Coming from across the desert, Joanna heard the joyous yips from Sadie and Tigger, who had no doubt heard the sound of the familiar engine and were coming to welcome their mistress home.
“Let’s get back in my car before the dogs get here,” Joanna urged. “Then I want you to tell me what’s going on.”
To Joanna’s surprise, Eleanor didn’t object. Instead, she leaned against her daughter and allowed herself to be led. Joanna opened the door. Before letting her mother in, she reached over and brushed her unholstered Glock under the seat of the car. After helping Eleanor inside, Joanna stopped at the trunk long enough to retrieve two bottles of water. She regained the inside of the car just as Sadie and Tigger burst through the mesquite and came racing toward them. The dogs circled the car madly, three times each. Then, finding it immovable, they gave up and went bounding off through the underbrush after some other, more interesting, prey.
Joanna passed the bottled water to her mother. “This should probably be something stronger, Mom, but its the best I can do at the moment.”
Eleanor took the bottle, opened it, and downed a long grateful swallow.
“So what is it?” Joanna asked after a moment. “Tell me.”
Eleanor sighed and closed her eyes. “It was had enough to know Dora was dead,” she began shakily. “As soon as George told me that, I knew that was all my fault. I mean it’s obvious that Dora was perfectly content to be out here at the ranch with Eva Lou and Jim Bob. If I had only let things be ...”
“That’s not true,” Joanna said. “Dora wasn’t happy at all. Hive you talked to Jenny today? Have you spoken to Butch?”
Eleanor shook her head. “No,” she said. “I haven’t spoken to anyone. I was too ashamed.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Joanna told her. “The reason Dora didn’t want to go with the woman from Child Protective Services was that she had already made arrangements for her boyfriend to conic pick her up later that same night at her mother’s house up in Old Bisbee.”
“He was?” Eleanor asked. “Her boyfriend really was going to come get her?”
“Yes. At least that’s what we were told. His name is Christopher Bernard. He’s sixteen years old and lives up in Tucson. Ernie Carpenter and Jaime Carbajal will be interviewing hiss tomorrow afternoon.”
“Do they think he may have had something to do with Dora’s death?”
“Possibly,” Joanna said. “Although, at this point, no one knows anything for sure.”
“Oh, dear,” Eleanor said. “That poor girl, that poor, poor girl.” With that, Eleanor once again burst into uncontrollable sobs.
Joanna was baffled. She had thought that what she had said would make her mother feel better, but it was clearly having the opposite effect. For several minutes, she let her mother cry without making any effort to stop her. Finally Eleanor took a deep shuddering breath and the sobs let up.
“Mother,” Joanna said. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you see?” Eleanor pleaded. “George told me Dora was pregnant. Thirteen and pregnant. Unfortunately, I know exactly how that felt. Of course, I was a little older than that when it happened to me, but not all that much older, and every bit as alone. Your father loved me and would have married me then, if my parents would have stood for it and given permission, but they wouldn’t. I’ve never felt so lost, Joanna. Never in my whole life. And knowing that’s what was going on with poor Dora Matthews brought it all back to me, that whole awful feeling of not knowing where to go or what to do or whom to turn to for help.
“I’ve spent the rest of my life blocking out that terrible time, but when George told me about Dora, a floodgate opened and it all came rushing back. Like it was yesterday. No, that’s not true. Like it was today, like it was happening to me all over again. I know George didn’t mean to upset me when he told me about Dora. He couldn’t have seen how I’d react, but I just had to get away for a while, and not just from him, either. I had to get away from every-one. I had to be off by myself so I could think things through. You do understand, don’t you, Joanna? Please tell me you do.”
Joanna shut her eyes momentarily to squeeze back her own tears. She had once been through the exact
