Partner In Crime

I may, Joa

“Next time, you’d better have the overtime authorized beforehand,” she said. “But I can see from your face that you’ve found something, and I’m guessing it’s not good news.”

Dave sighed. “You know Bobo Jenkins came by the department on Thursday afternoon to see Casey.”

Joa

“Casey’s found Mr. Jenkins’s prints on the empty sweetener packets we pulled out of the trash at Latisha Wall’s place.”

“Of course they are,” Joa

“The problem is,” Dave said, “they may be sweetener packets, but what’s in them isn’t sweetener.”

Joa

“You’re saying Latisha Wall really was poisoned?”

“All I’m saying right now, Sheriff Brady, is that some of the packets appear to have been tampered with,” Dave replied. “They were slit open and then carefully resealed. When Casey was straightening one of them so she could lift prints off the outside, she noticed white powder clinging to something tacky inside. You know how those little packets work. Usually the paper isn’t sticky at all. So we checked the other packets, including several of the supposedly unopened ones we took from the crime scene. Most of them are fine. Three of them aren’t.”

“Do you have the contents from those three unopened packets?”

Dave nodded.

“Any idea what it is?”

“None. I tried taking just a little whiff to see if there was any odor. I started feeling woozy. Whatever it is, it’s powerful stuff. I’ve put the remaining packets in stainless-steel containers.”

“Good,” Joa

Taking that for a dismissal, Dave Hollicker stood. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll get on it right away.”

“Wait,” Joa

Dave shook his head. “As I was coming over from the lab, he was already in the conference room with the occupied sign showing. A clerk told me he and Chief Deputy Montoya are conducting an interview. Rather than interrupt, I came to you instead.”

“Thanks, Dave,” she said. “I’ll take it from here. You get that stuff to the crime lab.”

Joa

Hustling to the conference room door, Joa

“Don’t keep calling her Latisha Wall, Detective Carbajal,” Bobo Jenkins growled. “I’m telling you, I don’t know anyone by that name. The woman I knew was Rochelle Baxter. Shelley. She’s the one I came here to talk about.”

Joa

He stood and held out his hand. “Good morning, Sheriff Brady,” he said politely. “So glad you could join us.”

Joa

Jaime rose at once and followed Joa

Jaime shrugged. “You heard some of it. Bobo insists he knows nothing about Rochelle Baxter’s other life. As you can see, he’s more than a little upset about it.”

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Joa

“What?”

“Several of the sweetener packets they removed from the crime scene appear to have been tampered with. They contain an unknown substance Dave is taking to the DPS crime lab in Tucson for analysis and identification. Not only that, Casey found Bobo Jenkins’s fingerprints on some of the tampered packets that were empty. When I talked to Bobo right after we found Latisha Wall’s body, Bobo told me he had been to her place the evening she died to have a drink.”

“In other words, if his prints are on the sweetener packets, why isn’t he dead, too?”

“Exactly,” Joa

Jaime nodded. “Thanks,” he said. With that, he turned and let himself back into the conference room.

Joa

Just thinking about it was enough to leave Joa

Nine

FOR THE NEXT TWO AND A HALF HOURS, Joa

When someone knocked on the doorjamb a while later, Joa

“Yes?” Joa

“There’s someone to see you, Sheriff Brady. Do you want me to bring him back?”

“Who is it?”

“He gave his name and showed me a badge. He’s Special Investigator Beaumont, J.P. Beaumont, from Seattle, Washington.”

So, she thought, Mr. J.P. Bird Dog has arrived.

No doubt the big-city cop who was here to screw up her investigation and look down his nose at her department would expect to find a small-town sheriff in a squalid office with her shirtsleeves rolled up and her feet planted on her desk. She was glad to be in uniform that day and grateful that her office was, for a change, in pristine order.

“Thanks, Lupe,” she said. “I’ll come out and get him myself.”