Exit Wounds - J. A. Jance [110]
“Whatever gave you the idea that God was on our side?” Ernie asked.
Sheriff Brady looked at her detective and grinned. “She told me so Herself,” Joanna said.
“Right,” Ernie Carpenter returned, shaking his head. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I!” He was still shaking his head and muttering under his breath as he turned to walk away.
Sixteen
You’re looking chipper,” Frank Montoya said the next morning as he entered Joanna’s office for the daily briefing, which would include the previous day’s skipped briefing as well.
It helped that Joanna had gotten a decent night’s sleep for a change. She had come home to find Butch and Jenny both excited about the prospect of a publisher’s making him an offer on Serve and Protect. That good news, combined with a nice dinner and a rainstorm pounding down on the roof, had made for a restful night’s sleep. And once again this morning’s nausea hadn’t been quite as rough as that on previous days.
“I’m feeling half-human for a change,” Joanna replied with a smile. “Which reminds me, I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon at two for my first prenatal checkup. You’ll be here, won’t you?”
“Sure will,” Frank said. “But I’ll be busy. One o’clock is when the Sandoval meeting is scheduled to take place. That’s the soonest I could gather everyone together.”
“Where will you hold it?” Joanna asked.
“The conference room here,” Frank answered. “There are too many people coming for them to all fit in the interview room at the jail.”
“Have you talked to Sandoval’s attorney?”
“Twice,” Frank said. “Her name’s Amy Template. I suggested she have Sandoval show up dressed the same way he would if he was going to court rather than in his jail jumpsuit. I also suggested that they ditch the translation pretense. Sandoval’s English is fine, and dealing with a translator may wind up pissing off some of the people he needs to have in his corner. That’s what I told her, but I probably didn’t need to. She says her firm is already working on the details of a deal for Sandoval. She expects to have it pulled together in time for this afternoon’s meeting.”
“What firm?” Joanna asked.
“Gabriel Gomez, down in Douglas.”
“The immigration attorney?” Joanna asked. “You mean Richard Osmond’s girlfriend’s daddy?”
Frank nodded.
“The one who’s going to take us to court for Osmond’s wrongful death?”
“One and the same,” Frank replied. “But I think Gomez has changed his mind on that score. With an autopsy diagnosis of metastasized pancreatic cancer, it would be pretty hard to make a wrongful-death charge stick.”
Joanna allowed herself a small sigh of relief. “When’s Osmond’s funeral?” she asked.
“Yesterday,” Frank said.
“I suppose the department should have sent flowers.”
“We did,” Frank told her.
Joanna looked at her chief deputy in absolute gratitude. “I’m not sure how I’d ever get along without you, Frank.”
“Good.” Frank grinned. “It’s nice to be indispensable. Let’s keep it that way. Now how about getting down to business?”
Most of the items up for discussion were strictly routine, including the usual fender-benders and DUIs. The fierce storm that had marched through Cochise County the night before had caused numerous power outages. Running water on the road between Double Adobe and Elfrida had once again stranded several motorists who had required rescue for both themselves and their vehicles. A divorcing couple from Sun Sites had gotten into a domestic-violence beef over who would have custody of their Old English sheepdog, Casey. The husband and wife were now both cooling their heels in the Cochise County Jail, while the dog had been taken into custody by Animal Control. In Bisbee Junction, a rancher’s herd of cattle had gotten loose and had damaged gardens and fruit trees on three separate properties.
Only at the end of the session did Joanna pass along the information she had gleaned from her long discussion with Edith Mossman.
“Jeez!” Frank exclaimed when he heard about Eddie Mossman’s long history