The Cool Dad (A Calvin Recker Mystery Novel)- Chapter 4

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Hello again.

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Here's Chapter 4.

4

Juliet comes home from work at 5:30 p.m., five minutes after I frantically finished cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack.

The toy explosion in the family room is another matter.

“Mommy,” Ryan says, running up to her and jumping into her arms.

Daddy is officially the forgotten man.

Daisy follows after her brother with her Frankenstein walk saying, “Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma.”

“Did you have fun today?” Juliet says to Ryan.

“Yeah, we went to pool and ate cookie cheese and Daddy says we can get a doggy,” he rambles out all at once.

“Really?” she says back, then looks up at me for confirmation

I shake my head.

Ryan runs back to the couch to continue his binge watching of Handy Manny, while Daisy holds tight to Juliet’s ankle.

She drops her purse on the counter and says to me, “And how was your day?”

“Good. I got a new case,” I say after a quick kiss.

“That’s nice,” she says. “What’s for dinner?”

“I was going to serve beef bourguignon, but I didn’t defrost the meat, or shop for the ingredients, but if you can wait, oh, about six hours, I can get started on that right now.”

Juliet smiles. “So, frozen pizza?”

“It is Tuesday,” I say.

“Actually, honey, it’s Wednesday.”

She’s right. When you’re not working it’s sometimes difficult to tell one day from the next.

“That’s what I meant.” I reach into the freezer and hold up three frozen discs. “Sausage, pepperoni or supreme?”

“Let’s go all out and treat ourselves with the supreme.”

I turn on the oven and Juliet gets to work peeling and chopping the fruit and vegetables for the kids.

“Tell me about the case,” she says.

“You know that house they finally sold at the end of the block?”

“The Seattle Slew? I’m so glad a family finally moved in.”

“The Newcombes. Henry, Elise and Max. Max came from Elise’s prior relationship. And her father apparently bought the house for the couple as a wedding present.”

“Wow. He really went off registry.”

“That’s what I said!”

We high-five.

“Anyway,” I continue, “the father wants me to investigate his new son-in-law.”

“Cheating-husband case?”

“Probably. But you never know. It could be a cheating-wife case. Or, maybe the guy who hired me has ulterior motives and by spying on his son-in-law, I will de-facto be spying on his daughter who’s actually not his daughter but his wife. Or it could all come down to a shady land deal. You can never quite tell where these things will end up when you start a case.”

“Oh, the places you will go,” Juliet says.

Ding. The oven is ready. I slide the pizza in.

“Are you and Grover just going to do surveillance?” she asks.

“He is. But the client actually wants me to befriend the guy. Get to know him. I guess the wedding was pretty sudden and he doesn’t know the guy all too well.”

“What’s your plan? Ring his doorbell and ask him to come out and play?”

“No, I figure I’ll just run into him at one of the usual spots. Pool. Playground. There’s only so many places you can take a kid in this neighborhood.”

“Just try not to get hurt,” she says.