state would give him is probably second degree. He’s sure he’ll be able to plea-bargain that down to simple manslaughter.”
“You’re serious about this, then, aren’t you?” Joanna said, with sudden understanding.
Linda nodded. “I’m serious all right, and so is Burt. He loves the kids and me, I’m sure of it. Being abandoned when he was a baby. Feeling like, except for Ivy Patterson, he was all alone in the world. Those things that happened to him when he was a child still have a powerful hold on him. I’m afraid he’d sacrifice Chris and Kim and me in a minute to save her. We wouldn’t starve, I suppose. I could always go back to teaching school, and the church would help us. But still…”
They sat quietly for a few moments while the draining dishwasher whirred noisily in the kitchen. Jennifer had long since loaded the dishes and disappeared into her own room.
“Why did you come to me with this?” Joanna asked finally. “Ernie Carpenter is the detective on the case. Why didn’t you go straight to him?”
Linda shrugged. “I don’t know. I already talked to you about it this afternoon. It just seemed easier. I thought maybe another woman would understand better. A man might jump to the wrong conclusion. He might think something awful was going on between Ivy and Burton. It’s just not like that. My husband is a very honorable man. After what’s…”
Linda glanced at her watch, then hurriedly rose to her feet. “I’d better get going,” she said. “Those meetings hardly ever last much over an hour. I don’t want him being suspicious.”
“You still haven’t said what you expect me to do.”
“I thought if I could get you to see through to what’s really going on, then maybe you could help keep Ernie on track. I wonder if maybe that boy friend of Ivy’s has anything to do with it. Maybe they’re getting married in such a hurry so they can’t be forced to testify against one another.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Joanna said.
“Well, I did,” Linda Kimball returned grimly “And I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand still and let them get away with it.”
“Ernie Carpenter’s a pro,” Joanna said reassuringly. “A real pro. If anyone can find out what really happened, Ernie can do it.”
Linda Kimball straightened her shoulders.
“Good,” she said, sounding somewhat heartened. “I’d better be going then.”
After Linda left, Joanna forgot her intention to clean the refrigerator. Instead, she returned to the living room, where she sat alone for some time, wondering about the complicated relationship between Burton Kimball and his cousin Ivy. What was the tie between them that would make Linda afraid her husband would sacrifice his whole life, his career and his family-to protect Ivy Patterson? Was it nothing more than an innocent brotherly-type love, or was it something much more malignant?
Around nine Jenny slipped out of her room and sat down on the couch next to her mother. The child was wearing her flannel nightgown, one Grandma Brady had made for her at Christmas the previous year. At the time the gown was new, it had been so long that the hem had skimmed the floor with every step. Now it barely covered the child’s bony ankles. It was a shock for Joanna to realize how much her daughter had grown in such a short time.
For the first time in weeks, Jenny snuggled close and let her mother wrap one arm around her.
“Who was that lady?” she asked.
“A woman from town,” Joanna answered, pulling Jenny closer. “Her name is Linda Kimball.”
“What did she want?”
“She’s worried about her husband. She’s afraid he’s going to say he did something he didn’t do, just to keep someone else from getting in trouble.”
“But why did she come here?” Jenny asked.
“I guess she came to talk to me because she didn’t want to talk to Ernie Carpenter. There were things she had to say that were upsetting to her; things she wanted to talk over with another woman instead of with a man.”
“She wanted a woman detective instead of a man?” Jenny asked.
Joanna smiled. “So far Cochise County doesn’t have any women detectives.”
