Partner In Crime

“Work or pleasure?” Naomi asked.

“What do you think?”

“Bis,” she said. “Bis on Main is the name of the restaurant.”

“What do you say we go tonight instead? I’ll pay.”

“I suppose,” she agreed, although I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. “If you can get a reservation, that is. It’s a pretty popular place.”

I looked up the number in the phone book, called, and gave whoever answered my tale of woe. “For you, my friend, I believe we can do something,” he said. “We’re very busy this evening, but if you could come in early, say five-thirty…”

“Done,” I told him. “It might just as well be early. I have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning to catch a plane.”

I put down the phone. Part of me was sorry to disappoint Naomi. And part of me was pissed at the people in the AG’s office for dropping this on me at the last minute. But there was a third part of me – the stubborn old-coot part – that was more than happy to get off his butt, put the cold-case files back where they belonged, and go to work.

Seven

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN AS MANY DAYS, Joa

Joa

CAN COCHISE COUNTY AFFORD A

SOFT-HEARTED SHERIFF?

There can be no question that Wednesday’s Fallen Officer memorial in honor of Cochise County Corrections Officer Yolanda Cañedo was moving and inspirational, but here’s the question many county residents are asking themselves: Should a dirty dozen of Cochise County inmates have been in attendance with what amounted to minimal sheriff’s department supervision?

There can also be no question that, as a corrections officer, Yolanda Cañedo made a difference in the less-than-exemplary lives of some of those unfortunate inmates. Ms. Cañedo used her off-duty hours to work as an unpaid volunteer with an inmate literacy project. She personally tutored a number of inmates who were working toward GED certificates while being incarcerated.

But the fact remains that these men are prisoners. They’re in the county lockup for reasons that either a judge or a jury could not ignore or excuse. Why, then, were they allowed to attend Ms. Cañedo’s funeral services without any evidence of restraints and with only two off-duty guards and the director of the Cochise County Jail Ministry looking after them?

Not that they did anything bad. From what I could learn, the inmates caused no difficulty. They behaved themselves during the funeral service and afterward were all returned to their cells at the Cochise County Jail without incident. But some people, including yours truly, think that letting those prisoners out at all was a mistake and that having done so sets a bad precedent.

U

Since her election, Sheriff Brady has gone to great lengths to prove she’s just as tough and hard-nosed as anybody else. But now, with the begi

The problem is, if one of those inmates had decided to take off for parts unknown, any number of people could have been hurt, endangered, or even killed in the process. That’s a kind of soft-hearted, soft-headed approach to law enforcement that the people of Cochise County don’t deserve and can ill afford.

Finished reading, Joa

“I’m going home early,” she said to Kristin. “If anybody needs me, have them call me there.”

“Are you okay?” Kristin asked. “I mean, it’s only three o’clock. You’re not sick or anything, are you?”

“Lots of people go home at three o’clock,” she said. “And today that’s me. I’ve done all I can do, unless there’s an emergency, that is.”

She left her office via the private door. Once back home at High Lonesome Ranch, she changed into a T-shirt, jeans, and boots. Then she hurried out to the barn, where she started mucking out the stall where Je

She became so involved in her shoveling and cleaning that she lost track of time. When Je

“Mom, what are you doing that for?” Je

“I just felt like doing it myself,” Joa

A look of alarm flitted briefly across Je

“Not really,” Joa

“Okay, I guess,” Je

“Let’s go wrestle a few bales of hay together,” Joa

Once the chores were done, Joa

Kiddo had come into their lives not long after Andy’s death. As a single mother with a demanding full-time job, Joa

She had watched in amazement as Je

Silently Joa

“Did you and Butch have a fight or something?” Je

“Why do you ask that?” Joa

Je