Chapter 474
Six o’clock in the afternoon, the Becca neighborhood.
Loud classical music was playing in the yard of Robert’s house, a barbecue had been set up in the vacant lot, and Robert was roasting coals with a cassette oven.
A white dining table and chairs sat on the lawn to the right, and Linda was marinating the barbecue in a simple way, large steaks marinated in black pepper, coarse salt, and red wine.
Val and Fatty sat at the table chatting, one drinking a beer and the other a Coke.
Val joked, “Hey Jack, why don’t you have your little girlfriend with you today?”
Little Fatty rolled his eyes, “Uncle, I know you’re envious of the fact that I have a girlfriend, but don’t hang on to it all the time.
And you’re not too young, it’s time to put some effort into finding a girlfriend.”
Val forced a smile, “What? You don’t think I’ll have a girlfriend?”
The chubby little man asked back, “If you have a girlfriend, why haven’t I ever seen you bring one?”
Val shrugged, “Hey kid, you don’t understand the grown-up world.
It’s not that I don’t have a girlfriend, how can I not have a girlfriend?
My problem is that I have so many girlfriends that I don’t know which one to bring.
If I bring girlfriend A, B gets jealous.
If I bring girlfriend B, girlfriend C will be jealous.
So I simply don’t bring any of them, you know what I mean?”
Little Fatty “……”
“Wooo…… a Mercedes G500 pulls up outside the yard.
The driver’s door opened and Luke stepped out of the car and greeted, “Good weekend Grandpa, Mom, Uncle, and my sweet old brother.”
Val whipped his head around and looked over, “Hey Detective, you’re late, we were all waiting for you.”
“Sorry, things got a little hectic this afternoon, but thankfully it’s taken care of and we can have a nice drink tonight.” Luke pulled up a chair and sat down as well.
Val handed him a beer and wondered, “Any big cases in L.A. lately?”
“Not really a big case.” Luke shook his head, not really wanting to bring up the case.
The little fat man came over and asked, “You know what Grandpa’s going to announce, old man?”
Luke opened his beer cap and clinked bottles with Val, “That’s what I was going to ask, does Uncle know?”
Val smiled and shook his head, “In your grandfather’s mind, I’m on the same level as you guys.
He didn’t tell you guys, so naturally he won’t tell me.”
Luke snickered, “When did I drop in rank?”
Val “……”
At that moment, Robert’s voice came from beside the grill, “Hey guys, smell the grill?
Let’s toast to the good times.” Robert enjoyed the feeling of standing by the grill and raised his glass to Luke and the others.
The aroma of the grill grew stronger and dinner was ready.
Dinner was relatively simple, grilled steak, grilled chicken wings, grilled sausage, and grilled lobster.
Linda prepared a large plate of fresh vegetables, and Luke’s favorite cucumber, which quenched his grease and thirst, and was perfect for a drink.
The table was also set with a variety of alcoholic beverages, beer, wine, whiskey, coke.
After the roast was brought to the table, the crowd sat around the table and prayed.
The family gathering had officially begun.
Luke first ate a charcoal grilled large lobster, this thing tastes better when eaten while hot.
The practice is very simple, the lobster cut in half, covered with garlic sauce, directly on the charcoal grill can be, garlic sauce or Luke bought, the flavor is great.
Fatty’s favorite food is grilled sausage, sausage is made of pork, in addition to some seasoning is almost all meat, eat a bite of nourishing oil.
Val, like Fatty, also likes grilled sausage.
Linda liked the chicken wings, the whole chicken wings baked together, rather than just baked wings.
Robert’s favorite was the steak, and after taking a satisfying bite, he nodded his head and picked up his glass and said to the crowd, “Hey, let’s raise our glasses.”
“Cheers!”
Little Fatty took a sip of Coke and laughed, “Grandpa, if you opened a barbecue restaurant, I bet it would be full every day.”
Robert laughed and shrugged, “If I was ten years younger I might have thought of that, but I’d rather not now.”
Val said, “I think that’s an offer to consider.
Dad, if you’re worried about working alone, my sister and I will help you. We could make the restaurant a family business, what do you think?”
Little Fatty smiled and said, “Uncle, aren’t you going to open a convenience store?”
Val added another piece of sausage to Little Fatty, “Adults are talking, children should not interrupt, hurry up and eat.”
Little Fatty rolled his eyes and continued to bury his head and eat.
Robert looked at his son and said, “I think Jack has a point, no industry is that easy to do. You’d better do well at the supermarket.
