“What time did you say Alice left her daughter’s house last night?”

“About eight-thirty. Susan says she usually takes the Charleston Road back and forth to Tombstone.”

Charleston Road, named after a long-gone mining town near the San Pedro River, was a short cut from Sierra Vista to Tombstone. It was a ribbon of cracked, curvy, up-and-down pavement. Because it crossed the San Pedro River, Charleston Road had its own share of meandering animals that sometimes came to grief with speeding vehicles.

“Had Alice Rogers been drinking?” Joanna asked.

“Some. According to the daughter, they had drinks before dinner and wine with the meal.”

“There’s not much nighttime traffic on Charleston Road,” Joanna said. “Is it possible she hit a cow or a deer? Maybe she ran off the road somewhere between Sierra Vista and Tombstone. Her car may be out of sight in a ditch or a wash. Maybe that’s why no one has spotted her.”

“I already thought of that,” Frank said. “I contacted Patrol and told them to have a deputy take a run out that way to see if he can find her. Just to be on the safe side, I also plan on filing a missing persons report. I don’t want to give His Honor the Mayor anything else to complain about.”

“Good thinking, Frank,” Joanna said. “And good job, too, although I’m not sure it’s going to help much. Clete Rogers is the kind of man who would complain if he was hanged with a new rope.”

“‘Thanks, Chief. Always glad to be of service.”

She put down the phone just as a pajama-clad Jenny emerged from the bathroom. “Was that Butch?” she asked.

“No. It was Frank Montoya calling about work. Did you want it to be Butch?”

For months now, Joanna Brady had watched from the sidelines, observing her daughter’s reaction to Butch Dixon’s increasing presence in their lives. It was a concern for Joanna, one she approached with more than a little misapprehension. She was glad Jenny seemed to like the man, but she was worried that if Butch walked away from a long-term relationship with Joanna, Jenny would end up suffering yet another devastating loss.

So far, though, things seemed to be all right. Butch Dixon was the kind of man who had been born to be a father. Since he had no children of his own, he had thrown himself into an affectionate, easy kind of relationship with Jenny. Seemingly effortlessly, he had assumed the role of a beloved uncle.

And why shouldn’t Jenny adore him? Joanna wondered. Butch was fun. He took every opportunity to spoil the child. Still, Joanna niggled away at the idea that under the placid surface of their friendship something else was at work. Jenny’s adoration went only so far. Much as she seemed to like the man, she maintained a certain distance as well. Maybe Jenny, like her mother, couldn’t bear the risk of having her heart broken once again.

Jenny shrugged and studied her toes. “I guess I wanted it to be him,” she admitted.

“Well, Butch is on his way, but he probably won’t be here until after you go to bed.”

“Oh,” Jenny said.

Joanna waited to see if Jenny would say anything more.

When she didn’t, Joanna chose the easy way out. If Jenny wasn’t ready to talk about Butch Dixon, neither was Joanna.

“Your homework’s all done?” The motherly question was a cowardly attempt at sidestepping the issue.

Jenny sighed, flopped down on the couch beside Joanna, and snuggled in under her arm. “Of course,” she said. “You know I always do my weekend homework on Friday afternoon right after school.”

Joanna knew something was going on, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. “Why are you worried about whether or not that was Butch?” she asked.

Jenny shrugged and said nothing.

“Come on,” Joanna urged. “Give.”

“I just need to talk to him, that’s all.”

“What about?”

“I can’t tell you,” Jenny replied. “It’s a secret. Girl Scout’s honor.”

The lack of an answer bothered Joanna, but she tried to let it go. “All right, then,” she said. “If it’s Scout’s honor, I won’t try to pry it out of you. But it’s getting late. You’d best scoot off to bed.”

Jenny stood up. “Okay,” she said. “But when Butch gets here, have him come talk to me.”

“Only if you’re still awake,” Joanna said. “If you’re already asleep, it’ll have to wait until morning.”

“Sadie, Tigger, come on,” Jenny ordered. “Let’s go to bed.”

Obediently, both dogs got up and padded after Jenny into her bedroom. Long after the bedroom door had closed, Joanna sat there thinking about what had been said.

What kind of secret? she wondered. Everybody seemed to have secrets these days. The topper still had to be her mother, Eleanor Lathrop, hauling off and marrying Dr. George Winfield, Cochise County ’s new medical examiner, without saying a word to her daughter in advance of the nuptials. Even though Joanna had come to see that Eleanor and George were blissfully happy, she still wasn’t over that initial sense of betrayal. Now she couldn’t help wondering what kind of conspiracy Jenny was cooking up with Butch Dixon and what emotional traps would be laid for Joanna in the process.

She had gone just that far in her thinking when Butch’s new Subaru Outback drove into the yard. Rather than risk having the dogs start barking in Jenny’s room, Joanna opened the bedroom door to let Tigger and Sadie out. A quick check of Jenny proved she was already sound asleep.

Pulling on her jacket against the November chill, Joanna hurried outside. With the dogs on her heels, she met Butch at the gate. Using one hand to fend off an ecstatic greeting from the two pooches, he drew Joanna into a quick embrace and gave her a glancing kiss on the cheek.

“Nothing like a couple of dogs and a good woman to make a guy feel at home.”

“Be quiet and come inside,” she said. “It’s too cold to stand around out here making jokes.”

Butch followed Joanna into the kitchen. With his shaved head and stocky build, Butch looked far older than his chronological age of thirty-six. “Where’s Jenny?” he asked.

“Asleep.”

That announcement caused Butch to gather Joanna in his arms once more for a far more serious kiss. By mutual agreement, when Jenny was around, both Butch and Joanna consciously limited displays of affection. And since that one weekend in August when Jenny had been off in Oklahoma with her grandparents, Butch had never again stayed overnight in Joanna’s house.

Dodging out of Butch’s arms, Joanna look leftover baked potato and meatloaf from the fridge and popped them into the microwave. Then she brought out the butter, sour cream, and chopped onions.

“Jenny wanted to talk to you,” Joanna said, as she stood watching the readout on the microwave count off the passing seconds. “I told her if you got here too late to see her tonight that the conversation would have to wait until morning.”

“Any idea what’s on her mind?” Butch asked.

Joanna shook her head. “I asked her, but she wouldn’t tell me. Said it’s a secret. Do you know what it is?”

Butch shrugged. “You’ve got me,” he said.

Joanna set a place for Butch in the breakfast nook. When she put the plate of steaming food in front of him, she slipped onto the bench beside him.

“How was it?” she asked.

“The auction?”

Joanna nodded.

“Okay. We made some money on the deal. Of course, if we’d had to pay wages for all the work we did, we wouldn’t have made a dime. The good thing is that several of the collector types got a chance to see the kind of work Jeff does. I think they were impressed. My guess is he’ll get some more business out of it. Advertising. The main thing we did, though, going and coming, was talk. Jeff’s really worried about Marianne.”

“That she’s going to quit the ministry?”

Butch turned to study Joanna. “She told you then?”

“This afternoon. She says her letter of resignation is written and ready to hand in at the next board meeting.”