“That isn’t necessary.”
“I didn’t say it was. I just said I’m driving. You get over there in the other seat and see if you can pull up any Ginny Pattersons living here in Phoenix. If we’re lucky, we might locate her before the day is out.”
* * *
A few minutes later, the two men found a fast-food restaurant and, while consuming burgers and fries, were searching through a fairly lengthy list of Pattersons that had popped up during Joseph’s search on his smartphone.
“Too bad we can’t use the department database,” Connor said. “But Jerry’s working the system today and he’s a stuffed shirt. Now, if Nancy was on duty, she’d run the name for us and text us the list.”
“No matter. I’ve found plenty to start with,” Joseph told him. “If need be, we can use the database when we get back to the office.”
“Well, the way Caspar talked, this Ginny that worked at the sale barn was financially strapped,” Connor reflected. “I figure we’d be wasting time to look at the Pattersons in the ritzy part of the city.”
“You’re right.” Joseph agreed with his reasoning. “Unless the woman married into money since she worked there.”
“That’s unlikely. What about this one?” He pointed to one of the addresses Joseph had copied onto the page of a tiny notebook.
Joseph scrolled through the city map he’d called up on his phone. “Doesn’t look far from here. The next one is fairly close, too.” He put down the phone and began gathering up the last of his meal. “If you’re finished eating, let’s go see what we can find.”
Hours later, after talking with Ginny Patterson number five and still no luck, Connor’s spirits began to dip. “I’m beginning to wonder if the Ginny Patterson we’re looking for has moved away from Phoenix,” he said. “If she was involved in your father’s murder, she might’ve fled the area a long time ago.”
Joseph heaved out a weary breath. “That’s a possible theory. But years have passed since Dad’s death. The person or persons involved most likely believe they’re in the clear. Especially since the case was ruled an accident. I’m betting the woman is still around.”
Since Joseph’s intuitions were usually right, Connor could hardly argue. “There’s another Ginny a few blocks from here,” he said. “We might as well check her out before we call it a day.”
Joseph agreed and within five minutes they were driving through a rundown neighborhood of old row houses. Vehicles were parked along the curbs, while trash littered the yards and street.
“This looks real cheerful,” Connor said grimly. “Reminds me of the neighborhood where my uncle used to live.”
“Most of the house numbers are torn off or too faded to read,” Joseph remarked as he peered out the windshield.
Connor suddenly pointed to a small beige stucco on the right side of the street. “That’s it—1121.”
Joseph turned onto the short drive and braked the truck to a stop behind an older model white car with a crumpled trunk and an Arizona Cardinal logo plastered to the back windshield. To the left of the driveway, two large mixed-breed dogs were barking fiercely and doing their best to climb the sagging chain-link fence that squared off a small front lawn. Even if his life depended on it, Connor couldn’t have found a blade of grass anywhere on the patch of ground.
“Great,” Connor said as they climbed out of the truck. “I can already see the two of us sitting in an emergency room waiting to get stitched up.”
“The fence will hold the dogs,” Joseph told him. “Let’s just get this over with.”
At the front door, Joseph knocked while Connor stood and scanned the area around them. Even in the capacity of a deputy sheriff, he wouldn’t want to be in this neighborhood after dark. Actually, he didn’t deem it safe even in the light of day.
“This isn’t exactly a place I’d like to go Christmas caroling,” Connor muttered under his breath.
Joseph was about to reply when the door suddenly creaked partially open and a woman’s face emerged around the edge. She looked to be somewhere in her sixties with blond hair that came from a bottle and gray eyes that mirrored years of struggles.
“Are you two lost?” she asked, her gaze encompassing both Joseph and Connor. “You don’t look like you belong around here.”
“No, ma’am,” Joseph told her. “We’re from Yavapai County. We’re looking for a woman. A Ginny Patterson.”
Suspicion suddenly narrowed the woman’s eyes. “What do you want with her?”
