Devil’s Claw

CHAPTER 4

A tiny sound right next to Joanna’s ear brought her fully awake. She opened her eyes. The sun was up. Jennifer Ann Brady, completely dressed and with her blond hair already neatly combed, stood beside the bed, grinning from ear to ear and bearing a cookie sheet laden with two steaming cups of coffee. Seeing her fully clothed daughter, Joanna was instantly aware that, except for a concealing mound of covers, she herself was stark-naked.

“It’s about time you guys woke up,” Jenny declared airily as she set the tray on the bedside table nearest her mother. “We’re supposed to be going to Tucson this morning, remember? And don’t worry. I won’t tell Grandma.”

With that, Jenny turned and flounced from the room. Behind Joanna, on the other side of the bed, Butch Dixon groaned and rolled over. He was no more dressed than Joanna was.

“Oops,” he said. “Bad move. I meant to be up and out by now. We must have overslept.”

“Overslept doesn’t quite cover it,” Joanna told him crossly. “I believe the correct term is caught with our pants down.”

“Not just down,” he said. “Mine aren’t even within grabbing distance. Sorry about that.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. “I’ll get dressed right away.”

“Forget it,” Joanna said. “You already spilled the beans last night, and since Jenny brought us coffee, we could just as well drink it before we crawl out of bed.”

She pulled a pillow up behind him. Once Butch leaned back against the headboard and drew the sheet back across his bare chest, she handed him his cup of coffee.

“Somehow it seemed like a better idea last night than it does now that the sun’s up,” he told her ruefully. “What do you suggest we do now?”

Joanna was glad to hear that Butch sounded almost as embarrassed as she was. “Brazen it out, I guess,” she answered. “We sure as hell can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”

At that, Butch leaned over and planted a kiss on her bare shoulder. “By the way,” he said. “Did anyone ever tell you that you keep pretty ungodly hours-for a girl?”

The use of the word “girl” was standard fare in Butch’s unending lexicon of teasing. Most of the time Joanna ignored it, but for some reason on this occasion it hit her wrong and put her on the defensive.

“Wait a minute, pal. We’re not even married yet and already you’re complaining about my job?”

“Don’t get your nose out of joint,” Butch assured her. “All I’m saying is don’t expect me to wait up for you every night. Obviously I need more beauty sleep than you do.”

“Oh,” Joanna said, but she was still a little grumpy about it.

There was a knock on the bedroom door. “More coffee?” Jenny asked, pushing it open a crack.

“Hadn’t we better get up and take care of the animals?” Butch asked.

That’s when Joanna remembered that Jenny didn’t yet know about Clayton Rhodes. No one had told her.

“No, thanks,” Joanna told Jenny. “We’ll be out in a minute. We’ll have more in a little while.”

When Jenny retreated from the door, Butch pulled on his shirt and pants and then hotfooted it into the bathroom. Joanna retrieved both her nightgown and bathrobe from the closet and then went in search of Jenny. She found her daughter curled up on the couch in the living room reading a book. Tigger, snoring like a locomotive, lay with his head in Jenny’s lap, while Sadie sprawled on the floor at Jenny’s feet.

Joanna could tell from the faded blue cover that the book was one of her old Nancy Drew mysteries. “What are you reading?” she asked, easing herself down on the couch in a way that didn’t disturb either one of the sleeping dogs.

“The Secret of the Old Clock,” Jenny said. “When I get my driver’s license, can I have a roadster? Nancy’s sounds neat.”

Joanna shook her head. “You were born sixty or seventy years too late for a roadster,” she said. “You’ll probably have to make do with my old Eagle-if it’s still running.”

“But that’s a station wagon,” Jenny protested. “I want a convertible-a red convertible.”

Joanna sighed. “Don’t we all. Seriously, though, Jenny, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Mr. Rhodes is dead, isn’t he?” Jenny said at once.

Joanna simply nodded. “How did you know?” she asked.

Jenny shrugged. “I sort of figured it out. I mean, I followed the clues, just like Nancy Drew.”

“What clues are those?”

