Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(100)
“I’ve never even touched one until now,” Beth said.
Jenny slid off Kiddo’s back and adjusted the length of the stirrups on Spot’s saddle. “Let’s see if this works,” she said. “When you get on, you always do so from this side. Stick one foot in the stirrup, use the saddle horn to help boost yourself up, and then hold the reins loosely in your hands.”
Beth managed to make it work on the second try. Jenny readjusted the length of the stirrups, and then she mounted up and off they went. This time there was no trotting. They walked along at a sedate trail-ride pace with Beth’s leather saddle creaking beneath her.
“This feels really strange,” Beth said. “How can you ride bareback like that?”
“Years of practice,” Jenny told her with a smile.
They traveled the same route as before. It wasn’t until they neared the gate on the way back that Jennifer Ann Brady had an epiphany. It was as though the world suddenly made sense to her in a way it never had before. Sometimes you need to gallop, sometimes trot, and sometimes even walk, but in order to really live, you need to be able to do all three.
Chapter 52
By the time Monday morning came around, Joanna was feeling relatively rested. She arrived at her desk after roll call to find a message from Amy Ruiz awaiting her. She went straight out to the front office and tracked down Karen Griffith, the older clerk who was a lifelong friend of Amy’s mother.
“I just heard that Armando’s being released today,” Joanna said. “I’ve been so busy I haven’t even asked. What’s happening on their Christmas situation?”
Karen smiled. “Not to worry,” she said. “It’s all handled. Some friends and I went over yesterday and decorated the house inside and out, including putting up the tree. The presents are all wrapped and where they’re supposed to be. When Armando comes home, Christmas will already be there.”
Unable to help herself, Joanna gave Karen a quick hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’re the best.”
“I heard about Jenny,” Karen said. “How is she, and how are you?”
Joanna felt a sudden flash of gratitude at the kindness of the people who worked with her. “She’s fine, and so am I,” Joanna said. “And thank you for asking.”
By midmorning the FBI showed up in force to do interviews, bringing a flock of reporters with them. Joanna supplied the interview rooms and held off reporters as well. Two days of respite seemed to have benefited both Beth and Jenny. They appeared poised going into their individual interviews, and Joanna was relieved when more than two hours later they both emerged smiling.
“Are you heading home?” Joanna asked.
Jenny shook her head. “I’m going to drop Beth off uptown. She has an appointment to talk with Marianne. While she’s doing that, I need to do some Christmas shopping.”
Shortly after two o’clock, Burton Kimball and Lyndell Hogan showed up in Joanna’s outer office.
“To what do I owe the honor?” she asked when Kristin ushered them inside.
“I wanted to thank you for putting us in touch with Mr. Kimball here,” Lyn said. “We just now left the courtroom, and I wanted you to be among the first to know that Izzy and I have been granted temporary custody.”
“Really?” Joanna asked, looking back and forth between them in nothing short of amazement. “It happened that fast?”
“That fast,” Burton repeated with a smile. “I believe the judge decided that there were enough extenuating circumstances surrounding the case to make it necessary for him to award temporary custody on an emergency basis.”
“What does temporary mean?” Joanna asked.
“It means that we can’t take the kids out of state until the custody arrangement is made permanent,” Lyn explained, “but that’s not a huge problem. We’ll just stay here for the time being. Izzy and I consulted a Realtor over the weekend. She showed us a house where the owner is being transferred and is desperate to sell. It’s close enough that the kids won’t even have to change schools. I told the seller that depending on how this morning’s court hearing went, we could maybe finalize the deal this afternoon. I’m on my way to do just that as soon as we leave here.
“Tomorrow morning I’ll fly home to Wyoming to tie up some loose ends there. I told the guy who wants to buy our place that he can have it. Izzy and Jackie will stay here and look after the kids together while I’m gone. I can tell you that after missing a whole week of school, they’re both looking forward to going back tomorrow morning.”
Joanna looked questioningly from Lyndell to Burton. In these kinds of situations, custody battles usually became pitched warfare, with relatives lined up on either side of a fence throwing stones. It was refreshing to realize that in this case all three grandparents were working together to present a united front. The other thought that occurred to Joanna just then had to do with the fact that if the elder Hogans could go out and purchase a new home at the drop of a hat, obviously Madison had made a serious miscalculation when she decided Leon was worth more dead than alive.
“It’s still amazing that the judge allowed this to happen so fast,” Joanna said finally.
“Izzy and I have a few resources at our disposal,” Lyndell Hogan said modestly. “Once I showed the judge our current financial situation, he saw that we could offer the children a more stable environment than what would have been available to them in foster care.”