While the dogs continued to have a snarling, snapping fit in the yard, Connor decided to speak up. “We think she might be able to give us some information we need. Did you ever work at the Maricopa County sale barn?”
“That was a long time ago,” she said. “And who are you two, anyway? A pair of cops?”
Connor could see the word Bingo! go off in Joseph’s eyes.
“No, ma’am.” Joseph pulled a personal card from his shirt pocket and handed it to the woman. “We’re off-duty deputy sheriffs. I’m Joseph Hollister and he’s Connor Murphy. We’re trying to gather information on my father’s death.”
Only a portion of the woman’s face was exposed to their view, but it was enough for Connor to see her skin turn a sickly pallid color.
“I don’t know nothin’ about Joel Hollister’s death! And if you two don’t get out of here, I’m gonna call some real cops on you!”
Before Joseph could make any sort of reply, she slammed the door, ending any chance to continue the conversation.
“‘Real cops,’” Connor said sarcastically. “What the hell are we? Cartoon characters?”
Joseph grimaced. “We’re out of our jurisdiction. Plus, we’re working on a case that’s been closed for years. We’re not exactly in a position to make demands.”
Connor mouthed another curse word under his breath, then said, “Looks like that’s all she wants to say. But she knows plenty.”
“Yeah,” Joseph muttered then shrugged. “Well, at least we found her. Now if we can just figure out a way to get her to talk.”
“Well, I don’t know what went wrong,” Connor said wryly. “Usually women take one look at you and start spilling their guts.”
“Ha! That’s the other way around, buddy. They take a look at you and it’s like they’ve had a shot of truth serum. All sorts of information starts spewing out of their mouths.”
“It didn’t work on this one,” Connor said, not bothering to hide his disappointment.
Joseph nudged Connor’s shoulder toward the steps leading off the porch. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before those dogs break out.”
“I thought you said the fence would hold them,” Connor reminded him as they quickly strode back to the truck.
“That was before I noticed the gate hanging by one flimsy wire,” Joseph told him, gesturing to a metal gate near the end of the porch.
Seeing it, Connor made a grim promise, “The next time we come here, we’re going to be wearing our weapons and our badges.”
Joseph let out a short, cynical laugh. “What’s that going to do? You think a show of force is going to make her talk, or frighten the dogs into silence?”
“No. But it’ll make us feel a heck of a lot safer.”
* * *
By the time Connor got home that night, he’d come to the decision that the fairy tale he’d been living in the past few weeks with Jazelle and Raine needed to come to an end. Putting it off any longer would only make the break worse.
Marriage or nothing. Marriage or nothing. In spite of the eventful day he’d spent with Joseph, the two choices had lingered in the back of his mind. Like a scale with rocks on one side and gold on the other, the options had dipped up and down, one way and then the other, until he was sick of weighing anything regarding his future.
Damn it, he wasn’t a hypocrite, but that’s what h
e’d become. He was a fraud, as well as a fool for thinking he could fake his way through a meaningful relationship with Jazelle.
After pacing restlessly through the quiet house, he sat on the couch and punched in her number.
She answered on the second ring and he could tell from the sound of her voice that she hadn’t been expecting him to call at such a late hour.
“I hope you haven’t gone to bed yet,” he told her. “I would’ve called sooner, but Joe and I didn’t get back from Phoenix until a short while ago.”
“It’s okay. I’m not yet ready for bed,” she told him then asked, “How did things go down there? Any luck?”
He quickly explained what they’d discovered about Ginny Patterson and how she’d refused to talk with them.
“But that hardly means we’ve given up,” he told her. “We’ve crossed the biggest hurdle by just finding out who the woman is and where she lives. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“Maureen and the whole family will be overjoyed with this news,” she said. “I just hope when it’s all said and done, she’ll find some peace. She clearly loves Gil, but she won’t consider marriage until this thing about Joel’s death is settled.”
