Dead to Rights

Joa

His eyes blinked open. Glazed with weariness, he stared at Joa

Slowly he swung his feet to the floor and then sat with his hands clasping his forehead. “I can’t go home,” he muttered.

“Of course you can,” Joa

“I said, I can’t go home!” He drew the blanket around him and sat staring down at the floor. There was something in the way he looked, some quality of abject misery in his voice, that warned Joa

Without waiting for an invitation, she sank down on the couch beside him.

“What is it, Dick?” she asked.

“Ruth kicked me out,” he said at last. “She says she wants a divorce, and I haven’t had time to go looking for an apartment.”

“Ruth kicked you out?” Joa

“She’s jealous,” he answered.

“Jealous of your job? She’s been married to a cop for long enough that she should know how it goes.”

There was a long silence. “No,” he said finally. “It’s not the job. She’s jealous of you.”

“Of me!” Joa

“I tried,” Dick Voland said miserably. “I don’t think she believed me.”

Shocked beyond speech, Joa

“A week,” he said. “I’ve been keeping my clothes in the car and showering in the deputies’ locker room, all the while hoping she’d come to her senses.”

“Do you want me to talk to her?” Joa

“Not on your life!” Dick Voland replied. “That’s the last thing I want you to do.”

FIFTEEN

Late as it was when Joa

Ruth Voland is jealous of me? she thought. How can that be?

Once she staggered into bed, sleep came quickly, but so did morning. Feeling guilty about spending so much time away from Je

She was dressed and close to leaving the house when the phone rang. Hurrying back to answer it, she found her mother on the phone. “You never called me back yesterday,” Eleanor complained.

“I didn’t get home until almost midnight,” Joa

“Well, I suppose not,,” Eleanor agreed. “Were you out dealing with that awful mess up by Tombstone?”

Joa

“What I can’t understand is why those people keep on coming here in the first place. Why don’t they just stay in Mexico where they belong?”

“Why didn’t your great-grandparents stay in England?” Joa

“That was different,” Eleanor told her.

This was a long-standing argument-one that no amount of logic could win. Joa

There was a slight pause before Eleanor answered. “Are you pla

“Yes.”

“Well, good,” Eleanor said. “You should. Your father always did. Keeping up appearances, you know. In the face of this awful crime wave, it’s important that people see you out in public and know you’re on the job.”

Eleanor hadn’t been wildly in favor of her daughter’s ru

“Right, Mother,” Joa

“You know,” Eleanor added, “I never remember anything like this number of homicides happening all at once when your father was in office.”

No doubt there was a hidden subtext behind that comment. Eleanor was probably building tip to letting Joa

“Neither do I,” Joa

“Yes,” Eleanor admitted. “I suppose they have. By the way, did you ever talk to Reverend Maculyea? She called here looking for you.”

“Maria

“I will,” Joa

It was only after she clicked the receiver that Joa

Joa

“I can’t talk long,” the pastor said. “I’m on my way out the door to catch a plane.”

“A plane. Where to?”

“San Francisco. Jeff sent me a telegram yesterday afternoon. First nothing happens for weeks on end. Then all of a sudden he sends word yesterday that I have to be in San Francisco by noon today. The expectation had always been for him to fly into Tucson and for me to meet him there. He didn’t send along any explanation about the change in plan, either. Nothing. Just ‘meet us in San Francisco,’ and a flight number from Hong Kong. But that’s something anyway. At least he said ‘us’. It means…”

Maria

“It means he did get the baby, right?” Joa

“That’s right.”

“How great! Mari, congratulations. Aren’t you excited?”

“Yes, but… It’s just that…”

“It’s just what?”

“I’ve been so worried that there was some kind of hitch and he wouldn’t be able to get her out, that I had sort of given up hope. Now I guess I’m a little overwhelmed.”

“Do you need a ride to Tucson? Can I come pick you up? God knows, I’ve put in enough hours at work this week.”

“No,” Maria

Joa

Maria

“To me you are. Now tell me. What’s wrong?”

“I’m scared,” Maria

“Scared of what?”

“Of becoming a mother. All of a sudden I realized I don’t know the first thing about it. What if she gets sick? What if she won’t eat or hurts herself? How will I know what to do?”

Joa

“Half an hour.”

“Promise me you won’t go until I get there. Je

“All right,” Maria