“Well, you went over to see him and didn’t come back for a long time. And then this morning. When I get up to watch Saturday-morning cartoons, Mr. Rhodes is usually already here, but today he wasn’t. I went outside and looked for his tire tracks, but there weren’t any. So I went ahead and fed the animals myself.”

“All of them?” Joanna asked.

“You didn’t think I’d let them go hungry, do you?” Jenny asked indignantly.

Joanna laughed. “No,” she agreed. “Of course not.”

“And after I fed them I made coffee for you.”

Joanna was stunned. It wasn’t that Jenny didn’t know how to feed the animals or how much to give them. On Clayton Rhodes’ days off, Joanna and Jenny usually did the chores together. Still, she was struck by the fact that Jenny had done the chores all by herself and also on her own initiative. Butch was right, Joanna realized then. Jenny was growing up-in more ways than one.

“So what happened to him?” Jenny asked. “To Mr. Rhodes.”

“He probably had a heart attack or else maybe a stroke,” Joanna replied. “At least that’s what Grandpa George thinks.”

“Grandpa George will have to do an autopsy, won’t he-to find out for sure?”

Jenny had lived all her life in a law enforcement household where the pieces of homicide investigations were regular components in ordinary, everyday conversations. “Yes, he will,” Joanna replied.

Jenny rolled her enormous blue eyes. “Well,” she observed, “Mr. Rhodes wouldn’t like that.”

“What do you mean?” Joanna asked.

“Grandpa George is nice and all that, but he’s still a doctor,” Jenny said. “Mr. Rhodes told me once, after he hurt his leg last year, that he never wanted to go see a doctor again. But I guess if he’s already dead, it won’t matter.”

Joanna was a little taken aback by Jenny’s unemotional, almost clinical response to news of Clayton Rhodes’ death. After all, the man had been an important part of their daily lives. As Jenny’s mother, Joanna would have preferred some show of sadness and even a few tears.

“Clayton Rhodes was a nice man,” Joanna said. “I’m sorry he’s dead. Aren’t you?”

Jenny shook her head. “I’m not,” she declared. “Mr. Rhodes told me once that he was old and ready to go anytime the good Lord was ready to take him. He said he missed his wife and could hardly wait to see her again.”

Joanna felt as if she had been left standing in the dust. “Just when did you and he have this long conversation?” she asked.

Jenny shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “It was one time when we were out in the barn and he was cleaning Kiddo’s stall. He told me he wished he had a granddaughter just like me. He said he had grandsons, but that he didn’t like them much. He said they were spoiled rotten. I told him I liked him, too. And I did. But now he’s in heaven with Molly and his little boy-”

“Molly and Clayton had a son?” Joanna asked. “I didn’t know that. When?”

“Oh, a long time ago,” Jenny answered. “During the war. At least I think that’s what he said. That the little boy was born and died while he was away at war and he never even got to see him.”

Joanna was nothing short of amazed to discover that Jenny had known so much about Clayton Rhodes’ life. Somehow Jenny had managed to glean details that Joanna herself had never suspected while the old man was still alive.

“When is the funeral?” Jenny asked. “Will we have to go?” The child’s blue eyes darkened as she asked the second question.

“I don’t know when it’ll be,” Joanna answered. “As of right now, I don’t even know for sure if his daughter has been notified. But whenever it is, we should probably go, don’t you think?”

Jenny nodded. “I guess,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “I don’t like funerals, but that’s what friends are for, isn’t it?”

Joanna reached over and gave her daughter a hug. “That’s right,” she said. “That is what friends are for.”

Just then Butch emerged from the bathroom. “It’s all yours,” he said to Joanna. Then he paused, glancing first in Jenny’s direction and then in Joanna’s. “This looks like a pretty serious discussion. Should I make myself scarce?”

“No, it’s fine. Jenny and I were just talking about Clayton Rhodes’ funeral,” Joanna told him. “Jenny thinks we should go, and I agree.”

Butch nodded. Then he added, “Speaking of Clayton, I’ll head outside and get started feeding the animals.”

“Don’t bother,” Joanna said. “Jenny’s already done it.”

Butch looked at Jenny. “You did?” Jenny nodded, beaming with pride. “Good for you,” Butch added.

Joanna hurried to the bathroom to take her turn. She was just finishing applying makeup when Jenny knocked on the door. “Phone, Mom.”

