J. Jance - Devil’s Claw

“Yes, I’m afraid we did. One of the things Hank and I liked about coming down to see Molly and Clayton was that they didn’t even have a TV set. It wasn’t until Reba went away to college-to the university in Tucson-that she discovered that Hank, her father’s dear old friend, was on television up there. Then she raised all kinds of hell with her parents because she wanted her dad to have Hank help her get on television, too.”

“And did he?”

Carol nodded. “Of course he did. That’s the kind of guy Hank was. Once Reba managed to pick up a degree in broadcast journalism, he put in a good word for her here and there. Hank knew people who knew people. That’s how those things happen in broadcasting, through connections.”

Jenny turned in her chair so she could watch Reba and Marliss making the rounds of the room. “You mean she’s on TV, too?” Jenny asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

Carol smiled. “She was, but not anymore. It’s sad but true that most male news anchors have a much longer shelf life than female anchors do. She’s been off the air for years now. According to Clayton, she’s been married and divorced several times since then, but she’s always managed to marry up. I think her current husband is some kind of bigwig in computers out in Silicon Valley.”

Carol shook her head and laughed. “My goodness. Whatever did you say to set my tongue to wagging so much? You must think I’m a terrible gossip.”

Joanna looked around the room, scanning faces. “So is your husband here as well, Mrs. Hubbard?”

“My second husband,” she corrected. “Hank died years ago. A couple of years after that, Molly died as well, but Clayton and I remained friends. Force of habit, I guess.”

“Why, Carol Hubbard,” Reba Singleton said from just over Joanna’s right shoulder. “I didn’t know you were here. I almost missed you.”

Carol held out her hand long enough for it to be pressed by Reba’s ring-bedecked fingers. “Your father was such a good man,” Carol Hubbard murmured. “And such a dear friend, too. I’m so sorry he’s gone.”

With a curt nod, Reba acknowledged Carol Hubbard’s comment, then she rounded on Joanna. “Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve taken away my father’s ranch?” she demanded in a loud voice. “Do you have to steal his friends as well? Don’t you have any shame? How dare you!”

As conversation in the rest of the room came to a complete standstill, Joanna felt her cheeks turn hot. “Reba,” Joanna began. “Please.”

“Please what?” Reba demanded. “Please shut up and don’t let anyone know what you’ve been up to? Please go away so people won’t know about your underhanded dealings and how you’ve cheated me out of my birthright?”

“Reba,” Joanna said. “I’ve done nothing of the kind.”

“The hell you haven’t!” Reba Singleton snarled back while her whole body trembled in a fit of ill-suppressed fury. “I guess you don’t want these nice people to know that their little Miss Goody Two-shoes of a sheriff is actually a double-dealing bitch! What I want to know is what makes you think you can get away with it? Who says I’m not going to stop you?”

Behind Reba, Marliss Shackleford’s eyes widened. Like Joanna, she too must have feared that Reba’s attack would escalate from verbal to physical. “Come on, Reba,” Marliss said, grabbing the other woman by the arm. “Let’s go.”

They left then, leaving behind a silent room full of people and a stunned and flushed Joanna Brady. Reeling like the victim of a hit-and-run, Joanna could think of nothing at all to say. Gradually the level of conversation in the room resumed its former level, while Carol Hubbard shook her head.

“I take it from that she’s learned about Clayton’s will,” Carol said in a low voice.

“You knew about that too?” Joanna asked in surprise. Clayton may have kept the news from Joanna, but obviously he hadn’t kept it to himself.

“Oh, yes. Clayton told my husband and me all about it when he first had his will redrawn. He and Reba had that huge falling-out when Molly got so sick. Reba wanted her father to send Molly out to California to some specialist she knew about, and neither Clayton nor Molly wanted to do that. When they refused, everything went downhill in a hurry. It was right about then-right after Molly’s funeral-that Reba went to court and tried to have her father declared incompetent. She wanted to be appointed his legal guardian so she could have power of attorney over him and manage his affairs. But Clayton fooled her. He hired his own attorney. The guardianship petition never went through.”

“That was what the quarrel was all about?” Joanna asked.

“The quarrel was about control,” Carol Hubbard replied. “Reba is the kind of person who has to be in the driver’s seat at all times. Once Clayton beat her back, his first intention was to leave his ranch to the Nature Conservancy. But then Clayton changed his mind. He said he didn’t think you’d ever want to actually move into his place because it’s so old and run-down, but he knew you’d like having the land. I believe he told me you’re planning to remarry soon?”

Blushing again, Joanna nodded. “This coming Saturday,” she said.

“Well,” Carol Hubbard said, rising. “I’m sure you and your new husband will be very happy together. Whoever he is, he’s lucky to have found you. And your daughter, too. Now, I have to be going. It’s a long drive back to Tucson, and we don’t like being out after dark. My husband’s night vision is none too good these days.”

She held out her hand. Joanna shook it, and then Carol Hubbard was gone.

“She was nice,” Jenny said a moment later. “Why couldn’t Butch’s mom be somebody like her?”

Joanna laughed and shook her head. “You know what they say: Some days you eat the bear; some days the bear eats you.”

Jenny scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that Butch’s mother is the way she is, and we’re just going to have to learn to live with it and accept her the way she is.”

“Even if we don’t want to?”

“Even if.”

By four o’clock, Joanna and Jenny were back at the Justice Complex. Jenny took her homework and disappeared into the empty conference room. In the meantime, Joanna headed into her office to go through her messages and return calls.

Talking about Butch had made her realize that she hadn’t heard from him all day long, and she was missing him. However, having just made a big stink with Kristin and Terry about the hazards of mixing love and work, she was glad no calls from Butch had come in through the switchboard during the course of the day. “Do as I say, not as I do” wasn’t the way Joanna Brady wanted to run her ship.

Once the most pressing calls had been handled, Joanna went looking for Frank Montoya. “I take it your pager is still turned off?” he asked.

Guiltily, Joanna reached into her pocket, removed the pager, and switched it on. “Sorry about that,” she said meekly. “I turned if off during the funeral and must have forgotten to turn it back on.”

“No problem,” Frank said, “but I didn’t know you were back, and I thought you’d want to hear the news.”

“What news? Did Search and Rescue locate Lucy?”

Frank shook his head. “No, but we think we’ve found her bike. At least we found somebody’s bike. It was hidden in among some of those huge rocks in Texas Canyon about half a mile from the rest area. It looks like somebody took a sledgehammer to it and turned it into a piece of junk. There was also a canteen and a sleeping bag.”

“Do you know for sure the gear is Lucy’s?” Joanna asked.

“We haven’t confirmed it yet, but we’re pretty sure. Catherine Yates told us there was a leather thong tied to the handlebars to give Big Red something to hang on to. The bike S and R found had a leather thong on the handlebars.”