Dead Wrong

“I came to ask a favor,” she said at last.

“I’m sure Chief Deputy Montoya would be happy-”

“No, I need to ask you, Sheriff Brady,” Leslie said determinedly. “I need to ask you woman-to-woman. I want you to keep your people from trying to question my mother.”

“Mrs. Markham,” Joa

“My mother used to take me to that cabin!” Leslie Markham broke in forcefully. “That’s where we’d go on horseback sometimes, just the two of us. Do you think she would have taken me there if she’d had any idea that her own dead baby was buried in that exact spot? She was terrified for me every minute, terrified that someday I’d come down with HD just the way she did and the way her mother did, too. Do you think she would have been so petrified if she’d had any idea at all that I wasn’t her own?”

“But how could she not know?” Joa

“Ruth Houlihan didn’t want her daughter giving birth to a baby at risk of developing HD,” Leslie answered. “She was also a nurse. I have no doubt she gave Aileen drugs of some kind, probably something that induced labor. I’ve done some checking on the Internet. Those kinds of drugs were available back then.

“Once Aileen’s baby was born, Ruth made the switch and then took Aileen and me to the hospital, leaving Rory and Joaquin to clean up the mess and take care of pi

“Please, Sheriff Brady,” Leslie begged. “Aileen Houlihan is the only mother I’ve ever known. She won’t be around much longer. Let her die in peace. She doesn’t watch the news or listen to the radio. What’s going on outside her room-the things the news reporters are saying-stays outside her room, but if your detectives go there questioning her…”

“They won’t,” Joa

“Thank you,” Leslie said. “Thank you so much.

“And then there’s one more thing,” Leslie said. “One more favor.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m not ready to do it now,” Leslie said. “Not until the DNA reports confirm it and probably not until after my mother is gone, but when it’s time, I’d like someone from your office-Mr. Montoya or Mr. Carpenter or someone-to take me to meet Lisa Marie Evans’s mother. Is that possible? I could go on my own, I suppose, but I think it would be better if there were someone there to introduce me-someone official.”

Joa

“Whenever you’re ready,” Joa

About the Author

J.A. Jance is the author of the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joa