On the other hand, Thaddeus seemed to be quite happy to steal a cucumber out of the salad. Doreen watched in horror as he literally put his beak into the middle of the big bowl and stole a piece, walking off to the side. She moved the bowl off to the side and said, “That’s enough of that out of you too.”
He ignored her, and Nan laughed. “He does that a lot, doesn’t he?”
“The trouble was, I didn’t give him a piece of something, and you gave Mugs something.” Doreen sighed. “So definitely he’s out to help himself.”
“At least it’s a cucumber, so it can’t hurt him,” Nan noted.
Doreen couldn’t argue against that because the cucumber really wouldn’t hurt the bird. She didn’t know about the Greek dressing though. When Thaddeus pecked away on his piece and seemed to be completely happy, she just smiled and turned her attention back to her meal.
When Nan asked, “Have you got a new case yet?” Doreen spluttered. Nan looked at her in astonishment. “Already?”
Doreen shrugged a little uncomfortably because she hadn’t figured out what to tell anybody yet. “Maybe, … it’s a really old cold case though.”
“Well, you have a lot of really old cold cases already in those files from Solomon.”
“I don’t know how many of those files are still unsolved though, remember? Just because Solomon was investigating doesn’t mean that they were criminal cases and doesn’t mean that he had enough for anybody to go on.”
“No, but, if you ever get around to those,” Nan replied, with a waggle of her eyebrows, “I’m sure there’ll be an awful lot to work on in there.”
“Probably,” she muttered. “It’s almost a lifetime of Solomon’s work. It’s hardly something I can just finish in the next few months.”
At that, Nan nodded. “Besides, you shouldn’t have to work quite so hard.”
“Maybe,” Doreen muttered. “There’s an awful lot still for me to do.”
“So tell me about this new case.”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “It was a drive-by shooting in Vernon about forty years ago.”
At that, Nan’s jaw dropped. “Goodness, that would have been unusual back then.”
“Exactly,” Doreen agreed. “So I’m not sure how much help I can be on it. There were no adult witnesses either.”
“Well then, you can’t do very much, can you?” Nan noted quietly. “I know you want to help everybody and to solve every case, but …”
“And that’s part of the problem,” she murmured. “In this case I really want to help the person, but it might not be that easy.”
“Sounds like it won’t be that easy at all. Who is it?” Nan asked.
Doreen looked up and frowned. “I don’t know if I need to keep it secret yet or not,” she explained. “I never thought to ask him.”
“So you don’t want to tell me until then?” A note of hurt was in Nan’s voice but also some understanding.
“Yes,” Doreen agreed. “He’s kind of a bigwig in town, and, although he’s had it looked into many times, nobody has been able to solve anything. So he knows it’s a long shot, but, if I can do anything, of course I want to.”
“Of course you do,” Nan agreed warmly. “I’ll wait another day or two, so you can ask him.”
She laughed. “Thanks for that.”
“Hey, I want to be told. You know what it’s like when somebody holds out on you,” she added. “Curiosity will get the best of all of us.”
“Maybe. Let’s hope not. I might need your help on an awful lot with it because it’s back in your day.”
At that, Nan stared. “Good Lord. You’re right. Forty years ago is a long time. And I was around here back then, but I’m not sure that I would have known much about something like that. And Vernon was still just far enough away that, although I went there, I didn’t go there, if you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean,” Doreen stated. “So maybe I’ll track down people from that era who would have gone to Vernon more often than you did?”
“Talk to truckers, delivery people, tradesmen, others like that,” Nan suggested, with a nod. “And, of course, you may have to go to Vernon and talk to some people there.”
“I would if I could identify anyone, and they would have to be old-timers too.”
“Now that is an idea.” Nan looked up at Doreen, with added interest. “We do sometimes have bowling contests with other old folks’ homes, and we have done some in Vernon too. I could probably track down a few names for you.”
Doreen looked at Nan in delight. “That would be lovely.”
Nan smiled. “It’s nice to know that you do appreciate that I have something to offer.”
“Oh, believe me. I’m well aware of how much you have to offer, and I won’t ever take that for granted.”
Nan chuckled. “No, that would be a mistake. Am I supposed to look for people who might have seen this drive-by shooting or what?”
“No, not necessarily. According to what I have in the case file, there was only one witness, but he was also just a kid himself. So he doesn’t remember very much either, and he didn’t notice very much.”
At that, Nan stared at Doreen and asked in a low, harsh whisper, “You’re talking about Captain Hanson, aren’t you?”
She stared at Nan. “What?”
“His friend was killed many years ago.” She stopped and frowned, thinking about it. “Yeah, like forty years ago.”
“But how do you know it was him?”
“Because, at one point”—she paused and stared off in the distance, over Doreen’s head—“I mean, I could be wrong about the time frame, but maybe ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago, the captain put out a plea for information on a cold case, and this was the one. And he mentioned that he had a personal connection to it, and he gave us a little bit of detail.”
“Now that’s interesting,” Doreen replied. “Well, in that case, I don’t need to try and keep it to myself then, do I?”
“It is him,” Nan crowed in delight. “I always thought, at the time, that it was so sad to have a man who had all the resources available to him as captain and still not getting to the bottom of something like this.”
“Unfortunately he didn’t have the resources until he became captain, and look at all the years that have passed in the interim? The trouble is, he was the only witness,” she told Nan. “And, as a child, you know that they are proverbially unreliable in terms of details. Plus, he was also in shock. His cousin had just died, and he was in the hospital for a bullet wound himself,” Doreen explained.
“Oh, right,” Nan murmured. “That’s terrible, isn’t it?”
“It certainly wasn’t much fun for anybody, I don’t think. In his case, it would be just that much harder because, of course, he felt guilty for not saving his cousin.”
“How was he expected to save his friend though?” Nan asked, with a headshake. “I mean, he was a child. Regardless, not a whole lot of logic is involved when it comes to emotional circumstances like that.”