Dead to Rights

“Which brings us right back to the Hal Morgan problem,” Joa

“To Morgan? Not that I know of,” Voland replied. “At least he hadn’t the last time I heard from him. My understanding is that Morgan’s doctor still won’t let anyone in the room.”

“If the man’s physical condition is that serious,” Frank Montoya offered, “then it strikes me he’s in no shape to take off under his own steam.”

“In other words,” Joa

“Not at this time. At least not until he’s either well enough to be released or until we’ve made a decision to charge him. On the other hand, if Dick here insists on having a guard, then he needs to pull someone in off patrol to do that duty. This morning I took a look at Deputy Pakin’s time sheet from yesterday. He pulled an eighteen-hour shift. That’s ridiculous. I hate to think how much we paid per hour to have somebody guarding a bedridden patient who was too sick to move.”

Joa

Voland nodded.

“And it’s someone who was off duty rather than pulling a deputy off patrol?”

The chief deputy squirmed. “Well, yes, but-”

“No buts, Mr. Voland,” Joa

“Yes, ma’am,” Voland responded with just a trace too much emphasis on the “ma’am” part. “You’re the boss,” he added, standing up. “Is that all?”

Joa

“That’s all then,” Joa

A steamed Richard Voland marched out of the office. “He’s not a very good loser, is he,” Frank Montoya observed as the door swung shut.

“It’s not a matter of wi

“I’ve been hearing some grousing out there among the troops.”

“That’s hardly news. What kind of grousing?”

“Some of the deputies are saying that if you hadn’t sent Deputy Pakin on his way early yesterday morning, Bucky Buckwalter wouldn’t be dead.”

Joa

Frank shook his head. “No way. If killing Bucky was Morgan’s whole purpose in coming to town, he would have waited until Pakin left regardless of how long it took. You ordering Pakin to leave had nothing to do with it.”

“Thanks, Frank,” Joa

“If they’re looking to lay blame,” Frank said, “there’s more than enough to go around.” With that, he opened a fib folder and dropped a sheaf of papers onto Joa

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Just for the hell of it, I went surfing the net last night. I called up all the press coverage I could find on the Bo

“All this time I thought you were lobbying against posting the guard because you thought Hal Morgan was i

Frank Montoya shook his head. “I’m a good Catholic boy,” he said. “Anybody who’s been raised Catholic knows, that martyrs always get the best press. So why should we spend money to guard him when he’s going to make far more of a splash by going to jail than he will it we just let him go?”

Joa

“Pretty much.”

“What’s your game plan for the day?”

Frank checked his watch. “I’ve got a press conference in half an hour. After that I’ll most likely spend the rest of the day working on those budget figures. I’ll probably still be working on them when hell freezes over. What about you?”

Joa

“That should be fun,” Frank said. “Especially with all this Buckwalter business just hitting the fan.”

“It’s not that. Mother made it a point of coming back from D.C. in time so she could be in attendance at the luncheon. I adore those kinds of events where I get to do double duty-laughter and sheriff at one and the same time.”

Frank chuckled and headed for the door. “Good luck with that,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”

Joa

Once she was alone, Joa

The first article was a straightforward fatality accident account-who, where, when:

A pedestrian struck by a speeding pickup in a downtown crosswalk has become Phoenix ’s fifth traffic fatality of the new year.

Bo

The driver of the vehicle, Dr. Amos Buckwalter of Bisbee, was treated for cuts and bruises at Good Samaritan Hospital before being booked into the Maricopa County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide. Buckwalter was reportedly in Phoenix to attend the a

Investigators at the scene say that the incident is most likely alcohol-related.

Shaking her head, Joa