only trying to protect you.â
âIâm almost grown up,â Jenny said, with a defiant toss of her blond hair. âYou canât always protect me, you know.â
With that, she touched her heels to Kiddoâs flanks, and they raced off down the road, leaving Joanna standing in the cloud of dust kicked up by the departing horseâs galloping hooves. With a sigh, Joanna pulled out her cell phone and called home.
âIncoming,â she said, when Butch answered. âJennyâs on her way home and sheâs bent out of shape again. She thinks Iâm being unreasonable for sending her home instead of having her hang around here to be interviewed by one of my detectives.â
âDoesnât sound unreasonable to me,â Butch said.
âMaybe you can convince her of that. In the meantime, Iâm waiting for my crime scene team to show up. Debra Highsmithâs vehicle is stuck in the first wash and blocking the road. Itâll have to be towed out of the way before anyone else can get here. Iâm not sure how long thatâs going to take.â
âI guess I should have packed you a lunch.â
âToo late for that,â Joanna said. âIâll stop off and grab something on my way to the office. In the meantime, rather than inadvertently messing up some evidence, Iâm walking back to the first wash. Since no one can get in or out for the time being except on foot, Iâm deeming the crime scene secure.â
âYouâre walking?â Butch asked.
âYes, the Yukon is on the far side of the first wash.â
âHow did you get from there to the body?â
âJenny gave me a ride on Kiddo. The fact that she didnât offer me a ride back gives you some idea of how mad she is.â
âSometimes parenthood sucks,â Butch said, âbut since she bestowed the honorary title of dad on me yesterday, I guess Iâd better see what I can do to calm the troubled waters once she gets home.â
âThanks, Butch,â Joanna said, and she meant it.
Call waiting buzzed. âPhone call,â she said. She clicked over to find Deb Howell on the line.
âIâm stuck on the far side of the first wash,â Deb said. âNo sign of the tow truck so far.â
âIâm coming that way on foot,â Joanna said. âIâll be there when I can, but how did you make it there so fast? I thought youâd be the last to arrive.â
âIf Iâd had to track down a babysitter, I probably would have been, but Mauryâs here today and tomorrow. Ben and I were supposed to go ATVing with him today. Now Maury and Ben are going without me.â
A year earlier Maury Robbins, a 911 operator in Tucson, had called in a homicide that had occurred at Action Trail Adventures, a combination RV/all-terrain vehicle park north of Bowie in the far-northeast corner of Cochise County. During that investigation, Maury had exhibited more than a passing interest in Deb Howell, one of the detectives on the case. When Ernie Carpenter had mentioned as much, Deb had replied with an immediate denial, insisting that it was all about work. In the months since, however, Ernieâs assessment had been proved correct. Deb Howell and Maury Robbins were now a romantic item. Although he still lived in Tucson, he spent many of his days off in Bisbee, parking his Jayco pop-up camper at the RV park in Old Bisbee, a few blocks from the home on Brewery Gulch that Deb shared with her son.
The news that Deb trusted the man enough to let Ben go ATVing with him alone struck Joanna as significant, but she didnât make any comment to that effect.
âWhatâs going on?â Deb asked. âLarry said something about your finding a body.â
âI didnât find it; Jenny did,â Joanna replied, âand itâs not just any body. Itâs Debra Highsmith, the missing high school principal. Jenny found her near the third
Gillian Doyle, Susan Leslie Liepitz