"Alex Conklin. I didn't know they let elementary schoolers be detectives, unless the police force there's far more understaffed than I remember."

If Conan seems older than his years, Conklin seems younger than his own. A renewed sense of purpose will do that to you - but there's also the evidence of hard living about him, independent of his injury. Several years (almost a decade in the past) of alcohol abuse will do that to you, too.