“This is fine and I won’t take up too much of your time. I have reviewed some information that indicated you had your vehicle serviced at Garage on Division on Wednesday morning. Does that ring a bell with you?”

“Of course. I came in for an oil change. But then they convinced me that my transmission fluid also needed changing so I was there for longer than I expected, sitting in a dark waiting room reading six-month-old magazines,” she said.

“What time would that have been?”

“I got there after 8:00 and was gone by 9:30.”

“Did you see Troy Whitman, the owner?”

“Yeah, he came into the office area about 9:00. I think I surprised him. But we chatted for a few minutes. He’s a nice guy. That night when I heard the news about that little girl, it seemed so odd that I’d been talking to Troy just that morning. I need to talk to him again but there’s no way I’m doing it now. Not until this thing is over.”

He had so many questions he didn’t know which one to ask first. “Do you know if Troy was just arriving at work at 9:00?”

“I think so. I mean, I didn’t see him drive in. And when he saw me he made some comment about being out back. But they’ve got a little fridge under the counter and I think I saw him put his lunch away. That’s usually the first thing I do when I get to work.”

“Okay, thank you. Now you said that you need to talk to Troy again but it would have to wait. What’s that about?”

“Well... I’m not sure I should say. I should give Troy a chance to explain.”

“I respect that but it’s hard to know if it will help us in any way unless we know what it is.”

“I don’t think it will but since you’re the police, I guess it’s okay. After I left Garage on Division, I ran to get a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, the lid came off while I was driving and I ended up spilling most of it. The receipt I’d gotten was ruined. My car is a company car. Without a receipt, I wasn’t going to get reimbursed for the expense. I was going to go back right away but needed to get to work. I stopped in Thursday morning and asked Davy if he could help me. It took him a little while because for some odd reason, it wasn’t with the other receipts. Anyway, he finally found the right file in the drawer and made me a copy. It was only after I got back out to my car that I realized that something was very wrong. My bill was for $89. But the receipt I was looking at was for $389.”

“Davy gave you the wrong receipt?”