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“Sort of like the people who come by and drop off baby chicks and rabbits once Easter is over.”
“Exactly!” Butch agreed. He sounded utterly outraged, and Joa
“There’s a big difference, though,” Joa
“I’m sure they do, but they wouldn’t give that information to me.”
“They’ll give it to someone with the word ‘sheriff’ in front of her name,” Joa
“See you at di
“I don’t know for sure what time I’ll get there,” Joa
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
An hour after returning to the department, Joa
Ernie and Jaime had come in to perform the interview honors with Dena Hogan and to confer with Arlee Jones. Meanwhile, Joa
Joa
She looked up to see her stepfather, Dr. George Winfield, standing in the doorway. “Come on,” he said. “Ellie just called me at the office and gave me my marching orders to come pick you up. We’re late for di
Looking at her watch, Joa
“I heard rumors about that,” George said. “The word is out that you’re tough on the county’s rolling stock. First you shot the tire, and then somebody else blew out the window. Or are those just vicious rumors?”
Joa
George Winfield gri
Joa
She picked up her purse and started toward the door. “You may want to fix your face,” George suggested.
“My face? What’s the matter with it?”
“A matched pair of shiners, for one thing,” George replied. “How’d you do that?”
Joa
“I had to head-butt my way out of trouble today,” Joa
George gri
“Before,” Joa
“That’s as good as it gets,” she said, closing the compact. “I’m not a very good example, am I?” she added. “Je
“Let her,” George said. “It won’t be the first time. Besides, you were only doing your job.”
Joa
“Brand-new car,” George complained. “The dealer made me a good deal-maybe even a little too good. But here it is less than a week after I drove it off the lot, and I’m having some kind of mysterious problem in the electrical system. It’s probably just a fuse. I was supposed to take it into the dealer today, but I ended up having to go to Tombstone instead.
So this afternoon, I tried calling to switch the appointment to tomorrow, and the place is closed.”
“On Friday?” Joa
“No, according to the message on the answering machine, it must be more serious than that. The a
“Wait a minute,” Joa
“Fort Apache Motors in Sierra Vista.”
“From Ross Jenkins?”
“Do you know him?”
“Know him! He’s the guy who took a shot at me today-the one who’s in the hospital right now having his bowel sewn back together.”
“Small world,” George marveled. “Well, small county, anyway. But still, why would they close the dealership?”
“He was on his way out of town,” Joa
Once the two detectives and the prosecutor had locked themselves in the interview room with Dena Hogan, Joa
“I need someone to go tap on the interview room door,” she told the desk clerk who answered her phone call. “I need to talk to either Detective Carpenter or Detective Carbajal.” “The double Cs,” as the two detectives were sometimes called.
Ernie came on the phone a few moments later. “What’s up?”
“You may want to find out if Dena knows what happened to Ross Jenkins’ auto dealership,” Joa
“Will do.”
“How’s it going with Arlee?”
“Sounds to me as though he’s going to strike a deal. I think Dena will cop a plea for Alice Rogers. By the time Ross Jenkins gets out of the hospital, he’ll wish he hadn’t.”