“Keep on thinking, I guess,” Joanna said. “Maybe even sleep on it.”
Butch collected her plate and silverware and took it over to the sink. “That’s right,” he said. “I almost forgot. I have a message for you from Eva Lou and Jim Bob. They said to tell you that you’re not allowed to have the baby until after they get home tomorrow night.”
“Where did they go?” Joanna asked. “I didn’t know they were planning a trip.”
“Neither did they,” Butch said. “They took Monty to Albuquerque.”
“Monty?” Joanna asked. “Who’s Monty?”
Butch shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Monty the python. That’s what Jim Bob says you called him, Monty Python.”
“The snake!” Joanna exclaimed. “I’ve been so busy I’d forgotten all about him. What happened?”
“It turns out there’s a python rescue guy over in Albuquerque who’s willing to take on the one from here, and Manny Ruiz was very eager to unload the snake and get him out of the kennel. He said the python was driving the other animals nuts and the receptionist as well.” Butch paused and then added, “Speaking of Animal Control, what do you hear about Jeannine Phillips?”
“Not much,” Joanna said. “As far as I know, she’s still in the ICU. Jaime Carbajal and Debbie Howell are working full-time to track down whoever did it. So far they don’t seem to be making a lot of progress.”
“What you need more than anything,” Butch said, “is a decent night’s sleep.”
“You might tell that to that son of yours,” Joanna replied. “He seems to spend half of every night kicking the daylights out of me.”
“Speaking of baby Dennis,” Butch said with a grin, “before they left, I told Jim Bob and Eva Lou that we now know we’re having a boy. And I told your mother and George as well. I knew there’d be hell to pay if one set of grandparents found out far in advance of any other set of grandparents. Did your mother call you?”
“Not yet,” Joanna said. “That means she’s probably pissed because she didn’t hear the news directly from me. No matter what we do, there’s no way to win with that woman.”
“You shouldn’t be so hard on her,” Butch said.
He had finished loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher when Jenny came into the kitchen carrying the phone with her hand held firmly over the mouthpiece. “It’s your office,” she said with a frown. “Cassie and I were right in the middle of a conversation. Could you please hurry?”
Cassie Parks was Jenny’s best friend. Joanna had noticed that the older the two girls grew, the harder it was to pry the telephone receiver out of Jenny’s hand.
“I’ve got Justice Tazewell’s unlisted number,” Frank Montoya announced as soon as Joanna answered. “Do you want to call him or should I?”
“I will,” Joanna said. “Give it to me.”
Minutes later she was dialing Lawrence Tazewell’s number in Paradise Valley. The woman who answered the phone sounded Hispanic. “Justice Tazewell isn’t here,” she told Joanna.
“Could I speak to Mrs. Tazewell then,” Joanna asked. “This is Sheriff Joanna Brady from Cochise County.”
“Mrs. Tazewell isn’t here, either. Would you like to leave a message?”
Joanna was reluctant to leave a message, but there didn’t seem to be any other option. “Yes,” she said finally. “Please ask him to call me. It’s not an emergency, but it is about his daughter.”
After relaying her numbers, Joanna returned the phone to her daughter. Five minutes later, a frowning Jenny was back in the kitchen, once again handing her mother the phone.
“Sheriff Brady?” a man’s voice asked. “This is Justice Lawrence Tazewell. You called? What’s this about my daughter? Is she all right?”
Joanna had expected Tazewell to be a distant and indifferent father, but there was nothing indifferent in his tone of voice.
“Your daughter’s fine,” Joanna said.
“Oh,” Tazewell uttered with obvious relief. “Thank God for that. What’s this all about then?”
In the background Joanna heard a buzz of voices. Tazewell was returning her call from a relatively public place-not the best kind of environment to pose the kinds of questions she needed to ask.
