Missing and Endangered

by J. A. Jance

  “I saw a picture of him on the news this morning,” Beth said quietly. “Paine’s an old man, like really old. The whole time I was talking to him, I was picturing that other guy—the dead one in the picture. It’s creepy—like talking to a ghost.”

  “Yes, it is creepy,” Joanna agreed. “By the way, have you ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz?”

  “Never, why?”

  “You need to, because it turns out the wizard’s pretty creepy, too,” Joanna said. “Everybody thinks he’s this powerful, all-knowing being, but in reality he’s a cowardly little guy hiding behind a curtain, the same way Gerard Paine hid behind his computer screen. By the way, as of now we’re putting The Wizard of Oz on our must-see movie list for this Christmas vacation. Come to think of it, I don’t think Denny’s ever seen it either.”

  Eventually the conversation turned to Beth’s parents. “What should I do about my mom and dad?” she asked.

  “After seeing them in action, Butch told me a little about your parents, and they sound . . . well . . . difficult,” Joanna answered. “But here’s the thing, Beth: You can’t fix them. The only person you can fix is yourself. It might be wise for you to try to forgive them, because they probably did the best they could and were only trying to protect you. Unfortunately, that kind of protective isolation ended up leaving you totally unprepared for what was waiting for you out in the real world.”

  “I should forgive them?” Beth asked. “Really?”

  Joanna nodded. “More for your own mental well-being than theirs, but to do that I think you’re going to need professional help.”

  “You mean, like talking to a counselor?” Beth asked.

  Joanna nodded. “Yes, but in person. I understand there’s a Web-based support network for people like you, but I don’t recommend your using it.”

  Beth shot Joanna a shadow of a smile. “Why?” she asked. “Because whoever’s on the other side of the computer screen might not be the people they claim to be?”

  For the first time, Joanna had a hint that Beth was getting it.

  “Exactly,” she said. “Now you’re catching on.”

  Chapter 51

  Sunday dawned clear but cold. Butch made waffles for breakfast. After that everyone, Beth included, went to church, where the junior choir—all ten of them, Denny included—stood at the front and sang “Away in a Manger.”

  During coffee hour Marliss Shackleford did her best to corner Jenny. “I understand you’ve had quite an adventure this week,” she said. “Who’s your friend?”

  “She’s my roommate,” Jenny replied, “but I don’t want to talk to you about any of this, Marliss. It isn’t the time or the place.”

  “I’d be glad to set up an appointment.”

  “No thanks.”

  “But if someone was really trying to kill you, don’t you want to be able to tell your side of the story?”

  “No comment,” Jenny said.

  “Did your mother tell you to say that?”

  “Actually,” Jenny told her, “I was able to figure that out on my own.”

  As Jenny walked away, leaving Marliss fuming, she noticed that Beth was off having a quiet word with Reverend Maculyea. Butch had collected Sage from the nursery and was headed for the door, so Jenny collected Beth as well. Jenny wanted to have Beth safely out of the building before Marliss managed to target her.

  “She’s very nice,” Beth said as they headed for the car.

  “Who’s nice?”

  “Reverend Maculyea. A lot nicer than Reverend Ike ever was.”

  “Reverend Ike? Who’s he?”

  “He’s the pastor at my mom’s old church—the guy who says cell phones are evil.”

  “Marianne and my mom have been friends from junior high on.”

  Beth nodded. “She mentioned that. She also said that your mom had told her what happened to us. She said that if I needed to talk to someone during Christmas vacation, I was welcome to come see her.”

  “Will you?”

  Beth thought about it for a moment. “Maybe,” she said finally. “Did you know she doesn’t get along well with her own mother?”

  Jenny looked at Beth in amazement. “She told you that?”

  Beth nodded.

  “I had no idea,” Jenny said. “None at all.”

  They went home from church and had a midday meal of roast pork, apple sauce, green peas, and mashed potatoes. By the time Sage went down for a nap, Jenny was feeling restless, so she pulled on her riding duds and headed for the corral.

