Looking Back: Pros and Cons on Being Married to Your PI Partner

July 21, 2015

Below is an article we wrote nearly 5 years ago, back when we co-owned a private detective agency. In it, we shared our pros and cons on being a married PI team. Fast forward to today…Shaun is a full-time & then some lawyer and yours truly is a part-time PI and writer. We love our current jobs, but sometimes we look back at our 24/7 sleuthing days together and miss them.

The Challenges of Co-Owning a PI Agency

We weathered a lot during the 10+ years we co-owned the PI agency, such as:

1. Keeping the agency afloat during some tough recession years
2. Tackling cases that broke our hearts (a missing child, a young man brainwashed by a cult, a husband crying over his wife’s infidelity)
3. Meshing our work styles (Shaun’s a big-picture kinda guy & Colleen’s a detailed-oriented kinda gal…mix ’em together for some entertaining conflicts).

Then One Day…

We eloped. Bought our wedding cake on the way to the justice of the peace (bakery owner just happened to have a bride & groom figure to put on top of a blue and white cake). Our wedding decorations consisted of a big bow we taped to a tree. We loved every moment.

Missing the PI Team

The other day I did a difficult locate (finding a person) for one of Shaun’s legal cases. He was immensely relieved when I found the person as his case pivoted on that locate. Then he said, “I really miss when we worked together as PIs.”

Back when we were working side-by-side, 24/7, he didn’t always miss me, though 🙂

Without further ado, our pros and cons “back in the day”…

Working with Your PI Spouse: For Better, for Worse

Illustration courtesy of James Braddock (image copyright protected)

(January 2012)

At Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, we’re a couple of PIs who also write…and are also married to each other. This can be great…and sometimes challenging. Today we’ll each answer “what are the pros and cons” of being a married PI team.

Shaun’s Pros

• You really know your partner, there’s no learning curve.
• During those times when you have to improvise or pretext, you can cue your partner and pick up their cues, which makes what you’re trying to accomplish believeable and effective.
• There’s no need to inform your work partner of demands or troubles in your personal life because she knows!

Shaun’s Cons

First of all, I’m a brave man for being the first to answer this question, but I’ve been granted absolute immunity. Here’s my cons:

• You can’t bullshit your partner about anything, and there’s no hiding behind your moods.
• Whereas other households might have two spouses with independent revenue streams, the married-PI couple is often working the same job. If that client’s check bounces, it can hit us hard.
• Chasing cheating spouses can be deleterious to one’s libido. After a night of watching spouses cheat, I’m not always in the mood if you get my drift.

Colleen’s Pros

• Sometimes being a husband-and-wife PI team gets us the case. For example, a client thinks his wife will be meeting her paramour at a swanky restaurant — we can easily fit into that scenario as another couple dining in that restaurant, even being romantic together, versus a PI sitting alone at a table.
• Shaun’s a big-picture person, I’m a detailed person. Together, we get a good snapshot of a case.
• Shaun trained a lot of PIs over the years in his attorney practice, so if I’m working a new type of case, I get the benefit of working side-by-side with a mentor (or having one on call).

Colleen’s Cons

• It’s that big-picture thing. Sometimes I don’t understand how he glosses over the details.
• We’ve had clients who think two-for-the-price-of-one. No, just because we’re married doesn’t mean we each get paid half-price.
• When we’re both in the field, there’s no one to call at home to let the dogs out.

All rights reserved by Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman. Any use of the content (including images owned by Colleen Collins and/or Shaun Kaufman) requires specific, written authority. The Nick and Nora illustration in this article is licensed by Colleen Collins from the artist for per personal use – please do not copy/distribute/use as this illustration is copyright protected.

How Being Keynote Speakers at a Coroners’ Conference Led to Writing a Book

We were invited to speak to coroners about giving testimony

Twice we were invited to speak at our state coroners’ conference. The first time we spoke on a relatively serious topic – how to provide testimony at a trial. It seemed that during the previous year some coroners had contradicted their own reports while on the witness stand, as well as testified to using unaccepted procedures during autopsies. Because one of us (Shaun) had spent several decades as a trial attorney, and we co-owned a legal investigations agency, we were invited to give tips for how to testify during legal proceedings.

The Power Went Out During Our Talk

We were minutes into our presentation when the entire room went dark. No lights, no projection equipment, not even the microphones worked.

Fortunately, Shaun is a natural ham. He met the challenge with humor, telling the crowd that this was exactly what it’s like being grilled on the witness stand–anything can happen, and you better be able to roll with it.

Someone opened the blinds on some far windows, so there was enough light for Shaun to find his way off the stage and into the crowd. He walked among the seated coroners, grilling them as if they were on the stand at a trial. Someone handed him a flashlight, and he would shine it on people as he pummeled them with questions. Afterward, the coroners gave him a standing ovation.

And we were honored to be invited back to be their keynote speakers the following year.

Writing The Ungrateful Dead

We’ve since recommended to PIs that they consider attending a coroners’ conference to learn everything from how to aid clients who might be seeking private autopsy options for a loved one, to networking with medical examiners’ and coroners’ offices.

One of the Writing PIs, Colleen, has also used our experiences at the coroners

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conferences to write a mystery series featuring a 21st-century Nick and Nora private eye couple whose first case occurs at a coroners’ conference…where they also happen to be guest speakers. Life inspired this fiction story, which became The Ungrateful Dead.

Amazon Links

The Ungrateful Dead: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ungrateful-Dead-Humorous-Colorado-ebook/dp/B00ITWW9GO/

The Zen Man: http://www.amazon.com/The-Humorous-Colorado-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B006NPP9XY

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All rights reserved by Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman. Any use of the content (including images owned by Colleen Collins and/or Shaun Kaufman) requires specific, written authority.

THE ZEN MAN, BookRooster Reviewers’ Pick, is Free March 17-19

Click on cover to go to book’s Amazon page

Semifinalist Best Indie Books of 2012, The Kindle Book Reviews

BookRooster.com Reviewers’ Picks 2013

March 17: #1 Kindle Store-Mystery-Private Investigators!

“I loved every single word of The Zen Man!”~Delores Fossen, USA Today best-selling author