“Can you come over? I found something huge in the papers.” Her words rushed together in her excitement.
“What is it?” he asked, his voice more energetic than it had been.
“I’d rather tell you in person.”
“Give me a half hour. I have to finish this one email, and then I’ll come over.”
“Thank you. I’ll run across the street and have sandwiches waiting.” She remembered her lunch in the microwave, but she would stick that in the fridge and eat it later.
“I’ll see you soon.”
When the call ended, she rushed across the street to grab food, thankful she’d at least managed to shower and dress for the day already. Jack wouldn’t have much time, and she almost felt guilty for pulling him away from work, but not quite. He did have an hour for lunch, though she knew he didn’t often use the full sixty minutes, and she knew he’d want to hear this face-to-face, not over the phone.
The deli took longer than normal, and she arrived at her apartment at the same time as Jack. They climbed the stairs together, and he held the bag of food while she unlocked the door. She’d forgotten to grab drinks and went to the kitchen and pulled out two bottles of water.
“Both sandwiches are the same,” she told him. “Honey ham and provolone toasted with their special sauce.”
“Perfect. Thanks.” He took a bottle of water, they say next to each other on the sofa, him on the edge and her at the center.
She reached for the copy of Edwin’s obituary. “Read this, paying special attention to his daughters’ names.”
“Fay Anderson and Isabel Lombard.” His eyes lit up. “Anderson, Tommy’s last name. Do you think this could the be same Edwin that he mentioned to us last night?”
“I believe so. But there’s more.” She reached for her tablet and showed him Fay’s obituary. “Do you see that?”
His eyes moved over the screen, and she knew the moment he saw. His jaw dropped and he didn’t speak for several seconds. “Her birthday, it’s the day before the letter.”
“Yes,” she practically shouted. “Do you understand?”
He whispered the words of the letter that stood out to her earlier. “That changes everything. Wow.”
“It sounds like she had to make a choice between Edwin or Fay.” Tears welled in her eyes. What a difficult decision that must have been.
“Or did she? By the looks of this, she ended up with Edwin as her husband and Fay as her daughter. We’re still missing pieces.” His brow furrowed. “Now I really can’t wait until dinner tonight.”
“Me neither.” She clasped his shoulder. “We’re so close to finding out.”
“I can’t believe Tommy may be a relative of our mysterious author.” He shook his head. “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
An idea formed.
“What do you think-” she began to ask at the same time he started off with the same questions. She laughed. “You first.”
“If we confirm that this letter was written by Davinia Smith, whom we suspect could be Tommy’s great-great-grandmother, what would you think about giving his family the letter?”
“You’re the one who found the letter,” she said. “That’s your call, but I was going to say the same thing.”
“We’re in this together. Any decisions, we make as a team.” His dark eyes rested on her.
A team. They really had become a team in more ways than one. “Let’s give the letter to Tommy’s family.”
“Have you heard if they’ve fixed the water main break?” he asked after he’d swallowed a bite?
“Not yet, but I’m sure they’ll have it fixed by tomorrow. The students will be extra keyed up from having an extra day off.”
“Unexpected days off are the best.”
She nodded in agreement. “I love my job, but when I read the announcement this morning I was overjoyed. I needed a day alone to recoup and gather my thoughts.”
