Dead Wrong Read Online Free Page B

attention that they
had always lavished on Andy and Joanna’s Jenny.
    “Thank you,” Joanna whispered, fighting
back tears of gratitude.
    Eleanor stepped in the moment Eva Lou moved away.
“Don’t make a spectacle of yourself,” she warned.
“It’s only a baby shower, for Pete’s sake. No
reason to burst into tears.”
    Joanna’s mother’s reaction was in such
stark contrast to Eva Lou’s that it helped Joanna pull
herself back together. “Right,” she said, wiping her
eyes. “No reason at all.”
    During lunch, Joanna sat between Marianne Maculyea
and Angie Hacker. Eleanor still managed to look disapproving
whenever Angie was around, but Joanna’s and Marianne’s
unflinching acceptance of Angie had made it easy for most of Bisbee
to forget about the woman’s less-than-stellar past. The fact
that she had once made her living as a prostitute had faded into
the background. She was now recognized as the prime reason one of
Bisbee’s favorite watering holes, Brewery Gulch’s famed
Blue Moon Saloon and Lounge, remained open for business.
    Marianne couldn’t help gloating. “So we
really did surprise you?”
    “You certainly did,” Joanna agreed.
“Nobody breathed a word.”
    The whole thing was great fun and about as
diametrically opposed to the grim way Joanna’s day had
started as humanly possible. When she finally returned to the
Cochise County Justice Center, it was mid-afternoon and much later
than she had anticipated. She drove there with the backseat of her
Crown Victoria loaded down with a collection of baby
gear—most of it in suitably impartial shades of pastel green
and yellow. Eleanor’s gifts, however, were all unabashedly
blue—clearly announcing her preference for a boy. It
surprised Joanna more than a little to realize that for some reason
her mother was openly lobbying for a grandson.
    Kristin was already back at her desk by the time
Joanna got there. “Hope you didn’t mind my little fib
about what I was doing at lunch,” she said.
    Joanna’s initial dealings with Kristin had
been difficult. Over time, however, they had become much more
cordial. “No,” Joanna said. “I didn’t mind
it at all. It was a fun shower, and I’m glad you were
there.”
    Chief Deputy Montoya emerged from his office and
joined the conversation. “Did you pick up a lot of good
loot?” he asked.
    “You mean you knew about the shower,
too?”
    “Of course I did,” he said. “The
only person who didn’t was you. So how was it?”
    “The party was great,” Joanna said.
“How about the board of supervisors meeting?”
    “Dull,” Frank said. “Thank God
for small favors. We weren’tin the hot
seat for a change. Today’s meeting mostly concerned sanitary
landfill issues, so we lucked out.”
    “I’ll say,” Joanna agreed.
“Time for the briefing?”
    Frank nodded. “Coming right up. Ernie just
got back from that autopsy. We can have the Double Cs sit in on the
briefing as well.”
    When Joanna entered the conference room a few
minutes later, Frank and the two detectives were already there.
Ernie, sitting with his arms crossed, looked more somber than
usual.
    “Do we have a cause of death?” Joanna
asked.
    Ernie nodded. “Blunt-force trauma to the head
from a single blow. But the cause of death isn’t what makes
this such an interesting case, Sheriff Brady. I’ve been in
Homicide a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like
it.”
    “Like what?” Joanna asked.
    “All ten of the guy’s fingers have been
whacked off,” Ernie said, letting his breath out slowly.

“All ten of ’em! And not with a knife, either. Whoever
did it probably used kitchen shears or maybe garden pruning shears
of some kind. The only good thing about it is at least the guy was
dead when they did that part.”
    Ernie’s chilling words washed across Joanna
like a bucket of icy water. It was a mind-bending shock to move
from the carefree atmosphere of the baby shower to a recitation of
murder and mayhem in