Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(37)

After dinner they drove back home, unloaded the car, put Sage to bed, and then went to bed themselves. Joanna drifted off with the idea in her head that she would sleep late in the morning and spend the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. That all changed the next morning when she set foot in the living room and found it full of assorted boxes. A prelit but as-yet-undecorated Christmas tree had been moved into its traditional place of honor in front of the living-room window. Butch was on his knees, busily installing the tree skirt.

“It’s about time you dragged yourself out of bed,” he said over his shoulder. “You’re late for the party.”

“It doesn’t look like a party to me,” Joanna grumbled. “This looks like work.”

“But not work work,” Butch corrected. “I’m willing to leave the cookie baking and candy making until after the girls get here, but I want the house dressed for Christmas sooner than that, and today’s the day.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” Joanna said wearily. “What do you want me to do?”

“Tree to start with,” he said. “Ribbons first and then balls.”

“And what are we going to do with Sage?”

“Don’t worry about her. Carol said if she had to choose between taking care of Sage or decorating a tree, she’d rather take Sage—and she did. That gave me a chance to start bringing in boxes.”

“Why didn’t I get to choose?” Joanna asked.

“Because you got drafted,” he told her. “Now, get to work.”

And she did. Other than going to church and bringing Denny home, they worked on decorating all day long. Late in the afternoon, a text came in from Ernie Carpenter:

Finally caught up with Alice Kidder. Casey’s not in today, but the robe is secured in an evidence locker in the lab. Going to dinner with Jaime and Delcia. I’ll tell them tonight.



Joanna read the text with some satisfaction, but it was satisfaction tinged with sadness. She had succeeded in getting Ernie off the dime in terms of letting people know he was leaving the department. Unfortunately for Joanna, that made his imminent departure all the more real, and she for one knew she was going to miss him terribly.





Chapter 13





Beth had thought Saturday was bad, but as she awakened late on Sunday morning, things were infinitely worse. Yes, the Thursday-night/Friday-morning phone call with Ron had ended badly when Jenny so rudely interrupted things. Beth had worried about that all day long, but it was worry mixed with anticipation. It had been her hope and expectation that no real damage had been done and that the next night she and Ron would be able to pick up where they’d left off. She hoped that now that Ron had had a chance to see her . . . well, video tour . . . maybe he would return the favor by showing her his.

Beth had fixed things with Jenny by bringing home pizza, but remedying the situation with Ron wasn’t nearly as simple as bringing home pizza. For one thing, on Friday night he didn’t call—not at all! She’d been in the bathroom at the appointed hour as usual, but nothing happened. No call came in. And it wasn’t as though she could call him. His number was always blocked.

She sat there waiting for so long that she finally lay down on the floor and fell asleep. When she woke up, stiff, sore, and freezing cold at five o’clock in the morning, there were no missed calls on her phone, and that made for a Saturday of absolute agony. What if Ron had broken up with her? What if he never called her again? What if she’d lost him for good? What if it was over?

She did her best to conceal how upset she was, but Jenny had noticed anyway.

“Is something wrong?” she’d asked.

“I’m just worried about the test I took yesterday,” Beth had replied quickly. That wasn’t true, of course. She’d done fine on the test—aced it, most likely—but the excuse had sounded real enough. Besides, it was the only thing she could think of.

The rodeo team was due to have their annual Christmas party that night. Sororities and fraternities on campus were busy holding winter formals. The rodeo team’s version was a combination barn dance/steak fry with an ax-throwing contest tossed in for good measure. Each team member was welcome to invite a guest, and Jenny had asked if Beth wanted to go. Naturally, Beth had begged off.

“Sorry,” she said. “It just doesn’t sound like my thing.”

“Too bad,” Jenny replied. “It might have cheered you up.”

So Beth had spent most of the evening alone and literally pacing the floor in their very small room. It wasn’t fair that she couldn’t call Ron, not even to apologize despite the fact that she’d done nothing wrong. It wasn’t fair that he held all the power in the relationship and she had none. It wasn’t fair that he could drop her just like that—for no reason, really—and leave her twisting in the wind. Didn’t he know how much she loved him? Didn’t he know how much she cared? Didn’t he understand how much she needed him in her life?

Jenny came in around eleven thirty. She changed into her jammies, stuck earplugs in her ears, put on her eye mask, and got into bed while a heartsick Beth went into the bathroom and resumed what she now regarded as a futile vigil.

To Beth’s immense relief, her phone rang at ten past twelve. Her heart rejoiced until she heard Ron’s voice.