17 Downfall by J A Jance

Author:J A Jance [Jance, J A]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

BREAKFAST WAS ON THE TABLE AND DENNIS WAS MUNCHING HIS way through a stack of blueberry pancakes when Joanna stumbled into the kitchen the next morning.

“Sorry to be a slugabed,” she said, dropping into the breakfast nook still wearing her nightgown and bathrobe.

“Robe day?” Butch asked.

Joanna nodded. “I left word for Kristin that I’d be there in time for a ten o’clock homicide briefing. I figure I can compensate for some of the extra hours I’ve worked this week by showing up late.”

“That maybe works for you, but Denny still needs to be at school on time.”

Butch brought over a cup of tea and a plate of pancakes. “You got home late.”

“I know. Sorry. Deb brought in the suspect from the Sun Sites homicide. When the interview was over, I sent out e-mails about this morning’s meeting. Time got away from me.”

“How come you never mentioned that Jenny’s coming home tonight?”

“I didn’t? I thought I had.”

“The only reason I know is that I called to see what her plans for the weekend were.”

“She called yesterday morning as I was on my way to Sierra Vista. Things got so crazy after that that it completely slipped my mind.”

“Anyway,” Butch said, “it’s a good thing she’s coming. It’ll be good for her to be here and be part of it—part of the funeral, I mean. Dying is an integral part of living, and our trying to keep her from facing that reality isn’t exactly fair to her.”

Joanna nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

She’d taken only a single bite of pancake, but now she put her fork and knife down on her plate. She’d been so busy that she’d barely thought about the funeral since walking out the door of the mortuary days earlier. Now it was back staring her in the face.

“Speaking of the funeral,” Butch said, “there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What? I thought it was all handled.”

“I’m sure it is, but this is about after the funeral. I know you wanted the service itself to be private, and you’ll get no argument from me there—none. But George and your mother were prominent people here in town, Joey. Important people. In a way the whole community is grieving, and you need to give them a chance to do so, the same way letting Jenny come home is giving her a chance to grieve.”

“What are you saying?”

“Jim Bob called yesterday afternoon. As you know, he and George had been planning that big send-off barbecue for Jenny last weekend, and Jim Bob had already stocked up on beef brisket. He and Eva Lou proposed the idea of having a commemorative barbecue here tomorrow afternoon after the funeral.”

Jim Bob and Eva Lou Brady were Joanna’s first in-laws. Despite the fact that Butch was Joanna’s second husband, Jim Bob and Eva Lou had remained fixtures in the family—being actively involved grandparents in Dennis’s life just as they had been in Jenny’s. It was not at all surprising that they would offer to do such a kind thing, but it was more complication than Joanna could bear that morning.

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