Manny Ruiz nodded warily but maintained a discreet distance.
“I’m not placing you under arrest,” Joanna continued quickly. “Not at all. I just thought you might be more comfortable sitting down while we talked.”
“I’m perfectly comfortable standing right here,” Edith Mossman insisted. “And I’ll be even more comfortable once Mr. Dogcatcher here lets those poor dogs out of his truck. It’s inhumane to have them locked up like that on such a miserably hot day.
I can’t see that there’s anything else to discuss.”
“Mrs. Mossman,” Joanna said gently. “I’m sorry to have to say this, but there’s something I must tell you. We’re here this afternoon because this is a homicide scene.”
Edith Mossman frowned as though she hadn’t quite understood the word. “Homicide?”
she repeated. “You mean someone’s dead?”
“Yes,” Joanna said quietly. “Inside the mobile home.”
“In Carol’s mobile home?”
Joanna nodded. Edith Mossman pointed her thumb in Manny’s direction. “What’s he doing here, then?”
“He came to pick up the dogs,” Joanna said with a sigh.
35
“They’re dead, too, Mrs. Mossman. Except for one, they were all locked inside the trailer with no air-conditioning and no water …”
“Are you telling me Carol’s dead? My sweet little Carol?”
“I’m so sorry,” Joanna said, “but, yes. We’re quite certain she’s the one who’s dead.
Officer Ruiz here had encountered your granddaughter before and knew her on sight.”
All the spunk and fight drained out of Edith Mossman. Her grip on the handlebars of her walker went flaccid while her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. Seeing her knees crumple, Manny Ruiz leaped forward. He caught the unconscious woman before she could fall to the ground. He lifted her waist-high as easily as he had carried the dead dogs.
“Where to, Sheriff Brady?” he asked.
“To the Blazer,” Joanna said. “Put her in the backseat. Jeannine, quick. Bring some water.”
Edith was out cold for only a matter of seconds, but the momentary fainting spell seemed to last forever—long enough for Joanna to wonder if the woman had suffered a heart attack or stroke. But by the time Manny Ruiz deposited Edith in the Blazer the stricken woman had regained consciousness and was struggling to sit up. Impatiently she pushed aside Jeannine’s proffered bottle of water.
“I have to see her,” Edith sputtered, struggling to clamber back out of the vehicle.
“I have to see Carol. Take me to her.”
“That’s not possible at this time,” Joanna said. “It’s a crime scene, Mrs. Mossman.
Other than the investigators, no one’s allowed inside until they and Dr. Winfield finish their onsite work.”
“You mean there’s a doctor in there with her?” Edith 36
demanded. “Maybe he can help her. Maybe she’ll be all right then.”
Joanna shook her head. “He’s not that kind of doctor, Mrs. Mossman. Doc Winfield is the Cochise County Medical Examiner. It might be best if you went home and waited for them to finish up inside. At that point, we will need a family member to make a positive identification, but there’s no sense in your waiting around here. It could take hours.”
“I don’t care how long it takes,” Edith announced. “I’ll wait. I can do the identification here, can’t I?”
“Yes, I suppose you can. But as I told you, there’s no telling how long this will take.”
“Can you have someone take me back to Sierra Vista afterward?”
Joanna nodded. “I suppose so, but …”
“Call that cab driver over here, then,” Edith said. “I’ll pay the man off and send him on his way. It’s already cost me a fortune.”
The cab driver was reluctant to leave his cab in answer to Edith Mossman’s summons.
His frame of mind wasn’t greatly improved by the size of the tip she placed in his hand as she dismissed him. “You said your dispatcher wanted you back, didn’t you?”
Edith inquired.
“Right.”
“So get going then,” Edith told him. Shaking his head, the cabbie stalked off.
“Do you need anything else at this time, Sheriff Brady?” Manny Ruiz asked. “It’s hot. We should take care of these animals as soon as possible.”
“Did Doc Winfield say he wanted to run any further tests on them?”
“No, ma’am. It had to be more than a hundred and twenty 37
degrees in there when I found them. He’s sure the heat is what killed them.”
“You and Jeannine go ahead then, Manny,” Joanna said. “Thanks for all your help.”
Nodding, Manny walked away. Meanwhile, Edith Mossman had listened to this entire exchange with avid interest. “Is that what killed Carol too, then?” she asked. “The heat?”
“No,” Joanna said. “The information I have says she was shot.”
Edith took this news in silence. Moments later, the two Animal Control trucks drove away, taking their tragic loads with them. About the same time Lucky stirred restlessly inside Joanna’s shirt.
“What’s that?” Edith asked, catching sight of the movement.
Guiltily, Joanna removed the squirming puppy and placed him on the ground. He waddled around sleepily for a little while before peeing. After that, he curled up again on a clump of grass and went right back to sleep.
“One of Carol’s?”
Joanna nodded. “He’s too young to go to the pound. I decided to take him home with me instead, but of course, if you’d like to have him …”
“Oh, no,” Edith said. “Not me. I’m far too old for a puppy. I’ve always been more of a cat person than a dog person, but it doesn’t matter either way. I can’t have pets at Ferndale anyway. They don’t allow pets of any kind.”
“Ferndale?” Joanna asked.
“Yes. It’s one of those assisted-living places. On Fry Boulevard. Used to be a motel back in the old days, but they changed it a couple of years ago. Remodeled it. Now it’s where I live. Number 261. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s plenty good enough for 38
me. The food’s nothing to write home about, but the price is right.”
Joanna removed a notebook from her pocket. “I’m sure my detectives will need to speak to you eventually, Mrs. Mossman. If you could give me the address and phone number-“
“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Call me Edith. I can’t stand all this Mrs. Mossman stuff. And whatever happened to the water that dogcatcher lady was trying to give me? I didn’t want it then, but I do now. I’m parched.”
Joanna retrieved the bottle of water from where Jeannine Phillips had left it on the front floorboard. She handed the bottle over to Edith Mossman, who took a long, grateful drink. When she had finished, she sighed and stared long and hard at the partially empty bottle as though hoping to find answers there.
“Tell me about your granddaughter,” Joanna said quietly.
“Carol?” Edith Mossman asked, taking another drink. “What do you want to know?”
“Was she ever married? Does she have children?”
“No children,” Edith said. “Only dogs.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Not that I know of. If she had one, she never mentioned him to me.”
“Did she work?”
“Oh, she worked all right. It took a while, but she finally got a job clerking at that new Shell station out on Highway 92. Didn’t make enough money to make ends meet.
Barely enough to pay for gas and dog food most of the time. If she’d had to pay rent on this place, I’m sure she would have starved to death and her dogs right along with her.”
“She evidently didn’t pay the electric bill,” Joanna observed. “That’s why the house was so hot. No electricity, so no cooler.”
39
“I’m not surprised,” Edith said. “She’s not the kind of person to ask for help unless things are really tough. If I’d known things were that bad, I would have helped her.”