J. A. Jance

Judgment Call


Скачать книгу

I think I would have told my mother to piss off,” Deb Howell muttered.

      Joanna nodded. “No one would have blamed you, either.”

      “I always thought people who lived on the Vista had perfect lives,” Deb added thoughtfully. “This sounds anything but perfect.”

      That had been Joanna’s perception, too. She’d had no idea of the steep price that someone like Abby, one of the seemingly privileged few, might have paid living as a virtual prisoner, first as a victim of her parents’ demanding expectations and later as the target of their unrelenting disapproval. It pained Joanna to think that all the time she and the other kids had secretly made fun of Abby Holder’s perpetually grim outlook on the world, the poor woman had been coming to work, day after day and year after year, with a permanently broken heart, mourning the loss of both the love of her life and the love of her parents. Generations of schoolkids had mistaken that sadness for anger.

      By the time Abby returned from the kitchen, Joanna Brady regarded her with a whole new respect.

      She came into the living room carrying a tray laden with tea makings, including a plate of carefully trimmed, triangular cucumber sandwiches. She set the tray down on the coffee table in front of Joanna and Deb.

      “If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” she said, “I’ll take something in to my mother.”

      She dosed a cup of tea with cream and sugar, took it and a plate holding three sandwiches with her, and went off in the same direction in which her mother had departed. She returned a few moments later. If she’d had to endure another tirade from her mother in the meantime, it didn’t show on her face or in her actions. She sat down and served tea in a fashion that not even her highly critical mother could have faulted.

      “I don’t believe I ever said a proper thank-you to your father, Sheriff Brady,” Abby said quietly as she passed Joanna a delicate bone china cup and saucer. The cup was filled to the brim with fragrant tea. It took real concentration on Joanna’s part to keep from slopping some of it into the saucer at this unexpected turn in the conversation.

      “Thanked him for what?” Joanna asked.

      “For digging Fred out of the stope the day he died,” Abby answered. “Your father was one of the crew of miners who pulled him out of the muck and tried to revive him. Of all those guys, your father was the only one who had balls enough to come to Fred’s funeral. Everyone else was so afraid of what my father might do that they didn’t dare show up.

      “As a consequence, it was a very small funeral,” Abby continued. “Your mother came, too, by the way, but it was your father whose job was on the line. Your parents were a little older than I was, but back then we were all relatively young. I was barely out of high school and already a widow. I didn’t really understand the risk your father ran by going against my father’s wishes, and I never made a point of telling your father how much it meant to me. I’m thanking you because I never thanked him.”

      It wasn’t the first time in Joanna Brady’s years in law enforcement that she had heard stories about her late father, D. H. Lathrop, being a stand-up kind of guy. She could count on one hand, however, the number of times her mother, Eleanor, had been mentioned in that regard. Now she wondered if being at odds with the superintendent of the local mining branch, the town’s major employer, might have had something to do with her father’s leaving the mines to go into law enforcement. Everyone had always maintained that D. H. had stopped working underground because he had wanted to.

      Was that really true? Joanna wondered now. Or was he forced out?

