Sunny was in a quandary. Here was a situation in which he'd found himself before. As an officer of the court, it was his duty to report criminal wrongdoing whenever he witnessed it, at least theoretically. It was why criminal defence lawyers didn't want their clients to tell them if they'd committed the crime in question. It was why he advised clients not to tell him anything incriminating, not that it came up much in his area of law, but sometimes his clients played dirty pool with their assets to hide them from their estranged spouses. It was the kind of thing he hired Lauren's firm to find out about his client's opponent, with Rachel the forensic accountant performing the work more often than not; three members of the newly reunited Lawrence Street Detective Club often worked together on a single case, and though it wasn't like the days of finding lost dogs and saving abused boys, it was the closest they came on a day to day basis to reliving those days.

The inconvenient nature of his duty, he was sure, had prevented him from being involved in at least one case the LSDC had taken on back in 2009, when he might have otherwise experienced that same thrill of doing something important and making a real difference. Something had happened to Martin Heath, the CEO of the development company that had used Rachel as its accountant when she'd worked for Henderson Peters, the firm that had fired her when it had discovered, first, that she and Martin had been involved in an inappropriate romantic relationship, and then that money had been discovered in a secret account as a result of embezzlement for which Martin had framed Rachel by stealing her login credentials and moving the money under her name. A few weeks after Rachel and Al had come back into Sunny's life, when they'd attended the memorial for Mrs. Anderson and Rachel had taken on the duties of executor of her estate, Martin Heath had sued to have Rachel removed as executor because he'd wanted Mrs. Anderson's house as part of a land assembly for a new development in Queensborough, and Mrs. Anderson's will had stipulated the house was meant for the New Westminster Historical Society. Sunny had fought for her to stay on in court, and the judge had allowed it until the other side could provide evidence of sale of the house prior to Mrs. Anderson's death. That evidence had never appeared and, soon after, Martin had seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth. 

His friends had never let on that they'd known anything about Martin's disappearance, but he suspected something had happened the night Lauren and Joe had showed up with their kids, asking Sunny and Tej to look after them in the guise of a play date with Harpreet and Ajit. A rather late play date in Sunny's opinion; his kids would have been getting ready to go to bed within a couple of hours of their arrival, so he'd been rather irritated by the request, but something in Lauren's eyes had hinted at the urgency of the situation that had forced them to ask in the first place, so he'd acquiesced. All she would say was that Rachel's friend needed help, and when she'd returned long after bedtime, looking exhausted and emotional, he'd suspected something terrible had happened. He'd feared they'd done something bad, and when nobody had mentioned Martin Heath anymore, and the company had dropped the lawsuit against Rachel, he'd known they'd done the bad thing to Martin. What he didn't know, even now, was what exactly they'd done, nor did he have proof, and for that he was grateful, because the last thing he would have wanted to do as an officer of the court was turn in his friends.

He was also hurt, though, that his friends hadn't thought to involve him in their plan. He understood why they hadn't and was grateful they'd respected him enough not to put him in legal peril and threaten his career. Still, he felt like he'd missed out on an opportunity to help his friends and act like they were the LSDC again.

Now here he was with one of his friends, listening to the words of a man Sunny never thought he would ever hear from again, and he was afraid he was going to have to back away again, because something about the evidence Jordan had obtained was illegal.

He didn't want to back away, that was the problem.

Nothing obligated him to get involved. It wasn't like he wasn't already busy enough with work, family, and now a political campaign. Something about Jordan's story tugged at his conscience, though. Here was an opportunity to help, to make amends for his failure to save Bishan. Hadn't he once lamented to his friends, while they'd all been gathered around Rachel's hospital bed back in August, that he'd never been there when the rest of them had gotten into sticky situations? Hadn't he used Martin Heath as an example, not saying his name because he hadn't wanted to make his friends admit they'd done something illegal, and hadn't he admitted he wished he'd been involved in their illegal activity, regardless of the potential consequences to his career and family? And hadn't Emma said, without any hint of guile because she was the sweetest and most genuine creature on the planet, "You'll get to be the hero next time"? 