“We’ve learned that someone’s been stalking her,” Joanna said, hedging her bet. “Taking Leslie’s picture without her knowledge. Her husband suggested to my investigators and me that the stalking might have something to do with your possible nomination to the federal bench.”
“I doubt it,” Tazewell answered. “And for the record, I wouldn’t believe anything Rory Markham has to say.”
Not an indifferent father at all, Joanna thought.
“Look,” Tazewell said. “I’m sure you and I need to discuss all of this, but I can’t do it right now. What about tomorrow?”
“Where would you like to meet?” Joanna asked.
“I’m in Tucson at a meeting, but I have my own plane. Why don’t I just fly into Bisbee sometime in the morning. We can talk there.”
“In the municipal airport?”
“Sure,” Tazewell said. “When I was a superior court judge in Bisbee and living out on the ranch, I used to do it all the time. Saved myself all kinds of commuting time and wear and tear on my car. I’ll show up, we can have our little chat, and I’ll fly right back out again. What time would you like me there, and can someone meet me?”
“Nine will be fine,” Joanna said at once. “And I’ll pick you up myself.”
“Good,” Tazewell said. “See you then.”
Joanna was still looking at the phone in amazement when Cassie Parks’s voice said, “Jenny, are you there?” Once again Joanna handed the phone back to her daughter.
“So he’s coming here?” Butch asked.
Joanna nodded.
“Well,” Butch said, “that’s better than your having to go there.”
They went to bed relatively early. As usual, Joanna didn’t sleep well. Her back hurt. She couldn’t get comfortable. As predicted, little Dennis kicked up a storm. In the quiet between kicks, Joanna spent the waking hours trying to imagine what questions she would pose to Justice Lawrence Tazewell, who might or might not be a suspect in the Bradley Evans homicide.
The fact that Tazewell had offered to come to Bisbee for the interview should have made her less nervous, but it didn’t. Joanna was enough of a poker player to realize that Tazewell’s willing cooperation might be nothing more than a cagey defensive gambit. By feigning a willingness to help, he might actually be deliberately trying to throw her off track.
She was still nervous about the upcoming interview at nine the next morning as she watched a blue-and-white Cessna 180 circle for a landing on the single runway of Bisbee’s municipal airport. She felt inexplicably better, however, when the door opened and a man wearing jeans, alligator-skin cowboy boots, and an enormous Stetson stepped off the plane. She might be worried about talking to a state supreme court justice, but a supreme court justice who also happened to be a cowboy might be somewhat easier to handle.
Emerging from her Crown Victoria, Joanna walked forward to meet him. Once he finished setting the chocks, he stood up and wiped his hands on the back of his jeans.
“Justice Tazewell?” Joanna asked. “I’m Sheriff Brady.”
“And you’re also very pregnant,” Tazewell observed.
Accustomed to people’s veiled glances and behind-the-back comments, Joanna found Lawrence Tazewell’s directness surprisingly disarming.
“Yes,” she agreed with a laugh, “I am.”
“When are you due?” he asked.
“Sometime this week,” Joanna replied.
Tazewell nodded. “I know a little about babies,” he observed as he followed Joanna back to the Crown Victoria. In order to accommodate her short legs, Joanna kept the bench seat as far forward as possible. That meant that Lawrence Tazewell’s knees were crammed up against the glove compartment. He seemed oblivious, however.
“My stepdaughter had her little girl just a week ago today,” he continued as he shifted in search of a more comfortable position. “Seven pounds six ounces, born screeching her lungs out at ten o’clock last Thursday morning. Suzanne named her Destry Annette. Funny name for a girl if you ask me, but no one did- ask me, that is. My only contribution to the process was to be on hand to wield the digital camera once the nurse had her wrapped and put her in Suzanne’s arms. We loaded the photos into a computer and e-mailed them to her daddy within an hour of her birth. My son-in-law’s in the military, you see. He’s a pilot in the air force and doing a tour of duty in the Middle East right now. That’s why Sharon and I were called in as reinforcements.”