Jan looked up, smiled at him, and said, “Darryl, it’s so good to see you. How’s the wife doing, dear?”
They had a quick chat that said a lot about how informal and friendly everybody was with each other here. He turned and looked to Kate, who held up her badge, as he said, “These two people are here to ask you a few questions.”
Jan turned and looked at the two of them in surprise. “Oh, well, I don’t know what possible questions you think you could ask me,” she said. “I really don’t know anything. What’s this all about?”
Kate stepped forward, took one of the other chairs, and pulled it around so she was closer but not intimidatingly so. “We wanted to ask you about your truck that was stolen a while back.”
She groaned. “Oh, that old thing,” she said. “I can’t imagine that it’s of any value anymore, and it’s been gone for years.” She frowned for a moment and said, “I think it’s been maybe four or five years. I’m not so good with time anymore, you know?” she said, leaning forward almost conspiratorially.
“You’re doing just fine,” Kate said, with a chuckle. “And, yes, it was about that time frame. The truck has turned up again, and we’re just wondering if you had any idea who might have stolen it.”
“I can’t imagine why the police would care after all this time,” she said almost crossly.
“Well, it’s important,” Kate explained. “So it was worth the trip to come and see this lovely place and to see if you had any information you could share with us.”
“Oh my,” she said.
It was almost as if the woman could imagine what budget money was being wasted on this. Kate didn’t want to be the one to tell her that the truck had been used in several drive-by shootings. But, as she studied the woman, Kate asked, “Did your husband do a lot of work on it?”
“He was always out there with that thing.”
“Did the neighbors come and see it? Did anybody seem particularly interested in it?”
The old woman looked at her in surprise. “You’re not thinking one of our friends stole it, are you?”
“I just wondered how anybody would even have known it was there, since it was always in the garage.”
At that, the older woman frowned. “I know he wasn’t sure when it had gone missing because he hadn’t been out there for a while. He was pretty upset about the whole thing though.”
“I can imagine,” she said gently. “Guys and their cars, right?”
“Sometimes I thought it was more important to him than I was,” she said, with a laugh. “He spent an awful lot of time with that thing.”
“I think a lot of guys feel that way about vehicles,” Kate said, smiling.
The other woman nodded. “Isn’t that the truth. And, yes, he worked on it all the time with a bunch of friends. Some came and went. A couple people seemed interested in it, and they would come over sometimes.”
“Did anybody ever take it for a drive?”
She shook her head. “No. He would never let anybody drive it. One guy wanted to buy it off him, and he wasn’t having anything to do with it.”
“And I don’t suppose you have any idea who that was,” she said in a dry tone.
Jan shook her head. “No, I can’t imagine. He was a fairly young guy, and he came back several times, but George always said no. He said that the guy wasn’t old enough to appreciate such a beauty. Because, of course, when it was the best thing in your life—or certainly a favorite hobby—you wanted to be sure they go to someone sure to look after it.”
“And you don’t remember who he was, right? How about where he lived or what he did for a job?”
“Oh, he was a mechanic,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I didn’t understand why my husband wouldn’t sell it. We could have used the money too,” she said in exasperation. “But he was always very single-minded when it came to keeping that vehicle.”
“I’m sure he was. Do you know where this guy worked?”
“Well, I just said he was a mechanic,” she said.
“No, no, I realize that,” Kate said. “I just wondered if you knew what shop he might have worked at.”
Jan frowned as she thought, and her foot tapped the concrete patio. Kate wasn’t sure if it was impatience or if it was trying to get her brain to kick in and to give her the answers she was looking for. “You know what? I think it was the one just around the corner.”
“Just around the corner?”