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“I’m so sorry,” Joa
“Don’t be sorry,” Millicent said. “Just get the bastards.”
“We’re doing our best,” Joa
“Yes. I dropped off all the animals from my clinic-including the little pit bull Jea
“You’re going to stay there then?” Joa
“Yes,” Millicent said. “For as long as it takes.”
Kristin came to the door and mimed that Joa
“Tom Hadlock,” Kristin replied.
Tom was Joa
Fresh from the disturbing news about Jea
“There was a dustup with some cell-made weapons out in the exercise yard.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Not badly enough for stitches. The guards broke it up right away. The two guys involved are in solitary, and the whole jail is under lockdown while we search for additional weapons. In other words, it’s all under control, but I wanted you to know what’s going on.”
“Thanks, Tom,” she said. “I appreciate it.”
For a few minutes after the second phone call she sat staring into space. Then she picked up the notebook she took to the briefings and wrote: “Discuss with Frank. Need new ACO.”
Moments later, the man himself appeared in her doorway. “Time for the briefing,” he said.
“You heard about the problem at the jail?”
Frank nodded. “It’s a good thing the guards stopped it when they did. It could have been a lot worse, but there is some good news.”
“What’s that?”
“Casey Ledford rides again,” he said with a grin.
“Are you saying she got a hit on AFIS?” Joa
“She didn’t give me the details,” Frank returned. “She said she’d meet us in the conference room to go over what she’s found.”
Casey, Jaime Carbajal, and Debbie Howell were already assembled by the time Joa
“In other words,” Frank said when Joa
“Exactly,” Joa
“The O’Dwyers?” Frank asked.
“That would be my guess.” She turned to Casey. “Now, then, I understand you may have found something?”
“I found lots of somethings,” Casey said. “For one thing, I lifted prints from the boulder that was used to smash the window on Jea
“Do we have addresses on those two guys?” Joa
“Possibly,” Casey said. “But not for sure. Pima County is in the process of forwarding whatever they have.”
“Back to the prints. Are those the only ones you have?” Joa
“No,” Casey replied. “There are lots more that I haven’t been able to process yet. Dave collected a whole bunch of rocks where Luminol located blood spatter. Once he gets what he needs from those, I’ll process them to see if I can lift any prints from them as well.”
Joa
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “As soon as we get the info from Tucson, we’re on our way. Should we go by the hospital while we’re there?” he added. “Is Jea
“I doubt it,” Joa
“Millicent?” Jaime said. “Millicent who?”
“Millicent Ross, the vet. She and Jea
Jaime raised an eyebrow. “As in partners?”
“As in,” Joa
Jaime made a note. “What about the Bradley Evans investigation?” he asked. “Are we dropping it for the time being, or what?”
“Something has to give,” Joa
“In other words,” Jaime said, “we’re pulling out all the stops.”
Joa
Around the table Joa
“Is there anything else?” she asked. When no one volunteered anything, Joa
The investigators hustled out of the conference room, leaving Joa
“Fill it,” Joa
“A temporary fix or a permanent one?”
“Temporary for now,” Joa
“That’s tragic!” Frank exclaimed.
Joa
“Will do, boss,” Frank told her.
The remainder of their morning briefing took the better part of an hour. After that, Joa
“Sounds great,” Joa
Cornish pasties-meat pies filled with cooked beef, rutabagas, and other vegetables-had migrated from Cornwall, England, to Bisbee, Arizona, along with the miners who had hailed from there. Because pasties were readily portable, miners had taken them underground in lunch pails. Most mining operations in and around Bisbee had been shut down for decades, but the foods the miners had brought with them from all over the world remained part of Bisbee’s traditional fare. Don Dixon had been astonished to find pasties available in southeastern Arizona on a previous visit and had been thrilled to find that the ones served at Daisy’s compared very favorably with the ones he remembered finding in Upper Michigan.
Junior Dowdle met Joa