My Dad, the Private Eye: The Falling Star

CHAPTER 15

Dad dropped off the lock of Patty's hair at a private lab for testing. We both crossed our fingers, hopeful for positive results of drugs in her system. And now that Dad had evidence that Blight was probably paying the funeral guy off to destroy Patty's body before someone ordered an autopsy, we nearly had Blight down cold!

But, for now, all we could do was wait for the lab results. So Dad came by my house to pick me up because I got to stay with him every other weekend (according to the judge). And that meant he and my mom would get to argue about money again, their second favorite subject (after me).

My Mom's name is Lainie. At the time, she was using Larkin-Winnette as her last name, Larkin being her maiden name. She intended to just use Larkin after a few months, I guess after people hopefully had learned her maiden name by then. I didn't like any of this because I still hoped my parents would get back together. After all, my friend Valerie's parents got a divorce, then both married other people, then they eventually divorced them and got remarried to each other again! I guess I still hold out hope that'll eventually happen to my parents, but who knows.

Anyway, Dad was pretty proud of himself for snatching both the security video from the studio and the lock of Patty's hair from the funeral place. So he was in a really good mood when he arrived to pick me up, and Mom and I were just pulling into our driveway in Mom's new Nissan after school.

"Hi, honey," he said to me while getting out of his car.

"I'll get my stuff," I said and ran into the house to grab my weekend bag. (Also, I didn't want to stick around to hear the money talk.)

"Nice car," Dad said to Mom, both impressed and a bit embarrassed for still driving his twelve-year-old Hyundai.

"It's a lease," Mom said as she headed for the front door. She was dressed a lot better than Dad too, but that was because of her job and the fact that she was studying to get a commercial real estate license. But the combination of a nicer car and nicer clothes made Dad feel a little intimidated by her.

Dad followed her up the walk. "I wanted to tell you about my new job."

"So you're going to be able to catch up on child support?" she said, stepping onto the porch. "I didn't know movie extras made that much money." Mom had never really thought much about money when she and Dad were married. Dad made enough as a mailman, and Mom's job as a school secretary helped them pay for unexpected things like a new fridge when the old one broke down. But when Dad lost his job and couldn't find another one, Mom just got really scared. And so her life became all about making money. She knew the secretary job wasn't going to cut it for long, especially with me going to college soon. So she looked around for the job that would be easiest and quickest to train for and paid the most, and she chose commercial real estate. That meant she would be selling industrial buildings and stuff. Sounded boring to me. Being a private investigator seemed a lot more exciting.

"I'm just doing the 'extra' thing on the side," Dad explained. "My real job is I'm a private detective."

Mom stopped at the door. "Krista wasn't kidding about that?"

"Lainie, you should've seen me yesterday at the funeral home!" Dad said, reliving the moment.

"The what?" Mom asked.

"It's like I was born to do this!" Dad gushed. He had always loved sharing good news with my mom when they were married, and I guess he was still looking for that charge he got when she would get excited for him. But that was then, and this was now, and Mom wasn't biting.

"How much does it pay?" Mom asked.

Dad tried to think of an artful answer. "Uh... this first case is kind of a freebie."