Chapter 40

As he told Joe when he got back, “That was an exercise in futility. It seems Leon works when he wants and because his father owns the garage no one says anything.”

“Afraid to?” Joe asked.

Derek chuckled. “I think, from a couple of comments the other guys made, they’re afraid if they doPapa will lay down the law and make him show up.”

“Ouch. I take it his father isn’t there too much, either?”

“So it seems. Like father, like son.” Derek asked Joe to move and then sat down at the computer. He brought up one of the sites they used for background checks and entered Leon’s name. “Why am I not surprised,” he said when the record showed that the young man had quite a few speeding tickets, several of them unpaid.

“I wonder how often his car has been booted,” Joe said.

Derek checked, replied, “Only once, so far,” and moved on, looking for Leon’s address of record, which Mr. Horne hadn’t known, and then Leon’s father’s address. “He doesn’t live with his parents,” he commented.