Get You Good (17 page)

“This is serious, Syd.”

“No, Lissandra,” Sydney said, her voice going up a decibel. “Serious is our brother, lying on a hospital bed, teetering between death and life. I couldn't care less about Sheree right now.”

“But this
is
about Dean,” Lissandra insisted. “If we don't find that woman and that money, how are we going to afford Dean's care?”

Sydney sighed. “There are five of us. Six if you include Mom. Among the lot of us, we can come up with the money.”

“Can we?” Lissandra challenged. “Last time I checked, you and I are pretty much broke, and Zelia and Josephine are still in school.”

“That still leaves Mom and JJ and the shop . . .”

“Please. Mom and JJ and their dress shop that takes as much money as it generates?”

Sydney sighed as the reality of Lissandra's words came home to her.

“We aren't the Joneses, Syd. We don't have anything to fall back on. If Dean ends up being in that coma longer than expected, we're going to be in trouble. Even if he doesn't, once he's awake, you know he's probably going to need a lot of care before he's back to normal. That kind of care costs money.”

Sydney took the mug from Lissandra. “What are you thinking?”

“We need to talk to Essie,” Lissandra said.

Sydney almost choked on the hot liquid.

“What?” Sydney and Lissandra both looked up at JJ, who had just come through the door. “You want us to call Essie?”

Lissandra hissed her teeth. “This is why I wanted to have this conversation
before
she got here.”

“I can't believe you are letting her even suggest this, Syd.” JJ closed the front door before coming into the living room.

“OK, Lissandra,” Sydney said, trying to hide the amusement in her voice. “I know we need to do something, but Essie?”

“Yes, Essie, the former police officer and current private investigator. If anyone can track Sheree, she can.”

“If anyone can get Momma's blood pressure up, she can,” JJ countered.

“Hey, just because Mom doesn't talk to her own sister doesn't mean we can't,” Lissandra said.

“OK, OK, let's just calm down.” Sydney raised the mug, to silence her sisters.

“JJ, Lissandra's right. You know Aunt Essie can find a priest at a gay pride parade. If we really want to find Sheree, she's the one.”

“Thank you!” Lissandra said.

“But,” Sydney continued, “if Mom finds out that we went to see Aunt Essie, she's gonna hit the roof. . . .”

“Exactly,” JJ said.

“So.” Sydney paused. “We can't tell her.”

“That's what I'm talking about,” Lissandra said, getting up triumphantly.

“Sydney, I can't believe you.”

“I know, JJ, and if you come up with a better suggestion in the next two hours, then we'll consider it.” Sydney got up and headed toward the stairs. “Other wise, I'm going to bed. And if anyone wakes me up again, I can't be responsible for what I do to you.”

Sydney ascended the stairs to the sound of her sisters arguing. Going to see Aunt Essie was always a last resort. But desperate times called for desperate measures. And right now, things looked more desperate than ever.

E
ssie's office was located near Old Toronto, just a stone's throw from the infamous Regent Park community that most people wouldn't visit in broad daylight, much less at night. It was on the middle of a street of tightly packed shops and businesses whose edifices had seen better days. The entrance to Essie's second-floor office was strategically located between a shady-looking law office and a Cash Money payday loan center, with which she often shared customers.

“This is a bad idea.” JJ pushed her shades farther up her nose as she, Lissandra, and Sydney climbed the stairs to Essie's office.

Lissandra glanced back at her younger sister, who was almost unrecognizable in the head wrap and oversized sunglasses. “No one asked you to come, Erykah Badu.”

“Well, someone needs to be the voice of reason in this, since Sydney has clearly lost that ability.”

“JJ, the wisest man said there's a season for everything under the sun,” Sydney said as she crowned the top of the stairs.

“I didn't see anything in there about a season for going behind your mother's back,” JJ grumbled.

Sydney pressed the doorbell. “Well, you can't expect the man to list everything.”

The door opened to reveal a gorgeous, slim-but-toned man whose racial ambiguity made him an advertiser's dream and eye candy for women of all backgrounds.

“Model,” Lissandra whispered.

Sydney shook her head. “Too short. Actor.”

JJ tipped her sunglasses down. “Uh-uh. Singer/dancer.”

“Actually, it's actor.” He opened the door wider, letting them into the main area.

“Told you,” Sydney said as she stepped inside.

“That's actor slash receptionist, so can I help you?” he asked, when he had taken a seat behind his desk.

“We're here to see Essie,” Sydney said.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“We don't need one.” Lissandra stepped past him toward her aunt's office.

He jumped to his feet. “Now, just wait a minute. . . .”

