She fell sobbing into Brandon's arms. He held her for several long minutes. Louella didn't ask her son to make the decision for her, and he didn't offer. It wasn't his place. 'We'll just have to wait and see then, won't we?' he said.
Louella gulped and nodded. 'Yes,' she said. 'Wait and see.'
Brandon left the hospital and drove to Gate's Pass. He had waited to contact Diana, hoping to have some definite news about Carlisle's whereabouts before he told her anything.
Once he talked to Mallory, there wasn't time to reach her before leaving for Picacho Peak to meet Detective Farrell.
Driving to Diana's house now, he worried about what he would say. He didn't want to alarm her unduly, but he was worried. If Andrew Carlisle was responsible for Margie Danielson's savage murder, and by now both detectives were fairly certain he was, that meant the man had somehow slipped over some critical edge. There was no telling who would be next.
A snippet of radio intruded into his thoughts, giving the first sketchy reports of a stabbing victim found dead that morning in a downtown Tucson hotel room. At least he wouldn't be called out on that case, Walker thought. The Santa Rita was well inside the city limits, so the county would have nothing to do with it. He switched off the radio and kept on driving.
Brandon heard the dog bark from inside the house as soon as he turned off the blacktop. Oh'o, as Diana called him, was a monster of an animal, a rangy, ugly specimen whose teeth could inflict real damage.
Right that moment, however, Brandon Walker smiled at the dog's menacing presence. If Andrew Carlisle decided to try coming after Diana Ladd, he'd have to get past the dog first. In a fair fight, Brandon would have put money on the dog any day.
He half expected the door to open, but it didn't. Remaining out of sight, Diana spoke to him through a partially opened window. 'Who is it?'
'Brandon Walker. Is it safe to get out of the car?'
'It's safe,' she called back. 'Bone's with the.'
Brandon waited outside while she unlatched a series of locks. That seemed strange. He didn't remember seeing multiple locks on the door before, but of course they might have been there without his noticing.
When the door opened, Bone sat directly behind Diana with Davy hanging on the huge dog's neck. 'May I come in?' he asked.
'Yes.
He stepped over the threshold. 'I've got to talk to you,' he said urgently. 'In private.'
Diana Ladd stared up at him, her eyes fixed in turn on every aspect of his face as though examining him in minute detail. 'Davy,' she said, without looking away, 'take Bone out back and throw the ball for a while. I'll call you in a few minutes.'
The child left the room, shoulders sagging, head drooping, with the dog following dutifully behind. 'What do you want to talk to me about?' she asked.
All his careful plans for telling her flew out the window.
'Andrew Carlisle.' he replied. 'He's out.'
'I know,' she said. 'That's why I'm wearing this.'
A raw recruit would have been drummed out of the academy for making such a mistake. It wasn't until she touched it with her hand that he noticed the gun and holster strapped to her hip. And not just any gun, either-a gigantic .45 Colt single-action revolver.
'Jesus H. Christ, woman! Is that thing loaded?'
'It certainly is,' she told him calmly. 'And I'm fully prepared to use it.'
Chapter Thirteen
JANA USHERED BRANDON into the house and showed him to a seat on the couch. The detective still worried about the gun.
'You shouldn't do this, you know,' he said.
'Do what, wear a gun, protect myself? Why not?'
'For one thing, if somebody gets shot with that thing, chances are it won't be Andrew Carlisle. In an armed confrontation with crooks, amateurs tend to shoot themselves, not the other way around. For another, it's 1975. We're not still living in the Wild West, you know.'
'Somebody forgot to tell the woman at Picacho Peak,' Diana returned.
'You know about that, too?'
'The reservation grapevine is pretty thorough.'
'And fast. Andrew Carlisle was the first thing I was coming to tell you, and Picacho Peak was the second.
I've just come from there. I met with the detective on that case. His name's Farrell, Detective G. T. Farrell from Pinal County. He's a real pro. I've already pointed him in Carlisle's direction.'
'I suppose that's only fair,',' Diana responded sarcastically, 'since you're the one who helped Carlisle get off in the first place.'
Diana Ladd's remark cut through Brandon Walker's usually even-tempered demeanor. 'I didn't help him, goddammit!' Brandon Walker snapped.
The hard edge of anger in his voice surprised them both.
