Claws For Concern

“Thank you.” The young man had his eyes on his clipboard. “He has his driver’s license and his Medicare card with him. According to the license he lives in Tullahoma. Is that correct?”

“As far as I know,” I said, “that is his permanent residence. He has been staying in an apartment in Athena, however, for the past few weeks.” I gave him the address, and he added it to the form.

“Are you his next of kin?”

I shrugged. “In a way, I suppose I am. I don’t know whether he has any other family. Whether he’s married, divorced, has children of his own, anything like that.”

“For our purposes, you’ll do, if you consent to that.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Do you have any other questions?”

“No, sir. Thank you for your help.”

I stood and nodded, smiling, then I walked back to the waiting room. The policeman was still with Laura and Frank.

Laura looked unhappy, and Frank looked aggravated. I gathered that perhaps telling the officer they thought the hit-and-run was deliberate hadn’t gone over well.

“What’s the matter?” I asked when I reached them.

“I don’t think he believes us,” Laura said, confirming my suspicion.

I stared hard at the policeman. “Officer, if my daughter tells you she saw that car swerve toward Mr. Delaney, then that car swerved toward Mr. Delaney.”

The policeman put up a hand as if to ward off a blow or to get me to be quiet. “Okay, whatever you say. Now, since you’re the only one here who seems to know the victim, what can you tell me about him? Other family? He seems to be from Tullahoma, according to his driver’s license.”

Once again I went through the bare list of facts I knew about Bill Delaney, omitting, of course, anything about his connection to the Barber case. If the police wanted to delve into his past, it wouldn’t take them long to find it out for themselves.

“So you don’t think he knows anyone here?” the policeman said. “Do you know where he’s staying here in town?”

“I can answer the latter question.” I gave him the address. “As to whether he knows anyone, I don’t know. I’ve only encountered him at the library.” While I was speaking, a memory surfaced. That lipstick Diesel found in the apartment. That must belong to someone Delaney knew.

“I went to see him earlier today, I believe you will remember my telling y’all that in his room a little while ago.”

The officer nodded, and I continued. “While we—my cat and I, that is—were there, my cat found a lipstick on the floor and was playing with it. So someone else had been in the apartment, presumably, besides us and Mr. Delaney.”

“You had your cat with you?” The policeman frowned. “Hey, wait a minute, I know who you are now. You’ve got that ginormous cat, and you take it around all over town with you.”

“Yes, I do. His name is Diesel, and he’s a Maine Coon.” I didn’t feel like giving the man the rest of the spiel about the breed that I usually shared. The size of my cat had nothing to do with the present situation. I was getting irked by this man and his attitude. I glanced at his badge and noted his name. Kernodle. I would remember it.

The policeman must have sensed my annoyance. He turned back to Laura and Frank. “We don’t have much to go on with the description you gave me of the car, but we’ll have to see if anyone else in the area saw what happened. If we’re lucky, maybe someone got the license number, or one of the businesses might have a surveillance camera. We’ll be in touch if we need to talk to you again.” He nodded before he turned and strode out of the waiting room.

“What now?” Frank looked at Laura. “I guess we’d better give up on the movie for today.”

“I’m not in the mood for it anymore,” Laura said. “Maybe next weekend?”

Frank looked at me. “That okay with you, Charlie?”

“Of course,” I said. “At the moment, I don’t have any plans for next Saturday. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Laura hugged me. “You’re the best.”

“Are you going to stick around here?” Frank asked as they prepared to leave.

“I was planning to, but I’m having second thoughts about that,” I said. “It could be a couple of hours or more before I can see Delaney and talk to him. I’m thinking of going home. They can call me if I’m needed. It’s not like I live an hour away.”

“No, there’s nothing in Athena that’s more than about thirty minutes from anything else.” Frank smiled. “One of the perks of living in a small town.”

“Yes,” I said. “After living in Houston all those years, it’s a pleasure not to have to spend an hour in the car to get to a place not that far away.” I did miss a few things about Houston, chiefly its variety of restaurants and bookstores, but not its size or its traffic. “Y’all go ahead. I’m going to stop by the desk and let them know I’m going home.”

Laura and Frank headed for the parking lot. I spoke briefly to the woman at the desk, and I finally noticed her name tag. Rosalie McAlister. I felt bad about not having remembered her name earlier. I thanked her, using her name, after I gave her my home phone number.