Kids are always scared
of their parents, no matter how nice they seem or act. Harry was told once by his aunt it was a
parent’s job to be mean and scary. Harry
would be the first to attest that his father took the job very seriously.
Another angry rap on
the door and he took a deep breath and opened it.
“Where have you been?” Not so much as a how are you, or how glad he
was to see his son.
“Here, as always,
unless I’m out on a case. Except of
course, if I have to spend some time in the hospital recovering from nearly
being killed, but I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking.”
Harry’s father gave him
a long measured look. “You don't look like anything is wrong with you.”
“Appearances can be deceptive
Dad, you taught me that. Come in.”
Harry stepped to one
side, let him pass, and then closed the door behind him. His father stopped several steps in and looked
at the room. There were still signs of
the break-in, but you had to be looking for them. Another thing about his father, he never
missed anything.
“What happened?”
“Not only did I get
turned inside out, so did my office.”
“What were they looking
for?”
Yep, that’s his Dad. More interested in what was missing and not
how Harry was feeling.
“I have no idea what
they were after. Do you?”
It was tossed in as a
joke. To his father, no doubt it was anything but. “What?”
“I said ...”
“I know what you said. Why do you think I might know?”
“It was a joke, Dad.”
“It’s not something I
would joke about.”
Harry sighed
inwardly. This was going to go from bad to worse very quickly.
“Follow me. My office is slightly more liveable, and
there’s a chair you can sit on. Then you
can tell me why you came.”
He looked at the sofa,
Harry had no idea why, but it seemed to capture the attention of everyone who
came to the office, another glance around, then towards the door, which worried
him, and satisfied, followed him in.
They sat.
His father didn’t take
off his coat or hat. It was not going to be a long visit.
His look of contempt,
disapproval, or more likely, disdain, didn’t lessen when he walked into the
office. A cursory glance around the room before his eyes returned to
Harry. As always, it made him uncomfortable.
“What have you got
yourself mixed up in?”
“Nothing I can’t
handle.”
“You almost got
killed.”
So he was aware of
Harry’s circumstances. That was probably
due to Sykes.
“I’m surprised you had
time in your schedule to find out what happened to me.”
“Some policeman by the
name of Sykes called on your mother. Said you’d been in an accident.”
Good for Sykes.
He’d have to thank him for not making the details of what happened available to
anyone, including his parents. Not until
he could talk to them personally.
“In a manner of
speaking.”
“Were you careless or
at fault?”
Always considering how
much trouble Harry could cause the family. He’d once referred to Harry as
a ‘black sheep’. Harry doubted he was joking then.
“Nothing to worry
about. It won’t reflect on the family.”
An interesting change
in expression. Maybe his father thought it would.
“Where’s your sister?”
Harry looked around the
room. “Unless she’s hiding in the cupboard, she’s not here.”
“Don’t be flippant with
me.”
“Then, she’s not here.”
“Is she working with
you?”
“No. She came to
see me because she also heard from Sykes about my accident, and then visited
here. She seemed surprised I could have a life outside the house.”
“This isn’t having a
life. What do you investigate? Missing cats and dogs.”
So he’d been keeping up
with my work, and this after telling his son he didn’t care one jot what he did
with his life.
“And a few other cases
involving people. I’m working on three currently, and, no, they were not
the cause of the accident.”
“Are you sure? Because my information is the Jones brothers
are not the sort of people you want to be dealing with. They are very dangerous.”
OK, that came out of
left field. Harry tried to keep the
shock out of his tone. “And you know this because?”
“Before one was
murdered and the other disappeared presumed dead, I was an intermediary between
my client and them for a rather large loan.”
© Charles Heath 2016-2019
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