Chapter 25 The Private Investigator
Most of the guests had started to leave by then when I got a phone call from the PI I’d hired.
Excusing myself, I picked up…. a renewed curiosity brewed within me, the information he had to give me on Ayesha was of utmost importance now if I was going to pull off this damn fiasco of a wedding.
This whole thing was starting to turn into a fucking soap opera… and it was about to turn into something like the Sopranos if Schafer didn’t keep his head down. Well, I could worry about that later.
One absurd situation at a time.
“Yes Jordan, what did you find out?”
“A lot, actually. Too much to process almost” came the reply from the ex Chicago PD cop, now private investigator. He’d been one of the best detectives on the force before he got fired for stealing coke from the evidence locker.
The things people did to satisfy their urges, risking everything to feed their addiction.
Like I was now…. Fuck! I had to stop overthinking this. Unlike other ‘addicts’, I had my addiction under control. Perhaps!
“Well lay it on me then,” I impatiently asked.
“This girl, Ayesha…. her family, specifically her father seems to not be what they portray themselves as… at all.”
“Do any of us show who we really are?”, I flatly commented, urging him to get to the point.
“Good point. Anyway, after doing a fair bit of digging, I found out that for the past few years, he’s been unemployed. On record, he is an employee for a certain company, but that is just on paper, he barely if ever goes there for work, it is probably just for the bank paperwork or to put in college applications or something, so that is obviously just a cover to hide what he actually does. About 4 years ago, he used to have a legitimate job but then things took a turn and he caught onto an alcohol addiction. Eventually, he missed too many days of work and was fired. So then he moved on to a gambling addiction and gambled all his savings away, including the money designated for his children’s college fees.”
“So what does he do now?”, I questioned, already not liking the sound of this one bit.
“After he blew through all his money, he turned to loan sharks and we both know just how ruthless they can be when someone doesn’t pay up. Over time Ayesha’s father amassed a lot of debt…. debt he had absolutely no way of clearing with the minimum wage job that he’d started working. But here’s when things get interesting.”
I had the most uneasy feeling that I knew what he was gonna say next.
“Suddenly all the people he owed money to stopped harassing him and threatening him…. which points to the obvious fact that the money was paid off. And what was even more suspicious was that he left his minimum wage job and is now sashaying through life. Tell me Daniel, how does a man go from being in a debt of over six hundred thousand dollars to being debtless and being able to afford not holding a job and doing absolutely nothing, all in the span of a few days?”
“A sudden influx of cash”, I replied, the dots connecting all on their own.
My nerves were on fucking fire…. I’d hoped to hell it wasn’t going to be something like this but it just had to be.
“But wait, there’s more…..”, he started but I cut him off.
“I’ve heard enough. I’ll call you if I need to know more”, I hung up without waiting for a response.
“Uh… Daniel?”, her hesitant voice suddenly sounded behind me, taking me by surprise.
“Can you drop me off at the dorm? It’s getting really late…. that’s if you have the time. I can catch a taxi…” she rambled on, notching up my already foul mood.
“Are you seriously dumb enough to catch a taxi to your dorm in the middle of the night? Jesus Christ”, I exclaimed.
Her general stupidity made me want to do things I could be arrested for. Like kidnapping and holding her hostage.
“I’m sorry.” Her lips puckered in the most delectable way, making me momentarily forget that I had two impending catastrophes to take care of.
“Stop pouting. Let’s go”, I told her, ready to leave this party.
“Ayesha, where are you going with Daniel?”, the insufferable man that was my uncle of course popped out of nowhere.
“It’s getting late. I am going to drop her off at her dorm”, I spoke through my teeth, not wanting to explain myself to him in the least.
“Daniel, where are you off to?”, my father asked, approaching us when he noticed us at the exit.
I told him the same thing I told my uncle.
“Oh well! Drive safe”, he told us as I nodded at him.
“I could drop her off too. And I should, I’m her fiance,” my uncle argued, his face scrunching up in a frown.
Just before I could give him a crude, scathing reply, my father laughingly interjected,” Benjamin, no offense but there is a very high chance that the dorm supervisor might call the cops because on top of breaking curfew and reaching the dorm at 12 a.m., the girl is being dropped off by a man twice her age who she has no relation to whatsoever on paper.”
My uncle fumed as I tried to hide a smug smirk.
My father could be extremely good with backhanded insults when even a little bit drunk.
“That is just not…”, my uncle started, shame and humiliation burning within him as his pasty face turned red.
“Look, even if we didn’t consider that scenario, do you really think it would be wise for us to let you drive… that too so late at night? You know dementia is starting to set in quite early these days… and considering your age, there is a very high chance that amidst the car drive, you might possibly forget who Ayesha is or even who you are or where you are going and then you’ll be stranded in the middle of nowhere….”, my father trailed off.
He was definitely on a roll today. “Where’d your uncle go?”
Chuckling, I told him,” I’m pretty sure he left at the mention of dementia.”
“Oh… well, off with you two then”, he grumbled, looking a bit lost as he walked away.
“Your father is so much funnier than you”, Ayesha suddenly said, grinning from ear to ear.
“You might not want to antagonize the person who’s about to drive you away… alone with him… in the middle of the night”, I shot back. Giving her a devious smirk, I was thoroughly amused by the horrified look that crossed her face as we got into my car.