"I can't believe you still have yours," Rachel said in amazement as Lauren framed the certificate and hung it up on the wall of her office.
"I do," she said, "but it was stored away, and I lost track of it until I was cleaning out the storage room; I was moving stuff around to make room for you and your family, and I came across a box that held old memorabilia. I felt a little nostalgic, you know, since Joe moved out, so I thought I'd have a look through it, and there this was." She stood back and made sure the framed certificate was level. "My mom and dad saved it, of course. Dad was so proud of his Little Samurai. It was why he gave me the sword as a wedding gift."
"Yes, you've said." Rachel leaned in and read, "Here on this fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen seventy-nine..." Rachel chuckled. "They used such flowery language back then. Year of our Lord?"
"Back when the world was still Christian, at least to the people who made the rules."
"The City of New Westminster presents this commendation to... and here there's lots of space around the name because this is a boilerplate document..." Rachel leaned in, read the next part, then turned to her, mouth open in amazement. "Lauren Keiko Hasegawa?"
Lauren shrugged. "Yeah, okay, I have a middle name. So?"
"I love it!" Rachel shrieked. "You never told me you had a middle name, and a Japanese one at that!"
"I didn't tell you, but you must have seen it when we were all comparing certificates on the day we got them. It didn't just suddenly appear today."
Rachel's smile wavered as she thought back to that time. "Yeah, I guess I must have, but I forgot. Maybe I was too excited about my own certificate to notice."
"My parents wanted me to have one name from each culture, to present me as the modern child who straddles both with grace and confidence. Except I've never even visited the Nikkei Centre in all the years it's been there, so I haven't been honouring my Japanese side very well."
Rachel stepped forward and put her hands on Lauren's shoulders. "I'm going to call you Keiko from now on."
Lauren chuckled and threw off her hands. "Fuck off. You do that and you get no more nookie from me. I'm not your Asian stereotype."
Rachel pouted. "Fine. But you know I'm telling Al."
Lauren shrugged. "Tell whoever you want. It's not like I was hiding it, it just never crossed my mind to tell you." Wasn't she hiding it, though? Lauren thought about it a moment. Subconsciously, maybe? She really had to visit the Nikkei and soak up some culture. She had Regan Nakamura's card somewhere; she should call her and schedule a visit together with her family. Joe said he would go too... "What about you? Do you have a middle name?"
"Nope."
"What happened to your certificate?"
"I bet my mom threw it out. She didn't even come to the ceremony, because she couldn't stand the idea of me getting a reward for doing something she told me not to do."
Lauren held her index finger and thumb up, rubbing them together. "Smallest violin. This story is old news."
Rachel gasped in indignation. "Nice! No sympathy from my best friend?" She held herself back from saying and lover because Lauren's office door was open.
"Why didn't you put it in your box with your dad's notes and Al's love letter if you wanted so much to keep it?" Lauren asked.
Rachel chuckled and said, "It wasn't a love letter, just a Valentine's card with a poem on it." She sighed. "You're right. I should have kept it. I was so proud, even if I didn't really do anything myself."
"You took one for the team, in a way. If Mr. Trybek didn't pull you into the house, he might never have been stopped. You drew us, which drew the police."
"So, I was bait."
"In a manner of speaking."
Rachel smirked. Just then, the phone rang, and Lauren picked it up. It was the internal line, so Lauren answered only with her name.
"Lauren, it's Sunny. I have news."
"Wait, let me put you on speaker." She pressed a button and put the receiver down. "Go ahead, Sunny, Rachel's in the room. Let me close my door."
As she did, Rachel called out, "Hey, Sunny, we're here looking at Lauren's commendation certificate from the City."
"You still have yours?!" Sunny asked in amazement. "Me too!"
"Damn it, I wish I'd kept mine!" Rachel said. "Where's yours?"
"In my home office on the wall."
"I just found mine again," Lauren said, "and I hung it next to my Justice Institute diploma and P.I. credentials."
"Your clients can now see you were a child hero, and that you've had a long history of investigative work," Sunny said, and Lauren could hear the smile in his voice.
"Hey, Sunny," Rachel called, "The certificate has Lauren's middle name on it."
"You have a middle name?!" Sunny said, even more amazed. "I never knew that! What is it?"
