Outlaw Mountain

Silting in the Blazer, Joa

Joa

“I’m leaving,” Joa

“Do you want some backup on that?”

Joa

Ernie looked at her and shook his head. “You go on ahead,” he said, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

By two o’clock Joa

“She’s not in,” Joa

“Not in,” Joa

“Ms. Hogan went home sick at lunchtime. She said she may not be back before Monday,” the receptionist added. “I probably should have tried to call, but I didn’t know where to reach you.”

“You might have tried the sheriff’s department,” Joa

Steamed, Joa

It turned out that Karen Brainard didn’t live in Huachuca City proper. The Brainard place was on Sands Ranch Road in the foothills of the Whetstones. Her house was a sprawling adobe affair-new construction with carefully contrived landscaping that made it look far older and more well-established than it was. A FOR SALE sign sat next to the mailbox.

The silver-haired woman who answered the door resembled Karen Brainard. “I’m Sheriff Brady,” Joa

“She isn’t here right now,” the woman said uneasily. “I don’t know when she’ll be back.”

The wary way the woman responded put Joa

“I’m Maureen,” the woman said. “Maureen Edgeworth. Karen’s mother.” She opened the door wider. “Won’t you come in?”

Stepping inside, Joa

Following Maureen Edgeworth through the house, Joa

“You say you don’t know when your daughter will return? You are aware that with the ongoing investigations into Lewis Flores’ and Mark Childers’ deaths, your daughter was told not to leave town.”

“But she had to,” Maureen Edgeworth replied. “She didn’t have a choice.”

“Where is she?”

Maureen Edgeworth bit her lip. “I don’t want to tell you,” she said. “She hasn’t gone far, and she will be back eventually. I promise. Her father and I are taking care of Derek and the house in the meantime.”

“Who’s Derek?” Joa

“Karen’s son. Our grandson,” Maureen said. “He’s only sixteen, you see. This has all been awful for him. It was all I could do to get him to go to school today. He didn’t want to, and I don’t blame him. He’s embarrassed. I feel the same way when I have to go to the grocery store. I don’t know what I’ll do when Sunday comes around and I have to go to church. That’s the most difficult thing-seeing people you know and knowing they know. It’s so hard-so very, very hard.”

“Where is your daughter?” Joa

“In Tucson.”

“Where in Tucson?”

“Ed drove her there. Ed’s my husband-Karen’s father. He’s checking her into a treatment center-a drug treatment center. We knew some of this when Paul left. Paul’s our son-in-law, you see. When he moved out, he tried to tell us what was going on-that Karen was mixed up in some pretty wild stuff. But Ed and I didn’t want to believe it. Not Karen. Not our own daughter.

“But when she called last night and told us what had happened and that she’d had to resign from the board of supervisors, there wasn’t any choice. We had to believe her then. And Ed did the only thing that made sense. He made arrangements to check her into the center first thing this morning. She’ll be there for six weeks. We’ve talked to Paul-we’re on very good terms with him, you see-but he’s doing a consulting job and is out of the country for the next three weeks at least. Ed and I assured Paul that we’ll look after Derek at least until he gets back.”

Maureen Edgeworth stopped speaking and seemed to become aware that her hospitality was somehow lacking. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

“No, thank you,” Joa

“If you don’t mind, I’ll fix some for myself.”

As Maureen moved around the kitchen, Joa

“Karen’s fortunate to have you and your husband for parents,” Joa

Maureen shrugged. “What choice do we have?” she asked. “What choice do parents ever have? Karen was always a handful-she and those wild pals of hers, Dena and Monica. They were all smart and they all got good grades, but they were always getting into mischief together, always walking the fine edge.”

“Dena Hogan and Monica Foster Childers?” Joa

“Dena James then,” Maureen said. “And yes, Monica Foster. I thought it was just because they were teenagers. I told myself that it was just a phase they were going through and that they’d grow out of it eventually. And I guess Monica did, but Karen and Dena are both in their mid-forties now. That’s a little late for them to keep falling back on that old ‘just-a-phase’ excuse.”

“Did Karen say anything to you about her dealings with Mark Childers?”

“More than we wanted to know,” Maureen Edgeworth said sadly. “She had more than ‘dealings’ with the man. And to think he was her best friend’s husband!”

Maureen shuddered, and her voice rose with indignation. “You have to understand, Sheriff Brady. I tried to raise my daughter to have good morals and high standards. I tried to teach her about right and wrong. I thought wife-swapping went out with the AIDS virus, but I guess not. These days all the kids learn about safe sex in junior high. Somebody needs to teach the parents. They’re the ones who need to grow up. I don’t blame Paul for leaving, not at all.”