  As soon as Kiddo, Jenny’s twentysomething sorrel gelding, heard her approaching footsteps, he pricked up his ears and trotted over to the fence in search of the apple treat he knew would be on offer. He was followed by Spot, the blind and once-starving Appaloosa mare her mother’s Animal Control people had rescued from a foreclosed ranchette at Arizona Sun Sites.

  Most of the time, Kiddo functioned as Spot’s Seeing Eye horse. With both a deaf black Lab and a blind Appaloosa in residence, Butch liked to say High Lonesome Ranch had turned into a home for animals with disabilities.

  Jenny had started her barrel-racing career on Kiddo. Once he’d outlived his barrel racing days, Maggie had been brought into the picture to serve as his replacement. Jenny knew that Butch rode Kiddo from time to time, but with her away at school, she was relatively sure the horse wasn’t getting nearly enough exercise.

  “How about if we go for a ride?” she asked him as he and Spot crunched their respective apples.

  Kiddo didn’t understand the words, of course, but the way he ducked his head up and down and pawed the ground made it look as though he did. Jenny grabbed a bridle from the barn and led him out of the corral before vaulting up onto him bareback. She loved feeling a horse’s muscles moving under her without the intervening barrier of a leather saddle. As they headed out toward High Lonesome Road, Denny came charging onto the front porch.

  “Hey!” he called after them. “Can I come, too?”

  “Okay,” she answered. “Go get Spot saddled up. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Jenny rode out to the end of the driveway and then bent down to unlatch and open the gate that allowed horse and rider to circumnavigate the cattle guard. Unsurprisingly, Lady and Lucky had come along for an afternoon romp. Horse, rider, and dogs trotted along together for a time, heading north on the reddish brown soil of High Lonesome Road.

  After a mile Jenny turned Kiddo around and gave him his head. He laid his ears flat and took off like a shot. They pounded back down the road at a gallop, churning up a trail of dust as they went. Jenny leaned forward into Kiddo’s neck and let his golden mane whip against her face. Suddenly, for no reason at all, she found herself crying—because in spite of everything she was alive! She wasn’t dead, because Aaron Morgan and Gerard Paine hadn’t managed to kill her! That was what made it possible for her to be out here on this chilly afternoon with the sun on her skin, the wind in her face, and riding her beloved horse back toward the house!

  In all her concern and worry about Beth Rankin, Jenny had somehow forgotten about herself. Now, in this exhilarating moment, she felt wonderfully alive and incredibly grateful.

  When they returned to the yard, Denny and Spot were saddled up and ready to go, with Beth standing nearby observing the action. Jenny and Denny walked their horses out to the road and then traveled along at a gentle trot with Spot following close on Kiddo’s tail and taking her cues from him. Glancing over her shoulder from time to time, Jenny was proud of the way Denny held his seat. He was already a good rider. Someday he would be an excellent one, all because Jenny had been able to teach him.

  Once back from their ride, as Denny prepared to dismount, Beth patted Spot’s muzzle and asked shyly, “Could I try, too?”

  “Have you ever ridden a horse?” Jenny asked.

  “I’ve never even touched one until now,” Beth said.

  Jenny slid off Kiddo’s back and adjusted the length of the stirrups on Spot’s saddle. “Let�
��s see if this works,” she said. “When you get on, you always do so from this side. Stick one foot in the stirrup, use the saddle horn to help boost yourself up, and then hold the reins loosely in your hands.”

  Beth managed to make it work on the second try. Jenny readjusted the length of the stirrups, and then she mounted up and off they went. This time there was no trotting. They walked along at a sedate trail-ride pace with Beth’s leather saddle creaking beneath her.

  “This feels really strange,” Beth said. “How can you ride bareback like that?”

  “Years of practice,” Jenny told her with a smile.

  They traveled the same route as before. It wasn’t until they neared the gate on the way back that Jennifer Ann Brady had an epiphany. It was as though the world suddenly made sense to her in a way it never had before. Sometimes you need to gallop, sometimes trot, and sometimes even walk, but in order to really live, you need to be able to do all three.