Even if you want to open a restaurant, I’ll find an experienced partner, I don’t want to lose all my old money.”
Luke stood up, walked over to the grill to turn the roast over, and said, “Grandpa, I hear you have an announcement to make?”
“Yes, I’ve been planning on going on a trip lately, would any of you like to go with me?”
Val laughed, “Dad, if you can pay for the trip, I’m definitely up for it.”
“How old are you today? Is it five, or fifteen?
If neither, I’m not obligated to pay for your spending right now.” Robert put down his knife and fork, grunted, and turned the conversation around.
“Still, I want my family to travel together.
So, I can pay for the plane tickets while we’re there, and you’ll need to pay for the rest of the expenses out of your own pocket.”
Linda asked, “Dad, where are you going to travel?”
“To Hawaii, of course, is there a better place to travel as a family than here?”
Val got excited, “Dad, you’re right, it’s perfect. And it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.
But it’s expensive there and the airfare back isn’t cheap.”
Luke said, “Since Grandpa is covering the airfare to Hawaii, I’ll cover the return airfare.”
Val laughed, “Cool, problem solved.”
Little Fatty gave an expectant look, “Mom, let’s go too.”
“No, you still have school.”
“I can take a vacation from school.”
Linda took a bite of her vegetables and shook her head, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She looked aside again at Luke, “Aren’t you busy with work? How come you have time to travel?”
“There’s no end to the work.
Like Grandpa said, traveling with your family is the best, and I don’t want to miss such a great opportunity.” Luke had a period of paid vacation after shooting a drug dealer during an arrest.
However, to avoid worrying his family, he didn’t say so.
“Mom, you guys aren’t going to leave me alone.” The little fat man was a little disgruntled.
“We’ll talk about this issue when we get home, OK? “Linda picked up her wine glass, took a sip of red wine, and looked at Little Fatty with some mischief in her eyes.
Luke asked, “Grandpa, why did you suddenly think of traveling to Hawaii?”
“It’s just that I feel that life is a bit boring, and I want to go outside for a change of scenery.” Robert took a sip of his wine and turned to Luke and asked rhetorically, “Has construction started on your new house?”
Luke said, “The demolition of the old house is complete and the foundation will probably be laid tomorrow, I was just about to check it out.”
“Call me anytime you need me.”
“I will.”
The family then began discussing travel tips to Hawaii.
The next morning, Luke woke up and cooked a bag of instant noodles, a fried egg, and a grilled sausage.
It’s been a long time since I ate instant noodles, and it tastes pretty good when I eat one once in a while.
After eating, Luke went to the yard, brewed a pot of Tieguanyin, and enjoyed a leisurely time.
Without realizing it, Luke had been in Los Angeles for a year, a lot of things had happened in this year, and he had grown a lot.
Just two days ago, the realtor who leased the house called to ask if Luke wanted to renew the lease.
Luke thought about it and renewed the lease for another six months.
At the end of May, his new house will be built, and he will be able to live in it after drying it out for a while.
[Dingdong, congratulations to the host for solving the shooting case and the automobile accident case, rewarded with 120 points].
In this case, Luke used a bullet avoidance card, an accuracy card, and an identification card, Luke first used up 70 points to replenish three more cards.
Together with the remaining 50 points from before, the Sleuth System now had 100 points.
It was just a pity that no new cards were rewarded this time.
Luke guessed that this might also be related to the difficulty of the case.
At ten o’clock in the morning, Luke went to the Chinese supermarket and bought some coffee and wife cakes.
Afterwards, he drove to the Palisades neighborhood to check the progress of the new house construction.
When Luke parked his car outside the yard, he heard the sound of machinery, the new home was under construction.
Luke got out of the car and carried his bags into the yard of the villa, the old house had been completely demolished, the large yard looks more empty.
There was a cement mixer truck on the site, beside it there were about a dozen workers busy, mostly Chinese faces, that’s why Luke brought wife cake, if he brought doughnuts, I don’t think they would like to eat it.
Of course, this time with some tea is more appropriate, but the new home does not even have a place to boil water, not very suitable, buy coffee is more convenient, and these Chinese are also used to drinking coffee.
The one in charge of managing the construction on site was Zhang Jianmin, when he saw Luke, he rushed over and said in Chinese, “Captain Li, you’re here.”
Luke handed him the bag, “Mr. Zhang, I brought some food for you guys, help share it.”
“Thanks.” Zhang Jianmin took a cup of coffee and placed the bag on a side table, calling out, “Everyone, don’t do this, take a break.
