Bone Valley by Claire Matturro

Author:Claire Matturro
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780061969966
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-10-25T14:27:50+00:00

Chapter 17

Still no Jimmie the next morning.

My anxiety was now a persistent kick in the gut, which I fueled with an extra cup or two of coffee, just in case I wasn’t high-strung and heartburned enough.

Where coffee is concerned, I have no learning curve.

Ditto, worry.

But, regardless of the missing status of Jimmie, I had my hearing in Bradenton, the county seat of Manatee County, and had to be about my official, professional day. After promising Rasputin I’d come home at noon to feed him another trail mix bar, I had gathered up my purse, briefcase, and keys when the front door swung open.

“Hey, Lady,” Jimmie said, as if he had not been out all night, leaving me to wonder in what ditch his dying body lay.

“Where have you been?”

“Out. Working. Busy.” He held up the video camera. “I done been tracking that jerk who’s suing me, jes’ like you wanted me to.”

If I didn’t leave now, I’d be late for my hearing, and being late is something I never am at hearings. It puts you on the defensive from the get-go and pisses off most judges. “Jimmie, I have to go. Right now. I’ll be home this evening. Can you feed Rasputin today?”

“Can do,” he said. “I’ll get that grass cut out back too.”

“Good,” I said, and slammed out my front door, glad that at least Jimmie was alive and well.

The hearing was one of those where basically all I had to do was show up and identify myself to win. My opposing counsel was an idiot who had failed to comply with the pretrial requirements for suing a physician, and all I had to do was establish that fact in black and white, recite the Florida statute on point, and listen to opposing counsel whine and babble in response, and rebut with a choice Florida Supreme Court case on point and in my favor.

After winning, I ducked out and got into my little Honda and sat for a moment with my bucketload of curiosity. Being in Bradenton and therefore already in Manatee County, I decided to find Josey at the Manatee County Sheriff ’s Office and see if I might convince her to provide me with some information.

Naturally, I arrived at the sheriff ’s office just as Josey was preparing to leave for lunch. Notwithstanding my coming in as she was going out timing, Josey seemed as interested in talking to me as I was to her, and invited me to join her for lunch. “But, I warn you, I have to go home and take care of all of my cat s.”

“How many cats do you have?” I asked, thinking she had overemphasized the plural a tad much.

“Only four,” Josey said. “Though I’m cat-sitting for a fifth.”

Oh great, cat-hair soup for lunch, I thought. Still, I wanted the chance to talk with Josey about M. David’s murder, plus anything she might know about Angus John’s murder. Yeah, okay, I really wanted to talk to her about Miguel. And

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