He wanted so badly to be the hero this time.

"What do you have?" he asked Jordan. He thought he would at least judge for himself whether or not what Jordan had was illegally obtained. If it was, he would pretend he'd never seen or heard about it and leave Jordan in Lauren's capable hands.

"Footage from the night she disappeared," Jordan replied.

Sunny looked at Lauren, whose mouth opened in amazement. "What kind of footage, Jordan?" he asked.

"Drone footage."

Sunny opened his mouth but found himself unable to form words. He understood the words Jordan had said but they still didn't make sense.

Lauren was quicker off the mark. "You used a drone to film your girlfriend?"

"I know how it sounds," Jordan said, reading correctly the look on Lauren's face. "I was doing it for her protection, though, and with her consent."

"Whether or not I believe you is irrelevant," she said, but she'd crossed her arms before she said it, and everybody knew that was a defensive posture; Sunny knew Lauren's opinion of the man had suddenly plummeted, where before he could tell she'd been a little dazzled by him. Maybe not so clearly smitten as poor Regan had been, but Jordan seemed to have that effect on a lot of women. When he'd said he dated a lot, Sunny wondered if he'd been dating someone else at the same time he'd been having an affair with Bishan, and that thought made him grind his teeth in impotent fury; Bishan dying for loving this loser, when he might have had another woman on the side, would have been the worst waste of all. "If the footage is really from the night she disappeared," Lauren went on, "it might go a long way to helping us find her."

"Can I show you?" he asked, pulling out his phone.

"Whoa, whoa," Lauren said, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. "Not here. This is a public place."

"Lauren's right," Sunny said. "If there's evidence of a criminal act on that, we don't want the wrong people seeing it."

"Let's find a quiet place," Lauren said. "When we walked in here, I saw escalators. Is there another floor to this place?"

"A couple, I think. There is a theatre up there, a museum and meeting rooms."

"Perfect." Lauren looked around and said, "Your shindig is still going strong. Are you able to leave it for a few minutes?"

Sunny felt warm inside that she didn't automatically exclude him, but she made a good point. "Can you give me a few minutes before you get started? I should probably talk to Tori--"

"Tori?"

"Tori Ramos, the woman in the white pant suit, my paralegal and campaign manager." He gestured to her across the room, speaking to Tej, conveniently enough. "She'll need to know if I'm gone. I'll let Tej know too."

"I'll let Al and Rachel know to look after the kids." Lauren blinked and said, "Wait. No. Joe can look after the kids. He is their father, after all."

Jordan politely listened to Lauren's thinking out loud, but Sunny could tell he was impatient to get going. "Do we want to involve the others in this case?" he asked. Sunny wasn't going to explain to Jordan about the LSDC.

"Let's not for now," she said. "if Jordan's going to hire my firm, this needs to remain confidential."

"Whoa, whoa, who said anything about hiring anyone?" Jordan said, raising his hands in the air. "I just want to know what I should do with this."

"You have evidence you don't want to give the police because you think it's illegal," Lauren said calmly. "If I'm going to do something with it, I need to be hired to do so. I don't work for free."

"A woman's life is in danger," Jordan said, a little frantic now. 

"And the police are looking for her, are they not?"

Jordan's mouth opened and closed, indignant and also flummoxed. Sunny felt a little sorry for him.

"How about this?" Sunny said. "Why don't we just look at it. If you're not interested in an official hire, then we involve my friends and get their input, too."

"Friends?" Jordan asked, brow furrowed. "I thought we didn't want other people looking at this."

"Yeah, they're all here, they... we've worked together in the past on situations of a sensitive nature. Actually, Lauren's friend Joanie over there," he pointed to her standing beside Joe, doing all the talking because Joe rarely spoke in crowds. "She's a Sergeant in the RCMP." Seeing Jordan's frightened eyes, he said, "She's not on duty right now, she's still on disability. What I'm saying is, you can trust them to be confidential."

