Dead Wrong

“But why would Markham do it?” Frank asked. “What’s his motive?”

“Somehow Bradley Evans posed a threat to Rory Markham’s grand design.”

“What kind of threat?”

“That’s what we need to find out.”

“Where to next?” Frank asked, turning his key in the ignition. “Home?”

“Sounds good to me. It’s been a very long day.”

Frank took her as far as the Justice Center, where she moved from his Crown Victoria to hers. By the time she got home it was after eleven and the household was asleep. Only Lady came to the door to greet her, and Butch didn’t budge when she crawled into bed beside him.

She woke up late to the smell of frying bacon and waddled out to the kitchen. “I won’t even ask how your day was yesterday,” Butch said, kissing her good morning. “I think I already know. How’d you sleep?”

“Like a brick. I was too tired to do anything else.”

“Are you going in to work today?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“What about church?” Butch asked.

“I need a robe day,” Joa

“You’ve certainly earned it,” Butch said, “but you might want to give your mother a call before it gets much later. She phoned yesterday.”

“A

“You must be psychic,” Butch said with a grin.

“Are you in labor?” Eleanor Lathrop Winfield demanded as soon as she heard her daughter’s voice.

“No, Mom, I’m not.”

“Oh,” Eleanor said. “Since you couldn’t be bothered to call with the news that you’re having a boy, I thought this must be really important.”

“I’ve been busy,” Joa

“I don’t know why,” Eleanor sniffed. “Someone in your condition shouldn’t be traipsing all over hell and gone and getting involved in shoot-outs, for Pete’s sake. It was all over the news. I can’t imagine what you’re thinking.”

Eleanor’s disapproval of her daughter’s continuing to work during her pregnancy was a long-standing bone of contention between them. Forget the fact that the “shoot-out” had most likely saved a little girl’s life. Detective Newton‘s snide references to Joa

“I was doing my job, Mother,” Joa

“I don’t understand how DNA works,” Eleanor said. “You’re just like your father and nothing at all like me.”

Thank God, Joa

“But now that I have you on the phone, do you and Butch want to come over for di

“I’ll check with Butch and let you know.”

Butch, it turned out, was agreeable. “It’ll give us a chance to do a little fence-mending,” he said. “Find out what time.”

After making arrangements with Eleanor for them to go to di

“You are coming in, aren’t you?” Frank asked once he finished with his telephone briefing.

“No,” Joa

“Millicent Ross just came back from Tucson and dropped off her truckload of pet supplies. Tom has guards unloading and distributing those right now. Millicent expects to be back here around two to start delivering puppies to inmates, but the reporters are already here.”

“What reporters?”

“The pit-bull-rescue guy-the guy who paid for all the puppy goodies-evidently has media co

Joa

“What shot?”

“You said this was going to be a PR bonanza.”

“Remind me to be careful what I wish for,” Frank said ruefully. “This is nuts.”

“All right,” Joa

The briefcase she had carried with her from place to place the day before was now a jumbled mess. While sorting through it, she stumbled across the classmates.com printout Frank had given her a good twenty-four hours earlier-the on-line profile for Lisa Marie Bradley’s friend, Barbara Ta

As soon as Joa

“Mrs. Crystal said you and Lisa Marie were friends.”

“I felt sorry for her to begin with,” Barbara admitted, “but we became good friends.”

“She confided in you?”

“Absolutely” Barbara returned. “The same way I confided in her.”

“Did she mention anything to you about being unhappy in her marriage?” Joa

“To Bradley? Anything but,” Barbara answered. “She adored him. She may have been worried about his drinking, but she was looking forward to raising a family with the man. She loved him so much. I could never understand how he could betray her like that.”

“As far as you know, then, there wasn’t any particular quarrel that would have provoked him to attack her?”

“Not really, but by the time the murder actually happened, I had been back at school for several weeks. I just wish I had been here. Maybe I could have done something to help Lisa the same way she helped me.”

“What do you mean?”

“If things were going badly with her husband, I could have listened to her, offered her a shoulder to cry on the same way she did for me during my breakup with Rory I mean, if he had been treating her badly and was turning violent or something, maybe I could have helped her find a place to go, a shelter or something.”

At first Joa

“Sure,” Barbara returned. “Rory Markham, notorious snake in the grass, and one of my worst youthful transgressions. I met Claudio and started dating him while I was still on the rebound. Fortunately, it’s a rebound romance that defied all the odds and is still working very well, thank you.”

“Wait a minute,” Joa

“Yes,” Barbara returned. “And I broke up with him, too. I might not have caught on if Lisa hadn’t warned me about him.”

“Warned you? About what?”

“About his coming into the cleaner’s and flirting with her when I wasn’t around.”

“You’re saying he knew Lisa Marie Evans?” Joa

“Of course he knew her,” Barbara said. “I was the one who introduced him to her when he came by to take me to lunch.”