“I can’t tell you,” Jenny replied. “It’s a secret. Girl Scout’s honor.”
The lack of an answer bothered Joanna, but she tried to let it go. “All right, then,” she said. “If it’s Scout’s honor, I won’t try to pry it out of you. But it’s getting late. You’d best scoot off to bed.”
Jenny stood up. “Okay,” she said. “But when Butch gets here, have him come talk to me.”
“Only if you’re still awake,” Joanna said. “If you’re already asleep, it’ll have to wait until morning.”
“Sadie, Tigger, come on,” Jenny ordered. “Let’s go to bed.”
Obediently, both dogs got up and padded after Jenny into her bedroom. Long after the bedroom door had closed, Joanna sat there thinking about what had been said.
She had gone just that far in her thinking when Butch’s new Subaru Outback drove into the yard. Rather than risk having the dogs start barking in Jenny’s room, Joanna opened the bedroom door to let Tigger and Sadie out. A quick check of Jenny proved she was already sound asleep.
Pulling on her jacket against the November chill, Joanna hurried outside. With the dogs on her heels, she met Butch at the gate. Using one hand to fend off an ecstatic greeting from the two pooches, he drew Joanna into a quick embrace and gave her a glancing kiss on the cheek.
“Nothing like a couple of dogs and a good woman to make a guy feel at home.”
“Be quiet and come inside,” she said. “It’s too cold to stand around out here making jokes.”
Butch followed Joanna into the kitchen. With his shaved head and stocky build, Butch looked far older than his chronological age of thirty-six. “Where’s Jenny?” he asked.
“Asleep.”
That announcement caused Butch to gather Joanna in his arms once more for a far more serious kiss. By mutual agreement, when Jenny was around, both Butch and Joanna consciously limited displays of affection. And since that one weekend in August when Jenny had been off in Oklahoma with her grandparents, Butch had never again stayed overnight in Joanna’s house.
Dodging out of Butch’s arms, Joanna look leftover baked potato and meatloaf from the fridge and popped them into the microwave. Then she brought out the butter, sour cream, and chopped onions.
“Jenny wanted to talk to you,” Joanna said, as she stood watching the readout on the microwave count off the passing seconds. “I told her if you got here too late to see her tonight that the conversation would have to wait until morning.”
“Any idea what’s on her mind?” Butch asked.
Joanna shook her head. “I asked her, but she wouldn’t tell me. Said it’s a secret. Do you know what it is?”
Butch shrugged. “You’ve got me,” he said.
Joanna set a place for Butch in the breakfast nook. When she put the plate of steaming food in front of him, she slipped onto the bench beside him.
“How was it?” she asked.
“The auction?”
Joanna nodded.
“Okay. We made some money on the deal. Of course, if we’d had to pay wages for all the work we did, we wouldn’t have made a dime. The good thing is that several of the collector types got a chance to see the kind of work Jeff does. I think they were impressed. My guess is he’ll get some more business out of it. Advertising. The main thing we did, though, going and coming, was talk. Jeff’s really worried about Marianne.”
“That she’s going to quit the ministry?”
Butch turned to study Joanna. “She told you then?”
“This afternoon. She says her letter of resignation is written and ready to hand in at the next board meeting.”
“That’s what Jeff’s worried about. In their family, Marianne has always been the major breadwinner. Jeff has the garage, and he does excellent work, but Auto Rehab, Inc., is a long way from making a profit or from being able to support a family of three. Jeff doesn’t know what they’re going to do. Did you say anything to Marianne, try to talk her out of it?”
“1 tried to talk her into seeing a doctor,” Joanna said. “She’s depressed, and understandably so. I told her she needs to give herself a chance to feel better before she does anything rash.”
“Is she going to?” Butch asked. “See a doctor, I mean?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve known Marianne Maculyea since we were both in junior high. She’s always had a mind of her own.”
Just then, the phone rang. Joanna hurried across the room to answer it.
“Sheriff Brady?”
Joanna recognized the desk sergeant’s voice as soon as Lisa Howard spoke. “Yes, Lisa. It’s me. What’s happening?”
“You remember that missing person’s case Chief Deputy Montoya filed earlier this evening?”
“On Alice Rogers?”
“Yes,” Lisa answered.
“What about it? Have they found her?”
“They haven’t found her yet, but they did locate her car.”
“Where?”
“At the border crossing in Nogales. Four young Hispanic juveniles tried to drive it across the line. When Border Patrol ordered the vehicle to stop, they all bailed out and made a run for it. Three of them were picked up by Federales. They’re in jail in Nogales, Sonora. The fourth one wasn’t armed but he looked like he was. He was shot in the leg when officers opened fire. According to the Santa Cruz County dispatcher, he’s being airlifted to Tucson. University Medical Center or T.M.C., I’m not sure which. We’re hoping that he’ll be able to tell its where they left Alice Rogers.”
“How bad is the kid hurt?” Joanna asked.
“No way to tell at this point. I talked to one of the EMT’s who treated him at the scene. His best guess is that once they get him to Tucson he’ll go straight into surgery.”
Unaware that she had been holding her breath, Joanna let it out. The word “juvenile” could cover a lot of ground-from relatively harmless joyriders to cold-blooded gang-based killers. Depending on which variety Alice Rogers had encountered, she was either more or less likely to have been left alive. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking. With each passing hour the odds of her continued survival were vastly reduced.
“Has anyone let Frank Montoya know what’s going on?”
“I called Chief Deputy Montoya first thing,” Lisa Howard said. “Just before I called you. He said to tell you that he’s heading down to Nogales to see what detectives on the case have to say. After that, he’ll go to Tucson. He wants to be available when the suspect comes out of surgery and can speak with investigators.”
“Thanks for keeping me posted, Lisa,” Joanna said. “Tell Frank to let me know what develops.”
“Regardless of how late it is?”
“Regardless.”
Joanna hung up the phone and put it back down on the counter. Butch Dixon was studying her from across the room. “Bad news?” he asked.
She nodded. “A missing person,” she told him. Briefly Joanna filled Butch in on what had happened.
“Are you going to have to go in?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet, and I won’t for a while.”
Butch stood up and began to clear his place. “This wasn’t exactly how I hoped the evening would end,” he said quietly. “With Jenny already in bed and asleep, I had something more romantic in mind rather than a dinner followed by a missing person’s investigation.”
Joanna gave him a weak smile. “So did l,” she said quietly.
She watched him carry his plate to the sink. He rinsed it, then loaded the plate and his silverware into the
