Free Stay At Home Dad 03-Father Knows Death by Jeffrey Allen Page A

could be difficult and time-consuming to repair.”
    “True.”
    “And I could absolutely see the insurer declining to cover a demolition derby or raising their coverage fee so exorbitantly that it was difficult to pay.”
    “Okay.”
    “The elementary school snow cone thing? Who knows? Maybe some teacher said the wrong thing to her and pissed the old lady off. That could be any number of things.”
    “Sure.”
    “And no one counted on you finding that guy in the freezer,” she continued. “Except for maybe me, because these days it seems like you get in trouble as soon as you leave the house.”
    “Ha.”
    “But no one counted on that, so no one could’ve predicted it and what it’s done to the food stand and overall attendance. And who’s to say that new freezer was even working to begin with? Maybe it was an old one that sat around for years and no one ever used.” She nodded to herself, liking her own argument. “So when you separate all of those things out, I think you could very much say that it’s all bad luck and timing.”
    This is why she was such a good lawyer. She could divorce herself from the situation and look at it with fresh eyes, with no agenda or loyalty toward anyone else. She didn’t just play devil’s advocate. She brought the devil’s advocate to life.
    “So you think I’m being paranoid?” I asked. “You think it could all just be due to circumstance and that Spellman’s murder could be totally unrelated?”
    “Yes.” She thought for a moment. “But, maybe not.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “I think it means you should look at the fair and at Spellman’s death separately,” she said. “Focus on Spellman. If the stuff that’s going on at the fair is related, I’d think it would reveal itself as you look at what happened to him.” She paused. “Since you are now, very clearly, knee-deep in this case, after ignoring my pleas to stay out of it.”
    “Wait. I thought you gave me permission before to ignore your earlier pleas.”
    “Permission was never granted. You just ignored me. And I have learned to just live with you and your maddening ways.”
    I kissed her cheek. “Yes, you have. Thank you.”
    “Whatever,” she said, barely suppressing a smile. “Now. You have a job to do. Or are you ignoring that, too?”
    Of course, she remembered that. Pregnancy brain wouldn’t get in the way of a mission. “You really are quite the seductress today,” I said.
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes and pushing herself up. “Now roll over on your back so I can climb on top of you and try and get this enormous infant out of me.”

18
    The infant did not leave Julianne’s body that night, but not for my lack of trying.
    Twice.
    She was up before me and already cooking breakfast by the time I made my way downstairs. The kitchen smelled like scrambled eggs and coffee.
    “No luck?” I asked, kissing her cheek.
    “None,” she said grimly. “I’m moving to Operation Hot Sauce now.”
    “Is that my new nickname?”
    She produced a bottle of orangish-red liquid from the fridge and held it up. “This is my new boyfriend.”
    “I’m a little jealous, but I think I can take him.”
    She unscrewed the cap and covered her eggs with the liquid. “I’m going to chase the baby out with hot sauce. It’s going on everything I eat today.”
    “Everything?”
    “Everything.”
    “I don’t recommend ice cream, then.”
    She shoved a forkful of sauce-soaked eggs into her mouth. “Everything.”
    “You’re sure that’s okay for the baby?” I asked.
    “The hot sauce?” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Deuce. It’s fine.”
    “Okay . . .”
    She narrowed her eyes at me. “I know what I’m doing here. The sex, this . . . all are tried and true methods for natural induction.”
    “Sort of like the Drano test was supposed to predict we were having a boy when you were pregnant with Carly?”
    The Drano test involved adding a few drops of the chemical cleaner