When Grant arrived at the taxi stand later that night, he saw Penner was already there talking to the drivers. He rushed over to her. ‘Sorry I’m late, ma-am.’
‘No problem, Constable. I just got here myself. So far, no one really has any info for us, doesn’t seem like anyone saw Mrs. Wong that night, or at least they don’t recognize her,’ Penner said. She had a picture of Mrs. Wong that she had printed off from her driver’s license. ‘Let’s go talk to those two cabbies parked over there.’ Penner gestured down the street.
Penner and Grant walked down the block to where two other taxis were parked. The drivers were leaning against the hood of one of the cabs, smoking cigarettes and chatting, enjoying the cool night air.
‘Where to?’ one of the drivers asked, dropping his cigarette to the ground and putting it out with his shoe as he saw Penner and Grant approaching.
‘Actually we just have a couple of questions for you. Either of you recognize this woman at all?’ Penner held up the picture of Mrs. Wong. ‘She may have been here the other night looking for a ride?’
‘Yeah, I think she was here,’ one of the cabbies said. He grabbed the picture to get a better look. Grant pulled out his notebook.
‘When was that?’ asked Penner.
‘Two, maybe three nights ago, I think. Around 11:30 or so,’ the cabbie said. ‘It was shortly after I showed up for the night, so not too late.’
‘Maybe three nights ago, you said?’ Penner asked, the excitement leaving her voice. ‘Not the night we were hoping for,’ she said to Grant.
‘Yeah, pretty sure. Definitely not last night, maybe the one before. Each day kinda runs into the next, ya know?’ the cabbie said. ‘I think she was with someone else. Yeah, a young girl. That’s right. I thought it was awful late for her to be out, should have been a school night.’
‘Where did you take them, do you remember?’ Grant asked.
‘Now that, I don’t remember,’ the cabbie said. ‘I think it was to their house, but not too sure.’
Grant flipped through his notebook and read out Mr. and Mrs. Wong’s address. ‘There?’
‘Could be, could be. Sounds familiar but we do a lot of runs, ya know?’ The cabbie lit another cigarette. ‘See lots of people every night, can’t remember them all.’
‘Anything else you can think of? Anything at all?’ Penner asked, grasping at straws as her lead disappeared.
‘The young girl had a knapsack. Smelled a bit, too. I think the lady in the photo said they were just at some school sports event or something. Boxing?’
‘Sounds like Mae’ said Grant. ‘Wrestling, maybe?’
‘Yeah, think so,’ the cabbie said, nodding. ‘I thought it was weird a pretty young girl would be into a tough sport like that. She got mad when I said that to her. She said girls can do whatever they want. Real mad.’
‘Right, thanks for this, you’ve been very helpful,’ Penner said, giving the cabbie her card. ‘If you think of anything else, give me a call.’
‘Will do. Sure you don’t need a lift anywhere?’ he asked hopefully.
‘No, we’re good. Cheers,’ Penner said, as she and Grant walked off. ‘Right, there are a couple more drivers starting to show up. Let’s go see what they have to say.’ As they started walking further down the block, Penner’s phone rang. ‘Excuse me,’ she said to Grant.
‘No worries. Give me the photo of Mrs. Wong and I’ll go talk to those two guys over there,’ Grant said taking the picture and walking away.
‘Sounds good,’ Penner said to him as she answered the phone. ‘Penner.’ It was dispatch on the other end. ‘Really? Where? Any witnesses? Right, I’ll head right over.’ She hung up the phone and walked quickly over to where Grant had just started talking to two new cabbies. ‘We’ve gotta go.’
‘What? Where?’ Grant asked. ‘We just got here.’ Penner had already started walking back to her car, so Grant gave the two cabbies his card. ‘I’ll be back to ask you some more questions. Either soon or tomorrow, I’m not really sure. Detective Penner?’ He ran to catch up with her. ‘What’s going on?’
‘We’ve got another murder. And since Millar isn’t here, it looks like you’re my partner on this one,’ Penner said. ‘Stay close, don’t touch and pay attention to everything. Let’s go.’
‘Yes, ma-am!’ In Penner’s opinion, Grant sounded far too excited for what would probably be a very long night.