“Yeah,” she said, “we lived on Sixteenth in the Arbutus area,” she said, “and there was a shop just around the corner from there. I know my husband used to go talk with him every once in a while.”
“And that’s probably when he asked to buy it one more time,” she said, with a smile.
“Maybe, but I can’t be sure.”
“I can. We’ll go check it out,” she muttered.
The older woman looked at her. “I won’t be very impressed if he’s the one who stole it. My husband was devastated.”
“I’m sure he was,” she said. “I’ll let you know.”
“Do that please,” she said. “Yes, please do that. Too bad we couldn’t have solved this before my husband’s death.”
“I agree,” she said. “It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
And, with that, the older woman gave her a confused look and then turned to Darryl. “I think I’d like to go in now.”
“Of course you can,” he said. He shifted her chair back, so she could get up easier, and looked at Kate and Rodney. “If that’ll be all?” he asked pointedly.
She nodded. “If need be, we’ll come back,” she said, “but hopefully we won’t have to bother her again.”
“Well, it was nice seeing you,” Jan said, with a smile and a wave. And then she allowed Darryl to give her a hand getting back inside again.
As the two detectives walked around the side of the building to return to the parking lot, Kate looked over at Rodney. “You were awfully quiet in there.”
“I have found,” he said, “that older people tend to do better speaking with one person and one person only. It stops them from getting too confused, when the questioning can get a little more difficult.”
“I don’t know that the questions were difficult,” she said, “but trying to loosen things up and to jog up the bits and pieces of the memories we need can be hard.”
“Exactly,” he said. “But she did pretty well. I was quite surprised. She seems to have all her faculties.”
Kate said, “And I’m sure there were a lot of neighbors who knew about the truck, so that might be something we should follow up on too. I didn’t see anything in the original theft report about that. Did anybody follow up with the neighbors when it was originally stolen?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but it’s worth a quick check again. It’s funny how time has a way of loosening tongues.”
She nodded because it was very true. Sometimes people couldn’t remember anything, and sometimes they felt safer after a long period of time had elapsed and could speak the truth. “Why don’t we do that now?” she asked. She checked her watch and just then a message came from Simon. She frowned at that. “Uh-oh. Simon is telling methirteenagain.” She shook her head. “He seems to be way off the mark. I can’t make any sense of whatthirteenhas to do with anything.”
“Or,” Rodney said, “maybe it’s not that he’s way off the mark. Maybe we’re just not in a position to get the information yet.”
She shrugged. “Either way it’s not helpful.”
“Aren’t you in a fine mood today.”
“I’m frustrated, fed up, and I want these cases to close.”
“Well, I get you there,” he said. “You haven’t been on the team long enough to understand how many cases we never get closed at all.”
“That’s very depressing,” she said. “How do you stay positive if you can’t close any of these? If you can’t capture any of the criminals who are making life miserable?”
“We get just enough to keep ourselves happy.”
“It sucks,” she said, not pulling any punches.
He laughed. “Absolutely it does. Obviously we do our best for each and every one, but you have to understand and accept that not every case is closable.”
“Every caseisclosable,” she said, with a snap to her tone. “It just might take a little more work.”
“Well, I’m glad to have you as part of the team,” he said comfortably. “If nothing else, you’ll keep us all pushing harder.”