THE POLICE ARTIST was a young woman in jeans and a denim jacket. With Aileen’s help she worked quickly and well, at first with a kit and then refining the details. Before very long the drawings of the two men lay on the kitchen table and they all stood looking down at them.
“What do you think, Mrs. McInnis?” said Inspector Sorensen.
“They’re very good. That smiling one especially. It’s like I can remember him more than the other. But the other one is good too. He had reddish hair. The noses and eyes are good. The chins. They’re good pictures.”
“All right. Thank you. Danny, have you ever seen these two?”
“I can’t say I have.”
“Take a good long look.”
“I don’t think so. Honestly.”
“You don’t think so,” said Sorensen. “Have you or haven’t you seen them? I need a firm yes or no. They came to this house asking for you by name.”
Danny leaned over the table. It was very quiet in the kitchen. He studied the pictures for a while longer. He looked pale and nervous to Aileen. Not himself.
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“Why do you keep asking the boy that same question?” said Aileen. “Over and over. When he’s told you five times already that no, he hasn’t seen them.”
Sorensen ignored her. “Are you, Danny? Sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. I’ve never seen them before.”
“Are you in contact with John Patrick Croft? Do you have any dealings with him?”
“Hardly any.”
“Hardly any. Meaning some?”
“Well, I did want to help him out. We’re friends, and I got a boat and paying work, and he doesn’t right now.” “So are you in fact helping him out?”
“Well, yes. Maybe I am.”
“Maybe you are. Helping him out how?”
“Inspector, you’re putt’n too much pressure on the boy!” said Aileen, angrily now. “Danny, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I think I’ll call Margaret again, and you don’t say anything until she’s here.”
“Mom! For heaven’s sake. You aren’t doing me any favours here. I can do this on my own. And yes, I did let John Patrick use the boat to do a few island properties for me while I did some on land in the truck. And I gave him half my fee. It saves me time, with the storms coming any day now.”
There was a silence, and then the inspector said, “Very interesting, that. We’ll need a list of the properties John Patrick did for you. And I’ll ask you for the last time now, do you have any idea what those men might have wanted from the two of you? What they might have been looking for. Here, in your mother’s house.”
“None. No idea. I’m telling you.”
“Have you ever been approached by someone to do a quick run in the dark for them? A little pick-up? What’s the fee for that now, around three thousand?”
“No. Never. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sorensen studied him, taking his time.
“Of course you know what I’m talking about, Danny. Has John Patrick Croft been approached, you think? We’ll be asking him. What do you think he’ll say?”
“About what?”
Sorensen was still watching him. No emotion to the man, she thought. Just this cold thinking, analysing his hunches. Keeping mental notes.
Eventually he said, “All right. I’ll let it go for now, Danny. But we’re nowhere near done with this.”
When Sorensen and the artist had left, but their presence like some afterimage was still in the room, Aileen said, “That man is hard as nails, and he suspects something and he won’t let go. Danny, this is very serious now. What’s he saying, stuff that he thinks you know something about? And approached about what?”
Danny shook his head. He said nothing, just sat at the table looking down at his hands, and she saw him, his tousled hair, a grown man’s face and shoulders now but her little boy still there, like now, around his eyes, squinting at some thoughts he didn’t like, didn’t want to let in.
“We need to be smart here, Danny. And just so you know it, I will be calling Margaret again. And this time we better show some gratitude. You hear me? We have no idea what’s going on here and we need help. You need help. Okay?”
And after a while he looked up at her and nodded okay.