Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(58)
Remembering what Deb had learned about Kendall’s bullying situation at school, Joanna felt half sick. The neighborhood kid who’d been teasing her hadn’t been wrong. Kendall’s mother really was a whore—regardless of how you spelled it.
“I advised both Leon and my friend Lyn here that if Leon had any hope of gaining custody of those kids, we couldn’t risk filing for a divorce until we had the goods on Madison. To that end I engaged the services of a private investigator—a Mr. Richard Voland. I believe you and he may have crossed paths at some time in the past.”
Joanna could barely believe her ears. Her former chief deputy had been Leon Hogan’s private eye?
“Yes,” she said aloud. “Dick and I worked together for a number of years.”
“Mr. Voland had been working behind the scenes to create a dossier on Madison Hogan and on her boyfriend, Randy Williams. By last week we had collected enough information about their activities that I thought we could move forward. I had expected to file within the next week or so, but then . . .” Jorge shrugged.
“But then Leon died.”
Jorge nodded.
“So if you were intent on moving forward, you must have thought you had sufficient evidence to prove that Madison was an unfit mother.”
“Not quite,” Jorge said. “We were waiting on one more interview. Leon told us that the next-best person for us to talk to would be his mother-in-law, Jacqueline Puckett. Mr. Voland told me that she’s currently in Sierra Vista and he’s hoping to interview her sometime this afternoon. Depending on the results of that interview, it’s my understanding that Lyn and Izzy here are prepared to go to court and sue for custody of the children.”
Joanna was stunned. Grandparents going to court to declare their former daughter-in-law an unfit mother wasn’t unheard of, but it would almost take an act of God for them to be granted full custody.
“Allegations against Madison are that serious?” Joanna asked.
“In my opinion,” Jorge Moreno said, “the answer to that question is yes. Leon thought she neglected them—that she often left them unsupervised and didn’t attend to their nutritional needs. Leon was the one who saw to it that they were vaccinated so they could enroll in school. Until he came along, neither Peter nor Kendall had ever seen a dentist. Then there was the situation with the dog.”
“What dog?” Joanna asked.
“Leon had a bluetick hound. He loved the dog, but when he moved out, he left the animal with the kids because Peter loved the dog so much. The next time he came to pick up the kids, the dog was gone. The kids told him Coon got hit by a car and died. Leon thought Madison just got rid of it. And when you consider the unsavory characters she brought into the household on a regular basis . . .”
Shaking his head, Jorge fell silent. It was a moment before he spoke again. “Let me ask you a question, Sheriff Brady, and I fully understand if you’re unable to answer, but do you think there’s a chance that Madison Hogan played an active role in what happened to Leon—in the events that led up to his death?”
Suddenly Joanna found herself between a rock and a hard place. Jorge Moreno had been more than accommodating, but he was asking a direct question about what was now an ongoing investigation. She could refuse to answer entirely, or she could hedge. She opted for the latter.
“It’s possible,” she said.
“And would the motive by any chance have had anything to do with the death benefits she expected to receive from Leon’s life insurance?”
“That might be a good bet,” Joanna replied. “We know from questioning one of Leon’s former co-workers that Madison spoke to the employer’s HR department just yesterday inquiring about proceeding with a death claim.”
“Already?” Jorge asked.
“The very next day after Leon’s death.”
That statement was followed by another silence, a longer one this time. Finally Jorge heaved a heartfelt sigh. “I’m so sorry, Lyn,” the attorney said, addressing the Hogans listening in on the speakerphone rather than Joanna. “This is all my fault.”
For a moment a puzzled Joanna looked back and forth between the desk phone and the attorney. “How could that be?” she asked.
“I’m the one who advised Leon to change his beneficiary designation. He asked if he should tell Madison about it. I told him no, that for the time being he should just let that sleeping dog lie. But it would appear I was wrong about that. If he’d told her, Madison would have known she’d have nothing to gain by killing him, and maybe Leon would still be alive.”
Joanna could see that Jorge Moreno was hurting. She wanted to comfort him and to comfort Mr. and Mrs. Hogan as well.
“That might or might not be true, Mr. Moreno,” she said quietly. “Unfortunately, crystal balls are currently in short supply.”
Half an hour after leaving Jorge Moreno’s office, Joanna was seated across the desk from DEA Agent in Charge Eugene Autry. He was a careworn fiftysomething who didn’t seem overjoyed to have the sheriff of Cochise County visiting his office. Aware from other sources that the man had suffered a lifetime’s worth of teasing as a result of his mother’s enduring fan worship of the “Singing Cowboy,” Joanna was kind enough not to pile on.
“What can I do for you, Sheriff Brady?” he asked.