I rather doubt the ole boy has any sort of working relationship with a private eye.
His story about securing the services of one includes references to extended conversations with the PI, I believe, meant to lend credibility to his story and infer that a sensible adult in the investigative field would pay him any mind.
After hearing just a few of Menard’s tall tales one learns to be suspect of the self-aggrandizing, ultimately unsubstantiated, information he relates in order to make himself look good.
The idea of a working investigator sitting still long enough to hear the fanciful tale of a disheveled, stoner/narcissist while the time is money clock ticks away just doesn’t pass the smell test.