Read Online Homeplace by Joann Ross - Free Book Online Page B

attention, I could probably find a judge to hear the case in say, three days?”
    Three days. It wasn’t that long, Raine assured herself as she took the clipboard Marianne Kelly was now holding out to her. It was more than enough time to get Lilith out of jail, Ida out of the hospital, the two sisters off to their aunt’s custody, and determine whether the pregnant shoplifter posed a risk to her grandmother.
    Ignoring Jack O’Halloran’s challenging grin, Raine signed her name at the bottom of all three guardianship forms.

4
    “W ell, that makes it official. They’re all yours.” From Marianne Kelly’s grim expression, Raine did not find the words at all encouraging.
    That matter settled to her satisfaction, Old Fussbudget marched back to a tan sedan. Both Jack and Raine watched her go.
    “That was a nice thing to do,” he said finally.
    Somehow, the compliment, laced with obvious surprise, irritated her more than his earlier sarcasm. “It wasn’t as if I had any choice.” Her words were clipped, designed to forestall any further conversation on the subject. “Now, where did you say I could find my mother?”
    “I didn’t.” Just when she was certain she was going to grind her molars to dust, he added, “But she’s at the ranger station on Hurricane Ridge.”
    “I didn’t realize they had jail cells in federal parks.”
    He shrugged again, drawing her gaze to his shoulders, which were wide enough to gain him a position on the Giants’ offensive line back in New York. Not that she could ever picture Jack O’Halloran living in New York City. He was absolutely country, from the tip of that black Stetson down to the pointy toes of his—what else?—cowboy boots.
    The fact that she was even the slightest bit intrigued by the steely, Clint Eastwood glint that occasionally appeared in his narrowed gray eyes only proved how exhausted she was.
    “Unfortunately, bad guys show up from time to time even in federal parks,” he said. “Although mostly it’s just drunk and disorderly, that sort of thing.”
    “And breaking fire regulations.”
    A wry twitch that hinted at a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth, momentarily drawing her attention to a faint scar bisecting his top lip. “That, too. Coop said something about teaching her a lesson.”
    “If he can pull that off, he’s a miracle worker.” Along with flaunting rules and regulations, Lilith had a knack for ignoring the little morality lessons most people learned from life. “But there’s no way I’m going to allow him to keep her locked up in a cell all night.”
    “It’s not like she’s doing hard time.”
    “I realize that,” Raine said stiffly.
    It was the principle of the thing. After all, she used her education every day to defend individuals far less deserving than Lilith. If she couldn’t help her own mother, she might as well have stayed in Coldwater Cove, married some logger or cowboy cop like Jack O’Halloran right out of high school, and had a passel of kids. She wondered about her chances of getting a writ of habeas corpus to get her mother out tonight.
    “But surely disobeying fire regulations is a misdemeanor. Besides”—she glared up at the rain which continued to pelt down on the hood of the borrowed poncho—“we’re obviously not in fire season yet.”
    “True. And if it were just the fires, Coop might have been willing to give her a pass.” He rubbed a square, clefted jaw that suggested a stubborn streak. “Not that I’d claim to know his mind, but as a fellow cop, I’d have to guess that it was the lewd and lascivious behavior, along with indecent exposure and assault and battery, that landed your mother in the pokey.”
    “Lewd and lascivious behavior? Indecent exposure?”
    Forget habeas corpus . Raine was forced to consider her chances of insisting on a competency hearing for her mother. If past behavior were taken into account, she doubted it would be all that hard to win a finding of non compos