"Keiko!" Rachel almost yelled it, even though the speaker phone would have captured it if she spoke in a normal volume.
"Keiko Hasegawa..." Sunny said, almost as if he were talking to himself. "Would it be racist to say that sounds more natural than Lauren Hasegawa?"
"Yes, so fuck off, I like my first name better," Lauren said. "Maybe this is why I never told any of you what it was."
"Sorry, Lauren, I'll lay off. I know how it feels to have your name examined over and over. Like, is Singh your last name, or is it Parhar? Why is every Sikh man called Singh? Or Kaur if it's a woman? All that stuff."
"Does Tej use Kaur?" Lauren asked. "I never asked."
"She doesn't. She wasn't baptized. It's why she still cuts her hair. Anyway, let's get off this subject. I found out some crazy shit today."
"Seriously?!" Rachel said. "The missing persons report?"
"Opened and closed. Naira Sandhu, the one we met yesterday, went missing and turned up."
"What?!" Lauren was flabbergasted. "I don't suppose you got the circumstances of her disappearance?"
"They didn't say. I talked to Detective Tracey about it. He was rightfully confused when I presented him with a photo of a woman claiming to be Naira Sandhu, who wasn't the same woman as the one in the missing persons report."
"That guy must be wondering at our string of luck," Rachel said. "The LSDC sticking their noses in where they don't belong once again."
"I don't know, I think he still has a high opinion of you, Rachel, since he remembered me as having a connection to you."
Rachel blushed. Lauren asked, "What happened next?"
"Well, in walks the other detective, Goncalves--"
"Not trainee detective anymore?" Rachel asked.
"Tracey didn't introduce her that way. Anyway, she sees the picture of the woman I presented, and she says that's her friend, Naira Sandhu."
Lauren and Rachel looked at each other, mouths slightly open in wonder.
"Two women named Naira Sandhu," Lauren breathed.
"Yes, and I thought the odds of that were zero. But I should tell you something else. Birinder was married before, to a woman named Naira. My paralegal, Tori, who's also my campaign manager, discovered this; she was at the event on Saturday, but I don't think I introduced you; you met her once, Rachel, when you worked at my firm that time, but not since then."
"You got your own staff involved on this case?" Lauren asked.
"It didn't take long, and I took her out to lunch after."
"Good boy," Rachel said. "Wait, was she at the police station with you too?"
"She was, since we were still on our lunch break. I think she has a small crush on Detective Tracey."
"I'm not surprised. He has a sort of rough appeal."
"So, what if both of these women are or were his wife, and they took his last name?" Lauren asked.
"So, the woman Jordan knows," Rachel said, slowly, trying to work it out. "Maybe she was married to Birinder, and that's how she knows where his house is and is pretending to live there."
"There's more," Sunny said. "Goncalves says this friend of hers, Naira, she's a cop, too."
"A cop?" Lauren said. "But I thought Jordan said she worked in IT with him."
"Yes. That is a weird thing."
"Do you think Jordan's lying?" Rachel asked. She snapped her fingers as something came to her. "Or, is she working undercover wherever Jordan's working, pretending to be in IT?"
"Now that would be interesting," Lauren said. "If she is, then she's lying to Jordan about who she really is."
"Well, obviously," Sunny said, "if she's still pretending to be Birinder's wife."
"So... why?" Rachel asked. "Why is she lying to Jordan about being in IT and pretending to be someone else's wife?"
"Unless..." Lauren trailed off as she thought about it. Rachel looked at her to continue.
"Are you still there?" Sunny asked.
"Yeah, yeah, just thinking." Lauren shrugged. "What if Jordan's the target?"
"What?" Rachel asked.
"Did you say Jordan is the target?" Sunny asked.
Lauren said, "If this Naira woman is an undercover cop, which is only conjecture right now, she's either getting close to Jordan because he's attractive and she really wants to date him, or because he's the target of her investigation."
"That is interesting theory," Sunny said. "If Jordan thinks she's missing, then maybe she's actually been pulled out by her handlers, and he just doesn't know he's been played."
"I think we still need to assume this woman is missing," Rachel said. "Until we establish where she is, she could still have come to harm, maybe by Birinder, or by Jordan himself. Maybe Jordan did something to her because he discovered she was undercover, have you thought about that?"
