Outlaw Mountain

“Nine-thirty. Why?”

“Would you mind making a stop along the way?”

“What kind of a stop?” Butch asked.

“I think we should go by the house and show George and Eleanor the ring.”

“What a good idea,” Butch said. “That might go a long way toward getting us both out of the doghouse with her. But what do we do with Junior?”

“Take him along in and introduce him,” Joa

Minutes later, they pulled up in front of the house on Campbell Avenue that had been Joa

“Joa

“Now that I have a ring, I thought you’d want to be among the first to see it.”

Joa

As usual, Eleanor’s insistence on using Butch’s given name irked Joa

“It’s beautiful,” Eleanor was saying, “although it does look a little like the one Andy gave you. It isn’t, of course.”

“Of course not,” Joa

Butch and Junior stepped inside long enough for Butch to be congratulated and for Junior to be introduced; then they climbed back into the car and drove out to high Lonesome Ranch. “We can come in for a while,” Butch offered hopefully,

Joa

Butch shrugged. “You can’t blame a guy for asking,” he said.

He waited outside in the Subaru until Joa

Looking for something to do and hoping for an occupation that would calm her down and help her sleep, Joa

It worked yesterday, Joa

Joa

When my father could see that Cal and I were determined to get married, he offered Cal a job. I know Daddy could have found Cal a good position with Phelps Dodge. After all, Daddy was the superintendent of the smelter by then. It wouldn’t have been any trouble, but Cal didn’t want to be beholding. He liked being his own boss and doing his own thing, so we said no and went our own way. But sometimes now I wish we hadn’t done that and wonder what would have happened if we had accepted Daddy’s offer. For one thing, we would have had medical insurance and maybe the company doctors would have caught Cal’s diabetes before it got so bad that he had to go and lose his leg. That’s what the doctors said happened. That it went untreated for so long that by the time they figured out what was the matter with him a lot of the damage was already done.

Joa

She remembered the bad spell he had suffered up on Houghton Road after Susan arrived and raised such hell with him. What was it he had said? Something about having medication in his truck. She remembered, too, how concerned he had been that he have food along with him on the drive to Tucson. That had to be it. Cletus Rogers was an insulin-dependent diabetic, and his mother may have been murdered with an overdose of insulin.

Too excited to sleep, Joa

Eventually she did go back to bed and to sleep. Long before her alarm sounded the next morning, Joa

“Well,” Fran said, “if we aren’t a pair of early birds worms and all. What’s got you up and going so bright and early?”

“The insulin,” Joa

“Pharmaceutical companies aren’t to be rushed,” Fran Daly said. “I spoke to at least half a dozen people yesterday. They all assure me that they should be able to trace the batch number to its distribution point, but so far the computer guru who’s supposed to make that happen can’t be bothered with returning my calls.”

“I think I can help,” Joa

“It certainly sounds plausible,” Fran said, when Joa

“What about fingerprints on the vial?” Joa

“Probably, as long as the killer didn’t use gloves. I sent the vial over to the crime lab,” Fran said. “But the results from that don’t come back to me. They go directly to the detectives working the case.”

“To Hank Lazier, in other words.”

“Right,” Fran said. “And since he and Tom Hemming are working like hell to extradite those three kids from Mexico, Hank’s not going to be ecstatic when you show up with an-other suspect altogether, along with a whole new theory about what went on.”

“Tough,” Joa

Finishing that phone call left Joa