Hidden Riches

get in the way.” The sarcasm was thinly veiled, but Dearborne wasn’t a man for subtleties. “May I use my credit card to make a call?”
    “Help yourself.” Dearborne gestured toward the phone on his desk. “Use line one.”
    “Thank you.” There was no use being annoyed with Jed, she mused. In any case, while he was off doing cop things, she could let her family know she was being delayed a few hours. After Jed and Dearborne trooped off, she settled behind Dearborne’s desk. And she smiled. She wondered if Jed realized that Dearborne had called him “Captain”—and that Jed hadn’t even winced at the title.
    He’ll have his badge back by spring, she predicted, and wondered what Jed Skimmerhorn would be like when he was completely happy.
    “Good afternoon, Dora’s Parlor.”
    “You’ve got a great voice, honey. Ever think about phone sex?”
    Lea answered with a rich chuckle. “All the time. Hey, where are you? At thirty thousand feet?”
    “No.” Dora pushed back her hair and sent a smile to the officer who carried in a mug of coffee and a file folder. “Thank you, Sergeant,” she said, deliberately mistaking his rank.
    “Oh, it’s just deputy, ma’am.” But he flushed and grinned. “And you’re welcome.”
    “Sergeant?” Lea demanded. “What, are you in jail or something? Do I have to post bond?”
    “Not yet.” She picked up the mug, tapping a finger idly against the file the deputy had set on the desk. “Just taking care of a little business Jed wanted to handle while we were here.” No need to mention dead guys and gut shots, she mused. No need at all. “So we’ll be taking a later plane. Everything there okay?”
    “Everything’s fine. We sold the Sherbourne desk this morning.”
    “Oh.” As always with a particularly loved piece, Dora felt the twin tugs of pleasure and regret.
    “No haggling either.” The smug pride came through. “Oh, how did your meeting go?”
    “Meeting?”
    “With the import-export guy.”
    “Oh.” Hedging, Dora thumbed at the file tab. “It went. I don’t think we’ll be doing business after all. He’s out of my league.”
    “Well, I don’t suppose you’d consider the trip a waste. See any movie stars?”
    “Not a one, sorry.”
    “Oh well. You had Jed along to help you soak up the LA sunshine.”
    “There was that.” She didn’t add that she calculated she’d spent more time with Jed on the plane than she had since they’d landed.
    “Call me when you get in so I’ll know you’re safe and sound.”
    “All right, Mommy. I don’t imagine we’ll make it much before ten your time, so don’t start worrying until after eleven.”
    “I’ll try to restrain myself. Oh, I should warn you, Mom’s planning on having an informal gathering—so she can check Jed out on a more personal level. I thought you should know.”
    “Thanks a lot.” Sighing, Dora idly flipped open the folder. “I’ll try to prepare Jed for—” Her mouth went dust dry as she stared down at the photo. Through the buzzing in her head, she heard her sister’s voice.
    “Dora? Dory? Are you still there? Shoot. Did we get cut off?”
    “No.” With a herculean effort, Dora leveled her voice. Even when she lifted her gaze to stare at the wall, the photo’s grim image remained imprinted on her mind. “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”
    “Okay. See you tomorrow, honey. Safe trip.”
    “Thanks. Bye.” Very gently, very deliberately, Dora replaced the receiver. Her hands had gone icy cold beneath a sheer layer of sweat. Breathing shallowly, she looked back down.
    It was DiCarlo. There was enough of his face left for her to be sure of that. She was also sure that he hadn’t died well, that he hadn’t died easy. With numb fingers she shifted the first police photo aside and stared at the second.
    She knew now just how viciously cruel death could be to human flesh. No amount of Hollywood horror fantasies had prepared her for this ghastly reality. She could see where the bullet had ripped, where the animals had feasted. The desert sun had been every bit as merciless as the bullet and the carrion. The color photo was both lurid and dispassionate.
    She couldn’t stop looking, couldn’t take her eyes away even when the buzzing in her head became a roar. She couldn’t stop looking even when her vision blurred and grayed until the bloated body seemed to float off the surface of the photo toward her horrified eyes.
    Jed let out one concise oath