Exit Wounds - J. A. Jance [30]
Again she waited while Frank translated. “Once we have additional personnel in place, we’ll be moving you out into the recyards where we plan to have ice, water, and towels. We’ll let you out. We’ll do it in an orderly, careful fashion, but let me warn you—if there’s any trouble, and I mean at the first sign of trouble—heat or no heat, you go back inside under full lockdown.”
By the time Tom Hadlock returned to his office, Frank had finished translating the last segment of Joanna’s announcement. “The kitchen will have the water and ice out there within the next fifteen minutes,” Hadlock reported.
“It’ll take more time than that to get our people here,” Frank said. “Okay,” Joanna said. “Wait on the ice, and don’t start emptying the units until we have backup on the scene, Tom. Frank will let you know when they’re here.”
“Fair enough,” Hadlock replied. “You say the word, and we’ll start moving ’em out.”
“Did you call Sammy Cotton?” Joanna asked.
“Yes, ma’am. He says if we need him, he can be here with a crew at five-oh-five.”
“Now that we’ve called Mr. Blair’s bluff, that probably won’t be necessary,” Joanna said. “Anchor Air Conditioning has had a trouble-free ride up to now. I’m guessing Mr. Blair isn’t going to want to screw that up.”
Joanna and Frank left the jail complex and headed back across the parking lot. “Mind if I ask you a question?” Joanna said.
“What’s that?”
“Have you ever heard of someone named Ada Lovelace?” Joanna asked.
“You mean that smart lady who’s the mother of all computers?” Frank returned. “Sure, I know about her. Why?”
“Never mind,” Joanna said irritably, chagrined that her male staff knew far more about this female computer pioneer than she did. “Forget it,” she told Frank. “I’m going home for lunch. Hopefully I’ll be back before it’s time to move the prisoners outside. Tell the Double Cs that I still want to touch base with them later on this afternoon. Before five o’clock today, I want to know exactly where we stand on the Mossman case.”
“Will do,” Frank said, “but I need to warn you. Word is out about all those dead dogs. I’m afraid we’re going to take a hit on that subject once it’s in the papers.”
“What else is new?” Joanna asked.
Back in her office, Joanna found her devoted but as-yet-unnamed dog waiting just inside the door. The animal sprang to her feet and greeted Joanna as though the two of them were old friends. Looking at the dog, Joanna shook her head. “Maybe I’d better call Butch and give him a heads-up about you, old girl.”
She picked up her phone and dialed High Lonesome Ranch. “Would you happen to have a couple peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches lying around if I were in a mood to come home for lunch?” she asked when Butch answered.
“If you’ll give me ten minutes, I can probably do better than that.”
“Good. I’ll be there. How’s Lucky doing?” Joanna asked.
“Fine. At least I guess he’s fine. I’ve hardly seen him. He’s been with Jenny all morning. They’re evidently bonding. The good news is that so far Tigger hasn’t bitten the little guy’s head off.”
“I had to go by Animal Control this morning…” she began.
Somehow Butch Dixon knew instinctively where she was going. “No,” he said at once. “You didn’t. Not another one.”
“I had to,” Joanna said. “She’s such a sweet little thing. And her time was almost up. By tomorrow morning, if no one took her, they’d have put her down. Wait till you see her.”
“Well, all right then,” Butch said. “I suppose that makes us even.”
“Even?” Joanna asked. “What do you mean?”
“I invited your mother and George over for dinner tonight. I thought it would be better if the two of us were together when we drop the big news that we’re pregnant.”
Joanna thought about that for a few seconds. “Right,” she agreed at last. “I guess that does make us even.”
An hour later she was back from lunch with the dog once more stowed under her desk when Kristin came to tell her the extra deputies had been deployed in and around the jail complex. Unbidden, the dog emerged from