“Who is it?” Joanna asked as Jenny handed her the cordless phone.

Jenny shrugged. “Somebody from work,” she said.

“Hello,” Joanna said. “Sheriff Brady here.”

“Hi, Sheriff. It’s Lisa.”

Lisa Howard was the weekend desk clerk at the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department. Joanna’s heart sank. If there was some new emergency at the department, Joanna’s planned day-trip outing with Jenny and Butch might have to be canceled or postponed.

“What’s the matter?” Joanna asked.

“Nothing. We’ve got a reported runaway out in the valley, but that’s about it. There was a message that came in for you overnight. Since it didn’t seem especially urgent, the night shift decided to let me pass it along to you when I came on duty this morning.”

“What is it?” Joanna asked. “And who’s it from?”

“Sergeant Carlin.”

“In Los Gatos,” Joanna supplied.

“Right. He wanted you to know that Mrs. Singleton has been notified.”

“Good,” Joanna said. “Anything else?”

“He did say one other thing.”

“What’s that?”

“He said, ”Good luck.“ ”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Joanna asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa returned. “I thought maybe you’d understand what he meant.”

“Well, I don’t. But that’s all right. The point is, Clayton Rhodes’ family members have now been officially notified; you can release the news of his death to the press. And you should probably pass that word along to the medical examiner’s office as well in case anyone comes asking Doc Winfield for information.”

“Will do,” Lisa said. “Anything else?”

“Not right now. Jenny and I are on our way to Tucson to do some shopping, so if anything comes up, you may need to contact Chief Deputy Montoya. I told him about it yesterday, so he knows he’s on call.”

Hanging up the phone, Joanna headed for the kitchen. “What’s for breakfast?” she asked.

“French toast,” Jenny replied. “At Daisy’s.”

“Whose idea was that?” Joanna asked.

“Mine,” Jenny said. “Butch said that since I took care of feeding the animals, I could have whatever I wanted, and going to Daisy’s is what I chose.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Joanna asked. “Whatever you want you get?” She turned to Butch. “You’re going to spoil her.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s her birthday celebration, too. And I figure this way will be faster-if we leave right now, that is.”

They took Butch’s Outback-the newest vehicle in their stable of rolling stock-and headed for town. Daisy’s Café was already crowded with the Saturday-morning breakfast crowd. Standing just inside the door, they waited for a clean table.

“Hey, Junior,” Jenny called across the room. “How’s it going?”

Junior Dowdle was a fifty-six-year-old developmentally disabled man who had been abandoned by his court-appointed guardians and left on his own at a local arts-and-crafts fair the previous fall. The priest who had found him had turned Junior over to the care and keeping of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department. Through Joanna’s own efforts and those of her people, not only had Junior’s mother been found, so had a new set of local, Bisbee-area guardians. Moe and Daisy Maxwell, the owners of Daisy’s Café, had taken on that demanding role.

With infinite patience, Daisy and Moe had taught Junior how to bus tables. Now he spent several hours each day helping out at the restaurant. And, for the first time in his life, Junior Dowdle was earning his own spending money. One look at Junior’s beaming countenance offered mute testimony as to how well that arrangement was working.

Grinning from ear to ear and carrying a plastic pan loaded with dirty dishes, he came hurrying toward Jenny. On the pocket of his shirt he still wore the sheriff’s badge Joanna had given him the day she had brought him home from the monastery in Saint David.

“You come,” he said, motioning for them to follow him toward a booth he had just finished clearing. “You come and eat.”

From behind the counter, Daisy Maxwell watched, nodded, and smiled her approval. She waited until the party was seated before she followed with coffee and menus. “Most of the time Junior remembers menus,” she said. “But not when he sees someone he knows. Then he gets too excited. Come to think of it, though, you guys probably don’t need menus. What’ll you have?”

Removing the stub of a pencil from her beehive hairdo, Daisy took two orders for choriso and eggs and one for French toast along with two coffees, one milk, and orange juice all around.

“I just heard about poor Mr. Rhodes,” Daisy said, once she returned her order pad to its customary place in her apron pocket. “It’s too bad. He was the one who usually did your chores for you, wasn’t he?”

