Page 24 of Conflicted
Ruby watched Jewel close the salon as her cell phone rang. It was a quarter past four on a Saturday afternoon and ten days after they visited with Mr. Duncan. Hand in her tote bag, she stepped out of hearing reach and answered just before the voicemail took over. “Hey, Will.”
“Hi, Ruby, do you suppose your mother could come to the station?”
Ruby stole a glance over her shoulder to where Jewel was pocketing her keys. Since Jewel hadn’t found a car yet and Ruby didn’t have any late clients, she would be driving her mother to the bank. “Actually, I’m with her right now. I can ask her. Why, do you have him?”
“We haven’t caught anyone yet, but we might have a lead.” Ominous creaking at the other side of the line indicated Will was leaning back in his chair. “We found a couple of similarities with other cases, and I would like to go over the event with your mother one more time.”
Ruby toyed with her lip piercing. On the one hand, a chance to find the mugger and bring him to justice would help Jewel recuperate from the fallout. On the other hand, it could also stir up her memories from the event and throw her mother backwards in her recovery.
“Are you still there?” Will’s words sounded far away, and Ruby brought the phone back to her ear. She hadn’t even been aware she had lowered it.
“Sorry, I was thinking.” Ruby scuffed the toe of her boot through some weeds growing between the paving stones. “Is this lead solid? Because if there’s only a slight chance you’ll catch the guy, I’d rather not have her reliving the moment.”
Jewel joined Ruby and raised a questioning eyebrow. Ruby gave her mother a bright, exaggerated smile and held out her keys. “Why don’t you put the money bag in the car? I need to finish this phone call.” Jewel accepted the keys with a puzzled expression but wordlessly followed Ruby’s suggestion. Ruby turned her attention back to Will. “Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
“Sometimes I wonder who the parent is with you two. You sure act like a mother hen.” Will exhaled heavily. “We have a pattern of about a dozen muggings over the past eight months. We also have a partial description from the last victim and a pretty good one from an eyewitness.”
Ruby let out a resigned sigh. “All right, I’ll ask her.” Without breaking the connection on her phone, she quickly informed Jewel about Will’s request.
Jewel’s sigh was identical to Ruby’s, but she agreed to go.
“We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” she told Will. “We have to drop off the bank deposit first. I don’t want to do that in the dark.”
“Sure. See you in fifteen.”
They made it to the bank without problems and arrived at the police station with three minutes to spare. “Are you sure you want to do this, Mom? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I know that, Ruby. But I should try to help the police. It’s my responsibility as a citizen.”
Will was leaning on the counter at the entrance when they came in. “Right on time. Thank you for coming in again, Ms. McCormick. I know this isn’t easy. Good to see you, Ruby.”
“I wish it were under better circumstances.” Ruby gripped Jewel’s cold and trembling hand.
“Can I get either of you something to drink? The coffee’s terrible, but there’s water and pop in the machine.”
“No, thank you,” Ruby and Jewel said simultaneously.
Will half-chuckled. “I can’t believe how alike you are.”
Ruby shrugged and Jewel seemed too nervous to reply.
“Okay. Let’s go where we won’t be interrupted.” He led them to the back to an awful gray room. “I know it’s an interrogation room, and it’s supposed to be intimidating, but please relax. This is just to talk over what happened again.”
He got them seated as comfortably as possible. “Now, Ms. McCormick.”
“Please call me, Jewel, Detective. Ms. McCormick is so formal.”
“Fine. But only if you call me Will.”
“Deal. Now how do you want to do this?”
“I want you to start by relaxing as much as possible. Close your eyes if you like. You can also hold Ruby’s hand if that helps.”
Jewel leaned back in the chair and followed his instructions, and Ruby watched her with hawk’s eyes.
“Now, you’re in a safe place. Keep that in mind. Nothing bad can happen to you here.” Will’s voice was low and soothing. “This is called a cognitive interview, and it’s a little different than what you’ve done before. I want you to think back to the day the robbery happened. Just try to remember the normal parts of the day first. What clients did you see? What did you do to their hair?”
“There were quite a few. I started off the day with Betsy Swanson, who had her quarterly perm and cut. Then there was Dorothy Evans.” Jewel’s expression almost turned dreamy.
