Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(57)

“He was out of his mind,” Joanna said. “He just wasn’t drunk.”

“So who drugged him, his wife?”

Joanna nodded. “We think she might have come there planning on killing him, but he ended up wresting the gun away from her.”

“Can you prove it?”

“Not so far,” Joanna said.

“So I end up killing the guy for her and getting shot while she gets away with murder?”

Joanna nodded again. “That’s how it looks.”

“I just found out from my friend Katie that the Hogan kids go to my school—to Carmichael,” Amy interjected from her chair in the corner.

“Katie?” Joanna asked.

“Katie Baird,” Amy said. “We both teach second grade. Kendall Hogan is in her class. From what Katie said, it sounds like the situation in the Hogan household is a bit of a mess.”

“More than a bit,” Joanna allowed, but she didn’t say any more than that. She left a few minutes later. Casey Ledford called as Joanna headed back to her car in the parking garage.

“I’ve got news,” Casey said.

Joanna recognized the excitement in her CSI’s voice. “What kind?” she asked.

“After we learned about the scopolamine, I took another look at the contents of Madison Hogan’s purse. It was collected from the crime scene, and I had previously inventoried what was inside it, but this morning I started to wonder about that scopolamine. If it turned up at Leon Hogan’s residence, how did it get there?”

“And?”

“I remembered there was a bottle of over-the-counter eyedrops in the purse. On a hunch I ran an analysis, and guess what? No eyedrops—scopolamine.”

“With Madison’s fingerprints on the bottle, I hope?” Joanna asked.

“You’ve got it,” Casey answered.

“So we might be able to get her on attempted homicide at least.”

“And maybe even more,” Casey said. “Deb’s been talking to one of her pals over at the DEA. They’ve been keeping an eye on Madison’s boyfriend, Randy Williams. He’s suspected of being a small-time drug dealer with delusions of grandeur. He’s in the process of attempting to set up a network with a cartel-related smuggler. The cartel guy is the one the DEA really wants to nail, so they’ve been keeping hands off as far as Randy is concerned. They’re hoping we’ll do the same.”

“They expect us to just leave him alone?” Joanna demanded.

“That’s what it sounds like.”

“I happen to know Eugene Autry, the local DEA agent in charge,” Joanna said. “He’s based right here in Tucson. As soon as I finish up with my next appointment, I’ll be dropping by Gene’s office for a surprise visit.”

She hurried into Jorge Moreno’s office at the stroke of 2:00 P.M. The man who came out to the desk to greet her wore cowboy boots under a suit with a distinctly western cut. Joanna had known attorneys who assumed western attire in order to make a statement. She suspected that as far as Jorge and Lyn Hogan were concerned, they both dressed as cowboys because that’s what they were, born and bred.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Jorge said as he ushered Joanna into a conference room. “Lyn Hogan asked me if he could be a part of what’s being said here, and since he’s paying my fees, that seemed only fair. I told him we’d put him on speaker.”

Having Leon’s father involved meant that Joanna wouldn’t be able to discuss any of what she’d just learned from Casey, but that was all right. She was happy to forge ahead with what she had so far.

“I don’t mind at all,” she said. “I think we’re all on the same page here. My primary concern is for the kids.”

Jorge nodded seriously. “Mine, too,” he said.

Once both Lyn and Izzy Hogan had been added to the mix via speakerphone, Jorge turned to Joanna. “So what do you want to know?” he asked.

“Our understanding is that Leon Hogan retained you to represent him in a custody fight connected to divorcing his wife, Madison.”

Jorge nodded. “He came to me when he discovered that his wife was conducting an affair with someone he thought to be an especially unsavory character.”

“Randy Williams?”

Jorge nodded again. “You’re aware that after Leon married Madison, he went to court and adopted her kids?”

“Yes,” Joanna said, “Peter and Kendall.”

“Leon adored those kids from the start, but after he and Madison married, he started to see a whole other side to the woman.”

“The violence, you mean?”

“He realized early on that she often lashed out at the kids, but he had no idea of the real extent of it. When he tried to tell her he thought she was being too hard on them, she turned on him instead.”

“Hence the domestic-violence incidents,” Joanna said.

“Those, but there’s more to it than just that,” Jorge said. “Madison was working as a bartender at a bar when she and Leon first met.”

“The Nite Owl?” Joanna asked.

Jorge opened a file folder that had been lying on the conference table when they entered. He shuffled through several pages. “Yes,” he said. “That’s it—the Nite Owl. At the time Madison told him that she was an occasional marijuana user, but eventually he figured out that her drug use was more serious than occasional—and not limited to marijuana either. He tried talking her into going into rehab. She refused. When Leon found out Madison was carrying on with a boyfriend behind his back while he was at work, that pretty much did it for Leon, especially after he heard rumors that Madison had lost her job and that Randy was pimping her out. Leon was desperate to get away from her, but he was worried sick about leaving Kendall and Peter stuck in that kind of mess.”