6. Know The Rules

6

KNOW THE RULES

“ H ey, Dad,” Zander said, walking in his parents’ front door. “Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks,” his father said, reaching for the gift bag. Zander had just run to the liquor store and got his father a bottle of bourbon. “This will come in handy when I’m bird watching.”

He turned his head and looked at his mother’s raised eyebrow. “Retirement not what you thought it’d be?”

“No,” his father said. “I promised your mom I would retire when I could so she didn’t have to worry about me anymore.”

Now that made more sense. His mother could be feeling some guilt.

He didn’t need to be a licensed psychologist either to figure that out.

Then he had to wonder why Regan always popped into his head at the oddest of times.

“I’m swamped at work,” he said. “Even Betsy was doing some fieldwork last week.”

“Zander,” his mother said sharply. “You don’t send her in the field to do work. She’s not qualified to do that.”

“She offered,” he argued.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” his father said.

Great, they were going to gang up on him.

“She took some pictures of a guy faking an injury while she was walking Rocco in the park. Nothing major. You know she loves doing that. She even pretended to be videotaping the dog.”

Betsy was better at that than he’d thought she’d be.

“That’s not the end of the world,” his mother conceded.

“That’s right. Not even anything that wasn’t admissible in court.”

“Very cute,” his mother said.

“I know the rules,” he said. “I’m not that stupid.”

His mother laughed. “No one ever said you were stupid. You just did what you wanted when you wanted. It’s not a horrible trait to have.”

“That’s why I’m better off being the boss and making my own hours.”

“Some people thrive that way,” his mother said. “But it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of your life.”

He held the roll back from his eyes. Why did it feel like he was going to get ganged up on for this?

“It’s not,” he said. “Even if I cut back hours I still have to find someone who would understand my work and the nontraditional hours. That’s not easy. You and Dad made it look easy, but it wasn’t. That’s why Dad is home twiddling his thumbs.”

His mother frowned at him, but he was happy to get his licks in.

“I thought I could find more to do,” his father said. “But not many are retired or if they are from the PD they have second careers. I’m not looking for a second full-time career. Just a hobby or something.”

“Oh,” he said. “Guess I’ll drop it then.”

“Drop what?” Marley asked, walking in the door. One might think they planned this.

“I was going to ask Dad to give me a hand now and again on a few things at work. Betsy is doing a lot. I’ve got a few new jobs this week along with a bunch of open case files. Sometimes I just need a second set of eyes to see if I can close it and move on or not.”

“I’d love to help out,” his father said. “You know I’ve got a good eye for detail. I could get some pictures or track people down. I’m good on the phone, have great contacts at the station still.”

Which always came in handy when he was hired for criminal investigations.

“Well,” Zander said. “If you’re willing, why don’t you stop in tomorrow and I’ll get you set up in the other office. You can see what interests you and go from there.”

“Best birthday gift right there,” his father said. “And we can crack open this bourbon to celebrate too.”

“Thank you,” his mother mouthed to him when his father went into the kitchen to get the glasses.

He smiled and turned to his sister. “How come you’re late?”

“I’m not late. Mom said one. It’s two minutes before. You’re actually early and that is never the case.”

“I didn’t get much sleep last night and was up getting work done.”

“Zander!” his mother scolded.

“I’m a big boy,” he said. “I can figure out my career and business just fine. I’m trying to organize it and prioritize.”

“If you were working from home there is no organization.”

“You haven’t been in my apartment in over a year,” he said. “How do you know?”

“I haven’t been in it because it’s a mess and it makes my eye twitch to step foot in there,” his mother said. “I want to say you need more space, but you might just clutter that up too.”

“If I had an actual office it’d be easier,” he said. “Everything is on the table.”

He’d been in the same one bedroom apartment for eight years now. He hated moving and it was a convenient location. They had a gym he could use at any time and normally went there when no one else was around.

He didn’t have to mow lawns or fix a damn thing.

But the walls were closing in on him and it was sad that his business office was bigger than his home.

“Well, that is your life,” his mother said.

“Now it’s my life,” he said. “A few minutes ago you were telling me what to do.”

“Never,” Marley said. “No one can tell you what to do.”

“Don’t start taking Mom’s side.”

“That’s right,” his mother said. “You’re both single so I could get on both of your cases.”

“Don’t,” Marley said. “I don’t need it. I’ve got enough eyes on me as it is that I don’t need more.”

He frowned. “What is going on?”

“Nothing,” Marley said. “How would you like to be compared to your mother all the time at work?”

Zander lifted an eyebrow. “Geez, I wouldn’t know what that was like. Not working as an officer in a department where my father was a captain.”’

“Sorry,” Marley said. “You do get it. Why did we decide to follow in their footsteps?”

“Because we are great parents and raised our children well,” his mother said.

His father threw back a healthy taste of his bourbon. “And I learned to never argue with your mother. She can’t be beat.”

“It’s not about beating the other,” his mother said. “It’s about teamwork.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zander said. “Here they go again. Are we sure it’s Dad’s birthday and you didn’t make that up to get us here and gang up on us?”

Marley laughed. “I want to side with Zander, but I know it’s Dad’s birthday and I don’t even need an assistant to mark my calendar for me to remember those things.”

He shut one eye at his sister. “Brat.”

“Slob,” Marley said.

“Children,” his mother said. “Yes, I made up your father’s birthday. It was last month.”

“No, it wasn’t, Mom,” Marley said. “Now that you got your way, you realized it’s not working out the way you planned it. But we’ll stop, for now.”

His phone went off in his pocket and he pulled it out to look at the message.

“No working,” his mother said.

He put it away. It wasn’t something that had to be handled now anyway. It was just a notification of some information that Garrett wanted him to look into.

He would check it out tomorrow.

Though he knew he’d probably do it tonight when he was lying in bed and couldn’t sleep because he just had so much to do.

Maybe it was a good thing his father was going to help him out. Guess he didn’t realize how much he needed it.