badly hurt. For all we know, maybe he is.'
'Do you want me to stay around for the interview?' Ron asked. 'I will if you'd like me to.'
Bonnie took a deep breath. 'No, that's all right. You're already late for your first meeting, and I'm not nearly as upset as I was when it first happened. You go on.'
'But you'll call if you need me?'
'Yes,' she agreed. 'I will.'
'And don't forget to show them the wrench.'
'No. I won't.'
Ron turned back to Sue and me. 'I do have to go,' he said. 'But I really appreciate your coming over right away like this. I didn't know Seattle's police department was this responsive.'
Neither did I. Ron Elgin left his wife standing in the middle of the room, hurried to the double entryway doors, picked up a waiting briefcase, and disappeared outside.
'So you were the driver in this morning's hit-and-run?' Sue asked.
I was surprised by the kindness in her voice. Sue was right. I had been distracted during the drive from Fishermen's Terminal, and I hadn't paid that much attention. But hit-and-run drivers aren't usually accorded all that much courtesy, not even when they finally come to their senses and report what happened.
Bonnie Elgin nodded somberly. She settled into a huge but elegantly upholstered easy chair, balancing her coffee mug on one knee.
'I was afraid I'd killed him,' she said with a slight shudder. 'I'll never forget the thump when I hit him. It was awful.'
'Suppose you tell us about it,' Sue suggested. 'From the beginning.'
'It was early,' Bonnie said. 'I left the house right at six-thirty. I was supposed to be in Kirkland at seven to meet with the contractor and the landscape architect. November's the best time to plant trees, you see, and seven was the only time we could all three get together. So I was heading over to the freeway. At that hour of the day, Emerson to Nickerson to Westlake is the quickest way to get there.
'I turned left onto Gilman and started toward Emerson. It was foggy. I don't think I was going very fast, but all of a sudden this guy ran out in front of me. I mean right in front. He didn't even look. I slammed on the brakes and swung the car to the left as hard as I could. But I hit him anyway, and he went flying into the air. The next thing I knew, the car was skidding, and I slammed into a signpost.'
She stopped and shuddered.
'What happened then?' Sue asked.
'Naturally, I was scared to death. I thought sure I'd run over the guy and killed him, but actually I must have booted him out of the way. He landed up in a rockery along the street, in some kind of bushes. I got out of the car and went looking for him. When I finally found him, he was lying facedown and not moving. I was afraid he was either dead or else badly hurt.
'I ran back to my car and called nine-one-one on my cellular phone. I told them I'd hit someone and that maybe he was dead. And then, while I was still talking on the telephone, he got up all of a sudden and started to limp away. I put down the phone and went after him. He was bleeding. There was a cut on his face and another on his leg. His pant leg was torn to shreds. ‘You're hurt,' I said to him. ‘I've called the police and an ambulance. They'll be here in a minute.'
'He said, ‘No! No ambulance! No police! I'm okay, I'm okay. Leave me alone.' And he kept right on walking. I couldn't stop him. He crossed the street, climbed down over the edge of the embankment, and disappeared in that greenbelt that runs along the railroad track.'
'Then what happened?'
'I don't remember exactly. By then another car had stopped. The driver got out. He came over to where I was and asked me if I was all right. It didn't take all that long for a patrol car to show up-only a minute or two. And the aid car came right after that, but by then the guy was long gone. The cop who was taking the report acted like it was all a big joke.'
'A joke?' I asked.
Bonnie Elgin nodded. 'They all seemed to get a big kick out of it. One of them said it was the damnedest hit- and-run he had ever seen. I hit the guy, and then he ran. I told them I didn't think it was funny. After that, they more or less straightened up and tended to business.
'Since the fellow I hit was long gone, the medics insisted on checking me out, making sure I was okay. I told them they didn't need to bother. I was fine, except now I think maybe I bruised my knee when I banged it against the dashboard. Anyway, pretty soon the aid car left. The cops were about to start measuring the skid marks, but they never got around to it.'
'Why not?'
'Because all of a sudden all hell broke loose. There were sirens and ambulances and fire trucks coming from every direction. None of them came past where we were on Gilman, because they all turned off on Emerson to get over to the terminal. A minute or so later, somebody radioed the guys who were there with me. They told me they had been called to the fire along with everybody else. They gave me a case number and told me someone would finish taking the report later, and then they left. I have the case number right here, in case you want it.'
She reached into a pocket, pulled out a slip of paper, and handed it to me. I jotted down the case number. 'What did you do then?'
'I called Ron,' Bonnie answered. 'Luckily, he was still home. He asked me if the car was drivable, and I told him I didn't know. So he came down to see. And it was. We got it home all right. I've called the dealer. He's sending out a driver to pick it up sometime this morning. He's bringing me a loaner.'
'Your husband said something about a wrench.'
'That's right. It's still in my purse. I'll go get it.'
'Tell us about it first.'
'When Ron got there, he turned the key in the ignition, and the car started right up. But then he noticed that the hood ornament was missing. You know about Mercedes hood ornaments, don't you? It's better now, but there was a real epidemic of hood-ornament theft a couple of years ago. We lost seven by the time it was all said and done. It's a small thing, really, but it drives Ron bonkers.
'As soon as he saw it was gone, he turned off the motor and said we weren't leaving until we found the damn thing. And we did, surprisingly enough. It's in my purse, too. That reminds me. I've got to remember to give it to the loaner-car driver so the body shop can put it back on the hood when they fix the car. Hang on. I'll go get them both while I'm thinking about it.' Bonnie Elgin put her coffee mug down on a cut-crystal coaster and dashed off upstairs. She returned a few minutes later.
'It's bent,' she said matter-of-factly, looking down at the shiny round chrome object in her hand. 'I didn't notice that before. We'll probably have to get a new one anyway.'
'Could I see the wrench?' I asked.
She handed me a small box-end wrench-about a 5/16, although oddly enough, there were no markings on it to indicate what size it was or who had made it, either. And for some strange reason somebody had painted it with a solid layer of enamel.
Sue and I weren't playing with a full deck of information, but since we had been sent because Bonnie Elgin's hit-and-run supposedly had something to do with the homicide on the Isolde, it was best to treat the wrench as though it were an important piece of evidence. Better safe than sorry. Using a cloth handkerchief and a glassine bag, I stashed the wrench in my inside jacket pocket. Meanwhile, Bonnie Elgin continued talking.
'I found the wrench first, before Ron caught sight of the hood ornament lying over against the curb. He said the wrench probably belonged to the guy I hit-that the impact most likely knocked it out of his pocket. He said that if we ever found out who that was, maybe we could give it back to him. Ron's a big believer in complete sets of tools.'
'Me, too,' I said.
'So do you need to look at the car?' she asked. 'Or did the two cops get enough information on that earlier? I'm really not sure whether or not the man I hit was in the crosswalk. There is one around there, but I don't remember exactly where I was in relation to it when all this happened. Are you going to give me a ticket?'
'Mrs. Elgin,' Sue Danielson explained. 'We're not really here to investigate the automobile accident. That's up to Patrol. We're here because of a fatal fire at Fishermen's Terminal early this morning. It was discovered a few