Joanna nodded.

“What are you going to do now? Who are you going to get to help out?”

Joanna glanced slyly at Butch. “I don’t know,” she said with a laugh. “I guess I’ll just have to get married.”

Daisy looked at Butch and grinned. “Sounds like a good idea to me. We women have to stick together and make sure you men pull your weight.” With that, Daisy Maxwell marched off to the kitchen.

That leisurely breakfast at Daisy’s was the beginning of something Sheriff Joanna Brady didn’t have too many of-a wonderfully carefree day. Together she and Butch and Jenny drove to Tucson and spent several hours in Guzman’s Horse Hotel, Saddlery, and Tack Shop on the far east end of Fort Lowell Road. Once Jenny’s all-new matching saddle, bridle, halter, and saddle blanket had been loaded into the back of the Subaru, they drove to Tucson Mall and spent some time mall-crawling. Then, after a late lunch at La Fuente, they headed back home.

Jenny, in the backseat next to her saddle, was once again lost in her book. “A penny for your thoughts,” Butch said softly to Joanna, somewhere beyond Saint David.

“What?” Joanna asked.

“Where are you?” Butch asked. “We’ve driven sixty miles and you haven’t said a single word.”

“I was thinking,” Joanna said.

“About what?”

“Cleaning house.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No. Your mother’s coming to town day after tomorrow and my cabinets haven’t been properly cleaned and neither have my closets.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Butch offered consolingly. “My mother’s a terrible housekeeper.”

“No, she’s not. You’re lying.”

“If my mother didn’t have a cleaning lady-her name’s Irma, by the way, and she’s cleaned Mom and Dad’s house for years. If not for Irma, my folks would have been buried under clutter years ago. Believe me, you don’t have to clean house on account of my mother.”

“Yes, I do,” Joanna insisted. “And tomorrow’s the only day I have to do it.”

“So you’re saying tomorrow’s out as far as fun is concerned?”

“Cleaning can be fun,” Joanna told him. “Bring rubber gloves. You can do the oven.”

Butch shook his head. “I’m serious, Joanna. My mother isn’t going to look in your oven, and she isn’t going to white-glove your cabinets or closets, either. Now, as far as my cabinets and my closets are concerned, that’s another story entirely. But don’t worry, please. Your house is fine.”

Sighing, Joanna returned to staring out the window and saying nothing. Right around Tucson, the paloverde and mesquite had begun leafing out. As they climbed up out of the valley, though, the blackened mesquite trees looked as though they were dead for all time.

“In other words, you don’t believe me,” Butch said at last, reaching out and taking Joanna’s hand.

“You’re right,” Joanna said. “I don’t. You’re just saying that because you want to make me feel better.”

“No,” Butch returned with a wry grin. “It’s because I don’t like cleaning ovens.”

It was almost four in the afternoon as they turned off High Lonesome Road onto the rutted track that led to Joanna’s house. Two hundred yards up the dirt road, they rounded a bend and found their way blocked by a white stretch limo, a Lincoln, that was high-centered on rocks in the middle of the steep wash. A man in a dark blue suit knelt on his hands and knees beside the vehicle and peered underneath it while behind him a woman in a pair of dangerously-high high heels tottered back and forth, pacing and gesticulating wildly.

“What the hell!” Butch muttered, stopping just short of the wash.

Joanna leaped out of the Subaru before it came to a full stop. “Who are you?” she asked. “What seems to be the problem?”

The woman stopped pacing long enough to reply. “We’re stuck, that’s what the problem is. Seems to me that even an idiot could see that much. Who the hell are you?”

The woman’s slender figure was clad in a black wool two-piece suit that screamed of haute couture. The thin-skinned, carefully made-up face looked as though it had been artificially augmented more than once, and her mane of hair had been highlighted within an inch of its life. She might have been quite attractive had it not been for the aura of prickly hostility that surrounded her like a dark thundercloud.

“My name’s Joanna Brady. It so happens that this road leads to my house. What are you doing here?”

The woman’s face hardened into a demeaning sneer. “So this is the incomparable Joanna Brady! Sad to say, you’re the very reason I’m here. I had to come get a look at you for myself. I wanted to see the woman who killed my father.”

