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Show 53. Mrs. Anderson, looking flushed and nervous, seated Mr. Corrigan on the living room sofa and encouraged him to spread out his papers right there on the coffee table. She moved a plant and a stack of newspapers out of the way and pulled up a captain's chair that might have been more at home in the kitchen. "This interview doesn't exclude you, Mrs. Anderson," Hank offered, though he got his best results when a kid's parents were out of the way. "I haven't started dinner," she smiled. "I have plenty to do in the kitchen." He wondered what had happened to Stephanie until he heard water running upstairs. Of course she'd have to fix up, he reminded himself. His own Debbie, thirteen, could spend an hour getting ready just to say "hello" to the boy who delivered groceries. He hoped Stephanie wasn't planning to take a bath first! Then, as he heard her step on the stairs, Mrs. Anderson came back with his coffee and an ash tray- "Will you be comfortable now?" "Fine, fine. You're very nice to serve me coffee after barging in on you like this." "Well, I'm glad to. Make yourself at home. Stephanie," she turned to her daughter, "this is Mr. Corrigan. He's here all the way from Denver to see you and JD." It wasn't quite the truth, but that had been the easiest thing to tell her. "Is JD coming home from work?" Stephanie asked. Hopefully, Hank thought. "No," Mr. Corrigan explained, opening his brief case, "I'll stop over there to have dinner and see him afterwards." "Oh," it sounded flat. "We'd really rather interview you separately," he offered her a fatherly smile. "To see if we're . . ." he thought she was going to say "lying," but she stopped before the word came out. "Separate viewpoints are important. We get more information this way. And, of course, we don't expect descriptions to be identical. You know the old story about the four blind men and the elephant . . ." |