Butch came back to stand opposite Joanna’s stool “How’s the burger?”
“It’s great. But tell me about Serena and Jorge Grijalva. They were having a fight?”
“Do you ever read Ogden Nash?” Butch asked.
Joanna was taken aback. “No. Why?”
“If you’d ever read ‘I Never Even Suggested It,’ you’d know it only takes one person to make a quarrel.”
“Only one of them was fighting? Which one?”
“Serena was screaming like a banshee. I guess she had a restraining order on him or something, hut he acted like a gentleman. Didn’t threaten her or anything. Didn’t even raise his voice. I felt sorry for the poor guy. All he was asking was for her to let the kids come to his mother’s for Thanksgiving dinner. It didn’t seem all that out of line to me.”
Again Butch was summoned away, this time by the cocktail waitress again. When he finally returned, Joanna was done with her hamburger. He picked up the empty platter and stood holding it, eyeing Joanna.
“I don’t care what the detectives and prosecutors say, I still don’t think he did it. After she stomped out the door, he sat here for a long time, all hunched over. He had himself a couple more drinks and both of those were straight coffee. He said he had to drive all the way back to Douglas to be there in time to work in the morning. Does that sound like someone who’s about to go knock off his ex-wife?”
Thoughtfully, Butch Dixon shook his head. “I’ll go get your ice cream,” he added. “You want coffee or something to go with it?”
“No. I’m fine.”
He walked away, carrying the dirty dishes. Joanna watched him go. That made two different people who were convinced of Antonio Jorge Grijalva’s innocence—a poetry-quoting bartender and the accused’s own mother.
Butch Dixon returned with the dish of ice cream. “Did the prosecutor’s office talk to you about any of this?” Joanna asked.
Dixon shook his head. “Naw. Like I said, the detective just brushed me off. She claimed that she had enough physical evidence to get a conviction.
“Like what?”
“She didn’t say. Not at the time. Later I heard about a possible plea bargain, and it pissed me off I wanted to see him fight it. I even called up his public defender and offered to testify. He wasn’t buying. I hate plea bargains.”
Thoughtfully, Joanna carved off a spoonful of ice cream. “There are two primary reasons for so many plea bargains these days. Are you aware of what they are?”
Butch rolled his eyes. “I have a feeling you’ going to tell me.”
“The first one is to keep the system moving. If the case is reasonably solid, the prosecutors may decide to go for a lesser sentence just to spare themselves the time and aggravation of going to trial.”
“And the second reason?”
