"Keeping tabs on that woman is harder than walking an unleashed puppy," he muttered.
"Probably just out getting some fresh mountain air," Dean replied, but wondered if Ginger might be off discussing divorce strategy between Dickinson Faust's sheets at the Beaumont Hotel.
"She's not the outdoor type. I don't see my dear brother around either. He's just like our old man."
It was the first real words the two had exchanged since their meeting at the mine. Dean followed Joseph into the parlor. "It's tough losing a father. I'm sure you miss him," Dean said, fishing for a reaction. He caught one.
"My father? If I don't sound broken up over it, it's called honesty. Frankly, he bored me silly."
"Sorry."
"I didn't hate the old guy or anything like that," he slurred. "He was just-obscure. There, yet not there. Always around but invisible. It was like he had a check list of what parents were supposed to do, and he filled in all the little blocks-middle-class home, straight teeth, and a college education-figured that was the extent of his obligations to us. I think we bored him too. My mother certainly bored him, even though he stuck it out. Then she died and he decided to blow all his dough on little Jenny Radisson."
Bingo! Dean thought. Jenny-the-bitch-gold-digger-Radisson. He asked, just to toss a little more chum in the water, "What happened to your mother?"
"Cancer. She died thirteen years ago. Ma thought mammograms were for old ladies or women with big boobs. She only lasted eight months before the big C got her."
"You didn't like your stepmother?"
"Like her? Shit, I dated her! That's how they met! Jenny is younger than any of us!"
"Is she involved in the court action?" Dean asked.
"What do you know about that?" he asked in a sharp tone.
"Fred O'Connor-my stepfather-was called for jury duty. I thought I heard the name Dawkins mentioned in the litigation."
"Well, if he's on that jury, it won't take much time. We'll send the bitch packing. She doesn't have a prayer." Joseph changed the subject abruptly. "Sorry about getting hot up at the Lucky Pup. I was just pissed that some kids were messing around the mine- pulling that dumb stunt with the bones and all. If someone got hurt, it would be my ass."
Or whoever's ass ends up owning the mine, Dean thought, but he simply waved away the apology. Joseph was ready to end the conversation but Dean was hoping for more fish in his creel. "Our fault for trespassing," he said. "We had no business up at the mine. But the bones are rather interesting. They got my curiosity up. Martha, the little girl who originally told us about them, described them differently from what Fitzgerald found. It's as if they might have been switched-from a real skeleton."