Daddy Dearest

*New* Chapter 31

Surely dinner must be ready soon. In the den, I can hear Noah debating with someone on the rules of Cluedo. I sigh. "Historical and literary fiction, mostly. I've released a couple of short story collections as well."

"Yeah, Nancy has mentioned you've been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize a couple of times. What name do you write under?"

Ken Harris sure is an inquisitive guy. Oh well, let's chalk it up to him making conversation and not anything sinister quite yet, Sherlock. "B.C. Davenport. My earlier stuff was under Ben Davenport."

"Sounds familiar." He scratches his chin. "Oh, hey. You write those Jack the Ripper-type books, right? My dad loves them. My mom calls them scary Sherlock Holmes books. Oh, just wait till I tell them I met the author. Myself, I prefer Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler. No offense."

"None taken." Scary Sherlock Holmes. Yep, they've been called that. "So, what do you do for a living, Ken? How did you and Nancy meet?"

"We met in class at the community college. Watercolor painting," he says with a fond smile. "She's really very good. Her flowers, especially. I'm rather right-brained, so I struggle with colors. I'm a computer programmer."

My eyes sharpen, and my antennae go up. This bloke shows up out of nowhere and has computer skills? Could he be Melody's stalker? I shake my head. I'm so desperate to solve this mystery that I'm getting paranoid. "Oh, where at?"

"Oh, I work for JPL. I create space simulations and projections based on theory," he replies gleefully. "It's almost like creating video games for astronauts."

"That sounds fun. My son Noah would love to talk to you. He's really into astronomy right now. Oh, he'd be delighted." Hah, I'll sic Noah on him. I excuse myself before Ken could say anything and go to the entrance of the den. "Noah, come out here."

My son, who's looking a little put-off where he was sitting between Melody and Chambers, gets up and approaches me. "What's up, Dad?"

"Hey, I got a chap I want to introduce you to. He works for JPL."

Noah's eyes got really round. "What? JPL, like in the movie 'The Martian'? The guys who helped the astronaut get home?"

He's just getting into Astronomy, so for the last week, he'd been watching movies about astronauts. "Just like," I tell him. "He makes video simulations for astronauts to show them what it would be like out there in space, stuff like that."

"What?" Noah's mind is blown.

I smile to myself and bring my son to Ken Harris. "Hey Ken, this is my youngest boy, Noah. I told him you work at JPL. He just saw the movie 'The Martian,' and he has questions."

Ken shakes Noah's hand. "Hey, Noah. Great to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too, sir." Noah pushes up her glasses along his nose. "I also read the book after I watched the movie. And I must say, sir, that I was really very disappointed with the disparity in the portrayal of minority characters versus Caucasian characters in the movies. In the book, there are a lot more people of color..."

I walk away, whistling under my breath, and go back to the den in the guise of checking on the kids. I do mean to check on the kids, but if I just happen to see how Melody is doing, then great. I wasn't going to go in there with the sole purpose of checking on Melody or anything. I'm not a creeper.

They had Clue set up on the table. Madi is too young to play, so she's in Charlie's team. She tells me he allowed her to pick the character, so she chose Miss Scarlett. Melody is Professor Plum, Alex is Reverend Green, and Lottie is Mrs. Peacock. Noah was Colonel Mustard, but I took him away because I'm a terrible father and needed to get out of a boring conversation.