"Yes, that is true," Lauren said. "And if he did something to her because he discovered she was undercover, it's either because he was doing something criminal and she found out, or because he didn't like being deceived and took it out on her. If either of those are true, then he played us on Saturday by pretending she was missing."
"Fuck," Sunny breathed. "That does have a kind of sick logic. He searches me out because of our shared history, knowing I'll be sympathetic to another missing Sikh woman. The way he delivers the evidence, he wants me to suspect Birinder, putting himself in my blind spot. Only... it didn't work that way, did it. We pretty much laughed him out the door."
Lauren and Rachel smirked at each other. "He didn't expect the Lawrence Street Detective Club to pick apart his reasoning and cast doubt on his theory," Rachel said. "I bet he was furious when you took him to Lauren, Sunny. A private investigator, and her sleuthy friends! It was probably the last thing he wanted!"
"We need to check where this woman works," Lauren said. "Which police department is she with, did Goncalves tell you?"
"Coquitlam RCMP."
"I wonder if Joanie can find out anything about her. I know those are two different detachments, but maybe they have a central database of staff she can access."
"You talk to her on the phone a lot now, right?" Rachel asked. "Maybe you can give her a call."
"I do, and I will. Thanks, Sunny, this is great work, I should put you on my team here at Justiciar!"
Sunny chuckled. "No thanks. You're my contractor, not the other way around. Speaking of which, can I get some updates on cases we have with you at the moment? I am still actually on the clock."
They spent the next half hour or so running through the files, Lauren providing information on suspicious activity by the opposing side, Rachel providing information on assets and money moving where it wasn't supposed to move.
"Can I have the documentation couriered to me soon, so I can provide proof when I file for injucntions?" Sunny asked.
"We'll get that out today," Lauren said. "Hey, so, when you were talking to us about the Sandhu soap opera, are you saying you were doing so on work time?"
"I have my door closed, so my colleagues don't know I'm passing notes in class."
"Passing notes? What is this, the Seventies?" Rachel asked. "You know our kids are texting in class, now, or posting on their friends' walls, or whatever."
"I hope not," Sunny said, a little heated. "I just got my kids phones because they were griping about your kids having phones, and that's the nightmare scenario I was picturing when I was holding them off."
"Aw, poor Sunny," Lauren said. "Can't deal with peer pressure?"
"No. Your kids are too cool, make them stop being cool."
Rachel burst out laughing. "It's not our kids you have to worry about. Your daughter's turning into a mini version of Tej, you know that, don't you?"
"Don't remind me. Every day I see her and I'm reminded of what happened to my sister. Men suck, have I told you that?"
"What, you don't count yourself among their number?" Lauren asked.
"I won't answer that."
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Lauren pulled out her cell phone and dialled Joanie. She answered after a couple of rings. "Hey, Lauren," she said.
"Hey, Joanie. Are you back at work, yet?"
"Another week. So, you know, bored at home. What's up?"
"You know that case we were discussing on Saturday?"
"Yeah, I thought we kind of left it alone."
"Well, I don't know if Joe told you, but while he took the kids to church, the rest of us attended an Open House hosted by the husband and we discovered a few things. Then Sunny found out a little more today."
She went over everything, and Joanie listened in silence. When she was done, Joanie said, "Holy shit, this just got weird."
"Weirder than drone footage of Birinder's wife leaving the house at three in the morning?"
"No, that part's just creepy. Weird is the fact he may have been married to two women with the same name, and one of them is police, if that Goncalves woman is right."
"You think she wouldn't recognize her friend?"
"No, no, I think she did. Did you say she's with the Coquitlam detachment?"
"That's what Goncalves said."
"Damn, I'd love to be at that one, it would be closer to home."
"Do you think you can find out anything about her? Like, is she on the job and not actually missing?"
"I'll do what I can. I'd love an excuse to get out of the house, actually. Joe doesn't get back for a few more hours, anyway, so he won't miss me."
"What would you do, go to the detachment?"
"Yeah, why not? I can drive now, my truck's an automatic. I'll chat with my brethren in arms, let them fawn over me as the hero of the Battle of Barnet, and subtly ask about a certain friend who happens to be based out of that detachment."
