“Oh, we did.”
He figured as much.
Honestly, he’d think the same thing.
“Well, it wasn’t us. I was with my partner most of the night, as we were trying to help with this case. We were at the office and after this morning, we were out trying to help.”
Well, that explained why he looked tired.
“And where is your partner now?” Gene asked.
He was honest.
“We clocked out when we realized you wereNOTgoing to let us help. It seemed best to crash and regroup. Like I said, we wanted to help.”
Well, yeah.
“Honestly, why should we let you in?” Gene asked. “You’ve only had these cases a day before us, and you didn’t really give us anything new. If you want to help, bring us something…I don’t know, helpful.”
Dannie rolled his eyes.
There was a lot of that going on here at the table.
Clearly.
“Well, you’re not the friendly one. Does that make him the nice one?” he asked, pointing at Ethan. “Is this good cop bad cop?”
Blackhawk laughed.
“Yeah, it’s always good cop and bad cop, but I’m the dick. He’s the nice one. He just doesn’t like you or your partner. We get mean when we walk out of a school and have six reporters up our asses.”
Well, who wouldn’t?
It was clear they didn’t plan on backing down.
“After we saw you at the office, when you were leaving the captain’s office, we ran out to talk to Phylis’ neighbors to see if they saw anything, or if she came back.”
They listened.
“We wanted to do our part to show you we did try to work this case. None of them saw anything weird in the days leading up to the abduction. The one neighbor is seventy and nosey as fuck. She doesn’t miss a thing. She saw the husband leave, and Phylis get a ride to someplace.”
They said nothing.
“She never came home, and then the melee started when her husband did.”
Neither man moved.
“We also confirmed the alibi again for the husband. I know we told you we talked to the boss, but we just left the place and spoke to his co-workers. He didn’t sneak out. They have footage of him pulling in, parking, and leaving when he said he did. He works too far away from the factory to walk and not be seen or missed.”
Well, that cut that work off the list for them. Only, sometimes, it was too little too late.
“Thanks,” Gene said, and then nothing more was said.
The temp there was chilly.
So, the detective took the hint.
Getting up, Dannie pushed his chair back in.
