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

Chapter Forty-Five: Sunny, Summer, 2009

"My goodness," Sunny said. "It sounds as if this has been planned for a long time."

"Mrs. Anderson and I had become good friends in her sunset years," Marjorie said with a hint of emotion in her voice. "We discussed her passing quite a lot, and she wanted to make sure no one had to scramble to put something together after she died, since, like I said, she had no kin to do it. She was quite pragmatic about it. I can only hope I'll be that clear-headed when my time comes."

"This will be easy, then," Sunny said. "Now, as for the matter of the executor..."

"Yes. That's been harder," Marjorie said regretfully. "We don't know if she married or not, because we couldn't track her down. Mrs. Anderson wrote a letter for her whenever she's found. I'll bring it over to you if you'd like."

"That would be very helpful, thank you. Don't worry about finding the executor. The firm uses an investigator for those kinds of tasks, and the estate will be billed accordingly."

"Oh! Well, good. I hope she decides to take it, if you find her, that is. I'd like to talk with her; apparently, Mrs. Anderson was very fond of her when she was young, and never forgot about her even when she moved away. She talked about her a lot when we chatted and reminisced about old times."

"How lovely," Sunny said, feeling emotional himself at the thought of this lifelong affection. He just resisted the urge to tell Marjorie that he once knew Mrs. Anderson himself, and that he was once a friend of Rachel's; he didn't want to jinx their chances of finding her because, irrationally, he thought telling Marjorie all of that would keep Rachel out of their reach. "Well, I'll get back to you soon, regarding the legalities of using Martha Anderson's house as a museum. We'll have to apply to the City for a zoning change, so it may take some time, but I'll be with you every step of the way."

"Thank you, Mr. Parhar. And good luck finding Rachel."

"Thank you." They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Task number two: find Rachel. Luckily, he had the perfect person for the job. 

"Hey, Sunny, what's up?" Lauren asked when he had her on the phone.

"You're not going to believe this," he said.

"What is it?"

"Remember Martha Anderson? From Queensborough?"

"Yeah? The older woman who helped us that time with the Trybeks? And who was kind of a mentor to Rachel?"

"Yeah, that's her."

"She came to my wedding because Joe's family invited her. She must have passed away years ago, though."

"As a matter of fact, she only just passed away now."

"What?!" she squawked. "She was old back then! How old was she when she died, a hundred?"

"A hundred and four, actually."

"Fuck," she breathed. "So, what, was there an obituary in the paper over there?"

"There was, in the New Westminster Record, which you may or may not know was the old Royal City Record we used to deliver."

"Oh, yeah. I gave it up after Rachel left."

"But the reason I'm actually calling you is, our firm represents her estate."

Lauren was silent for a moment before saying, "You're shitting me."

"Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are."

"So... okay, so, she has a will?"

"Yes, they drew it up some years ago, before I started there. I was given the file to review just today. I've read the will. Now, here is where we need you."