Dead Wrong

“Where?” Joa

“San Simon,” Jea

Joa

“In my truck.”

“Do you really think he can make it?”

“I don’t know,” Jea

“Take him to Dr. Ross,” Joa

“Yes, ma’am,” Jea

With Lady on her heels, Joa

“Not yet,” she said. “But I have an assignment for you. I just got off the phone with Jea

“What happened?” Frank asked. “Did she find another dead dog?”

“No,” Joa

“Who’s paying?” As chief deputy, one of Frank’s areas of responsibility and expertise was keeping the lid on budgetary considerations.

“The department is paying,” Joa

“But that could end up costing a fortune,” Frank objected.

“I told Jea

“With the budget the way it is, you can’t afford to be soft in the head about every stray dog that happens to wander into harm’s way.”

“We’ll find a way to pay for it, Frank,” Joa

“He called me after he got home.”

“So you know what we came up with last night?”

“That you identified the John Doe?” Frank returned. “Yes, I heard the whole story. I told him I’d send someone up to the old courthouse first thing this morning to see if they can find Bradley Evans’s missing file. And Jaime said he and Ernie would head out to Sierra Vista to see if the dead guy’s ex-mother-in-law has an alibi for the time in question. What about you? Are you coming into the office?”

“For a little while,” Joa

Frank chuckled. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a control freak?”

“No,” Joa

“Consider yourself told, then,” Frank said. “And remember, you heard it here first.”

Once Joa

“What’s for breakfast?” Je

“Paper-thin pancakes,” Joa

By the time breakfast was over, Joa

“You have your cell?” Joa

“Yes, Mom,” she said. “I have it right here.”

Joa

“Call me at the office when you’re finished,” Joa

Joa

Jea

Jea

“In surgery!” Joa

“I’m sorry, Sheriff Brady,” Jea

Well, Joa

Jea

For some time the only sound was the small click of an oversize electric clock that hung on the wall behind the reception desk. Jea

“Who?”

“The O’Dwyers.”

Joa

Years of drought and a series of disastrous business decisions had caused the family to sell off huge tracts of land. Several years earlier, the death of their elderly mother had thrown her cantankerous sons into a pitched battle with the Internal Revenue Service over estate taxes. By the time the feds had collected what was due, the sons were left with a much smaller ranch and a permanent antipathy toward anyone in law enforcement. Their run-in with government officials had also left them with a fondness for high-powered firearms.

“How do you know that?” Joa

“I’ve been keeping an eye on them,” Jea

“On your own?” Joa

Jea

The thought of one of Joa

“Leave them alone,” she said.

“But, Sheriff…” Jea