Skeleton Canyon Quotes

“Outside the building rain poured down in the kind of downpour Jim Bob Brady would have called “raining pitchforks and hammer handles.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“Slowly, Ignacio Ybarra rose to his feet. He stepped toward Joanna’s desk, holding out his hand. “Thanks,” he said quietly, as they shook hands. “Thank you for believing me. I think what Mr. Kimball said about you was right.” “Why?” Joanna asked. “What did he say?” “He said that he’d met a lot of sheriffs in his time but that you were the only one who knew how to listen with your heart as well as your ears.” “Thank you,” Joanna said. May it always be so.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“I’ll tell you what I expect. If we keep splurging on overtime at the same rate we have been lately, my computer model says payroll will hit empty two weeks prior to the end of the fiscal year. What’s going to happen then?” “Nothing much,” Dick Voland said easily. “We’ll have ourselves an old-fashioned SDC with the board of supervisors.” “An SDC?” Frank Montoya asked with a frown. “What’s that?” “A stare-down contest,” Voland replied with a sardonic grin. “First guy to blink loses.” Montoya, chief deputy for administration, was not amused. “That’s no way to run a department,” he said.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“Joanna, however, was acquainted with the kinds of insidious, ego-damaging warfare traditionally practiced on young women by other young women. Joanna Lathrop Brady had been there and done that.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“Are you a bigot, Mr. O’Brien?” Joanna asked. The room grew still. Raising his bushy eyebrows, Ernie Carpenter shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. The silence lasted so long that Joanna wondered if perhaps she had gone too far, but David O’Brien didn’t appear to be especially offended by the question. In fact, he seemed to like the idea that Joanna was standing up to him and pushing back. “Are you aware that I’m from here originally?” he asked at last, favoring Joanna with an unexpected but grim smile. She nodded. “Not just from Bisbee,” he continued. “But from right here on the outskirts of Naco. My father, Tom O’Brien, died of a ruptured appendix when I was two. Growing up in a border town makes it tough for kids. On both sides. I didn’t transfer to St. Dominick’s in Old Bisbee until I was in the third grade. Before that I was one of the only Anglo kids in Naco Elementary. The Mexican kids down here used to beat me up every day, Sheriff Brady. Not only that, it was a Mexican driving the truck that killed my first family, smashed my legs to smithereens, and sentenced me to a wheelchair for the rest of my natural life. So believe me, if I’ve got my prejudices, maybe I’m entitled. That’s what I told Brianna, and that’s what I’m telling you.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“She was in the car and about to put her key in the ignition when the thought came to her. I wonder if David and Katherine O’Brien had a chance to tell Brianna good-bye. Sheriff Joanna Brady was known for her common sense. She had the reputation of having both feet firmly on the ground. Had someone asked her straight out right then whether or not she believed in ESP, she would have told them definitely not. And yet, in that moment, a glimmer of absolute knowledge came to her from somewhere else—from something or someone outside herself. From that moment on, despite all rational arguments to the contrary, Joanna lived with a terrible premonition, one that shook her to the very depths of her soul. Roxanne Brianna O’Brien was dead. She wouldn’t be coming home again. Not then. Not ever.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“What if I went on out to the mountains tonight and waited for you to catch up with me tomorrow morning?” Bree asked. Nacio swung around and stared at her in disbelief. “All by yourself? Wouldn’t you be scared?” Bree shrugged. “Not that scared. I’d be in the truck. That would be safe enough.” She looked at him and smiled. “Besides, if it means getting to see you later instead of not seeing you at all, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon

“who lived along the U.S. side of the border.”
― J.A. Jance, Skeleton Canyon