Page 30 of Justice for JoElla

“We made a discovery in that murder investigation.”

“The teenager?”

“Yeah. Turns out another woman in Texas was treated to the same behavior as his mother, and maybe even a woman in Utah and one in Oregon. Our ballistics of the projectiles got a hit from a case in Texas that sounds a lot like this one.”

“Oh! Wow! That’s really interesting.”

“Yeah. And one of the Texas officers is coming to help us. There’s still an active warrant out for Warmuth’s arrest, and he wants to help. He’s a lieutenant, so I don’t think they’re going to have to twist his boss’s arm to get this done.”

“That’ll be good. I know you can use all the help you can get.”

JoElla nodded. “Yeah. So what did you guys do today?”

Brandon started telling her about the various things they’d done, and then he got to the toddler. “The mom thought the door was locked, but apparently it wasn’t. He made it all the way to the pool and fell in. No idea how long he’d been in there when she found him, and he’d been gone for a while before she did.”

“That’s horrible. I can’t imagine how she feels, especially since I don’t have kids.”

Brandon nodded. “It was excruciating to be there, to have to tell her there was nothing we could do. Of course, we took him on to the hospital anyway so a doctor could pronounce him, but he was gone.”

“So sad. So you have kids?”

“Yeah. Teenagers. Oldest is a boy, younger one, a girl.”

“What are they into?”

Brandon stopped. He didn’t quite know what to say. “Honestly, I’ve been so busy with my own life over the past few years that I don’t have any idea. William was on the chess team, and Elizabeth thinks she’s going to be the next big social media influencer. But my wife?ex-wife?did most of the management of their schedules, so I just worked to keep them in the lifestyle to which they’d grown accustomed.”

“And now?”

“Now shit’s hitting the fan because that’s simply impossible.”

“Will she give you trouble?”

Brandon shrugged and chuckled. “Does it matter? That won’t get another penny out of me, especially one I don’t even have.”Boy, I sound like a real winner, he told himself.

JoElla sat there for a full minute, staring into Brandon’s face, and he’d started to become very uncomfortable until she said, “You know what? You’re landing on your feet. Look at what you’ve done. You’ve found a job, you’re making a difference in your community, and you managed to land a date with the most fucked-up bitch in five counties. You’ve got it on the run, mister!” She was laughing as she said it, and it struck Brandon as funny too.

“You’re not the most fucked-up bitch in five counties. My ex-wife is!”

“No, that’s fucked over, not fucked up. You’re the most fucked-up bastard in five counties.”

“Yeah, that’s me. Fucked-up bastard,” Brandon replied. Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he sighed. “I’d like to think my luck is changing, but I think that would be too much for me to ask.”

The spring rolls and theirph? bacarrived at that second, and they dug in. JoElla picked up a spring roll and took a big bite. “Oh my god,” she said through a full mouth.

“Like it?”

“It’s… this is… oh my god, delicious. Amazing.” Brandon watched her. She was talking with her mouth full. Her table manners definitely weren’t her greatest quality, but he was more than happy to see how much she was enjoying the food. She stuffed the rest of the spring roll in her mouth and mumbled, “Why hadn’t somebody told me how delicious this was before now?”

“Because you didn’t know that somebody, but you do now,” he said and laughed.

She finished her two spring rolls and started on theph? bac. “Oh, god, this is soooo good. God, Brandon, you know the good places!”

“Hey, I’ve never been here before! I’m just glad you’re enjoying it.” He picked up his chopsticks and started on his own bowl, then realized that JoElla was sitting there staring at him again. “What?”

“You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Mean what?”

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