It wasn’t the time to point out to Jenny that animal control officers were only doing their thankless jobs the same way the (;PS caseworker had been doing hers. For once, Joanna managed to keep quiet and let her daughter do the talking.
“Why couldn’t Dora have stayed here with us?” Jenny demanded. “She wasn’t bothering anybody or hurting anything. She did everything the Gs said, like clearing the table and emptying the dishwasher and even making her bed. All she wanted to do was go home and be with her mother, the same way I want to be with you. She said she’s already done the foster-care thing and would rather be dead than go through that again.”
“I don’t doubt that foster care can be pretty miserable at times,” Joanna agreed. “But surely Dora didn’t mean she’d rather be dead. She’ll be fine, Jenny. I promise. Girl Scout’s honor.”
Suddenly Jenny erupted out of her bed. In a single motion, she crossed the space between her bunk bed and the rocking chair. Jenny had shot up more than three inches in the last few months. There wasn’t enough room for Joanna to hold her daughter on her lap. Instead, Jenny knelt in front of the rocker and buried her face in her mother’s lap. For several minutes they stayed that way, with Jenny sobbing and with Joanna caressing her daughter’s tangled hair.
Finally, Jenny drew a ragged breath. “Why did Grandma have to go and do that?” she asked with a shudder. “Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone? We were doing all right. The Gs wouldn’t have let anything bad happen to Dora.”
Joanna had to wait a moment until her own voice steadied before she attempted an answer. “I don’t like what happened either, but there’s a good chance Grandma Lathrop was right,” she said carefully. “Dora’s mother has evidently been running a meth lab out of their house. Do you know what that means?”
Jenny shrugged. “Not really,” she said.
“It means that the house had illegal drugs and potentially dangerous chemicals in it. The people who are up there now, cleaning it up—the DPS Haz-Mat team—arc doing it in full hazardous‑material protective gear. Those chemicals are dangerously explosive, Jenny. II the house had caught lire, for example, Dora and her mother both might have been killed. They shouldn’t have been living in a place like that. It’s irresponsible for a mother to raise a child in such circumstances.
“That’s what society means when they say someone is an unlit mother. Considering what they found in Sally Matthews’s house, I think there’s a good chance that’s exactly what will happen she’ll be declared an unfit mother. She may even go to jail. In other words, Dora Matthews would have ended up in foster care anyway, sooner or later. Grandma Lathrop fixed it so it happened sooner, is all. I’m sorry it had to be tonight, and I’m terribly sorry that you had to be here to see it happen.”
“But even if Dora’s mother is a bad mother, Dora still loves her.”
“That’s right,” Joanna agreed. “And I understand exactly how she feels. When I first heard about Grandma Lathrop calling CPS, I was really upset, too—just like you are. But Eleanor’s still my mother, Jenny, and I still love her.”
“And I love you,” Jenny said.
For the next few minutes, as they sat together, with Jenny resting her head in her mother’s lap, Joanna was glad Jenny couldn’t see her face. If she had, Jenny would have seen that her mother was crying, too.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Joanna and Jenny might have sat there much longer, but Eva Lou knocked on the door. "Could I interest anyone in some cocoa and toast?" she asked.
“How about it?" Joanna asked.
Jenny nodded. "Okay," she said.
On her way to the kitchen, Joanna stopped at the telephone long enough to try calling Butch one more time. Once again, rather than reaching her husband, she found herself connected to the voice-mail system. "Mother called CPS, and they came out to the house and hauled Dora away like she was a criminal being arrested," she told the machine. "Naturally, Jenny is in a state about it, and I don't blame her. I'm out at the house now and planning to spend the night. I'm way too tired to try driving back to Phoenix again tonight. I'll come first thing in the morning. And, oh yes, I almost forgot. The woman I brought down, Maggie MacFerson, did turn out to be the murdered woman's sister after all. So we have our positive ID. Sorry I missed you. Hope you had fun at the dinner. I love you. It’s almost nine o’clock now. Call if you get this by ten or so. Any later, and you’ll wake people up. If I don’t hear from you tonight, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Out in the kitchen, Jim Bob was spreading toast while Eva Lou carried mugs of steaming cocoa over to the breakfast nook. Jenny settled herself at the far corner of the table, and Joanna slipped onto the bench seat beside her.
“I’m sorry you had to come all the way down from Phoenix just because of what happened to Dora,” Jenny said as she began using her spoon to target and sink the dozen or so miniature marshmallows Eva Lou had left floating on the surface of the cocoa.
Absorbed in her task, Jenny failed to notice the momentary hesitation on her mother’s part. Jenny’s unquestioning belief in Joanna’s having responded in an entirely motherly fashion made Sheriff Brady feel more than slightly guilty. She had come to Bisbee on departmental business rather than in response to Jenny’s crisis. It would have been easy to take credit where it wasn’t due, but Joanna didn’t work that way.
“I didn’t find out about Dora until I was already in Bisbee,” she admitted. “I brought a woman down from Phoenix with me. It was her sister, Connie Haskell, whose body you found in Apache Pass last night.”
“You know who the victim is, then?” Jim Bob asked.
Joanna nodded, looking at Jenny and trying to judge if having brought up the topic of the murdered woman was having any negative effects. Jenny, meanwhile, continued to chase marshmallows. Her air of total detachment seemed to imply that the conversation had nothing at all to do with her.
“How are you doing on finding the killer, then?” Jinn Bob asked. Joanna’s former father-in-law had always taken a keen interest in Andy’s ongoing cases. Now, with Andy dead, he was just as vitally concerned with whatever cases Joanna was working on.
“Not very well,” Joanna responded. “The sister gave us a positive ID. She’s staying overnight at the Copper Queen. I’ll have to pick her up first thing in the morning and take her back to Phoenix.”
“So you’ll be there in time to see Butch be in the wedding?” Jenny asked. Having just been through her mother’s wedding to Butch, Jenny had been intrigued by the idea of Butch being the bride’s attendant and had teased him about whether he’d have to wear a dress.
“I had almost forgotten about the wedding,” Joanna said. “With everything that’s going on, maybe I should just turn around and come straight back home.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Eva Lou exclaimed. “Jim Bob and I are here to look after things. Jenny’s fine. There’s no reason for you to miss it.”
Joanna glanced at Jenny. “Are you fine?” she asked.
Jenny nodded and spooned what was left of one of the marshmallows into her mouth. “Yes,” she said.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. I’m still mad at Grandma Lathrop, but I’m fine.”
“See there?” Eva Lou said. “If you miss the wedding, you won’t be able to use Jenny as an excuse. Now what time do you plan on leaving in the morning? And would you like us to go home, so you can sleep in your own bed? All you have to do is say the word. We can be back here tomorrow morning whenever you want us to be.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Joanna said. “I’m perfectly capable of sleeping on the couch. And I want to be up and out early, by seven or so.