Desert Wives (9781615952267) Read Online Free PDF Page A

anywhere, but I’m betting she won’t. She has this ridiculous belief in Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”
    â€œWhat’s so ridiculous about that?”
    I snorted. Recently, a Maricopa County judge had forcibly returned a fourteen-year-old AIDS patient from Arizona, where she lived with a beloved aunt, to Minnesota to live in an adult AIDS shelter. Why? Because her father, who stayed in a Minnesotan rehab center after his release from a stretch in prison for child neglect, wanted closer access to his daughter. Following a long tradition in the addled Arizona court system, the judge decided that parental rights superseded the rights of the child, regardless of how sleazy the parent. Truth? Justice? The American Way? Not for Arizona’s children.
    But I simply said to Jimmy, “If those Utah cops catch up with Esther, she’ll be extradited to Utah before you can say Brigham Young.”
    Jimmy turned back to his computer without saying a word.
    Two hours later, my prediction came true. As I was closing up the office, the phone rang. It was Esther Corbett, calling me from the Scottsdale City Jail, where she was being held pending extradition to Utah.
    For the murder of Solomon Royal.

Chapter 3
    Under the glare of the cell’s harsh light, Esther Corbett looked ten years older. No trace of the glow that had been painted across her face when I had returned her daughter to her a week earlier remained. Unhealthy shadows crept into the hollows under her cheekbones and eyes.
    â€œLena, you have to do something,” she rasped at me, her voice raw, probably from crying. “Rebecca’s father is driving down from Utah to take her back to Purity.” She clutched at my hand as if we were mountain climbers and her safety line had broken. I’d have bruises tomorrow.
    â€œAt least Rebecca’s safe for now,” I said, tapping my notebook, where I’d written down the address and phone number where the girl was now staying. “Your ex-husband doesn’t have custody, so we’ve got some time to maneuver.”
    Esther had told me that when she had seen the police car pull up in front of her rented house, she’d sent Rebecca out the back door with her roommate. The roommate had taken the girl to a friend’s house, but warned that the arrangement could only be temporary. Another place had to be found for Rebecca or she’d wind up with Child Protective Services.
    Esther shook her head. “The legal system in Beehive County is a mess, Lena. Abel filed a motion there last week, and since I didn’t respond to the summons the court served on me, the judge actually awarded him custody by default!”
    I hid my alarm. The whole thing flew in the face of the Uniform Child Custody Agreement recognized by every state, but weirder things have happened. Rebecca was in trouble, all right.
    â€œLena, I don’t have money for bail or to drag this extradition thing out like you told me to over the phone. They’ll probably send me back to Utah right away where you know I’ll never get a fair trial. The polygamists
own
the courts there. And Rebecca, now that Solomon’s dead, she’s already half-forgotten how bad it was at the compound. She keeps talking about how many friends she made in just the short time she was there. I’m afraid…”
    She chewed her lip so hard that a bright spot of blood appeared. “Lena, I’m afraid they’re going to get to her.”
    â€œGet to her? What do you mean?”
    Esther’s eyes, which despite her distress had been dry, now teared up. “The men in Purity, even the women, they have their ways. They talk to you, they tell you things, they confuse you. They did it to me when I was growing up. They convinced me that marrying the man they ordained was God’s will and that if I resisted, I’d go to Hell. I saw grown women so afraid of that threat that they married men they