“Why are we stopping over here?” Sam asked.
“Are you upset because they don’t sell any food?” Dinah replied.
“It’s not about the food. There’s a taco stand around the corner. It’s just that…it’s a laundry. What do we want with this? Also, you’re parked next to a hydrant.”
Dinah hit the hazard light button. “There. We’re only here for a few minutes I’d guess. I don’t expect we’ll get anywhere with the staff.”
“Then why are we wasting our time?”
Dinah hopped out of the squad car and beckoned to her partner. When Sam’s head poked up, she informed him, “If you’d taken the time to read more than our missing man’s rap sheet, you might have noticed that he works at this laundry, a short walk from the Court. Someone here might have an idea where to look for him.”
“Yet you assume they won’t tell us anything.”
“I’ve had my experience with this place before. They still have to answer for the damage they did to my quilt.”
Inside the steamy laundry, a few customers loitered around the coin-operated machines. Behind the service counter, a woman with tattoos along her neck and arms browsed a catalog of even more tattoos.
“Wassup?” the woman asked, her attention still focused on the tattoo listings.
“We need to ask some questions,” Dinah told her.
The woman spared her a glance and said, “We told you, Officer Saris. The quilt was old. It was bound to fall apart.”
“It’s not that. We want some information about a guy named Rodney Pinkham. We understand he works here.”
“Didn’t show for work so Mr. Wycliff fired him.”
“Yes, I know he’s been absent. I wanted to find out if you could tell us anything useful about him. Did he owe anybody money? Did he have some business on the side? Is there an old girlfriend with a grudge? Could he have hopped the border?”
The clerk laughed and tossed the catalog aside. “You sure want a lot. It’s ‘yes’ to everything, though I don’t know how that helps. I’m sure it’s no big surprise to you that Pinkham was a bad seed.”
“Duh. I obviously wanted something more specific.”
“I obviously don’t care to tell you any of that stuff. You’ll have to come back with a summons, lady.”
“I just might.”
“By then, maybe you’ll find his body. Once you cross Mr. Wycliff, there’s no mercy.”
Dinah fixed the clerk with a hard glare and put her hands on her hips. “If you have information about a crime, you better share it right now.”
“Yeah? Here it is. Some bonehead parked in the fire zone out front and they’re backing up with a tow truck right now.”
“Told ya,” Sam said.