Love and marriage. Damn it, why did it feel like every conversation, every thought he possessed, always come back to those two words?
He said, “Uh, well, hopefully the truth will come out soon.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
He closed his eyes and wearily pinched the bridge of his nose. “The reason I’m calling is... I—I’m wondering if I could see you tomorrow night. I understand it might be a hassle for you, but it would be better if Raine wasn’t there.”
Silence stretched for so long he thought the cell signal had dropped the call. “Jazelle? Are you there?”
She finally replied, “I thought we worked that out the other night, Connor.”
He dragged a hand over his face as memories of that night assaulted him. Yes, he’d gone to bed with her. But all the while, he’d felt as though the walls of her bedroom had been closing in on him. All the while, he’d felt like a lying bastard. Not only lying to her, but lying to himself, also.
Swallowing hard, he said, “I need to talk to you—about some things.”
He was met with another pause before she said, “Okay. I might have to ask my mother to watch Raine for me. He’ll have a fit about going to see her, but it can’t be helped. Not if you don’t want him here.”
Connor bit back a sigh of frustration. She’d taken his request to talk with her alone and twisted it into a slight against Raine.
“None of this is about Raine. All I want is for the two of us to talk without interruptions. That’s all.”
If there was a sharpness to his voice, he couldn’t help it. All he wanted to do now was to put this painful ordeal behind him.
“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow evening,” she told him and then hung up before he could say goodbye.
* * *
The next morning at Three Rivers Ranch, talk around the breakfast table was all about Joseph and Connor’s heroic efforts of tracking down the mystery woman. Everyone appeared hopeful, especially Gil. He was beaming from ear to ear.
Hardly a surprising reaction from the man, Jazelle thought as she carried an empty carafe of coffee into the kitchen. The retired detective was madly in love with Maureen and wanted to make her his wife.
Someday a man will look at you the way Gil looks at Maureen. Someday you’ll be a wife who’s loved and cherished by her husband. But not now. Not by Connor.
Entering the kitchen, Jazelle did her best to push the voice of doom out of her head as she quickly crossed the room and went to work starting a fresh pot of coffee.
“The kids have scarfed up all the tortillas and are hollering for more,” she said to Reeva. “And Maureen asked for grapefruit.”
“I’ve already heated another batch of tortillas. And there’s a second bowl of eggs ready to go. You might as well take those to the table with the tortillas.” Reeva left her spot at the stove and walked over to the refrigerator. “I swear sometimes I think I’m cooking for a hotel.”
“What are you talking about, Reeva? Cooking for a hotel would be a snap compared to this.”
Reeva chuckled as she cut a grapefruit in two and arranged both pieces on a breakfast plate. “That’s okay,” she said with one of her rare grins. “It’s nice to see everyone happy and celebrating this morning. Joe and Connor should be proud of themselves. They’ll get to the truth. I feel it in my bones.”
Get to the truth. Connor’s call last night had managed to jerk Jazelle out of the fairy-tale world she’d been living in for the past month. She’d spent the better part of the night thinking about their relationship and where it might be headed.
When he’d given Raine the badge, she’d been hopeful. The gesture had made her believe he honestly cared about Raine, that he was growing comfortable with being part of a family unit. But then later, when they’d made love, she felt as if he’d been on automatic pilot. His body had gone through the motions, but his thoughts and feelings had been far away. Since that night, she’d not seen him and the few text messages he’d sent her had been brief and stilted.
Jazelle didn’t need a picture painted to explain his behavior. He wanted to end things between them. He wanted to move on to some other woman with a less complicated life. Well, she’d known from the very beginning that her time with Connor would most likely be short.
Realizing she had yet to reply to Reeva’s comment, she said, “Yes, it’s good to see everyone happy and hopeful.”
“Everyone except you, Jazelle. You look like you’ve bit into a green persimmon,” Reeva commented as she placed the plate of grapefruit and the bowl of eggs onto a tray. “What’s wrong? Are you coming down with something?”
