“Most likely.”
“But she’s poor, isn’t she?” Jenny asked. “She looked poor.”
“I think you’re right,” Joanna said. “She looked poor to me, too.”
“So how will she pay for a lawyer then?” Jenny asked. “Don’t they cost a lot of money?”
“If she can’t pay for a lawyer, the judge will give her one. That’s called a court-appointed attorney.”
“And she doesn’t have to pay then?”
“No.”
All of Jenny’s peas had disappeared. The only thing remaining on her plate was a single helping of coleslaw. Before Jenny started on that, she shot her mother a subtly appraising glance. “Was Mr. Voland mad that I called him?”
“Mad?” Joanna returned. “Not at all. Why do you ask?”
“I heard him just before he left. It sounded like he was yelling at the top of his lungs.”
“We were having a discussion,” Joanna said. “A disagreement.”
“About what?”
“About how to do things,” Joanna answered after a moment’s consideration. “He thinks the department should do things one way, and I think we should do them another.”
“Well,” Jenny said. “You’re the boss, aren’t you? Isn’t he supposed to do things the way you want?”
Joanna had to smile at Jenny’s uncomplicated view of the world. Things either were or they weren’t. Politics hadn’t yet intruded on Jenny’s consciousness. As far as Joanna could tell, neither had the battle of the sexes.
“Do you remember all those old Calvin and Hobbes books that your dad loved so much? Remember how Calvin never wanted to let Susie in his club?”
Jenny nodded.
“Dick Voland reminds me a little of Calvin. He liked the department a lot better when it was a private club with no girls allowed.”
“If he doesn’t like you, why doesn’t he quit and go work somewhere else?” Jenny asked.
“It isn’t quite that easy, Jenny,” Joanna told her daughter. “Not for either one of us. Dick Voland has been in law enforcement a long time. I haven’t. There are all kinds of things I can learn from him that will make me a better sheriff. The only problem is, sometimes it isn’t easy for the two of us to work together.”
“Still,” Jenny insisted firmly, “he shouldn’t yell. It isn’t nice.”
Joanna smiled. “No, it isn’t, but fortunately I’m pretty tough. I can handle whatever he says.”
“Sort of like sticks and stones can break my bones?”
“Exactly,” Joanna said. With a laugh she picked up the two empty plates and carried them to the sink. “It’s exactly like that. Now hurry off to bed, Jenny. It’s late. We’ll leave the dishes until morning.”
Ignoring her overloaded briefcase, Joanna headed for her own bedroom. Setting her alarm for five, she fell into bed and was asleep within minutes. The dream came later.
She and Andy were together once again. The two of then hand in hand, were strolling through the dusty midway the Cochise County Fair while Jenny, carrying an enormous cloud of cotton candy, darted on ahead. The sun shone, at Joanna felt warm and happy. Even in her sleep, she savored the sense of well-being that surrounded her.
The two of them had stopped beside the carousel why Jenny came racing back toward them. “There’s a great big Ferris wheel. Can we ride on it, please?”
Andy reached into his pocket, pulled out his billfold, extracted some money, and handed it over to Jenny. “You get the tickets, Jen,” he said. “Mommy and I will be right there. We’ll all ride it together.”
Once again, Jenny raced off. Soon, without any intervening walking, they were stepping up the slanted wooden ramp and the attendant was fastening the wooden pole across the front of the car. “No swinging now, you hear?” he warned.
The Bradys-Andy, Joanna, and Jenny-were the last passengers to board. Once they were locked in place, the Ferris wheel started its upward climb. Jenny, her whole body alight with excitement, sat in the middle. Andy leaned back in the seat, smiling. With one arm he reached across behind Jenny until his wrist and hand were resting reassuringly on Joanna’s shoulder.
Joanna didn’t much care for Ferris wheels-didn’t like the way they went up and up and up until you were at the very top with nothing at all beneath you. Nor did she enjoy the stomach-lurching way in which the world dropped out from under you. Suddenly, as they fell, she realized that the comforting weight of Andy’s hand had disappeared from her shoulder.
Concerned, she looked across the seat. Jenny had scrambled over to the far side of the car-to the place where Andy had been sitting-and was frantically peering out over the armrest.
“Daddy, Daddy,” she screamed. “Come back. Don’t go. Please don’t leave us.”
But Andy was already gone. He had disappeared into thin air. When their car hit the bottom of the arc, Joanna could see no sign of him.
“Stop this thing,” Joanna shouted at the attendant. “Let us out. My husband fell. We’ve got to find him.”
The attendant pointed to his ears, shook his head, suggesting that he couldn’t hear, and then touched the control panel. Instead of stopping, the wheel sped up to twice its previous speed, racing up and then plummeting down into the void, with Joanna floating helplessly in her seat. Jenny inched over until she managed to grab on to her mother. As the wheel went round and round she clung there, sobbing in terror. Then, suddenly, everything stopped. The car Jenny and Joanna were in was at the very pinnacle of the Ferris wheel. From there they could see for miles-off across the fairgrounds and the racetrack, to Douglas and Agua Prieta and to the parched desert landscape beyond.
They stayed there for the longest time, with Joanna searching in every direction for some sign of Andy, for some hint of where he might have gone. At last the wheel moved again-down, down, down-until it stopped at the bottom. The attendant, grinning, leaned forward to unlatch the wooden bar. It wasn’t until she stood up to walk down the ramp that Joanna realized she was naked. And all around her, watching, were people from the department. Dick Voland and Ernie Carpenter. Kristin and the clerks from records. The deputies from Patrol and the guards from the county jail.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. Instead of shrinking away and trying to cover herself, Joanna was angry. Furious! How could Andy have done this to her? How could he have gone off and left her alone like this? He should have stayed with her-stayed with them both.
She heard a bell then. Andy had always liked the sledge hammer concessions. In those games, a strong enough blow from a hammer would ring the bell at the top of a metal post. The resulting prize was usually nothing more exotic than a shoddily made teddy bear or an awful cigar. Still, Andy loved to try his hand at it. Joanna looked toward the bell, hoping, that whoever was ringing it would turn out to be Andy. She could see the pole, the bell, but there was no one in sight. Still, the bell continued to ring, over and over, until it finally penetrated her consciousness. The insistently ringing bell was coming from a telephone-the one on Joanna’s bedside table.
As she raised herself on one elbow to grope for the receiver, she glanced at the glowing green numbers on the clock radio. Twelve forty-seven. Who the hell was calling her in the middle of the night?
“Sheriff Brady,” she answered, her voice still thick with sleep.
“Sorry to wake you,” said Larry Kendrick from Dispatch. “We’ve got a problem here. The jail commander asked me to call you.”
Sitting up, Joanna fumbled for the switch on the bedside lamp. “What is it?”
“We just found Hannah Green dead in her cell,” Kendrick said.
“Dead!” Joanna echoed. “How can that be? What happened?”
“She hung herself from her bunk,” Larry said. “Or, more accurately, strangled herself. With her bra.”
“Has somebody called Dick Voland and Ernie Carpenter?”
“Dick’s already here. Ernie’s next on the list.”