The report had described Erin as nearly incoherent and hysterical. The statement she had given the sheriff later that night was the same as what shed told Johnna.
Johnna packed the files and reports into her briefcase, then shut off the office light and locked the place up tight for the night.
Although she only lived a few blocks from her office, shed driven her car that morning because shed intended to drive out to the ranch and put in a couple of hours work there. But now it was too late to go to the ranch.
Main Street had shut down for the night and the street was deserted. Inferno wasnt the place to live if you liked nightlife. There was only one bar, at the edge of town, that remained open after 8:30 p.m. The rest of the town folded up at that time.
She approached her car and frowned as she saw that something appeared to be smeared across the dark blue paint of the hood. As she walked closer she realized it was white spray paint.
Terrific, she muttered. Apparently some of the bored youth of Inferno had run amuck. Then she spied the note tucked beneath her windshield wiper.
She plucked out the note and opened it.
DROP THE KRAMER CASE OR DIE.
The words were handwritten in block letters, and Johnna stared at them for a long moment as a shiver of apprehension crawled up her spine. She tucked the note into her purse, then drove her damaged car down the street to the police station. As she drove, she contemplated exactly what the note meant.
Perhaps somebody thought Erin was guilty as hell and resented the fact that anyone intended to defend her. This possibility determined that whoever had painted her car and written the note was probably a moron who didnt understand the way the judicial system worked and didnt realize that somebody would defend Erin no matter what.
Or her initial reaction might have been rightkids
out for a night of mischief whod heard she was Erins lawyer. In either case, whoever was responsible apparently didnt know Johnna very well. They certainly didnt realize that when she was pushed, she didnt quit. She pushed back.
It had become habit for Jerrod, after tucking his father into bed, to pour himself a glass of iced tea and sit out on the porch and relax as the night shadows cooled the days heat.
After hed left the diner earlier in the day, hed met with Shirley Swabb, a real-estate agent, and shed taken him to see several houses that were for sale in town.
The trailer park was dying, was for all intents and purposes dead. There had once been no less than twenty trailers in the area, but now there were only twelve, and three of those were abandoned and now were just ugly tin skeletons awaiting an official burial.
However, it wasnt the demise of the trailer park that encouraged Jerrod to look for a new home for his father and himself, rather it was the need to remove his father from the haunting memories of his wife.
Jerrods mother had lived in the trailer for eight years before shed left to buy the proverbial pack of smokes and never returned. That had been nearly twenty-three years ago, and still, at least for Jerrods father, her spirit lived in every room.
Jerrod sipped his tea and tried to remember the woman whod given birth to him. He had very few memories of her, and his strongest were of a woman whod been miserably unhappy.
He thought of his father. How horrendous it must be to be tormented by thoughts of a lost love for twenty-three long years. And yet, hadnt Jerrod himself been tormented by thoughts of Johnna for the past nine years?
He rejected this momentary illumination. Ridiculous, he scoffed. Hed gotten over Johnna Delaney long ago. The fact that hed had no real relationship with a woman since her had nothing to do with anything other than hed chosen a lifestyle and embraced a set of moral standards for himself that didnt allow for passionate, uncommitted relationships.
Still, when hed felt her hand, small and soft beneath his at lunch earlier in the day, hed wondered if the magic that had once sparkled between them might still exist, or if it had been forever extinguished beneath the weight of betrayal and the poison of cutting words.
A car approached, its beams slicing through the darkness and momentarily blinding him. It parked in front of the trailer, and he stood, surprised to see the woman who had been on his mind.
He set his glass down and left the porch to greet her. Johnna, he said, wondering what on earth had brought her here.
Thought you might like to see the new paint job somebody did on my car. She gestured to the hood.
Jerrod moved around to the front of the car to get a better look. When did this happen?
Im not sure. Sometime this evening while I was in my office and the car was parked out on the street.
Did you report it? he asked, trying not to notice how the moonlight brought out the rich luster of her hair and gave her features a soft, silvery glow.
She leaned against the side of the car. Yeah, but Im sure nothing will come of it. She dug in her back pocket and handed him a folded piece of paper.