you think I should try explaining any of this to him? I’m afraid he’ll think I’ve lost my marbles.”
“Try him,” Joanna Brady urged gently. “As you said, George is a very smart man. He might just surprise you.”
Without another word, Eleanor got out of the car. She marched back to her Buick, got in, started it and drove off without a second glance. Shaking her head in wonder, Joanna turned and watched her drive away. Then, starting the Civvie, Joanna headed up the dirt road that led into the ranch. Before she made it all the way into the yard, Sadie and Tigger reappeared to reprise their earlier greeting.
By the time Joanna had parked the car, Butch was standing on the back porch waiting for her.
“It’s about time you got here,” he said. “The dogs went rushing off a little while ago. I thought it was you coming, but then the dogs came back without you.”
“It was me,” Joanna said.
“But that must have been fifteen or twenty minutes ago,” Butch aid. “What did you do, stop to read the mail?”
“Eleanor was there waiting for me.”
“What for?”
“She needed to talk.”
“What about?”
“Dora Matthews.”
“I suppose she still thinks it’s all her fault.”
Joanna thought about that. Butch was a good man and, in his awn way, every bit as smart as George Winfield. And yet, Joanna wasn’t the least bit sure he would understand what had happened that night between Joanna Brady and Eleanor Lathrop Winfield any more than George had understood what was going on with his own wife.
“Something like that,” Joanna said, peering around the kitchen. “Now is there anything around here to eat? I’m starved.”
That’s when she saw the blueprints unrolled all over the kitchen able. It was also when she belatedly remembered that evening’s scheduled appointment with Quentin Branch. “Oh, Butch,” she aid. “I’m so sorry. I forgot all about it.”
“I noticed,” he said. “But the way things are going, I guess I’d better get used to being stood up.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It was a quarter past seven when Butch shook Joanna awake the next morning. “Time to rise and shine,” he said. “Coffee’s on the nightstand, and breakfast is in five.” Grateful that he wasn’t holding a grudge over last night’s missed appointment, she gave him a warm smile. “Thanks,” she said.
Struggling out of bed, Joanna staggered into the bathroom. She felt as though she had tied one on the night before, although she’d had nothing at all to drink. But between the forced-march hike and climbing up and down the cliff face, there was no part of her body that didn’t hurt. Not only that; tired as she’d been, once she went to bed, she hadn’t slept. Instead, she’d once again tossed and turned for a long time before finally drifting into a fitful sleep.
She showered hurriedly and then, with her hair still wet, went into the kitchen where a bowl of steaming Malt-o-Meal was already on the table. “I really don’t have time to eat ...” she began, looking at the clock.
“Yes, you do,” Butch insisted. “‘This way you’ll have at least one decent meal today.”
Knowing he was right, Joanna sat and ate. She was in her office by ten after eight and pressing the intercom button. “Good morning, Kristin. Would you let Chief Deputy Montoya know that I’m here?”
“He’s not,” Kristin said. “He called a little while ago and said to tell you he’ll be a few minutes late.”
“Good,” Joanna said. “Maybe you could come in and help me make some sense of all this new paper.” She said nothing at all about the previous batch, which was still stowed in her unopened briefcase.
