Exit Wounds - J. A. Jance [43]
“Before I put it in the paper?” Eleanor repeated.
“Yes. It’s this morning’s lead item in Marliss Shackleford’s column.”
“So you think that as soon as I got home from your house last night, I called Marliss and told her about this?” Eleanor demanded. “You think the idea of my daughter being pregnant and running for office at the same time is something I’d be in a hurry to brag about?”
“Are you saying you didn’t tell her?” Joanna asked.
“Of course I didn’t tell her,” Eleanor declared heatedly.
“Who did, then?”
“How should I know?” Eleanor returned. “All I can say is, Marliss didn’t get it from me. It hurts me to hear you’d even think such a thing.”
“You and Marliss have always been good friends,” Joanna pointed out.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to go to her to air our family’s dirty laundry.”
That brought Joanna up short. “It’s not dirty,” she said finally. “Remember, Mother? I’m a married woman. My husband and I are expecting a baby together.”
“Then what are you so upset about?” Eleanor shot back. “Why are you calling me and giving me such a load of grief over it? Now, if you don’t mind, I believe I’ll get back to my breakfast. Good-bye.”
With that, Eleanor hung up, leaving Joanna sputtering into thin air. Moments later, Joanna slammed her own phone back into its cradle. That was the thing that made Eleanor Lathrop Winfield so damned exasperating. No matter what happened, Joanna was always in the wrong.
Still seething, Joanna picked up the paper and turned it back to the front page. There she found a long article on the Carol Mossman murder, and a short piece about an unidentified inmate of the Cochise County Jail who had been found dead in the recreation yard. The paper had been printed late enough the previous night for the item about Joanna’s pregnancy to make it into Marliss Shackleford’s column. Wouldn’t it also have been late enough to mention the jail fatality by name as well?
Maybe Mother didn’t leak the story to Marliss after all, Joanna thought. But if not Eleanor, who?
Joanna was still staring unseeing at the newspaper when there was a discreet tap on her door. She looked up to see Kristin peeking warily into the room.
“It’s all right,” Joanna said. “It’s safe to come in. I’ve stopped throwing things now.”
Kristin came forward apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Sheriff Brady,” she began. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Joanna said. “I was surprised, is all. I didn’t expect the news to show up in the paper quite this soon. It’s like somebody having to read about the death of a family member before we have a chance to do a next-of-kin notification. There are a few other people I would have preferred hearing the news from me in person rather than having them read about it in the paper.”
“Believe me,” Kristin said, “I understand about that, but you are happy about this, aren’t you, Sheriff Brady? Not about it being in the newspaper, but about the baby, I mean?”
“Of course I’m happy,” Joanna answered. “It’s a surprise, but Butch and I are both delighted. The lesson here is, no matter what the clever ads say on television, the Pill’s not one hundred percent foolproof, especially if you happen to skip one at just the wrong time.”
Which is probably exactly what happened, Joanna thought, although she didn’t say it aloud.
“Oh,” Kristin said. “That’s okay then. It’s just that you were so upset…”
“I’m still upset,” Joanna corrected. “Marliss could have had the common decency to check out the story with me before she put the piece in the paper. And if Madame Bisbee Bee should happen to show her face around here anytime today, you might advise her to steer clear of me. If she gets too close, I might be tempted to pull out a handful of her