Skeleton Canyon

Long after Je

For a change, Sheriff Brady wasn’t worried about something at work. For the past two weeks all of Cochise County had been amazingly quiet. Other than rounding up the usual quota of undocumented aliens there had been no murders, no ugly domestic violence cases, no fatal traffic accidents, and only a few drunk drivers. The lack of new incidents had allowed her two detectives, Ernie Carpenter and Jaime Carbajal, to go back over a few old and still-unsolved cases to see if there was anything new that could be brought to bear.

For one thing, the county had recently installed an Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Usually the AFIS technician was so busy entering new prints into the system that there was no opportunity to do anything about cold cases. Already the extra effort was paying off. A perpetrator in a two-year-old Huachuca Mountains burglary case had been found in the Pima County jail in Tucson.

So, instead of worrying about work, Joa

Turning over on her side, trying to find a more comfortable position, Joa

It was summer, and the simmering heat required a change of wardrobe. She needed some lightweight work clothes, ones that would be reasonably cool, look professional, and also be built in a fashion that would accommodate the soft body armor she wore each day when she went to work. There were times when she looked at some of her female officers and felt almost envious of their uniforms. At least they didn’t have to go to their closets every morning and decide what to wear.

Joa

Lately, both Joa

Time to do your daughterly duty, Joa

Good, bad, or indifferent, at least I’ll know what she thinks.

“I’m too hot,” Je

Joa

Still, none of that was sufficient reason for Je

“Is there a please hiding in there somewhere?” Joa

“Pretty please,” Je

Joa

“At Burger King?”

“I suppose.”

As they drove down Benson’s almost-deserted main drag, the thermometer on the bank read 105 degrees. Joa

“Why couldn’t we bring the other car?” je

Je

“Taking you to camp at Mount Lemmon on my day off hardly qualifies as county business,” Joa

“I know,” Je

“I’m sure I can get this one fixed.”

“Before you come back to bring me home?”

“We’ll see.”

Fifteen minutes later, armed with the remains of two large Cokes and in somewhat better spirits, Joa

Had Joa

As soon as the General Hitchcock Highway began climbing tip) out of the desert floor into the Catalina Mountains, the temperature began to fall. Halfway up the mountain, Je

“You’re sure you packed everything on the list?”

Yes, Mom,” Je

“Everything? Even the insect repellent?”

“Even that,” Je

Unfortunately, Joa