  Chapter 52

  By the time Monday morning came around, Joanna was feeling relatively rested. She arrived at her desk after roll call to find a message from Amy Ruiz awaiting her. She went straight out to the front office and tracked down Karen Griffith, the older clerk who was a lifelong friend of Amy’s mother.

  “I just heard that Armando’s being released today,” Joanna said. “I’ve been so busy I haven’t even asked. What’s happening on their Christmas situation?”

  Karen smiled. “Not to worry,” she said. “It’s all handled. Some friends and I went over yesterday and decorated the house inside and out, including putting up the tree. The presents are all wrapped and where they’re supposed to be. When Armando comes home, Christmas will already be there.”

  Unable to help herself, Joanna gave Karen a quick hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’re the best.”

  “I heard about Jenny,” Karen said. “How is she, and how are you?”

  Joanna felt a sudden flash of gratitude at the kindness of the people who worked with her. “She’s fine, and so am I,” Joanna said. “And thank you for asking.”

  By midmorning the FBI showed up in force to do interviews, bringing a flock of reporters with them. Joanna supplied the interview rooms and held off reporters as well. Two days of respite seemed to have benefited both Beth and Jenny. They appeared poised going into their individual interviews, and Joanna was relieved when more than two hours later they both emerged smiling.

  “Are you heading home?” Joanna asked.

  Jenny shook her head. “I’m going to drop Beth off uptown. She has an appointment to talk with Marianne. While she’s doing that, I need to do some Christmas shopping.”

  Shortly after two o’clock, Burton Kimball and Lyndell Hogan showed up in Joanna’s outer office.

  “To what do I owe the honor?” she asked when Kristin ushered them inside.

  “I wanted to thank you for putting us in touch with Mr. Kimball here,” Lyn said. “We just now left the courtroom, and I wanted you to be among the first to know that Izzy and I have been granted temporary custody.”

  “Really?” Joanna asked, looking back and forth between them in nothing short of amazement. “It happened that fast?”

  “That fast,” Burton repeated with a smile. “I believe the judge decided that there were enough extenuating circumstances surrounding the case to make it necessary for him to award temporary custody on an emergency basis.”

  “What does temporary mean?” Joanna asked.

  “It means that we can’t take the kids out of state until the custody arrangement is made permanent,” Lyn explained, “but that’s not a huge problem. We’ll just stay here for the time being. Izzy and I consulted a Realtor over the weekend. She showed us a house where the owner is being transferred and is desperate to sell. It’s close enough that the kids won’t even have to change schools. I told the seller that depending on how this morning’s court hearing went, we could maybe finalize the deal this afternoon. I’m on my way to do just that as soon as we leave here.

  “Tomorrow morning I’ll fly home to Wyoming to tie up some loose ends there. I told the guy who wants to buy our place that he can have it. Izzy and Jackie will stay here and look after the kids together while I’m gone. I can tell you that after missing a whole week of school, they’re both looking forward to going back tomorrow morning.”

  Joanna looked questioningly from Lyndell to Burton. In these kinds of situations, custody battles usually became pitched warfare, with relatives lined up on either side of a fence throwing stones. It was refreshing to realize that in this case all three grandparents were working together to present a united front. The other thought that occurred to Joanna just then had to do with the fact that if the elder Hogans could go out and purchase a new home at the drop of a hat, obviously Madison had made a serious miscalculation when she decided Leon was worth more dead than alive.

  “It’s still amazing that the judge allowed this to happen so fast,” Joanna said finally.

  “Izzy and I have a few resources at our disposal,” Lyndell Hogan said modestly. “Once I showed the judge our current financial situation, he saw that we could offer the children a more stable environment than what would have been available to them in foster care.”

  “Sheriff Brady is right, of course,” Burton put in. “Custody orders almost never happen with such speed. In this case I believe character witnesses who phoned in their testimony from Wyoming as well as the in-person interviews conducted by Judge Atkins himself did the trick.”

  “What in-person interviews?” Joanna asked.

