Page 9 of X-Ray in the Xanth (Lovely Lethal Gardens Rewind #3)
“It’s interesting because, while the old man wasn’t friendly to begin with,” she noted, “toward the end we were talking about the cost of a burial. He made a comment about me being a wealthy woman now and how I should be helping with burials, if people can’t afford them.”
Mack frowned at that, then looked back at the old couple, who were now just a shadow in the distance. “Interesting,” he replied thoughtfully.
“That’s what I thought,” she murmured. “I’m not sure if he even knows who I am, or just thinks he does.”
“As we all know,” Mack began, turning to her, “everybody will have an opinion about what you may or may not have and about what you’ll do with it.
They will look at it through their own filters, prejudices, and life experiences, and somehow feel as if they are entitled to judge or to comment on what they think they know about your situation. ”
She nodded. “And I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t do that. It was just interesting to see his take on it.”
“Good enough,” Mack said, with another glance at the old couple. “I’m ready to leave here and to head back to the office. Are you good to go?”
She nodded. “Good to go.”
As they all got back into Mack’s truck, she couldn’t stop herself from looking around to see where the old couple may have disappeared to.
“You want to drive around and see where they went?” he asked.
She looked at him and muttered, “If I was alone, I would.”
He changed directions and said, “Keep talking.”
“Something was off about him.”
“Doesn’t make him a killer,” Mack stated.
“No, it doesn’t. However, it does make him somebody full of prejudice and anger about something, and he didn’t have anything good to say. So,…”
“Still doesn’t make him a killer,” he pointed out.
“No, of course not,” she murmured. “Just odd.” As he went to open his mouth, she added, “I know. I know. Still doesn’t make him a killer . Right age group though,” she noted, with a smile. “You’ve got to admit that’s an interesting point.”
He smiled at her and stated, “The largest age demographic in Kelowna right now is those over sixty-five years old. Something like 31,000 or so.”
When she heard that, she laughed. “I didn’t think there were that many.”
“These towns are aging quickly. An awful lot of long-term families are here, plus multigenerational families, who will have a lot more seniors than in other areas. Plus, we have all the retirement homes here, too, that pull in that age group.”
“Which is another interesting concept,” she replied, “but I’m not at all sure that it’ll help us.”
“No, if anything,” he clarified, “it’ll hinder us because there’ll be so many, and we’ll have a hard time even interviewing some of them, asking to see if anybody they knew went missing decades ago. Plus, you know that witnesses are not infallible, and then we have the age factor to consider.”
As he drove around the block, Doreen watched up and down the streets to see where the old couple had gone. They had driven around several blocks, when she finally pointed. “There.”
And there they were, the older couple, still moving at a steady pace toward their destination. When they turned into a small yard and walked up to the front door, Mack drove past, and Doreen took note of the address.
“You got a reason for that?” he asked, studying her curiously.
She shrugged. “Outside of the fact that something felt very wrong, no. But… something did feel wrong, so yes.”
He smiled but didn’t say anything.
“What’s this?” she asked in a teasing tone. “You’re interested in my crazy methods?”
“If you have a method,” he said, “it would be interesting to know what it is. The trouble is, you don’t have a method, as far as I can tell.”
“No, maybe not,” she acknowledged. “A lot of it is instinct.”
“I get that,” he said.
“And I know. I know,” she replied, holding up her hand. “As far as you’re concerned, it’s all a load of malarkey.”
He laughed. “No, that’s not what I was going to say. What I would say is that it works for you. I just don’t know that it would work for other people.”
“That’s because it’s my system—if it is a system,” she pointed out.
“I mean, for you to go by instinct, I think you would have to fight with yourself the entire time. Whereas for me, it feels very natural.” He didn’t say anything, just nodded.
“Besides, as you said yourself, I still have to have proof.”
“Agreed,” he said, with a wry smile. “But you do seem to get enough information that we end up getting the cases closed, regardless of how it makes anyone feel.”
She smiled at him. “Hang on a second. Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Nope,” he admitted, with a burst of laughter. “I was just curious. So, now you’ve got an address where they live.”
“I do,” she confirmed.
“Does it mean anything?”
“Maybe not.”
But, as they drove past once more, Doreen looked over to see the old lady on the front steps, staring at them. Doreen smiled and waved. The old lady, a look of shock on her face, hurried inside and shut the door.
Doreen grimaced. “If they have done anything wrong, they’re worried about it now.”
“But that could just mean they didn’t put the right thing in the recycling bin,” he pointed out. “Some people get completely paranoid over nothing.”
“Sure, and some people,” she added, “get completely paranoid over things that they have done in the past that they’re constantly waiting to get caught on.”
“You think that’s what this is?”
“Do I think that? No, I’m not sure what this is,” she admitted. “All I can tell you is that it’s something, but it may very well have nothing to do with our case.”
“And, on that note,” Mack said, “I’ll take you home and head back to the office.”