Desert Wives (9781615952267) by Betty Webb Read Free Book Online Page A

gone out to investigate. Also, where the dirt road ends at the blacktop? There’s an all-night gas station/café combo sitting right there on the northwest side of the intersection. Lots of traffic and lots of nosey people. They probably pay pretty close attention to any strange car they see going out to the Purity compound, and a green Geo is a pretty strange vehicle for that area because almost everyone else drives pickups. If nobody’s come forward yet to say they saw the Geo, we’re probably all right.”
    When he spoke next, he still sounded worried. “We’ll find out during the discovery process, won’t we?”
    â€œI guess.” I thought we’d finished the conversation, but then Winfield dropped a bomb.
    â€œAh, Lena, I have some other news you need to know about. Abel Corbett, Rebecca’s father, arrived in Scottsdale this morning, custody papers in hand from Utah Family Court.”
    The pencil in my hand broke in half.
    â€œMr. Corbett insists on taking his daughter back to Utah with him until this situation is cleared up,” Winfield continued. “We have to comply.”
    â€œDoes he have another dirty old man he wants to sell Rebecca to?”
    â€œNo crime has been committed yet. Rebecca has to be proven to be in danger before we can successfully challenge the Utah custody order now that her mother’s in jail.”
    I tossed the pencil’s remains into the wastebasket. “What does that mean? Do we have to wait until Rebecca’s in some old fart’s bed and
then
go to court? Where’s the sense in that? You know as well as I do that the Utah court system won’t remove a little girl from a polygamy compound. It’s been tried before by worried relatives and they’ve failed every time. The court always rules that the parents, whatever freaks they may be, have custody over the child until she turns sixteen. And by then, it’s too late.”
    â€œLena, the law is the law, and as an officer of the court, I have to comply with it. In Utah, parents are God until proven unfit, and that’s pretty tough to do unless they’re serial killers.”
    â€œWell, I’m not an officer of the court, and as far as I’m concerned, you can put the law where the sun don’t shine.”
    â€œNice sentiment, coming from a former police officer.”
    I brought myself back under control. There was no point in alienating him. “Sorry about that, Ray. For now, just tell Abel Corbett that his daughter’s in a safe place, a place arranged by her mother. And remind him that according to
Arizona
law, her mother is still the custodial parent, jailed or not. Those legal tricks he pulled in Utah are just so much bullshit.”
    â€œChild Protective Services might not see it that way.”
    My laugh was ugly. “Oh, yeah, Child Protective Services. Sometime when we have a couple of hours or, even better, a couple of days, remind me to tell you about my own experiences with CPS.” The seedy foster homes I’d endured reared up in my memory. “I wouldn’t turn a snake over to CPS.”
    â€œWhile I’m certain there have been abuses…”
    â€œThe answer is no, a flat-out no. Rebecca stays where she’s put until her mother either changes her mind or gets out of jail. If you do your job properly, that’ll be sooner rather than later.”
    Although unhappy, Winfield let it go. Uttering dire warnings about custodial interference and the Uniform Child Custody Agreement, he hung up.
    I replaced the receiver and stared at my hand. It was shaking.
    â€œI didn’t like the sound of that conversation,” Jimmy said from across the room. I’d forgotten he was there.
    â€œNeither did I. What do you think the chances are that Utah has a witness who saw Esther near Purity? It’s too bad one of us wasn’t able to stay with her at the motel.”
    â€œYeah, it is. But I