by J. A. Jance
“Yeah?” Nathan said. “Whaddya want?”
“Is your mother home?” Joanna managed. “There’s something I need to talk to her about.”
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“She’s not here.”
“Do you know when she’ll be back?”
Nathan Adams shrugged. “No idea,” he said. “Could be an hour or two, maybe longer.”
“What about your dad?” Joanna asked hopefully.
“He stays at an apartment up in Tucson during the week,” Nathan explained. “He’s usually only home on weekends.”
“Oh,” Joanna said. “I’ll be going then.”
“Want me to have her call you when she gets in?”
“No,” Joanna said. “Don’t bother. I’ll talk with her tomorrow.”
As Joanna walked back across the wide porch, the door slammed behind her. A moment later, the atonal thumping of MTV returned. Joanna retreated to the Ciwie and then sat there for several long minutes without turning the key in the ignition.
Is that the truth? she wondered. Is Nathan the product of an incestuous relationship between Stella and her father:1 And if so, does he have any idea about the truth of the situation?
Joanna remembered Nathan as he had appeared when she had first laid eyes on him that day in the lobby of the Justice Center. He had struck her as a surly, smart-alecky teenager-typical, in other words. She had thought him spoiled, doted on, and more than a little obnoxious, but normal-utterly normal. But could you be a normal teenager if you knew that kind of awful truth about your parentage?
Kids exist in a herd mentality. They want to fit in-want to be just like everyone else. That’s why they wear the same kinds of clothes, watch the same television programs, listen to the same music. But could you fit in if you knew that you existed because your mother had been impregnated by her own father?
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It came to Joanna then in a flash of insight. “He doesn’t know!” she almost shouted, pounding the steering wheel with her fist. “Nathan Adams has no idea!”
Joanna’s hands trembled as she turned the ignition key and put the Crown Victoria in gear. Meanwhile the gears in Joanna’s head were meshing as well. And if Nathan doesn’t know, that’s because Stella’s been keeping it a secret. And if Carol was going public, the secret was about to come out.
There it was laid out before her so clearly that Joanna wondered why she hadn’t seen it before. Andrea was convinced that her father was Carol’s murderer, but this made far more sense. Here was motive-a protective mother’s motive-understandable, utterly implacable, and absolutely deadly.
Joanna headed straight for the department. Without being aware of her speed, she found herself doing seventy down the Warren Cutoff. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to pull her foot off the gas pedal and drive sensibly. She parked the Civvie behind her office and darted inside. As soon as she put her purse down, she hurried over to the door.
Kristin looked up from her desk, surprised to see her,. “What are you doing here?”
she said. “I thought you’d go straight home from Tucson.”
“Something came up. Where’s Frank?”
“Still in the conference room with Ernie and those other guys,” Kristin answered.
“They must be having a great time in there. A few of them have come out for pee stops, but they’re obviously still going strong.” She gave Joanna a close look. “You seem upset,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Joanna said, “nothing’s wrong. But let me know as soon as Frank comes out.
Tell him I need to see him. What about Jaime Carbajal? Has anyone heard from him?”
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“Not as far as I know.”
Joanna returned to her office and tried calling Jaime’s cell phone. It rang several times, and she hung up without leaving a message. Frustrated, she stared at the mounds of untouched paperwork covering almost every square inch of her desk. Finally her eye settled on the last of Irma Mahilich’s General Office drawings-the one marked page 4. The paper sat directly in front of her just where she’d left it. Something drew Joanna’s eyes to the far-right corner of the paper where, although she hadn’t noticed it before, a single name stood out: Adams-Anna Wakefield Adams.
Staring at the words written in Irma Mahilich’s spidery script, a string of names tumbled through Joanna’s mind: Stella Adams. Denny Adams. Anna Wakefield Adams. Joanna had known of Denny Adams. He had been younger than Joanna by several years, so they hadn’t been in school together, but she knew the name. Now she wondered if Anna Adams and Denny were related. She looked up the number in the telephone directory and called the Ferndale Retirement Center.
“Irma Mahilich,” she said to the person who answered.
“I’ll ring her room for you.”
“No,” Joanna said. “Don’t do that. Let me speak to the receptionist. The one at the front desk.” ,
A moment later another voice came on the line. “May I help you?”
“This is Sheriff Brady,” Joanna said quickly. “I’m trying to reach Irma Mahilich.
Is there a chance she’s sitting out in the lobby working on a jigsaw puzzle?”
“Yes,” the receptionist said. “She’s right there. If this is important, I could have her come take the call here at the desk.”
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Joanna let her breath out. “Yes, it is important,” she said. “I’d really appreciate it.”
After an interminable wait, Irma’s voice rang over the phone. “I’m here,” she said irritably. “Who is this? What do you want?”
“It’s Sheriff Brady,” Joanna said.
“I can’t hear a thing. Wait while I fix my hearing aid. Now, who are you again?”
“I’m Joanna Brady. You know, D. . Lathrop’s little girl.”
