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

Chapter Twenty-Three: Sunny, Saturday

Sunny pulled into the driveway of the house he saw in the footage, stopping just before the door of the garage. Any vehicle in the garage was effectively trapped, now. No getaways. He didn't know why he thought that would give him an advantage if anything happened; if Birinder wanted to kill him and his family, he could just steal the fob to the Prius from his pocket and pull it out of the way, or drive it somewhere and burn it to get rid of the evidence.

He had to stop thinking like this, or he was going to work himself into a quivering mess, and Birinder was going to wonder what the hell was wrong with him; or, if Birinder really was a bad guy, he would interpret his nerves as knowledge of his wrongdoing and take action to silence him. He tried to remember what Lauren taught him yesterday about engaging with the target, but he had a feeling he didn't absorb it all, because he couldn't help worrying about Lauren. 

"Sunny?" Tej said next to him in the passenger seat.

"Hm?" He snapped out of his reverie and looked at her. She was especially beautiful this evening in a sari whose orange matched the colour of his turban, but it made him uneasy; she rarely dressed traditionally, and when she did it made her appear like a delicate flower instead of the capable, radiant woman he was used to, like the one in the power suit who canvassed door-to-door with him and Tori earlier today in the Brow of the Hill and West End neighbourhoods, driving them between them in a van full of lawn signs with his grinning mug on them. He needed her to be the latter this evening, and hopefully her dress wouldn't affect her composure.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You've been sitting there staring for ten seconds."

"Sorry," he said. "I think I'm just apprehensive."

She gave him a knowing look and said, "Don't worry, I have no intention of joining his real estate group." He'd told her about Birinder's offer when he'd arrived at home on Wednesday. "Or is it something else?"

"Something else."

She nodded knowingly again, but didn't expand, because the kids didn't need to hear about the sordid details of the case that made Sunny curious enough to bring them here. She was just as enthusiastic as he was about spying on the Sandhus under the cover of this quaint meeting of two South Asian families but, unlike Sunny, she didn't seem nervous at all. "Well, come on," she said, unbuckling her seat belt and shifting her covered dish of sweets on her lap as she did so. "I'm sure they know we're here by now, and they must be wondering what we're doing sitting here."

"Hold on," he said as he heard his phone ping with a text. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the message, and smiled.

Rachel: We're almost there.

He typed: Thanks. We're just going in. Who's we?

Rachel: The whole crew, except Lauren, she's running late. Joe and Joanie are going to Jordan's house, and Al and I will walk the neighbourhood and keep an eye on B's house.

Sunny: Thanks very much, Rachel. I feel much safer now.

Rachel: LSDC forever. Smiley face emoji.

He put his phone back in his pocket, deciding against recording their conversation tonight, and then they climbed out of the Prius and smoothed their clothes down. All of them wore their best, Harpreet and Ajit dressing as if for Gurdwara, neither of them looking happy to be here. Sunny's explanation for the invitation didn't leave them any the wiser about why they had to go with their parents to these strangers' house, strangers who had no kids of their own yet. Sunny could understand why they might feel extraneous here; he would have too when he was their age. Birinder had told him to bring the kids, though, so he didn't want to just suddenly show up without them, and there was another reason he wanted them along: the presence of children would reduce the likelihood of anything untoward happening.