“I’ll get her phone records,” Rena said, pulling out her own phone. “Now to Milo’s Motors?”
“Yeah, but I don’t necessarily want Elaine to know that we’re talking to her boss. So I’m going to call Leah Whitman because one, I want to check in with her and two, it might give me a chance to see if her mom is with her. If she is, this is a good day to drive to Milo’s Motors.”
A.L. dialed and the call was answered on the second ring.
“Hello,” Leah said, almost sounding breathless. He had the call on Speaker and Rena gave him a look that needed no explanation. She thinks you’re calling with news.
A.L. nodded. “It’s Detective McKittridge. Just checking in to see how you’re doing,” he added quickly.
“I’m okay,” she said. “I didn’t get much sleep.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Is there any news, Detective?” she asked, her tone sharp. She wasn’t interested in his platitudes. She wanted her daughter back.
“No, I’m sorry. But know that we will not rest until we find Emma.”
“Troy went back to search this morning.”
That meant she still had a house of people. Blithe from their department. A couple FBI geeks helping to watch the phone. “Is your mom able to be with you?” A.L. asked.
“Yes. She called in to work. I didn’t ask her to. But they understand...that she wants to be here.” She paused, sounding discouraged.
“This is really hard, Leah. We know that. But hang in there. Either my partner, Rena, or I will check in with you later today.”
“Fine. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Goodbye, Leah.”
A.L. put his phone down. “Christ, that sucked.” He sounded weary.
“Yeah,” Rena said. “I really want to be able to call her with good news.” She looked at her watch. “We need to be back for the ten o’clock meeting in Faster’s office.”
It was a good news, bad news kind of thing. Good news in that resources were plentiful. It was raining cops. Federal, state and county. Bad news was that resources were plentiful. Keeping everybody on the same page was a substantial undertaking with a case like this and they needed to be careful not to trip over each other.
A.L. likely didn’t think Faster would be up to the task. She was willing to reserve judgment.
A.L. keyed an address into his GPS. “Nine minutes to Milo’s Motors. Let’s see what he has to say.”
Twelve minutes later, they were inside Milo’s office, sitting in the two guest chairs, while Milo sat behind his paper-laden desk. There was a computer on the desk but Rena didn’t think it was turned on.
“Good to see you, A.L.,” Milo said. “I haven’t seen your dad or your uncle for a while. Bowling doesn’t start for another couple weeks. How are they?”
“Good,” A.L. said.
Rena wondered if he actually knew. He didn’t talk about his family much. Just his sister, Liz, who lived in Madison.
“I was wondering if you could answer a few questions about Elaine Broadstreet,” A.L. said.
“Of course. Hell of a situation with her grandchild. I got four of my own and I think I might lose my mind if something like this happened.”
“We understand that Elaine has worked for you for a number of years.”
“That’s correct.”
“And how would you characterize her work?”
Milo looked surprised. “She catches mistakes that the sales guys make all the time. Catches some of mine, too.” He stopped. “Of course, she isn’t perfect. Lately there’s been some things that might have been a problem for us.”
“Like?”
“Errors in spreadsheets. Documents that promised terms that we quite frankly never promise. That sort of thing. It’s okay. We’ll get past it but I did tell her she needed to be careful. I don’t like to say too much. She’s a real nice lady and everybody makes mistakes.”
“You said ‘lately,’” A.L. pushed. “Does that mean that her work has slipped noticeably in the past few weeks, months?”
“A month or so. But not everything. There’s just been a couple things that, quite frankly, surprised the hell out of me. It’s things she’s done for years without any problem and suddenly we’ve got a hell of a screw-up going on.”
“Any change in her personality?” Rena asked.
Milo shrugged. “She’s a good person. Like most good people, she gets frustrated when there are mistakes. Claims that she doesn’t know how they happened, that she knows how to do the work.”
“Is she dependable?” A.L. asked.
Milo shrugged. “Sure. I mean, she’s here every day. Not really a morning person but she stays late and that helps us because we don’t have much traffic on our lots until midafternoon usually.”
Rena shifted in her seat. “What time does her workday start?”
“I think she’s here most days by 9:30 or 10:00. I’m not a clock watcher. I wouldn’t want to work for one and I figure most other folks feel the same way. We don’t have a time clock or anything like that. People get paid for forty hours. I’m confident that they’re going to put the time in.”
“Of course,” Rena said. “But do you happen to recall what time she arrived for work yesterday?”
“I don’t but I suspect Portia knows. She works the service desk and everybody has to walk past her. Want me to call her and ask?”
“That would be helpful,” A.L. said.
Milo picked up his phone and they listened in to his side of the conversation. When he hung up, he said, “Portia said it was about 10:00.”
“Are you and Elaine friends outside of work?” Rena asked.
Milo looked at A.L. “I think Susie might have something to say about that.” He turned toward Rena. “My wife of forty-three years.”
“I suspect she would,” A.L. said. “But any feel for how Elaine spends her time outside of work?”
“Well, I don’t think she bowls. She’s always teasing me about that. I guess she spends a lot of time with her family. And a couple times a year, she takes a week off and goes to Vegas.”
“She likes to gamble?” A.L. asked, his voice the same tone as if he was asking if she liked chocolate chip cookies.
“Blackjack is her game. From what I’ve heard, she’s pretty good.”