“Oh, yes. I remember you. You came to my house selling Girl Scout cookies that one year. I think I even bought some from you. Thin Mints, I believe. Those were always my favorites. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering about someone who used to work with you,” Joanna said slowly. “Someone who worked with you in the General Office.” Joanna picked up the drawing and studied it. “Her name was Anna Adams, and she worked upstairs. Her desk was just to the right of the stairs-between them and your office.”
“Oh, yes, Anna,” Irma said. “I remember her. Her husband ran off with another woman and left her to bring up her son on her own. Dennis, I believe his name was. Fortunately, she had her parents to fall back on, so she had a place to live and someone to help her look after the baby when she had to go to work. Once PD shut down, I don’t have any idea what became of her. She probably transferred up to Silver City or over to Playas. Unlike the rest of us, Anna was way too young to retire.”
‘And when Mr. Frayn was passing out those guns,” Joanna asked softly, “do you happen to remember whether or not Anna Adams took one?”
“Took one!” Irma practically whooped. “Are you kidding?
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When they handed out guns, that girl was first in line. She said she wanted one of her own. She said if that worthless husband of hers ever came nosing around again, she was going to plug him full of holes.”
Irma paused. “Now wait a minute,” she said. “Who did you say you were again?”
“Sheriff Brady,” Joanna said. “Thank you so much for your help.”
She put down the phone and sat there thinking about how a gun that had once been used by company-hired vigilantes to march union protesters to the Warren Ballpark had now, more than eighty years later, come home to roost in a house directly across the street from that very same ballpark.
The phone rang. When Joanna answered, Deputy Debbie Howell was on the line and fighting mad. “Some son of a bitch messed with my vehicle, Sheriff Brady,” Debbie Howell stormed.
“Mossman came out of his room, got in his car, and drove away. I had gone into the restaurant long enough to use the facilities. When I came out, he was
getting into his car and leaving, so I hustled after him. He drove out to the highway and turned left like he was headed back into town. My Blazer started fine, but two miles down the road, just short of the junction with Highway 92, it conked out on me. It acts like it’s out of gas, but I just filled it. I think maybe somebody put sugar in the gas tank.”
“What kind of vehicle is he driving?” Joanna asked.
“A Hertz rental,” Debbie replied. “A late-model white Ford Taurus. I passed the vehicle description and license info along to Dispatch so people can be on the lookout for it. I’m sorry I dropped the ball on this one, Sheriff Brady. I really thought I had it under control.”
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“How long ago did you lose sight of him?”
“Only about ten minutes.”
“He can’t have gotten too far then,” Joanna said. “I’m sure we’ll find him. What about you?”
“Motor Pool is sending a tow truck to bring me back to the department.”
“See you here,” Joanna said.
As she put down the phone, Frank Montoya sauntered into her office. Grinning, he held both thumbs up in the air. “I think you scored a bull’s-eye, boss,” he said.
“How’s that?”
“Senor Sandoval knows more than anyone thought possible, and he’s naming names that the feds want to hear-people on both sides of the border. The FBI is taking him into custody, so he’ll be out of our bailiwick and into theirs. We’re also handing over the interviews you had us do.”
“Great,” Joanna said.
Frank homed in on her lack of enthusiasm. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know where to start,” she responded. “But maybe you should get Ernie in here before I do.”
Frank and Ernie listened in almost total silence. When Joanna finished, Ernie nodded.
“You could be right about all this,” he observed. “It’s not like it used to be in the old days. Now, having an out-of-wedlock child is no big deal, but this is incest.
And if all of this is a result of Stella Adams trying to conceal the boy’s real parentage, it might not be over yet. Who else would know?”
“The grandmother, Edith Mossman,” Joanna replied. “Ed Mossman himself, and the sister, Andrea.”
“You said Andrea was going into hiding.”
“Most likely she’s hiding from the wrong person,” Joanna 322
answered. “But, yes, I think she’s out of harm’s way for the moment.”
“Should we send an officer to look after Edith?” Frank asked.
Joanna nodded. “Absolutely,” she said. “The same goes for Ed, once we locate him again. What about the phone situation, Frank? Any luck there?”
“Not really,” Frank replied. “It’s a case of having too much information rather than too little. It turns out there are several phone calls going back and forth from Stella’s home number to her father, both in the days and weeks preceding the three murders and in the days afterward. So there’s no way we can point to a single individual call and say this one is significant. Mossman said Stella called and told him about Carol’s death sometime on Wednesday. He claims he doesn’t remember the exact time.
Unfortunately, there are several different calls during which that communication might have taken place.”
Ernie’s fingers drummed an impatient tattoo on the surface of Joanna’s desk. “We’ve got plenty of suspicion, but zero probable cause,” he said. “So far there’s nothing that would merit getting a search warrant, so how about this? What if I track Denny Adams down in Tucson and find out if Stella could possibly be in possession of one of those old Deportation Colt forty-fives? If he works for FedEx, they’ll have a local phone number and address for him.”
“Good thinking,” Joanna said.
‘Anything else?”
“That’s fine for a start.”
“I’ll get on it then,” Ernie said, lumbering toward the door. “One other thing. Do we know when Jaime will be back?”
“Not so far. I’ve tried calling him, but I can’t get through to him.”
