The next morning, after a quick shower, Jodie put her notebook in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She poured herself a complimentary cup of coffee into a takeout cup and walked outside to see an OPP police cruiser idling by the entrance to the hotel.

Jodie opened the passenger door and smiled, “You even wear the hat inside the cruiser? You trying to cover a bald spot or something?”

He tilted the brim back and said, “I like the hat. I feel more official-like with it on.”

She hopped into the seat and closed the door. She said, “I would think the uniform, the gun at your hip and driving a fully marked police vehicle would accomplish that. Without the hat.”

“Yeah. Well. I like it. And no, I’m not going bald.”

“What’s your name? Since we’re going to be spending so much time together, maybe I should know that.”

“Kelly Wayne.”

“You’re Officer Wayne?”

He squinted at her and said, “Yeah. Why? Has someone been talking about me? I’m too vain to care, but I don’t mind hearing more about myself.”

Jodie laughed and said, “No. I was reviewing the file last night and came upon your notes. I tend to agree with you. The dump site has the feel of someone with local knowledge.”

“I’m trying to get better. I’ve applied to the detective office about four times now and keep getting turned down. It could be because I hit on the Inspector’s wife at a Christmas party but to be fair, I didn’t know she was married at the time.”

“What guy?”

“The guy who makes bad decisions in an ‘aw shucks’ kind of way? I mean, you were at a work Christmas party. Who did you think she was if you didn’t work with her? Someone’s sister?”

“Well, when you put it that way.”

“Yeah.”

“Look, that’s a fair point. But I’m not that guy. My wife just left me, I had a few drinks…let’s just say I wasn’t at my best.”

“Ok. So I’ll be blunt. No hitting on me or people we talk to. Let’s be professional.”

“You got it. I can do that. Be professional.”

“Good.” Jodie sipped her coffee and looked ahead.

“Out of curiosity, are you married?”

“None of your business.” She smiled when she said it and continued to look forward.

“No ring. But yeah. Got it. Be professional. So boss, where are we off to first?”

“Breakfast. You need to fill me in on all the families involved here and I’m hungry. Know of a good spot?”

“You ever hear of a cop not knowing where to eat? Of course I do.”

“I’m Jodie, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Over breakfast, Jodie got the run down. It’s all well and good to review police reports and records about people but it was always better to talk to someone that knows them or knows of them. As well as being a flirt and making good observations at crime scenes, Kelly liked to chat with people. As such, he picked up plenty of gossip but didn’t spread it. Because he didn’t tell the stories he heard, people tended to trust him and more often than not, would regale him with the town’s juicer rumours.

In the case of Barbara and Henry, Bruce’s parents, there wasn’t much to tell. Barbara was an accountant and had her real estate license. Kelly said, “She does my taxes and she helped me sell my old place and get a new one. Nice lady.” Henry worked at an IT firm in Sudbury and they had another child, Lucy who was going into grade six. Bruce was a hell of a hockey player. Tough, not a puck hog and possessed great positional awareness. Kelly likened him to a young Bobby Orr. Bruce had the exceptional ability of passing the puck to where the player would be and not where they were. Because of that, he was being sought by OHL teams and university scouts from the United States. Kelly thought with the skills he had, he could have gotten a free ride to a Division One school down there.

Kelly stopped talking and looked out the window. He said, “I stopped him once. He zipped through a red light so I yanked him over. A polite kid, you know? I can’t believe what someone did to him. It isn’t right.”

“No. No, it isn’t.”

Neil and Jamie were high school sweethearts that, from what Kelly had heard, weren’t exactly sweet on each other anymore. Neil had a mean streak in him and it was suspected he had more than once used his fists to settle a dispute between him and Jamie. It was also heard that Jamie gave it back to him as good as she got it. A few years ago, Neil, who worked for the City snow plowing in the winter and groundskeeping in the summer, showed up to work on a hot summer day limping and wearing a sweater. Anyone who knew Neil would swear they never saw him wearing anything but a T-shirt, jeans and work boots once the snow started to melt and up until the temperature dipped to five degrees below zero. On this particular day, not only was he wearing heavy jeans, he also had a scratch mark above his right eye and a shiner to go with it. He told people he fell down some stairs. And maybe he did. But the same people saw Jamie with bruised knuckles peeking out of a wrist wrap. Add that to the fact that the neighbours had heard them yelling the night before, well, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to put it together.

Jodie said, “Why are they still together? Do you know?”

“Beats me. Maybe it’d be too expensive for both of them to split up. You get used to living a certain way…I don’t know, really. Could be there is comfort in living with someone you dislike. You’re never disappointed by them are you?”

“That’s a sad way to live.”

“People do it all the time. I’m pretty sure my ex-wife hated me for a full two years before she had had enough. Of course, it could also have taken the viper that long to find someone else before leaving me.”

Jodie smiled, “You call her the viper? She that bad?”

Kelly shook his head, “Not really. We were young and I think both of us expected something different from the marriage. She’s not really a viper. She’s a good person but not a good person for me, I guess. Although leaving me for my first cousin? I still think that was in bad taste.”

Jodie laughed, then pulled it back not wanting to offend Kelly but he waved it off, “It’s okay. It is a little funny. It’d be funnier if it happened to someone else, but I can see the humour in it now. Needless to say, family gatherings are awkward.”

Jodie choked on her orange juice. When she cleaned herself off, Kelly said, “Who do you want to visit first?”

“I’m thinking we’ll talk to Barbara and Henry. Get more background on the relationship between Bruce and Lynda. See if they know anyone from out of town who knew them, try to get an ID on the Jane Doe. After that, we’ll talk to Neil and Jamie. But first, we have to let the file coordinator know, what was his name again?”

“Joel.”

“Right. We’ll let him know what we are up to and he can create action tasks for it in the case file. Major Case protocol.”

“Gotcha.”

“Can you do that? You know him right?”

“Yeah. I’ll call him before we go.”