Page 6 of The Girl from Devil’s Lake (Joanna Brady Mysteries #21)

Bisbee, Arizona

For the first time ever, Thanksgiving dinner at High Lonesome Ranch happened on Saturday rather than Thursday.

Jenny was scheduled for graveyard shift the week of the holiday, Thanksgiving Day included, and didn’t get off work until eight o’clock in the morning.

She had gone home long enough to shower and change clothes, then she and Nick set out from Tucson in a driving rainstorm, arriving at High Lonesome Ranch a little past eleven.

“How was it?” Joanna asked, welcoming them inside. Just walking from the car to the house had left them soaked to the skin.

“I’ve never driven in rain like that,” Nick said, shaking his head.

Joanna was well aware of the weather situation. She had just gotten off the phone with Tom Hadlock, her chief deputy, who had reported that so far deputies had been called out to rescue occupants of three different vehicles stranded in flooded dips between Double Adobe and Elfrida.

“The weather forecasters have been saying for days that a storm out in the Pacific was going to bring an atmospheric river into southeastern Arizona this weekend, and for a change they weren’t wrong,” Joanna said.

“Unfortunately, there are far too many drivers out there who refuse to believe that the words ‘Do Not Enter When Flooded’ actually apply to them. My department’s already been called to several fast-water rescues. ”

“But everybody’s safe?” Jenny asked.

“So far so good,” Joanna replied.

Jenny went over to hug Butch, who was standing at the counter putting together the family’s traditional Turkey Day fruit salad.

“Smells great,” Jenny said, sniffing the air in the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?” she asked jokingly.

“The works of course,” Butch answered. “I baked pumpkin pies yesterday. The turkey’s in the oven and the dinner rolls just came out. We’re planning on eating right around four.”

“Who all’s coming?”

“You and Nick, Jim Bob and Eva Lou, and the four of us. Sage just finished setting the table. You’re working graveyard, right? Are you going to want a nap before we eat?”

“How did you guess?”

“Not my first rodeo,” Butch replied. “The guest room’s all yours. Help yourself.”

While Jenny headed for the guest room, Nick wandered into the kitchen and eyed the preparations. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Nope,” Butch said, depositing the fruit salad in the fridge. “The potatoes are peeled and ready to boil, and everything else is under control. How about a cup of coffee?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Nick replied, settling his lanky frame on the back bench seat of the breakfast nook. Butch poured a fresh mug of coffee for Nick and refilled the two cups he and Joanna had been using. As he passed her one of the cups, her phone rang.

“Work,” she explained over her shoulder as she disappeared into the living room.

Butch carried the remaining two cups over to the table and sat down. “How’s school?” he asked.

“It’s a lot harder than I expected,” Nick answered, “but it’s going well. Another year and a half to go.”

“That’ll go by in a blink,” Butch assured him.

“I’m sure it will,” Nick replied, “but school’s not what I wanted to talk to you about, Mr. Dixon.”

“Call me Butch, please, but if this is about bringing Dexter and Maggie down here, not to worry. Joanna and I have already talked that over. We’re both completely on board.”

“It wasn’t about Maggie and Dex,” Nick said uneasily. “It’s about Jen and me.”

Butch shifted in his own seat. “You’re not breaking up, are you?”

“Just the opposite,” Nick answered nervously. “I know you’re not her biological father, but you’ve been Jen’s dad for more than half her life, so I’m asking for her hand in marriage—if it’s all right with you, that is.”

Butch sputtered momentarily on half a mouthful of coffee, which morphed into a coughing fit.

“You love her, don’t you?” he asked once he could speak again.

“Absolutely!” Nick declared.

“Have you asked her yet?”

“Not really, but I have a ring in my pocket, and I’m planning on asking her at dinner today, if you don’t mind.”

“Bended knee and everything?” Butch asked with a grin.

“That’s the idea.”

“You’ve got my approval, but good luck with the bended knee bit,” Butch added. “In my experience, these Brady women aren’t big on grand gestures.”

“What grand gestures?” Joanna asked, returning to the kitchen.

“Nothing much,” Butch said quickly. “We were just shooting the breeze, but you look worried. What’s up?”

“One of the rain cells parked itself right over San Jose Peak and the headwaters of the San Pedro. The river was already running bank to bank, and we’re afraid it’s about to get worse.

