“Sorry about that. We’re breaking in a new evidence clerk,” Joanna said with what she hoped was a convincing sigh. She handed him the evidence bag with the disk clearly visible. “Our old guy retired,” she continued. “He could find stuff with his eyes shut. This new one is taking her own sweet time to get acclimated.”
Reed seemed greatly relieved once the bag was in his hand. “I’d better be going then,” he said, sidling toward the door.
Wanting a few more minutes for her assets to get in position, Joanna stalled for time. “As I told you earlier, the disk you’re holding is part of one of our homicide investigations. I’m sure you know that procedures are everything these days. I’d appreciate it if you’d sign and date this receipt which shows you’re taking charge of the disk. I also need to know where and how to contact you if and when our case comes to trial.”
“I already told you, Sheriff Brady,” Reed objected. “The contents of this disk are top secret. I couldn’t possibly testify about them in open court.”
“Please don’t misunderstand,” Joanna said with a smile. “We’d merely want you to testify as to the existence of the disk. We certainly wouldn’t require you to divulge the actual contents.”
Reed sighed. “Very well,” he said.
Making a huge show of it, he took the receipt Joanna offered him. Then he pulled out a fountain pen and scribbled his name, the date, and a telephone number across the receipt. “Thank you so much,” Joanna said. “Believe me, my department and I are always happy to be of service.”
She walked Jerry Reed to the door and then escorted him all the way to the public lobby. Halfway down the hall, Lucy Ridder was emerging from the women’s rest room. Reed rushed past her without a sideways glance, but Joanna caught the look of utter terror that passed across the girl’s face. She gasped and started to say something, but Joanna silenced her with a shake of her head and a finger to her own lips.
“We’ll see you then, Mr. Reed,” she said, once he was safely out of the hall and beyond the locking security door. “Drive carefully.”
Closing the door behind him and making sure it was properly latched, Joanna turned back to Lucy. “That was him, wasn’t it?”
Lucy Ridder nodded. “That’s the man who killed my mother,” she said.
Just then Frank Montoya came racing down the hall. “Where is he?” he demanded. “You didn’t let him get away, did you? I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s phony as a three-dollar bill.”
“He won’t get away,” Joanna returned. “Right about now, he should be driving over the tire spikes I had Danny Garner put down just inside the gates to the Justice Complex. Ernie Carpenter and Jaime Carbajal should be Johnny-on-the-spot to pick him up.”
Frank stopped and looked at her. “How’d you do that?” he asked.
Joanna tapped the side of her head. “Kidneys,” she said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Never mind,” Joanna said with a laugh. “It’s the punch line to an old shaggy-dog story Marianne Maculyea taught me when we were in sixth grade.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Right,” Joanna agreed. “It didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t now. You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
About that time, Joanna’s cell phone rang in Frank’s hand. With a disgusted shake of his head, he handed it over to her.
“Mom?” Jenny sobbed into the phone. “Is that you?”
“Jenny. What’s the matter? Where are you?”
“In the principal’s office. We got out of school early today because it’s a teacher-in-service day. I went to Butch’s house, but the door is locked and nobody’s home. Grandma and Grandpa aren’t home either. Everybody’s too busy today, and they just forgot all about me. Nobody even loves me.”
“That’s not true, Jenny. We do love you, and you’re right. We are busy. Just stay there in the office. I’ll be down to get you as soon as I can.”
“Good,” Jenny sniffled. “When can we go get the dogs?”
Listening to her weeping child made Joanna’s heart hurt. She could remember times when Eleanor had been busy as well. “If it’s not one thing,” she used to say, “it’s three others.”
“I don’t know what time exactly,” Joanna said. “But it’ll be before dinner. You can count on that.”
CHAPTER 28
Joanna and Jenny picked up the dogs and took them home to High Lonesome Ranch. Out in the front yard stood an overflowing Dumpster, but Joanna chose not to go near enough to see the unsalvageable debris. There was no point in it. Instead, tentatively, she made her way into the house.