Mr. Li brought coffee and food for everyone, everyone has some.”
The workers were also tired and walked to the table in twos and threes, took their share of coffee and wife cakes, and found a shady place to rest.
Luke looked around the construction site, a large pit had been dug under the ground and foundations had already been started, there was a lot of rebar sticking out of the large pit, and a part of it had been filled with cement.
Luke twisted his head and asked, “Mr. Zhang, is the construction still going well?”
Zhang Jianmin walked over and replied, “It’s quite smooth, I guess we can finish laying the foundation today, and when the assembly parts from the over factory are sent over, we can build the structure of the house.”
Luke nodded, “According to this progress, can it be completed by mid-May?”
Zhang Jianmin thought for a moment, “According to the contract, it’s definitely not a problem to finish by the end of May.
If construction can be done on Saturdays, the schedule can be advanced to mid-May.”
Luke asked, “If it’s overtime on Saturdays, are there any additional costs? Something like overtime pay or an allowance.”
“No. In fact, many workers would like to work on Saturdays and Sundays.
After all, we all work one day and receive one day’s pay, not the same as those white-collar workers who do office work.”
Luke looked at these Chinese faces, it was understandable.
He thought carefully again, but still refused Zhang Jianmin’s offer, he did want to finish early and move into the new house earlier.
But he was worried that the construction on Saturday day would affect the neighbors’ rest.
From Monday to Friday, when everyone is at work, the impact of construction noise is less.
On Saturdays, when adults and children are at home resting, if the construction work continues, it is likely to be complained about and cause unnecessary trouble.
Luke didn’t want to leave a bad impression on his neighbors before he even moved into the neighborhood.
Luke stayed at the construction site for about an hour and was ready to leave by noon.
He walked out of the yard and was about to get into his car when a Porsche drove up next to him and stopped beside him.
“Hi, Captain Lee.” The window opened, and the driver was an old white man around seventy years old, with silver-gray hair and a black-rimmed glasses.
Luke thought briefly before remembering the identity of the other party, the famous author and screenwriter Romit Bull.
Previously, Luke had investigated a murder case, the scene of the crime was on the movie shooting site, the name of the movie was called The Vanishing Lovers.
During the filming of this movie, the male lead literally disappeared, and after much searching, his body was found in a large pit on the filming site, exactly the same as the plot of the movie script.
Later, the female lead of the movie was also strangled to death in her bed, again with the same plot as the movie script.
This bizarre case caused quite a stir at the time, and the novel, The Vanishing Lovers, was once again a hit and a big seller.
Romit Boole was considered one of the few beneficiaries of this case, and the police had once treated him as a suspect, but later ruled him out after investigation.
Luke said, “Mr. Bull, it’s been a long time, why are you here?”
“I live in this neighborhood, I should be the one asking why you are here?”
Luke thought for a moment, “I remember when I visited you at the time, you seemed to live in another neighborhood.”
“Haha, you didn’t think I only had one house, did you.” Romit Bull smiled.
“Ever since I last had my novel flop, there were often rabid fans around my house, and I had to wear long pants even for swimming, can you understand that feeling?
So, I moved here, where it’s a bit more clean and not too many people know me.
What about you? Why did you come back here?”
Luke pointed behind him, “I just bought the house behind me and am rebuilding it.”
“Ooooh, you have a good eye for feng shui in this house.”
“Feng Shui? You still study feng shui?” Luke looked at the old white man with a mixed feeling.
“Hey, I’m a professional writer, and a deduction novelist, I need to accumulate a lot of writing material, and learn about the terroir and ethnicity of the various countries in this world, you don’t think that novel plots can appear out of thin air.”
Luke nodded, “I’m glad to have a more knowledgeable neighbor, I’ll invite you for afternoon tea some day.”
Romit Bull smiled, “That’s what I was going to say.
Talking to a young and talented detective like you can inspire new creative endeavors.
Why should it be another day.
How about we have lunch together at noon? I know a good Chinese restaurant nearby, I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“Sorry, I can’t today. I have other things to take care of.” Luke’s family was preparing to go to Hawaii tomorrow, and today he had to pack his bags so that he wouldn’t forget his belongings on his way out.
“OK, we’ll make another appointment.” Romit Bull handed Luke a business card and drove off.
Luke looked at the departing Porsche car and vaguely felt that this old man was a bit over-enthusiastic.
Perhaps, this old man was hoping to get more writing material from himself, after all, writing comes from life, and reasoning novels have to be based on the secondary creation of real cases.