The Reason They Never Caught DB Cooper was Because They did.

I couldn't say I didn't enjoy working with my own grandfather. It had been educational. It had brought to light a man, rather than a grandfather. A man whom I knew so little about, except filtered through the familial contacts. And one never shows one's full self to family: they would be puzzled, horrified.

I, his grandson, was delighted, annoyed and perplexed. We were both detectives, but the cloth we were cut from was rather different. At least when we were the same age.

The 30 year old grandfather I worked with now was a rough cuss, mean and bitter and a hard drinker. Something out of a noir film, rather than a cop. If noir detective films were set in 1971.  Odd and familiar, some of his mannerisms he showed me when I was a kid were here in their raw undistilled form, sharp, acrid and burning. 

Just like his damned cigarettes. I suppressed a remembered choking cough.

I was going to have a have a hard time explaining the black eye for the suspect. However, this was such an unusual case in so many ways, that might be overlooked. Body cams were scorched in getting here. All electronics did.

Thank gawd.

Cuffed and ready, I pulled the suspect up. This was going to be a headache when we got home for other reasons. At least it'd explain why they never caught DB Cooper: I caught him and brought him in. When he was supposed to. Too bad about his family ties to that retired news guy. That was going to make this a sensation. If they let it out into the public. They might have to. Or they might have to do...something else.

Who knows. Not my job. I just bag 'em and bring 'em in. No matter the time.

I hefted "DB" towards the wormhole to take us back to the future and I hesitated. I looked back at my grandfather, the hard smoking, hard drinking, rougher than hell man.

And I realized.

My grandfather knew this was coming when he'd told me his stories of 'catching the bad guys' when I was a kid. He was excited and wanted to see the man I'd become, the man he'd meet to bag the perp here. he knew me then better than I did. Or I would be.

Damn it, time travel. You're a mind frak.

He noticed my revelation and winked.

"Here's lookin' at you, grandkid."

And he strolled away as I turned and pushed Mr. Cooper through the portal to justice.