J. Jance - Desert Heat

Joanna stared down at the badge for a long, long time, until her eyes began to blur, then she reached over and picked up the phone. She had dialed the number so many times in the past few days that she knew it by heart.

The town mortician’s newest son-in-law and newest employee was the one stuck with night duty. He was also the one who answered the phone.

“This is Joanna Brady,” she said. “I’m calling to ask a favor. Andy’s wearing his badge right now, but I’d like you to take it off and put it in an envelope for me. Would you do that?”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Brady. No problem.”

“And put my daughter’s name on the out-aide. Jenny. Jennifer Brady. She may want to have that badge someday as a keepsake.”

“Right, Mrs. Brady. It’ll be at the desk for you in the morning. Anything else?”

“No. That’s all.”

Putting the phone down and turning out the light, Joanna lay down crosswise on the bed and wrapped the heavy bedspread around her. She had been dreadfully sleepy earlier, but now sleep seemed far away.

Milo Davis, Marianne Maculyea, her mother-all of them thought she should run. All of them, including Adam York, seemed to think she could do it. Could she, Joanna wondered. Maybe. What would it hurt to try?

And moments later, while that embryonic thought still lingered in her head, and still holding tight to her father’s precious badge, Joanna Brady fell into a dreamless but untroubled sleep.

She woke up in the morning with the sun streaming in through the window and with Jenny tiptoeing across the room to snuggle into bed beside her.

“What’s this?” Jenny asked, seeing the badge in her mother’s hand. “Is it Daddy’s?”

“No,” Joanna explained, “it was my daddy’s, your grandfather’s.”

“Grandpa Lathrop’s? But what are you doing with it?”

Joanna looked down at Jenny and suddenly knew what she had to do.

“Grandma gave it to me,” Joanna said. “For right now, I’m going to put it away in my jewelry box. If I ever get it out again, it’ll be time to put it on and wear it.”

Jennifer Brady looked at her in wide-eyed astonishment. “For real? You mean you’d be sheriff?”

“I’d try,” Joanna answered. “It would mean we’d have to go on with the election campaign only this time I’d be the candidate. It would mean that no matter how hard it was, we’d have to go out and do all the things we would have done if your daddy was still running. It would be hard work because now there are only the two of us. Would you be willing to help me? Do you think we could do it?”

“Yes.” Jennifer Ann Brady answered without the slightest hesitation.

Joanna hugged her child close. “Well then,” she said huskily, “I guess we’ll have to try. If enough people in Cochise County want me to be their new sheriff, that’s exactly what I’ll be.”

J.A. Jance is the author of the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, and two standalone thrillers. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.