"Holy shit, is that what they're calling it?" Lauren put her phone on speaker and said, "I've put you on speaker, could you tell Rachel what your fellow Horsemen are calling what happened in August?"
"I've told you, Lauren, I don't like the term Horsemen," Joanie said mock sternly. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began life as a constabulary on horseback, taming the West, supposedly; it had involved stopping incursions from Americans, but it had also involved suppressing the Indigenous population, rounding up their children to bring to residential schools, and aiding the government of the day in destroying their culture in the cause of assimilating them to "modern" society, which in that time meant White society. Most RCMP officers never went near a horse nowadays, but the logo of the mounted officer bearing a standard still graced the marked patrol cars today, so most other police forces, municipal or provincial, still referred to them as Horsemen or Mounties.
"What are they calling what?" Rachel asked.
"The hostage operation and subsequent shit show involving two rival drug smuggling gangs," Joanie said. "Unofficially, RCMP all over the Lower Mainland are calling it the Battle of Barnet because, you know, it happened at Barnet Marine Park."
"I can see that," Rachel said. "A lot of bullets were flying that day. You would know, wouldn't you, Lauren? You were right there with Joanie when she was shot."
"Yeah," Lauren said, remembering the horror of it. Joanie, bleeding out on the ground in front of her, bullets tearing the bark off the trees above her, snapping off branches, and all she could think to do was pull her as close as possible to a tree while feeling around on the ground for her phone, which she'd dropped, startled, as soon as the bullets had started flying. Even as armoured constables had burst into the clearing and begun taking control of the situation, which had become so much more chaotic than she could see from her perspective so close to the ground, all she could do was keep frantically searching for that phone, because Joe had been on the other end of the line, and it had been more important than anything else in the world that she kept talking to him, so that he knew she was okay, because Joe was still the love of her life, and the thought of him thinking she was dead, before they'd had the chance to reconcile, terrified her more than the thought of actually dying.
It must have been shock that made her think and act that way, because she hadn't even remembered being in charge of her limbs; some part of her brain had pulled all her resources into focusing on the one thing she could do, because she wasn't police and she didn't have a weapon. She hadn't even helped the woman constable who'd given Joanie first aid. Even Joe had helped Joanie more as soon as he'd arrived, having run to them, with no thought for his own self-preservation, through a gauntlet of gunfire. He'd had the idea of getting Joanie out of the field to meet the ambulance as it arrived from another area of the park; luckily Lauren had remembered seeing a stability board hung on the wall of the Sailing Club building for use by lifeguards, and run to get it, and then she and Joe, and the woman constable, had gotten her out; she'd never even thought to get the woman's name, it had been that chaotic.
"So... what, they all recognize you on sight, now?" Lauren asked, to change the subject.
"I'm the giantess with the red hair," Joanie said. "My height is probably the reason the bullets hit me from so far away, with all that surface area. Everyone on the force knows about me now."
"Well, hey, that's great. Do you think they'd tell you if she was working undercover?"
"No, absolutely not. No one but her and her handlers would know. I wouldn't go that route anyway. You know, if she really was undercover, why would she tell Jordan her real name?"
"Huh. Yeah. Maybe she's not undercover, but what the hell is she doing in two different workplaces?"
"Maybe she moonlights. Police often work as security guards when they're off duty, if they want to make extra money. Maybe she only works part-time at Jordan's workplace."
"You know, Joanie, that's a really good possibility. You're really good at this."
"Gee, thanks, it's kind of my job."
"Are you going to take the detective exams?"
"Yeah, I think I am. Once I get back to work I'm going to get studying."
"I think you'd make a great detective. If you get any information today, would you let us know?"
"Will do. So, hey, Rachel, are you still there?" Joanie asked.
"Yeah, what's up?" Rachel said.
"How did the other Open House go? Lauren mentioned you were looking at a place for real?"
"It went well, I think. Lauren liked it, didn't you, Lauren?" Lauren nodded, and Rachel said, "Yeah, it actually has the extra bedroom so Logan and Emma can have their own, but they still share a bathroom. It's a townhouse, so their rooms are actually on the upper floor, and ours is on the bottom."
"Oh. Is that okay with you?"
"Well, it's the best one we've seen so far. We can make it work. We're probably going to put in an offer, but we want to talk to Tej first and see if she'll represent us."
