Partner In Crime

“You had to go to the reception, Joa

“I know,” Joa

There was another pause. In the background on Maria

“I’m fine,” Joa

Putting down the phone, Joa

“Damn Ken Galloway anyway!” she muttered.

He was the main reason she had been heartsick at the funeral reception. Joa

Not that the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department hadn’t been represented. All jail perso

Only half of Joa

So Ken Galloway hadn’t managed to keep everyone away. Still, at a time when Joa

The phone rang. As Joa

“A 911 call came in a little while ago from down in Naco,” Dispatch operator Tica Romero reported. “When the EMTs arrived, they found a nonresponsive African-American female. They transported her to the hospital and did their best to revive her, but she was DOA.”

Joa

“No. The general assumption is natural causes. The victim had evidently been terribly ill. There was no sign of forced entry – until the EMTs had to break in to get to her, that is. The place was locked up tight, and the screeching security alarm almost drove the medics nuts while they were working on her.”

“They closed everything back up once they left?” Joa

“The night-watch commander is sending a deputy out to make sure that’s taken care of.”

“Good,” Joa

“The woman’s young,” Tica Romero replied. “Somewhere in her thirties. The hospital has asked Doc Winfield to take charge of the body and do an autopsy, just to make sure that whatever she had isn’t transmittable. Since the ME’s been called out on the case, he’ll handle next-of-kin notification.”

Joa

“Better him than me,” Joa

“Have to go,” Tica said urgently. “Another call’s coming in.”

Joa

“You’re spoiling them,” she said, kissing Butch hello. “Sadie and Tigger are ranch dogs, remember? They’re supposed to run, not ride.”

“They ran from here over to Clayton’s place,” Butch said.

That was how they still, months after his death, referred to the ranch Joa

“When it was time to come home,” Butch continued, “Tigger was the only one hot to trot. Sadie wasn’t interested. Once I let her into the car and Tigger figured out she was riding, he wanted a ride, too.”

“Sibling rivalry,” Joa

“I had a sandwich when I got home from the funeral. What about you?”

“I just fixed myself a bowl of cereal.”

“Not very substantial,” Butch observed.

“It was all I wanted.”

He studied her face closely. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Joa

Butch opened the refrigerator and took out a beer. “Do you want anything?”

“Nothing,” Joa

“You don’t look fine.”

“I just got off the phone with Dispatch,” she replied. “The EMTs hauled a DOA up to Copper Queen Hospital from Naco a little while ago.”

“Does that mean you have to go back out?”

Joa

“Thank God for small favors,” Butch muttered.

“What’s going on with the house? Have you been working with Quentin all this time?”

Quentin Branch was the contractor Joa

“No,” Butch said. “The meeting didn’t last that long, but there were things I needed to do. Puttering, mostly. Making myself useful.”

While Joa