Seeing the coffee was finished dripping, Jazelle poured the fresh brew into an insulated carafe. “I’m not sick. I’m just thinking.”
“Bills to pay?”
Bitter reality practically choked her, but somehow she managed to answer. “Yes. A very costly one.”
* * *
That evening, Jazelle waited as long as she could before driving Raine over to her mother’s house, which was located in a quiet residential area of Wickenburg. The dread she felt every time she made a point of seeing her mother always filled Jazelle with guilt. On the other hand, Della had never done much to make her and Raine feel welcomed or wanted, much less loved.
“Mommy, I don’t want to go to Grandma Della’s. She’ll be mean,” Raine complained as Jazelle steered her truck into her mother’s driveway. “Why can’t I stay with you?”
Because Connor had turned out to be no better than Spence, Jazelle thought dismally. He didn’t want Raine around whenever he gave her the ax. The idea caused tears to sting the backs of her eyes, but she did her best to blink them away.
“Because I have some important things to do and it will be better for you to be here with Grandma Della while I do them. It won’t be for long. I promise.” She had no idea if Connor intended his talk with her to be brief or lengthy. Either way, it didn’t matter. After an hour, she would pick up Raine and take him home.
Bending his head, the boy mumbled, “Well, I guess it’ll be okay.”
“Sure it’ll be okay. And when I get finished, we might even go out to the Broken Spur and get ice cream. How would that be?”
His head jerked up and he stared at her hopefully. “Really? Can we?”
Jazelle reached over and gave his ear an affectionate tweak. “I promise.”
Della Hutton was a tall, buxom woman with dirty-blond hair and sharp brown eyes. At forty-seven, she was still a young woman, but it hardly showed in her appearance or her attitude—which probably accounted for the reason the woman was still single after all these years.
“I wondered how much
time was going to pass before you finally showed up,” she said as she stepped aside to allow her daughter and grandson into the house.
Biting back a sigh, Jazelle leaned over and pecked an obligatory kiss on Della’s cheek. “I’ve been meaning to stop by for a visit,” she said truthfully. “but things have been extra busy out at the ranch.”
“The ranch. Oh, yes, that important job you have of waiting on the Hollisters hand and foot,” Della said with weary sarcasm. “When are you going to quit being a maid to ranch royalty and get a real job, Jazelle?”
Ignoring her mother’s usual put-downs, Jazelle guided Raine over to a long beige couch. As usual, Della kept the house perfectly spotless and the air-conditioning to a chilly setting.
“I like my job just fine, Mom.”
“No ambition. That’s your problem,” she said. “You have too much of your dad in you to ever really excel.”
“Everyone has their own definition of excelling, Mom. Mine just happens to be different than yours.”
She sniffed. “Well, at least I’m not a waitress.”
Her mother had worked for years at the same locally owned insurance company in town. She made a decent salary for answering the phone and taking payments, but it didn’t match the one the Hollisters paid Jazelle.
“Like me, you mean?” Jazelle asked pointedly.
Della must’ve decided she was wasting her time on the subject of jobs, so she suddenly directed the conversation to a different topic. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard from your father lately?”
The prickly matter caused Jazelle’s already tight nerves to nearly snap. “No. I’m sure Dad has been busy.”
Della snorted as she took a seat in an armchair. “We don’t have to guess about that. He’s busy working his rear off to raise those two kids of his. He gives them and that wife everything they want. But he wanted the extra load, so I don’t pity him.”
Della Hutton didn’t pity anyone, Jazelle thought sadly. Her heart just wasn’t capable of expressing compassion. But it was certainly capable of demonstrating jealousy and greed. Over the years, Jazelle had often prayed that something or someone would come along to change her mother’s bitter outlook on life. So far it hadn’t happened. Still, Jazelle wasn’t going to give up completely. Miracles did happen.
Her Man Behind the Badge Page 17
