Ki never had any kids as far as anyone knows. She’s been married a couple of times but there was no “issue,” as a lawyer might say, and now it’s unlikely she will. Just as well because it would just complicate things in her line of work as a detective.

She came up at breakfast this morning. As likely as not, someone said, Ki will get herself tied up in a complex investigation she’s not getting paid for alongside of one she is getting paid for, and set herself up for inconvenience in the process.

It’s none of your business, someone will tell her. Or keep your nose out of this. But Ki is not deterred—in part because she doesn’t have any kids to further complicate things and in part because having been a cop for a few years she likes the idea of seeing justice done.

This latter thing is what drives some “truthers.” They get curious about some crime and want to see the criminals brought to justice whether the people in government supposedly in charge of justice, and getting paid for it, want to see them brought to justice or not.

Like many truthers Ki got started in her work before the Internet existed, using traditional gumshoe techniques. Nowadays, she often saves lots of time with a few well-chosen keystrokes in a search engine.

She usually works alone out there in California, whether getting paid for it or not, sometimes with a little help from cop friends. That’s where she differs from today’s unpaid truthers across the country, most of whom have never been in law enforcement and are so numerous they can get in each other’s way, sometimes deliberately so as to discredit the effort and derail them. What she sometimes has in common with them is a disdain for paid reporters who can discredit and derail what she’s trying to do.

So, Happy Mothers Day anyway, Ki.