“Killed your father?” Joanna echoed. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, yes, by all means. Let’s play innocent, why don’t we. Clayton Rhodes was my father, and you had no business working him into his grave.”

Behind Joanna one of the doors on the Subaru quietly opened and closed. Butch got out. With a curt nod in the direction of the two women, he walked past them and then dropped down to his knees, where he joined the limo driver in studying the situation under the Lincoln.

“Mom,” Jenny called from the car. “What is it?”

“It’s all right, Jenny,” Joanna called back. “Just wait in the car.” She turned back to the angry woman standing in front of her.

Joanna Brady had been connected to law enforcement most of her life, first as the daughter of a sheriff and then as wife of a deputy long before she herself had been elected sheriff. She had been around grieving survivors often enough to know that they might well turn their anger on whoever was handy, including any unfortunate police officers who might be close at hand.

Joanna took a calming, steadying breath. “You must be Reba Singleton,” she said soothingly. “I’m so sorry about your loss. If there’s anything my department or I can do-”

“You can tell me the status of the investigation.”

“Ms. Singleton, please understand, your father’s body was found late last night. I’ve been unavailable since early this morning, when the medical examiner was scheduled to do the autopsy-”

“I’ve already checked with Dr. Winfield,” Reba Singleton interrupted. “He seems to be of the convenient opinion that my father died of natural causes.”

“If that’s the case,” Joanna said, “I would assume no further investigation is necessary. I have the key to your father’s house. Once we get your car freed from here, you’re welcome to drive on up to your father’s house and check things out for yourself. Although maybe that’s not such a good idea. His road’s quite a bit worse than mine. You might get stuck again.”

“Let me get this straight,” Reba said. “On the say-so of Dr. Winfield who, I’m told, also happens to be your stepfather, you’re declaring that there will be no further investigation into the circumstances surrounding my father’s death?”

Joanna contained an impulse to lash back. “Dr. Winfield may be my stepfather, but he is also a perfectly competent medical examiner. If he says your father died of natural causes, you can rely on that being the case.”

Reba Singleton raised one pencil-thin eyebrow. “Really,” she said. “And you can rely on my smelling a conflict of interest when somebody sticks one under my nose.” With that, she swung away from Joanna. “Washburn?”

Slowly the limo driver got to his feet and dusted the sand from his pants and sleeves. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“You do have a cell phone, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And do you have a signal?”

“I don’t know,” he said, reaching for his pocket. “I can check.”

“Why don’t you do that,” Reba told him. “And then, call Triple A and have someone come pull us out of this godforsaken place.”

Joanna made one more effort to soothe the roiling waters. “Look,” she said, “I have a four-wheel-drive Blazer as well as a winch and come-along up at the house. I’m sure we could pull you out.”

Reba swung back around. “Like hell!” she spat. “I’d rot in hell before I’d have you pull me out.”

That was enough for Joanna. “Suit yourself,” she said. “Come on, Butch. Let’s go on around them and leave them be.”

Butch came back, dusting off his pant legs as well. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked.

By then Joanna was already back at the Subaru and opening the door. “I don’t see that we have any choice,” she told him. “From the sound of things, they’re not much interested in our help.”

“Who’s that woman?” Jenny asked when Joanna was back in her seat. “She looks mad.”

“She’s Clayton Rhodes’ daughter,” Joanna said. “And she is mad.”

“How come she’s mad?” Jenny asked. “Because her father’s dead? I wasn’t mad when Daddy died. I was sad.”

“Most people are,” Joanna said.

Butch climbed in behind the wheel. Without a word, he started the engine. He maintained his tight-lipped silence until he had used the agile Subaru’s all-wheel drive to detour around the stricken limo. Only when he was back on the road to Joanna’s house did he finally speak. “That woman’s something else,” he declared.

Joanna nodded. She was remembering the message Lisa Howard had passed along to her from the sergeant in Los Gatos. Now, having met Reba Joy Singleton, Joanna had a far better idea of what Sergeant Carlin had meant when he said, “Good luck.” He had meant that Reba Singleton was going to be a problem. Just how bad that problem would turn out to be was anybody’s guess.