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAfQAAAOCCAIAAAAOULcoAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA IGNIUk0AAHolAACAgwAA+f8AAIDpAAB1MAAA6mAAADqYAAAXb5JfxUYABgGdSURBVHja7H13nBzV kX9VvdfdM7NZOSOyAJGzTEaAyRkhJJGc053T/c6+c/bZPvt8PgewfcYJ+xwwOGCbnMEEk3MQAoRy 1uaZ7n6v6vfH657p2V2tRtLuSuCpzyCk3emZ7vfq1av61rfqYZArQF3qUpe61OXtJVQfgrrUpS51 qRv3utSlLnWpS92416UudalLXerGvS51qUtd6lI37nWpS13qUpe6ca9LXepSl7pxr0td6lKXutSN e13qUpe61KVu3OtSl7rUpS51416XutSlLnWpG/e61KUudakb97rUpS51qUvduNelLnWpS13qxr0u dalLXepSN+51qUtd6lKXunGvS13qUpe61I17XepSl7rUjXtd6lKXutSlbtzrUpe61KUudeNel7rU pS51qRv3utSlLnWpy5aIrg/BjiACwCzJfkuI9RHZMadJgEUAQNFbcopYQERGUsfKio2IVFfrt5Nx NyzWSPmfvjewTmXfRgo9VfWm0AiwDBp+YKAJQADAspj0o5RG3U+hym/wPOqvbbEVtoNd3vfOrVi7 yTuPrEj6W1Toq+QmM4tNYiPAgBqbAqUVxFa6ShasAKHvDfb12Vvtu55w4KfrP9qo0K++5+wAAoDW pAj73Pbgs7x5ndOk0ogxjLn82b4/wC33+XClSdPAZjcylY/qPxf9v25AQUJfD3ShYbBCmppzyop0 FS1YAYW+rtVMRkZkEDUWQDXwVzujHMdcy7cMrtWBT4VAWZbu0LIRAEBNnqo8Qe1fVD1qEHjU94YN AwNpbAxIEfZGHEYWBIDQ0wPc5GanZsCZFYEoc8ObmvfBx7OWlb4ts9BnTQ2wYAkGX+xbJxjkCsNk 2eNYDt+l8b1HjY2NaIWvryt97ZY3AZXWVTtKbOTQ6Q3vO2qcYclpuu3FDb95dI3WHhK5377v6HGH 79wQxgOPjq/xhRW937pzGQACqFm7Nr37HWMjK77CH9y38rHFnVr7ZZ/BWBnbpD9z6mSF8B83v7my PdKej6luRzEftVvTu2aNDa0UPLrlhQ2/fXQNKa2U2tQDXnL46JP3ailG7Gv8/n0rn1jcqbRHRAAQ RnzU7k3vOnJsxJLT9PKq3v++Y6lh9DyvrJT5QB26U+EduzbtOS43qkH7CkMj67qi51b03v1K+7NL e0DpwFMDfvU7Z7ZcfPCoYmZYEKAn4mXt4WNvdD30eqdhDHzd/8KDdip8+NgJkeHAoztf2virv68u P2NkpDmn/t9JEye0eMZKY6BufWHDrx5djf1mLTt9h+/c8L6jxoW12fdA488eWv3Aq+3K80XwUydP 3HVsYCwUY/uVW5as7ayakdjwzMmFfzpuPAuAABH8z53LX1rZU1aP8qojhE+dPGmnUX5sJefRH59a 9+dn1imtibTbmUQAEP75uPF7T8xHm7jVQNMjb3T+6P4VpJRSOl2ZYCzPnFw4fZ+WfSYVRhe0YVnX Hb+0sve+Vzsef7ObSGmtNrMWjFwxa8zRuzUNqMbru+OXVxcfXNTx2pqS9j1FVU5AbGTPCbmPnzBB 3FNsaiUjWJav3rJk+cawPIYCEEU8vtWfvWfzYdMbJjR7TYGKrXQUzeL1pSeXdD+1tOfN9aHneUQY W5na5v/L7ImBR8y17ta+xpdW9n7z9qVIiZKEhj2FR0xvPH6P5l3H5trySivsKtnVXdHzy3ueXNLz zPLe2EJZOd3UfOadk6a0+rEd7HsLPv32sbW3PL/ezaxhHtfk/etJExsCxSw5j37/5Nq/Prt+kDXr trrpo4P/d9JEhcACBZ+u+dvKv73aUV65m7pq59HBv5w0QSHyoLMAAN+4benra4tuFmIjR+zc+N6j