chapter two twenty seven minutes later abigail's father returned home from work henry branigan was a pleasant-looking man who would describe himself as completely average and ordinary in every way

and would say so with a contented smile on his face that said that he was totally at peace with this idea and found it good.

And yet, in the admittedly short time that his daughter had run a detective agency in his garage,

he had taken the entire thing in stride, as if nothing was out of the ordinary and the least.

Abigail was never entirely sure if her father was supportive or in deep denial.

But she suspected that was just an act that he put on

because he worried that if he was too supportive,

she might open a fish farm or an astronaut training center next.

On this particular day, Mr. Branigan was all smiles as he opened the front door

and set his workbag by the door in the same spot as always.

"'I'm a gal,' he called in a bright and cheery voice.

"'I'm home!'

There was no reply, which was often the case,

and Mr. Branigan did not seem entirely concerned,

although he had expected his daughter to be back early

from whatever adventure she was having today,

as he expected that she, like her parents,

would be excited to see her brother Jeremy, who was

coming home for the weekend. Jeremy was quite a bit older than Abigail, and had just

finished his second year at university, about two hours away by bus. The summer before,

he had come back to the house on Beechnut Street and the summer job that

he had worked every year when he was in high school.

...