Jordan looked from him to Lauren, who didn't poo-poo his idea of bringing them all in. He knew she was feeling the LSDC bug too.

Jordan sighed and said, "Whatever you want, just, please, can we do this soon?"

"Go upstairs," Lauren said, sounding annoyed with him now. "We'll meet you up there."

He nodded and left. Sunny looked to Lauren and said, "I'll tell Tej and Tori where I'm going, while you tell the others?"

"I feel bad about Tej, I think she should be there too."

"Yeah," he said, sighing. "I feel like Tori will murder me if we both leave, though. I'm kind of scared of her."

Lauren chuckled. "Well, do what you can. She's a member too."

"Will do." He offered his fist, which she bopped with her own in a go team gesture. They parted ways, and Sunny made his way through the sea of people, shaking hands with well-wishers as he went. 

He found Joe and Joanie before Lauren did and patted Joe on the shoulder, saying, "Go see Lauren and the others. Something's come up."

Joe squinted at Sunny and said, "Everything okay?"

"With your family and friends, yes. It's something else, though. We'll explain when we're all together."

"Joanie too?"

"Especially Joanie," he said, smiling.

They looked at each other, shrugged and went off. Sunny continued on, doing his campaign duty as quickly as he could. One or two people tried to hold him down on one plank or another, and he did his best to answer their questions as briefly as possible before moving on.

When he found Tori and Tej, who appeared to be getting along like a house on fire, for which he was glad because they would all need to be working closely together over the next few weeks, he placed a hand on both their shoulders and said, "How are things going? Drinks and canapes under control?"

"Fear not, dear leader," Tori said, "the women of your cult have produced sufficient food and drink for your followers."

Tej burst out laughing and said, "Where have you been all my life, Tori? You keep this guy in line."

"She does. It's why I can go home before midnight most days." Sunny cleared his throat and asked, "Tori, could I impose on you a little longer and borrow Tej and the kids for some friends and family time in a quiet part of the building? I promise to be back as soon as I can."

Tej looked him over and asked, "What's going on, Sunny?"

"I'll tell you once we get going."

Tori scowled at him and said, "And what shall I tell all the people who've come to see you? Sorry, you can't talk to him right now, he's playing with his kids?"

"Won't that go over well with the family values voters? Priorities!"

She stared at him for a very long moment, and Sunny suddenly felt the need to loosen his tie. This wasn't an unfamiliar feeling whenever he dealt with his work wife.

Finally, she said, "If anyone asks me, I'll tell them an emergency has pulled you away from the room, and you'll be back as soon as you can. And it better be very soon."

"I gave my speech already," he protested. "You'd think people would start going home by now."

"I guess you were that good and everyone wants to hear more. Speaking of which, you spent an awful lot of time with that hot guy with the blue eyes. Some of these guys you need to shake loose or they'll bend your ear all night."

"Duly noted. Oh, if my parents ask you where I am, will you tell them I'll be back soon, and we'll all drive home together?"

"Yes, yes, go, and be quick about it," she said, waving him away. Chastened, Sunny placed a hand on the small of Tej's back and led her away.

As they looked for their kids, Tej looked at him, and he nearly flinched at her expression.   

"What the fuck, Sunny?" Tej said. "You were talking to Jordan? What the hell is he doing here, anyway?"

"You'll find out."

"What?!" she squawked. "We're seeing him?"

"We're all seeing him. The whole LSDC."

She blinked in surprise. "Oh. You mean, like, a case? But can't this wait until tomorrow? We're kind of busy, here."

"It's a missing woman, and time is of the essence, I'm afraid."

Tej's mouth dropped open. "Don't tell me..."

"I won't. We'll all discover what happened together."

Tej shook her head in disgust. "Another woman he's gotten involved with goes missing, and suddenly he wants our help."

"I know. I thought, by involving all of us, we wouldn't be tempted to punch him."

Tej harrumphed and said, "I'm not making any promises."

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To jump back to 1977, and the development of Sunny's first two crushes, one a movie, and one a friend, click on "Continue reading."