Silent Witness

Silent Witness

“So, Mr. LePage. You were on the street when the crime occurred. What happened.”

“Call me Wilf. I didn’t see a thing. May I go now!”

“But you were within feet of it, how could you have not seen anything?”

“I wasn’t paying attention; I was waiting for the bus.”

“There was so much noise and confusion, and you didn’t see any of it?”

“Noise and confusion are part of living in a city; I tend to ignore it.”

“If you didn’t see anything. I guess you can go then.” Officer Fife said skeptically.

Wilf donned dark glasses and with a flick of a wrist unfolded a white cane.

“Hold it. My mistake. Of course you wouldn’t have seen anything. Did you hear anything?”

“There were two voices, both male, one younger than the other. The older voice kept yelling for the guy at the newsstand to empty his money into a bag and hand it over. The young guy didn’t talk as much. He kept turning paper pages that sounded like comic books.

“How long were they here?”

“Fifteen or twenty minutes. Then they heard sirens, and they ran. I heard running feet. One sounded like sneakers and the other like work boots."

“Thank you, Wilf.”

“Is old man Rico, okay? He’s pretty old and it sounded like that older guy roughed him up.”

“An officer is with him taking his statement. He's pretty tough. He got in a couple of licks in before they ran.”

“I believe it! Rico told me he used to be junior golden gloves!”

“How long have you known him?”

“Most of my life. I own half of his stand because he wants to leave it to someone. I kept him going by investing and I’ll take it over when he retires.”