“Mrs. Jessup?” Joanna asked tentatively.
The woman pulled the hanky away from her face and stood up. “Yes,” she said. “I’m Lorelie Jessup, and this is my son, Rick. Is there any news?”
Lorelie didn’t at all resemble her tall, red-haired daughter. Anything but beautiful, she was short, squat and nearsighted. Her thinning, dishwater‑blond hair was disheveled, as though she had climbed out of bed and come straight to the hospital without pausing long enough to comb it.
Joanna remembered Leann saying that her mother was only in her late forties, but with her face blotchy and distorted by weeping, with her faded blue eyes red from crying, she looked much older than that. Wrinkles lined her facial skin, perhaps as much from sun as age. The corners of her mouth turned down in a perpetual grimace and there was a general air of hopelessness about her. She looked like someone Jim Bob Brady would have said had been “rode hard and put up wet.”
And most likely that was true. Joanna tried to recall how many years Leann Jessup had said her mother had worked two jobs in order to single-handedly support her two children. Years of unremitting labor had taken their toll.
“I’m sorry,” Joanna said, “I don’t know any news. I’m not with the hospital. My name’s Joanna. I’m a friend of Leann’s.”
“Not another one!” Rick Jessup groaned.
“Another what?” Joanna asked. Instead of answering, Rick Jessup rolled his eyes, stuffed both hands in his pockets, and then stalked off across the room. There wasn’t much physical resemblance between Leann and her brother, either; in terms of temperament, they were worlds apart.
“Rick, please,” his mother admonished. “Don’t be rude. This is Sheriff Brady from down in Bisbee. She and Leann were on that news program together the other night, the one I taped. You and Sherry haven’t had a chance to see it yet.”
“I’m sure it’s no great loss,” Rick said.
What is the matter with this guy? Joanna wondered, but she turned back to Lorelie. “How is Leann?”
“They keep telling me it’s too soon to tell. She’s heavily sedated right now. They’ve installed a shunt to drain off fluid to reduce pressure on her brain. She may be all right, but then again, she may...” Lorelie broke off, overcome by emotion and unable to continue.
“She brought it all on herself,” Rick Jessup groused from across the room. “God is punishing her. If you think about it, her whole life is an abomination.”
Lorelie Jessup rounded on her son. “God had nothing to do with the attack on Leann. If that’s the way you feel about it, why don’t you just leave? I don’t need you here spouting that kind of garbage, and neither does Leann.”
“What’s an abomina—?” Jenny began. Joanna squeezed her hand, silencing the child.
Lorelie crossed the room until she and her son were bare inches apart. For a moment, Joanna worried the war of words would escalate into a physical confrontation.
“Why would you say such awful things about your own sister?” Lorelie demanded. “How could you? I want you to apologize, both to her and to me.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Rick Jessup returned coldly. “After all, it’s true. Face it. Leann Jessup is nothing but a godless dyke who doesn’t just sin, she wallows in it. This is the Lord’s way of giving her a wake-up call. I’m sick and tired of making excuses for her, of even being related.”
“Whatever happened to the part of the Bible says ‘Judge not ...’?” Lorelie asked calmly, her voice turning to ice. “If being related to Leann is a problem for you, Rick, don’t worry about it. There’s an easy solution to that—stop being related. But if you decide to write Leann out of your life, remember one thing. If you don’t have a sister, you don’t have a mother, either. Get out of here. By the time I come home from the hospital, I want all of you out of my house.”
“Just like that? All of us? You’re throwing me out over her?” Rick’s face was tight with fury.
“Just like that!” Lorelie returned.
“But what about Junior?” Rick objected. “What about your grandson?”
“I guess I’ll just have to learn to take the bad with the good,” she said.
For a moment, Rick seemed bent on staring his mother down. When she didn’t look away, He backed toward the door. “I brought you over,” he said. “If I leave, who’ll drive you home?”
“I’ll walk if I have to,” Lorelie said determinedly. “The company will be better. Now go!”
Rick Jessup went, taking much of the tension from the room with him, while Lorelie turned back to Joanna. “I’m sorry,” she said. “There’s nothing like bringing your family feud right out in open.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Joanna said.
“What Rick said is partially true, although there’s no call for him to be so mean about it,” Lorelie continued. “Leann is a lesbian, but so what? That doesn’t make her some kind of freak. She’s also good hearted and caring. And, no matter what, she’s still my daughter.”
Joanna hadn’t guessed Leann’s secret, but Lorelie’s matter-of-fact treatment made the whole topic seem less shocking, even with Jenny standing right there beside her. And that’s why you’re still Leann’s hero, Joanna thought.
Glancing at her watch, Joanna knew it was time to take Jenny and head back. “Is there someone you could call to come stay with you here at the hospital?” she asked. “I hate for you to be here alone.”
“I suppose I could always call Kim,” Lorelie said.
“Who’s Kim?”
“Kimberly George. Leann’s friend.” Lorelie paused, then added, “Her former friend, that is. Lover, really. The two of them had been together for five years at least. They only split up a month ago. They got in a big fight over Leann’s new job.”
“Why’s that?”
“Kim was afraid something might happen to Leann. That she’d get hurt at work . . .” Lorelie sighed. “Anyway, they broke up, and it’s just like someone getting a divorce. But still, I am going to call her. I know Kim would want to know what’s on, and she’ll be happy to give me a ride home if I need one.”
A nurse bustled into the waiting room. “The doctor you can go in for five minutes, Mrs. Jessup. But only one person at a time, and only immediate family.” She shot a meaningful look in Joanna’s direction. If the nurse was expecting an argument, it didn’t materialize.
“Right. We were just leaving,” Joanna said to the nurse, then turned to Lorelie. “If you can’t get in touch with Kim, or if you need anything else, please call me. I’m staying at the Hohokam in Peoria. I’ll be there all weekend.”
“Thank you,” Lorelie Jessup said. “And thank you for coming. I appreciate it far more than you’ll ever know.”
“What’s an abomination?” Jenny asked, once they were back in the corridor.
“Something that’s evil or obscene,” Joanna answered.
“Is your friend evil?”
“I don’t think so.”
“And neither does her mother.”
“Evidently not,” Joanna agreed.
“But her brother does.”
“It certainly sounds that way.”
Jenny and Joanna walked along in silence for several seconds. “I always used to want a little brother,” Jenny said. “But now that I’ve met that Rick guy, I think I’m glad I don’t have one.”
Joanna shook her head. “Maybe a brother of yours wouldn’t have turned into someone like Rick Jessup.”
Back at the hotel, Joanna was relieved to find a voice-mail message from Eva Lou Brady waiting on the phone in their room. “We’re back,” Eva Lou’s cheerful voice announced. “Call us.”
While Jenny headed for the bathroom to change into her swimming suit, Joanna called the Brady’s room. “Where were you?” she asked.