The bridges on Highways 90 and 92 should be fine, but if the water gets too high, on Highway 80 it could damage not only the old bridge in St. David, but also threaten the one that’s under construction. ”

The San Pedro, the only north-flowing river in Arizona, starts at the base of San Jose, just across the border in Mexico, and travels north until it drains into the Gila. Flash floods on the river have been known to come complete with walls of muddy water twelve feet high.

“Are you going to have to go in?” Butch asked.

“Not so far,” Joanna replied. “The highway department has observers on the scene. They’ll make the call and let us know if we need to post detours.”

“Detours,” Nick repeated. “Does that mean we won’t be able to get back to Tucson the same way we came?”

Joanna nodded. “You may have to go back by way of Sierra Vista. It’s a little longer, but, because the roads are better, it takes about the same amount of time.”

Dennis shot into the kitchen. “I’m about to turn on Trains, Planes, and Automobiles ,” he announced. “Anybody interested?”

“I’m for that,” Nick said, scrambling out of the breakfast nook. “That’s one of my faves.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Joanna asked. “He looked like I’d caught him with one hand in the cookie jar.”

“Maybe you did,” Butch mumbled under his breath. “But in case you have to go out, I’m going to turn up the heat on that bird and start the potatoes. If I know you, we’re better off eating earlier than later.”

“Good thinking,” Joanna said. “I’ll call Jim Bob and Eva Lou and let them know the timeline is changing.”

In actual fact, dinner was on the table by three fifteen, a good forty-five minutes early.

When it was time for dessert, Nick jumped up and offered to help serve.

Jenny’s was the last plate he brought to the table, and an engagement ring was front and center, resting in a bed of whipped cream at the very tip of her piece of pumpkin pie.

To Butch’s amusement, his future son-in-law really did get down on one knee when he offered Jenny her plate. “Jennifer Ann Brady,” he said, “will you marry me?”

For a long moment after she saw it, Jenny simply stared. “Should I eat it or wear it?” she asked finally.

“Wear it by all means,” Nick said, “but is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s a definite yes,” she said.

The joyous celebration that followed, complete with passable coyote yips from both Dennis and Sage, was cut short by another call on Joanna’s phone, this one from Dispatch.

Stepping away from the table, Joanna made the sudden switch from wife and mother to cop. “What’s up?” she asked. “Is the bridge in St. David okay?”

“The bridge is fine,” the dispatcher responded, “but one of the highway workers assigned to clear debris away from under it pulled out a duffel bag. Turns out there’s a dead body inside.”

“A body?” Joanna repeated.

“Yes,” came the answer. “I’m told it’s a little kid.”

Joanna took a steadying breath. “Okay,” she said. “I’m on my way.”

“Sorry,” she said to the tableful of people who were watching her. “Duty calls.”

Before leaving the house, she took her Glock out of the gun safe in the laundry room and belted it in place.

Then, glancing outside, she added a slicker and her Stetson.

Although she had one of those—regarded as necessary equipment for any self-respecting sheriff of Cochise County—she seldom wore it.

Rainy days were the exception because the sturdy felt kept the rain out of her hair and away from her eyes.

Butch followed her out to the garage to kiss her goodbye. “What if the washes are running?” he asked.

There weren’t any washes on the highway between Bisbee and St. David.

However, there were four major washes on High Lonesome Road between their ranch and Double Adobe Road.

The Mule Mountains off to the west marked the back boundary of the ranch itself, and runoff from those could quickly turn those easterly-flowing washes into treacherous rapids.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, but she wasn’t entirely sure.

When Joanna reached the first wash, she actually got out to check.

Muddy water was running a little over four inches deep, but with no visible wall of water approaching, she got back into her Interceptor, put it in low, and plowed on, making it through all four washes without pausing again or second-guessing herself.

Once on Highway 80, she took a deep breath and brought her vehicle up to speed as much as the water-soaked pavement allowed. It was still raining, but not nearly as hard as it had been. St. David was fifty minutes plus north of Bisbee. In this weather, she knew it was going to take all of that.

Thinking about what had happened at dinner, she gave Nick Saunders credit for popping the question in front of the whole family.

That was something Joanna actually appreciated.

Yes, in many ways she’d be losing a daughter once Jenny married, but that generous gesture on Nick’s part suggested that, in return, she might end up gaining another son.