  “Well,” Burton said, “Jackie Puckett didn’t exactly pull any punches in describing the kids’ circumstances once they were left in the sole care of her daughter. Neither did Kendall. She delivered a number of telling details about the challenges of living with Madison Hogan. That little girl is something!”

  “The judge spoke with Kendall directly?” Joanna asked.

  Burton nodded. “He talked with both kids. All Peter seems to care about is getting his dog back and having Coon with him wherever he goes. Coon was the only item on his wish list—well, that and a Christmas tree.”

  Lyn got to his feet. “Our son may be gone, but I wanted you to know that at this point I don’t even mind that we missed having a funeral for Leon. He loved those two kids with all his heart, and getting to have them with us feels like getting a piece of our boy back. So thank you, Sheriff Brady,” he added, coming around the desk to give her a heartfelt hug. “Thank you so much for everything you did—for us, for the kids, and for Coon, too.”

  “You’re more than welcome, Mr. Hogan,” she said, “but I was only doing my job.”

  Chapter 53

  The days leading up to Christmas sped past. In the legal world, things seemed to have accelerated into warp drive. In Flagstaff, Aaron Morgan was allowed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder on the condition that he testify against Gerard Paine. Meanwhile the mastermind himself remained in federal custody as the number of felony charges against him continued to mount.

  On the Floyd Barco front, there was total radio silence. If there were plans in the works about bringing in the guy from Agua Prieta and charging him for the brutal murders of Madison Hogan and Randy Williams, no word of it leaked out to either Joanna or Frank Montoya. Whatever the feds were doing on that score was occurring behind a strict cloak of secrecy.

  Real-estate dealings, too, seemed to be moving at lightning speed. Since Izzy and Lyndell were paying cash for their new house, the closing was accomplished in a matter of days. Then, after waving her Amex card and spending a day in Tucson with an interior designer, a personal shopper, and a U-Haul truck at her disposal, Isabella Hogan had the place furnished, wall to wall and soup to nuts. Her purchases included furniture, beds, bedding, pots, pans, dishes, glassware, and silverware. For the first time in their young lives, Kendall and Peter had their own rooms, and their rickety old bunk bed went to the junk heap where it belonged.

  Joanna stopped by one d
ay to say hello just in time to see movers unloading the truck. Inside, the arranging process was being directed by a woman who was, according to the Hogans’ Realtor, Sierra Vista’s primo professional house stager. In this case she staged the house for someone who would be living in it rather than selling it.

  “But what about your things back home in Wyoming?” Joanna asked. “What happens to them?”

  “Oh, those,” Izzy said with a dismissive wave. “Most of the stuff up there is as old as the hills. Some of it came from Lyndell’s mother and some from his grandmother. This is the first chance I’ve ever had to get my own brand-new stuff, and I’m taking full advantage. By the way, we’re going to have an afternoon open house on the Saturday before Christmas. A few people have hinted around that given everything that’s happened, it’s too soon for the kids and for us to have any kind of celebration. I say screw ’em. These kids have had enough sadness to last a lifetime. It’s time for them to have some fun.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Joanna said.

  “Speaking of kids,” Izzy said, “Kendall tells me you have a little boy about her age.”

  Joanna nodded. “His name is Denny. He’s in second grade, too.”

  “Well, feel free to bring him along,” Izzy said. “I’ve invited some of the families from the kids’ school, but I don’t know how many will show up.”

  “The Saturday before Christmas,” Joanna said, consulting the calendar in her phone. “What time?”

  “Two to four or so,” Izzy said.

  “We’ll be there,” Joanna said. “My husband, my son, and my two-year-old, Sage. I have an older daughter who’s home from college, but I’m pretty sure she and her roommate will be otherwise engaged.”

  With Denny in school for the remainder of the week, Joanna was pleased to learn from Butch that Jenny and Beth were going riding together almost every day, coming home with their cheeks flushed and smiles on their faces. Without the crutch of a cell phone in her hand, Beth was learning to saddle, bridle, and curry horses. She even allowed at dinner one night that once she and Jenny returned to Flagstaff, she hoped to be able to spend some time volunteering with the Lazy 8’s horse-therapy program.