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

Chapter Twenty-Five: Lauren, Saturday

Lauren sped toward Queensborough as fast as she could without risking a ticket. She'd already left work late after putting out a couple of unexpected fires, and this new text from Rachel had her even more excited to get to her friends and figure out what the hell was going on:

Jordan's missing. Police are on the scene.

It had been, up to then, a hard slog of a day, running the ship with barely any sleep, still regretting her argument with Rachel the day before. Now, thankfully, there was a distraction. Jordan was missing, on the very same day Sunny and his family went to Birinder's house for dinner. Her first thought when Rachel sent that text was, Birinder has an alibi. However, that wasn't entirely true. She wasn't sure yet when exactly Jordan went missing, nor that his being missing was a result of foul play. Conceivably, Birinder could have done a misdeed up to the time Sunny and his family arrived, or maybe half an hour before, with time to clean himself up, depending on what he might have done.

She took Marine Drive east, but found herself at more than one red light, so she spent her time calling Naomi with her phone in its hands-free device. She picked up after a few rings. "Hi, Mom," she said.

"Hi, baby. How's everybody doing over there?"

"Good. Logan actually ordered pizza and paid for it himself."

"What?! We had dinner in the fridge for you to heat up. What did he go and do that for?"

"What can I say? You left us to our own devices."

"Cheeky. Is he sticking around to keep an eye on you, then?"

"For now. How long are you going to be?"

"Aw, do you miss me?"

"No!" she protested a little too loudly. "It's just, Logan wants to go out with his friends, but he can't until you get back."

"Why doesn't he tell his friends to come over?"

"Here?! Are you kidding?! They're older boys!"

"What, you don't think they'll behave themselves?"

"I trust Logan, but I don't know his friends."

"Fair enough. I'm just heading to Queensborough to meet up with the others. Hopefully we won't be longer than a couple of hours."

"What if you're longer?"

This was a nervousness Naomi had never exhibited before, and it broke Lauren's heart because she knew it was her fault. All Naomi's life, there'd been at least one parent at home at night, and since Joe had left, that wasn't a guarantee anymore, even though there were even more adults in the house than there'd been before. Cool Auntie Rachel might have sufficed for a night or two if Lauren was out on surveillance, but she wasn't her beloved Dad. Lauren really needed to get Joe back before they gave their kids an anxiety disorder.

"We'll call. You can stay up later tonight, it's a weekend. If there's an emergency, you have Grandma and Grandpa and Zio Johnny's numbers programmed into your phones, or you can call nine-one-one."

"Okay. Is Dad down there, too?"

"Yeah. He's with Joanie, talking to the police."

"Police? What's going on?"

"Nothing bad for any of us, they just noticed something suspicious and reported it."

"Oh. Okay."

Lauren thought Naomi was going to ask if Joe was coming home soon. The pretence they'd set up, that Joe was nursing Joanie back to health and that was why he was living at her house, was coming to an end now that Joanie was back at work on Monday, and Naomi had to be aware of it. Yet, notably, she didn't say anything. Did she simply trust he would be home soon, or had she just lost hope and decided to stop asking? Lauren hoped it was the former, and that she'd be able to fulfill her daughter's hope, for both their sakes.