"Well, that's good news!"
"Joanie," Lauren said, "are you asking because you want to know how long it'll be until you can get Joe out of your hair?"
Joanie chuckled, but then said, "Well... I don't want him to go, and I think that's a problem, because he has to go. Does that make sense?"
Lauren felt her stomach drop. "You're getting too used to him being there, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. He has to be back with his family. I know that, and the sooner he can do that, the better it will be for everyone involved, but he won't go as long as... well..."
"As long as Al's living in the house," Rachel said.
Joanie was quiet a moment before she said, "Yeah. I like Al, if that makes a difference, and I don't hold anything that happened against him--"
"Hold on," Rachel said. "Don't let him off the hook. He wasn't some unwilling victim in Lauren's clutches back in Harrison Hot Springs. He knew what he was doing."
Lauren felt very small hearing her best friend and lover discussing her indiscretions with her husband's lover.
"So, how did you and Al reconcile?" Joanie asked. "Maybe Lauren and Joe can use you as role models."
"They can't," Rachel said. "The difference is I've been with both of them. At the same time, even. That made me more open to forgiving them when they decided to be together without me there. Joe would never be so forgiving, because he doesn't have that same experience. She has to stop seeing Al, and she's done that; it's not up to me, but because I love Joe as I love all my friends, and want him and Lauren to save their marriage, I'm doing all I can to ensure Joe's conditions are met."
"Huh." Joanie paused a moment before saying, "The three of you really were together? At the same time?"
"Yes, dear, I believe the French call it a menage a trois. I won't say it's my favourite way to have sex, but it does offer some pleasurable moments. With one on one, though, you only have one partner to satisfy, and that's just easier all around."
"Have you and Joe ever considered it as an option?" Lauren asked.
"What?!" Joanie squawked. "No! What do you mean?"
"To give him some perspective on being open to other ways of loving, to not be so rigid in his thinking, so maybe he can understand where I'm coming from with Al."
She was quiet a moment before she said, "It's never crossed my mind either, so maybe I'm just as rigid."
"You weren't rigid enough to turn down my offer to enter the arrangement you have with Joe, though."
"Touche. When you suggest Joe and I try it, though, are you suggesting we try it with one of you?"
"I don't know," Lauren said. "Maybe me?"
"Uh... I don't know if I'd be comfortable--"
"Sharing my husband, you mean?"
"No, it's not that! We share him now, right?"
"Not really. He's all yours at the moment."
"But he will come home to you soon, I just know it. No, I mean, I don't know if I'd feel comfortable... um... being naked in front of you and... doing things with you..."
Lauren flushed with heat, and she looked up and saw Rachel blushing too. "Um..." she said, "it doesn't have to be that involved, I mean, he could satisfy both of us without us having to do anything to each other. Rachel and I were lovers long before we invited Al to join us, so I'm not offering to be your partner..." This was getting awkward, and she growled in frustration that she wasn't getting the words right. "You know what, forget I ever mentioned it, and please, don't tell Joe. He already thinks I'm a sex fiend."
"Oh, Lauren..."
"I don't know if I'm going to get him back." Now Lauren was crying, and she was furious at herself for breaking down, but she couldn't help it. "Not the way he used to be, anyway. There's always going to be this stain--"
"Well, there's the marriage counselling, right? You've had a session, and you'll have more, right? Maybe you can hash it out there."
"Yeah," she said curtly, wiping tears and flicking them away like they were acid. "Yeah. Sure. We'll see." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, let us know if you find out anything with this Naira woman."
"Of course. Thanks for calling, Lauren. Have a good rest of the day."
"You too."
She hung up. Rachel stepped forward and put her arms around her, and Lauren put her phone on her desk and hugged her back.
"We'll get him back," Rachel promised. "I know we will."
"You're more confident than I am, then," Lauren said darkly.
Thanks for reading this far! Did you like how I created a flow from Sunny's past to Lauren's present with the commendation certificates? If you liked what you just read, including the awkward conversation Lauren and Rachel had with Joanie, hit the "Vote" button and send this title up the ranks. As always, leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Hit "Continue reading" to see how Sunny deals with an unexpected encounter with the man who might be responsible for Naira's disappearance.