xvZfIIhQjPmNdaUHF3U+trgLSA242HdEz50t7zc5f/rM1u6SRYTZM5qfX9b5p6fXKVLZCI0N7zup cPrM1p7QNgbq769vZLYCHgIKCCCcNKP5iJ0bizGjM2DV0hSozt6IrUFSgiq0cvRuTQox79Njb3T8 /fWNzKzSFW4Nzzt0zPkHtInAn55cvXxDUUSSZSBAhO+aNfaUvVpCI4blm7e/yWy15wMM7LqyyOqu +IQ9miPLDb5avrH42OsbwSKRb1ka8+qTsyccMq0xtqIQfvHQ8ig2nh8k3ijLqfu2vuvIsftNznsK rQCziAAiqEn5E2e0vvfo8be/uPFbdyxbsqHkB7k+7iGLHD698eS9W3pCLqtU4gAimqPHP/x6x2dv XPzm+pIfBJi5mEVmTiqcuk9zd8iNgXpicTuzJVIAGBluDOi/zpt62t4toZXmnL7txQ03P7tGWLSv Nj3Lst/kwqn7tPREnHVGpFrdy9uPr+lnDy5ntsjSnFezZzTvOiYAhCXrw95SxMxY/eEnzWg5c9+2 ntACQGOgHnmt/YXlnZaVzqzDOOLT92u98sgxLMICjYF6dmkHs0VbWa0sUvDonfu07DEuFxkZUJca A71odTezRSI36SxAKB87YeIVs8Y055TlxPkmzJ+wZ8t7jhp/98vtn/rja11hMrObHCWWmRPz79yr epQyw0KIG3onXPvwqqvuWWHIy26lLNKS17NnNA9u3BVCZOU7dwKzLXuEkeFzD2z72AkTprYFImIF WAQBCeGo3ZrmHz5uXXd8z8sbv/jXN0sRMunGgE7Ys7nBJ1Ozcc97VPCQ2SIAgA6NTGsLPnva5GN3 a/IUWAYWEQBCJGw4c99RpZhfWd37tVuWPLq42/N9xGSGZu3cuNeEXGlQF6GloB95rZ3ZIhMRiEDe o+P2aGrLa8PSGKgnF3cwW0QCpTcVbrJIU0An7tmsCVigJaduemYtsyXRg7rt0pRzVw1m3BUCA/zg HmC2LoZmlvHN3il7tfRuwusnxA8cPf7m5zd86a+LNxZj369asNsiw5lQVTix2esu2Z6Iu0MuxvzP J04Z3eBFcdhn/xrX5BUj7o24o2TfWB86hA5AmKWtoBoD1VmyvREXY4ktxFZiU3kZC6+tLQKAQlKK Xl9XWrIhKhnujXiXsXkAYGE3zZGR3cbnLz5kVHuvLRk5bOcWgMpKiAwfNr3h8J0b1/cYAfjLs+uf WdpNpN2dbCr4evC17qeW9hgrG3vNkTs3N+UUWwsAJuZ5h47Zf3LDxl6DiD95cNVdL7eT0kQqtuIr +vIZU7534U4HTClERpz3HWjKeeQpNFa6QiuC5x445pfvmrH3xFwU9kqfZY0wvtnrCbk34mLMxkJs wVpBhN7IlmI+do/WH16yx5hGiqOwz21PafXdhT0Rv7qm6LCIyHJjQN+6YNpJM1o2Fi0h3vHShg/9 euH6HvaC3KDaJtNGBYYhmRErkZGeiHuj5N6yU2ZYOormzfUl52635nXOo66QS7Esaw+7ShaJyrsB CwSBOnLnxo6i6Ym4J+Ku0B48rSk7a86zbsjTlbPGRla60+dqCHRq36T8aS153eirrhL3RlwyA+hS bHnh6t6y+rnQ4Z+Om/DxE8drQrePhjEXI+vAa6Vwv6kNhoV589F6mBmWUsyISIiEYFnco+V99S8n T/vYiVOsiYw1fSxLb3ptT8QszlYiYfkv2B/UjiI+a9+2b5w7bUKz1x3a3pgJ0VekCbRCZijF3JrX p+83uuBTeUgRIb235OXusHwDAFW/xYxyWIbRBfW9i3Y6eUZzZLk7ZMvia9KEDpENDbPAkbu2HLRT o4jLXyRXF2PuSR8wMkLV95C8+m3IIuAucX8O7vhnQ73seNa4k/W5yvKmZgH7Q4vZAUy3OhSAMJau 0BqWCw4e+92Ld89riONoR/fcBQAJJ7UG5XGLjOw8Jvfh4yd/8a+LjTHON2EB0ji51bMigBBbWbKh lHozYBlaC7qtoKyAr/DVNcXv3r0cEMshMwBowudX9CjtESlA6CzaNzaEU0f5MctOowJNaNgCeAIg LJcdMWZMg9cdWmXlwGmNWqG1FrQnAAgw5+DRgcYiSzGy