“I hear you, and I’m sorry that the effort didn’t go through.”
“Politicians,” he snapped yet again. “Nothing you can do with them. If you don’t grease their palms, they don’t give a crap.”
“Do you really think it was a financial decision?”
“I don’t think they could be bothered to look at it properly, and it just drove me batty.”
After getting information about where he worked, she asked him gently, “I understand that your daughter died in that accident?”
“Yes, she was two years old,” he said.
“I’m sorry, the death of a child is always terrible.”
“My wife has never been the same either,” he added, his voice hitching. “I thought, after a year, she would be much better, but I’m not sure one ever recovers from the loss of a child.”
“No. I think most do, to a certain extent, though are never the same anymore,” she murmured.
“In this case, I’m not sure recovery is even possible. Look. I’m late.”
“That’s fine. One last thing. You haven’t had any contact with anybody else involved in these accidents, have you?”
He hesitated. “I don’t know what you mean,” he asked cautiously.
“I just wondered, if, through all this, a support group was formed or anything.”
“Huh, no, but it’s not a bad idea. At least other people in that situation would understand. I know my wife belongs to a couple online groups, but I generally avoid them myself. I’m not into sharing what’s going on in my life with strangers.”
“No, I can see that.”
“It’s hard,” he said briskly. “Everybody expects you to react in a certain way, and, when you don’t, it’s like you’re being judged.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, “that’s certainly not how I want you to feel right now.”
“Good. In that case, just leave us alone.” And, with that, he hung up.
She wrote down his name and brought up the case to get a little more familiar with it. His daughter, who they had called Jillie, short for Jillian, had perished at the scene. His wife had been badly injured but had recovered. And like he said, recovery was relative in the case of something like that. Did anybody ever really recover? As somebody who had lost someone close and blamed herself, recovery wasn’t necessarily impossible, but it was never the word that she would use. She had moved forward in life, but it’s not like she ever had a chance to close the door on the loss of her brother.
There was no closure without a body; there was no closure without a case being solved. There was no closure without answers. And this man actually had answers, but what he didn’t have was closure because his wife wasn’t able to deal with it. So, although they had buried their daughter, a horrible event in their life, he had moved on as much as he could, and she hadn’t. And that was a judgment in itself because, of course, she had moved on, but what had she moved on to? Kate frowned at that and brought up the woman’s name. There was no contact information for her.
She wondered about contacting the husband again, and, realizing that she would have to, she quickly texted him.I’ll need to speak to your wife briefly. Could I have her contact information?
His response came immediately.Hell no. She’s already racked over this. No more.
Kate frowned and rapped on the desk in front of her.
As Rodney came in, he stared at her. “What’s that look on your face for?”
“I’m trying to figure out how to speak with this man’s wife, but he won’t give me her cell phone number.”
“It’s not in the files?”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t.”
“Did you check if it was registered?”
She nodded. “There’s no cell phone plan that I have any way of uncovering for her.”
“Hmm, any family, any friends?”