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“Too bad. If we knew when he was coming in, we could have him go talk to Adams,”
Ernie said. ‘As it is, I guess I’ll do it.”
“You could always do a phoner,” Frank suggested.
Ernie shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “Phones work fine for some people, but I’d rather be eyeball-to-eyeball and belly-to-belly. I get a better feel for things that way, and better information, too.”
Ernie went out and closed the door behind him. “I should have known,” Frank said with a laugh. “I knew Ernie disapproved of computers, but this is the first I realized telephones are also suspect.”
Joanna laughed. “Give the man a break, Frank. Ernie Carpenter’s just an old-fashioned kind of guy.”
Frank left, too, and since there was no other excuse to avoid the paperwork on her desk, Joanna knuckled under and went to work. A whole hour had passed before her phone rang again. This time it was her private line.
“I thought you said you were going to call me back,” Eleanor Lathrop Winfield huffed.
“That was days ago now.”
Joanna’s first instinct was always to grab hold of the guilt her mother was so willing to pass out, but for a change she caught herself. “It was only yesterday,” Joanna said. “And I’ve been incredibly busy.”
“If you’re this busy now, how will you ever manage with a baby thrown into the bargain?”
“Mother,” Joanna said quietly, “Butch and I are going to have this baby. And, if the voters are willing, I’m going to go right on being sheriff.”
“In other words, like it or lump it.”
“I didn’t say that,” Joanna countered. Although it’s exactly what I meant, she realized.
“I suppose that is what I mean. I want
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you to be happy about this with us. I want you to be involved, and George, too. But, Mom, you’re going to have to get used to the idea that I’m a grownup. This is my life, and I’m going to do things my way.”
“That’s almost exactly what George said,” Eleanor replied tearily “George Winfield is a very smart man.”
‘All right,” Eleanor replied. Then she paused, but only for half a beat. “So have you been to see the doctor yet? You shouldn’t let that go too long, you know.”
All her life, Joanna had reacted to her mother’s interference with anger. When her mother pushed, she pushed back. Now, for the first time ever, she burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Eleanor demanded.
“You’re hopeless, Mom. A minute ago you agreed to let me do things my way. Now, less than a minute later, you’re telling me to go see the doctor.”
Eleanor sighed. “I guess I just can’t help myself.”
“And, if it’ll make you feel any better, I am going to the doctor,” Joanna said.
“I have a prenatal appointment with Dr. Lee tomorrow morning at ten.”
“Good. I’m delighted to hear it. Well, I suppose I should let you go. You said you’re busy,” Eleanor replied.
“I am busy,” Joanna agreed. “But there’s one thing more.”
“What’s that?”
“I love you, Mom,” Joanna told her. “I love you very much.” For a moment, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone. “Mom? Are you still there? Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes,” Eleanor replied, her voice strangely muffled. “I did hear you. And I think it’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”
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Joanna’s desk was relatively clear when she left to go home at five-thirty. At seven, she and Butch were sitting at the kitchen counter with the three dogs flopped on the cool tile floor around them while she related the details of Eleanor’s phone call.
“So she’s not mad anymore?” Butch asked.
“Evidently and I’m not mad, either.”
“Then this is new gr
ound for both of you,” Butch said. “If you weren’t off the sauce for the duration, I’d propose a toast.”
Joanna raised her milk glass and smiled at him. “Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll drink to that.”
She leaned over to kiss him, only to have Jenny appear in the doorway holding the cordless phone. “It’s for you, Mom,” she said. “Detective Carpenter.”
“What’s up?” Joanna asked.
“Denny Adams and I are on our way back to Bisbee right now. He’s in one car. I’m in another. Turns out his mother gave him an old Colt when he graduated from high school. He says he’s never fired it, but that he keeps it on the top shelf of his closet. He offered to check to make sure it’s still there, so he called home. Stella was out, so Denny asked Nathan to go look in the closet to see if he could find the gun. Naturally it isn’t there, and Nathan has no idea where his mother is. He says she went out today just after noon. She didn’t say where she was going and hasn’t been back since. I clued Denny in on what may be going on. He’s coming down to Bisbee to be with Nathan.”
Joanna took a deep breath. “Did you ask him about…” She looked toward Jenny, who was waiting to retrieve the phone as soon as her mother was finished. “…
about the rest of it?” Joanna finished lamely
“Yes,” Ernie said. “It’s true. All of it. Denny has known the truth all along, but Stella swore him to secrecy. Denny Adams
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came into Nathan’s life when the kid was just three years old. Denny’s the only father the boy has ever known, and he’d like to keep it that way. I told him that was doubtful, but that we’d try. That we’d do our best.” Ernie paused. “That’s the one thing I hate about this job.”
“What’s that?” Joanna asked.
“Making promises I may not be able to keep.”
“So what’s the game plan?”
“We’re going to the house to talk to Nathan and see if he can give us any idea of where his mother might be.”
“Jaime hasn’t shown up yet, has he?”
“No, ma’am, but we’ve heard from him. There was a security breach at LAX. They had to empty two terminals and re-screen all the passengers. He still doesn’t know when he’ll get here.”