The Hero Next Time: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 4)

Chapter Thirteen: Lauren, Sunday

"Okay, well, we'll go have a look around," Tej said, striding toward the kitchen. Lauren and the others waved half-heartedly and followed her.

They gathered around the island, and listlessly opened drawers and turned on taps while casting glances at Naira, who'd returned to Birinder's side and was chatting up other buyers and agents. They spoke just loud enough to hear each other over the din of the crowd, but not so anyone else could hear them.

"What the fuck is going on?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know," Lauren said. "I never predicted this development."

"Either that really is his wife," Sunny said, "and Jordan was lying when he said Birinder filed a missing person's report, or Birinder is passing off this woman as his wife."

"Would he really do that though, if he filed a missing person's report?" Al asked. "Won't he have a lot of police attention right now? Wouldn't the police wonder why he was pretending this woman was his wife when his real wife was out there somewhere?"

"The last thing anyone with a missing spouse wants to do is something that would arouse suspicion, like passing off another woman as their spouse," Lauren said. "My intuition is that Jordan was wrong about the missing persons report. Maybe he didn't lie, necessarily; maybe someone gave him the wrong information."

"Then that woman really is Naira Sandhu," Tej said.

"So who is the woman Jordan's dating?" Rachel asked. "He said she works in IT with him; she's not a real estate agent."

"I need to talk to Birinder and Naira together," Lauren said. "I want to see his body language around that woman."

"He seems kind of busy right now," Tej said. "Why don't we look around the house and then find him later. Maybe we can chat him up while flirting around making an offer."

"Okay," Al said, "just as long as we don't make an offer. This house is nice, but it's far from where we want to live and, more importantly, way out of our price range."

They climbed the stairs to the second floor. Lauren found the layout of the house quite similar to her own, although this had an extra bedroom. This house would allow them all to live comfortably together, except if Joe returned to the fold he would insist Al leave, and that meant the whole family would leave. If only she could have them all live together in harmony. She loved the company. There was just no way Joe would accept Al into the circle that encompassed her, Joe, and even Rachel, a little, if she counted the one time Rachel had sex with Joe out there in the wilderness... it still made her queasy to think about it. Joe and Joanie had slept together many more times, yet the thought of Rachel with Joe made her want to squeal in indignation. She was well aware of the irony, since she and Al had no qualms about screwing whenever they could get the chance. Could that be the solution? Could she save her marriage by allowing Joe to be with Rachel in recompense for her affair with Al, as hard as it would be for her? She didn't think it would work, though. Joe wouldn't give Joanie up, and that would be her one condition for allowing him to be with Rachel. Maybe he didn't even want Rachel that way anymore. Maybe, as Joe said, it had been a one time only thing, never to be repeated.

"If those two are married," Sunny said, "then why is she caught on video leaving her house at three in the morning and getting on a bus?"

"There could be an explanation for that," Lauren said. "I just don't know what it is yet."

"If she really is his wife," Rachel said, "then what was she doing with the tracker that Jordan gave his girlfriend?"

"And if that woman is Naira," Al said, "then why would Jordan's girlfriend have shown him that she lived in their house, and why has she been tracked leaving that house by Jordan before?"