“Our witness says you sat there until she came to the door. Our witness says Ms. Kaufmann looked upset at seeing you and slammed the door. Our witness says when that happened, you peeled out of there like your tail end was on fire.”
Cochran glared at them for several long moments, his knuckles white where he gripped the arms of the chair. Finally he seemed to get control of his anger, although it was still visible in his eyes and tense posture.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Vicki and I had a fight a couple of weeks earlier. That’s why we hadn’t gone out. I stopped at her house that day to try and talk to her, but I never got up the nerve to go to the door.”
Jen doubted lack of nerve had anything to do with Cochran not going to the door. He’d probably been waiting for the mailman to get farther up the street before he made his move.
“When I saw how she acted when she saw me, I got mad and left.”
“What did you fight about?” Jen said.
“She blew me off. I’d been taking her out, spending money on her, and she suddenly decides I’m not the kind of guy she wants to see.”
“Now why would she decide something like that?” Jen didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in her voice, and Cochran’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her. He’d picked up on her tone, just as she’d intended him to.
“She was a tease.” He stared hard at her. “I bet you know the type. The kind that leads a guy on till he starts wanting something in return for his investment, then tells him to take a hike.”
How, Jen wondered, staring in amazement at the man, could someone so physically attractive be such a slime? And was misogyny the worst of his character flaws, or did he possess more dangerous traits?
“You don’t like it when a woman resists your charms, is that it?” Jen leaned forward, her eyes boring into Cochran’s. “Does that make you angry, Mr. Cochran?”
“What do you think?”
Cochran returned her stare. He seemed to have forgotten that Al and Will were in the room. His voice had dropped to almost a whisper. In that whisper, Jen thought she heard the hint of a threat.
“Where were you Monday night?”
He continued glaring at her for several moments, then relaxed and leaned back in his chair, a smirk on his face.
“In bed,” he said in a mocking tone. “Regrettably, alone.”
“So no one can confirm you were there, can they?”
“And no one can confirm I wasn’t.”
He stared at her for another few seconds before turning to Al, dismissing Jen as of no importance.
“If that’s all the questions you people have,” he said, “I’d like to get back to work.”
“That’s all for now.” Al stood. “We might call you again if we think of something else.”
“Sure.” Cochran stood and held his hand out, first to Al and then to Will. He continued to ignore Jen. “I’ll be glad to help, although I don’t know how I can.”
“Sometimes a person helps without even realizing it,” Al said. “If you think of anything that might interest us, give me a call.”
He handed his card to Cochran, who looked at it, glanced at Jen, and then looked away. He nodded and left the room.
“Got your dander up a little, did he, Dillon?” Al was smiling.
“I think Jen got his dander up even more,” Will said. “You brought out the real Steve Cochran, I think.”
“Did I? I’m not so sure.” Jen shook her head. “I don’t think he was telling the truth about not knowing Carla Edwards.”
“He did look a little shaky when you showed him the picture,” Al said. “I think we need to dig a little deeper on him.”
“What do you know about him?” Will said. “Is he from the area?”
“I don’t think so,” Jen said. “I remember hearing scuttlebutt around the building that the newest sanitarian, which would be him, had come from out of state.”
“What are you suggesting?” Al said. “Do you think he could be Arthur Kelty?”
“I don’t know,” Will said. “He doesn’t look familiar to me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It’s been a long time, after all. Artie was just a kid, and I didn’t spend a lot of time with him back then either. Saw him when we arrested his dad and that was it. But what I’m thinking is that Artie would have to support himself somehow. For all we know, once he disappeared, he could have taken on a whole new identity and a whole new life.”
“Even to the point of going to college under someone else’s name?” Jen said.
“Why not? It’s not that difficult to create a new identity in this country. There’s always been plenty of fake ID for sale in every big city, and now with computers, hackers can get in and enter records and a history and the person can get ‘real’ ID. Once a person’s got that, the rest would be easy. For that matter, Artie wouldn’t even have to go to college. Those records could be created, too. All he’d have to do is read books to learn enough to fake it.
“And there’s a more sinister way,” Will continued. “Find someone no one would miss—a homeless man of the right age, for example—and steal his identity. After getting rid of him. Then move somewhere else and become respectable.”
“Whoa!” Al said. “I hadn’t thought of that. If it were done young enough—like late teens or early twenties—no one would be likely to notice gaps in employment or education.”
“You got it,” Will said. “Think of all the runaways in the country, especially in the big cities. If the families hired someone to look for them, they might find the impostor, but in too many of these cases, the families give up. Or they can’t afford to hire someone or don’t care enough to look in the first place.”
“So if Kelty could be posing as a solid
