Outlaw Mountain

“Oh, I went all right. I told you I would, so I did. The whole thing was nothing but a gigantic waste of time.”

“No surprises there,” Joa

“You mean you don’t like attending them, either?” Dick Voland sounded surprised.

“Fortunately for both of us, Dick, Frank Montoya actually gets a kick out of all that political wrangling.”

“Is that so,” Voland said wonderingly. “Maybe the guy has some redeeming qualities after all. Just don’t tell him I said so.”

Joa

“Your mother, for one,” Kristin said. “She’s called three times so far. There was also a call from Father Thomas Mulligan. You know, the head of Holy Trinity, that Catholic monastery over in Saint David. He asked to speak to you directly. I told him you were working a case and asked him if it was an emergency. He said no, but that he did want to speak to you as soon as possible. Here’s the number.”

Pulling a notepad from her pocket, Joa

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Good.” Joa

Walking as she talked, Joa

“Wait a minute,” Joa

Folding his arms across his broad chest, Sergeant Mallory sauntered over to Joa

Joa

Mallory shrugged. “You know how it is,” he said. “My supe wanted me to get those statements first. In other words, no paper, no jail.”

Over by the Sebring, Susan Jenkins ground out her cigarette and came walking toward Joa

“I’m sorry, Sheriff Brady,” Susan Jenkins apologized at once. “I don’t know what got into me. I was so mad at Clete right then, I couldn’t see straight. All the way here, I kept thinking that if only he had listened to me yesterday or if he had used his brain before that, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe our mother would still be alive.”

Much as it hurt her to do so, Joa

“You and your brother have both sutured a terrible loss,” Joa

“It is her then?” Susan asked, nodding in the direction from which Joa

“Yes. Pending positive identification, of course. But yes, we’re pretty sure.”

Susan Jenkins’ eyes filmed with fresh tears. She buried her face in her hands. “I kept hoping the cops would be wrong, that it would turn out to be someone else.”

“What was your mother wearing when you saw her last?” Joa

“A dress,” Susan said. “A pink dress.”

“What about a sweater or coat?”

“Mother was very warm-blooded. She hardly ever wore a coat. She wasn’t wearing a sweater when she left my house the other night, but she might have had one in her car.”

Susan cast a wary look in the direction of the cholla. “Should I go over there and look-tell them whether or not it’s really her?”

Joa

“No,” Joa

Susan shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t say a word to me. He just drove off in his pickup truck.”

Joa

“He said he wasn’t feeling well and that he was going home.”

“Typical,” Susan said, with a trace of anger leaking back into her voice. “Clete always talks a good game, but when it’s crunch time or when there’s some kind of real crisis, looking for him to do anything useful is like leaning on a bent reed. I can understand his not having guts enough to do something about Mother and Farley Adams, but if Clete had bothered to mention the situation to me, I’ll bet I could have.”

Joa

“Tell me what you know about your mother’s boyfriend,” Joa

“Sure,” Susan said. “He started out about a year ago doing yard work for her-trimming and pruning, mowing the lawn, raking, hauling out some of the old dead century plants. I didn’t actually meet him until he was building the wall. Mother had always dreamed of having a wall around her place-one of those six-foot-high stucco affairs that looks like it came off a Spanish hacienda. She was thrilled when she finally found someone who could do the work for her. When the wall was finished, I expected Farley to move along. The next thing I knew, she had booted her previous renters out of the mobile home on Outlaw Mountain so Farley Adams could live there and work her claim. Even then, I didn’t worry about it. I thought it was strictly a business arrangement.

“But Saturday night, she told me what was really going on-that the two of them were in love and getting married. Mother and I had a big fight about it. A huge fight. I told her she was crazy, that the man was just after her money. After all, Farley’s at least twenty years younger-closer to my age than hers. What else could it be?”

What else indeed? Joa

For a moment Joa