Prodigal

Chapter 30-1

30

Grant was cloistered in a room with Dorothy and Otto and a young man in uniform that JJ didn’t recognize. The door to said room had a narrow window in the center, but JJ couldn’t very well press her face to it with Luther standing next to her. Backs to the door, each kept stealing glances inside when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

Finally, Luther gave up pretending. He removed his hat and peered through the window, rubbing an itchy spot of his beard all the while. “I didn’t see that coming,” he admitted.

“What—Dorothy pulling a gun?” JJ asked.

“Nah, that didn’t surprise me much. Especially after your warning—” He tilted his head at JJ. “Much appreciated.”

JJ gave him the curled lip she reserved for people she thought were being smartasses, when she didn’t particularly care if they knew it.

He laughed. “Why don’t you tell me what you really think of me, JJ?”

JJ blushed. She and Luther had never been friends, but she was having trouble processing what Dorothy had shared and what it meant about the character of the man—now twelve years older—standing in front of her. Still, there was nothing to be gained by pissing him off. “Sorry, Luther. It’s been a long twenty-four hours.”

“Don’t worry about it. But I was expressing genuine thanks. We’ve got enough craziness already without Dorothy going batshit. As I was saying, what really surprised me was the idea of Otto stepping out on her.”

JJ finally gave up pretending, too. Standing a few inches away from the door, they could simultaneously see inside without banging heads or being too obvious to the occupants. “You know Otto very well?” JJ asked.

“Can’t say as I do,” Luther admitted. “But Dorothy… now that’s someone worth coming home to.”

JJ nearly said something ill-advised, but when she looked at Luther, he was grinning. “Just winding you up,” he said.

His grin faded as they watched Dorothy jump up from her seat. Grant encouraged her to sit down again.

“But I was surprised,” he continued. “‘Course, maybe there’s nothing to it. Maybe it’s just Dorothy getting excited because she’s got nothing else to do except wait for us to tell her we found her daughter in a ditch somewhere. Or worse.” Luther’s eyes bore down on the people in the room.

JJ asked, “You think Otto could’ve had something to do with it?”

“Directly, meaning do I think he could’ve done it? I doubt it. But indirectly… he may not have been with another woman yesterday, but if he is having an affair, that opens up a whole other line of inquiry. Maybe a jealous girlfriend took Rachel, thinking Otto’d leave his wife.” He turned to face JJ, crossing his arms and leaning against the door again, as if he’d seen enough. “Hell, for that matter it could’ve been Dorothy herself. Kinda like—what’s that called? Munchausen by proxy? She gets all the attention, all the sympathy.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” JJ asked.

Luther sighed. “No, I don’t. But, as the Sheriff reminded me earlier, that’s why it’s good to have outsiders here, somebody who can look at everyone objectively, without being blinded by the fact of knowing everybody and their kin.”

Luther took one last look inside and said, “You might not want to be here when Grant finishes. I have a feeling he’s gonna be pretty pissed about you bringing Dorothy over here.” Luther held up a hand when JJ started to protest. “I know she was driving, I’m just saying that’s how he’s gonna see it.”

Luther sidestepped a group of men unzipping hunting coveralls, faces still pink from the outdoors, on his way down the hall.

He wouldn’t be JJ’s first choice for relationship advice, but Luther was probably right about the reception she’d get from Grant. Although not true, it did appear that JJ was responsible for Dorothy showing up, and the woman’s craziness did seem to be triggered by her talk with JJ and Adam in the car. Then there was Adam. Grant had rushed back to the Command Center right after Adam was admitted, so he didn’t know JJ had helped him get discharged AMA from the hospital. Grant would not be pleased.

But Luther had been right about something else, too. They were all fools if they thought they knew who was and wasn’t capable of kidnapping.

She had to see Grant, to tell him that Leslie could be the missing child’s father.