“Essie, we're here,” Lissandra said, knocking twice on the door before opening it and letting herself in, with Sydney only steps behind her.

“Sorry.” JJ threw him an apologetic look before following her sisters inside.

He was at the door of the office in less than a second.

“Ms. Isaacs, I am so sorry. . . .”

“Don't worry about it, Mars.” She stood up, revealing toned, leather-clad legs. “These are my twin sister's kids.”

His mouth fell open. “You have a twin sister?”

“Close the door on your way out, would you?”

The actor/receptionist looked back and forth between the four of them before shaking his head and exiting the office, closing the door behind him.

“What happened to the last guy?” Lissandra asked, making herself comfortable in one of the chairs across from Essie's desk.

“Too much drama.” Essie's long, blood red nails clicked together as she waved her hand. “That's what I get for hiring all these wannabe actors.”

She grinned. “They sure are easy on the eyes, though.”

JJ groaned and Sydney couldn't help but chuckle as she took in her aunt.

One would never believe that Essie Isaacs had shared a womb with Jackie and was in fact seven minutes older than her. Sydney herself would have doubted the fact that they were identical twins, except she had seen the pictures. But as far as she could tell, Essie and Jackie were night and day. While Jackie was curvy from carrying six children in her body, Essie was lean and toned, as if she spent every day of her life in a gym. Jackie's features were soft and motherly. Essie's identical ones had a sharper edge. And while Jackie had never strayed far from her natural auburn hair color, Sydney had never known her aunt's to be anything but a golden blond. In fact, Essie had been dying her hair blond for so long that Sydney suspected it had probably started growing out of her head that color.

But the physical differences were just the tip of the iceberg. Even though both Jackie and Essie had grown up in a Christian home, and even though both had wandered away, Essie had yet to find her way back. It wasn't that she didn't believe there was a God. She just didn't believe that he had anything to do with her.

There were a few things they did have in common, however: specifically, their inability to remain married to one man and their refusal to take any of those men's last names.

“So, what kind of trouble have you girls gotten yourselves into now?” Essie asked, leaning her hip against her desk.

“Can't we just come see our aunt?” Lissandra asked, sticking a cigarette in the corner of her mouth and pulling out a lighter. “Why do we have to be in trouble?”

“ 'Cause that's the only time you're willing to risk my sister's wrath to see me.” Essie pulled the cigarette out of Lissandra's mouth and tossed it into the garbage. “No smoking in my office.”

“You're right, Auntie . . .” Sydney began.

“Hey, none of that ‘Auntie' stuff,” Essie said, cutting her off. “Makes me feel old. Just Essie.”

Sydney rolled her eyes. “OK, Essie. We do have a bit of a situation. Your nephew went and got himself married.”

“What?”

“Yes,” Lissandra continued. “And the gold-digging spawn of Satan got him to sell Decadent and then cleaned him out.”

“She took everything,” Sydney said.

“Everything?”

“Everything,” the three sisters echoed.

“Dean took it so hard he got drunk and ran his tree into a car,” JJ put in. “He's in the hospital in intensive care.”

“And Mrs. Dean Isaacs is still MIA,” Sydney added.

“Along with five hundred thousand dollars of our family's money,” Lissandra finished.

Essie looked back and forth between the three of them, then reached into her purse and pulled out a cigarette.

“I'm gonna need a smoke for this.”

“I thought you said no smoking in your office?” Lissandra protested.

Essie slid open a door to a tiny balcony and stepped out onto it. “This ain't the office.”

“So let me guess: you need to find her,” Essie said after she had taken a few puffs.

“Yes,” Sydney said.

“What about the police?”

“We already went through that,” JJ said. “They couldn't find anything on Sheree in the system.”

Essie nodded. She took a few more puffs, then put out the cigarette and dropped the butt in a planter on the balcony.

“OK,” she said, unbuttoning her jacket as she sat down in front of her computer. “Tell me what you know about this heifer.”

Sydney gave her everything she knew about Sheree, including her last known address in Toronto, her last place of employment, and her social insurance number, which Sydney had been able to find on some documents included in the paperwork for the sale of the shop.

“OK, I got something,” Essie said, squinting at the screen.

The three women leaned forward.

“What is it?” Lissandra asked eagerly.

“You said this girl was twenty-two, right?”

“Yeah,” JJ said. “Her birthday is May fifteen.”

“Now, that's your first problem. 'Cause according to the government of Canada, Sheree Vern's birthday is September twenty-two, and as of that last birthday, she was twenty-six.”

“What?”

“Twenty-six?”

“She doesn't look like twenty-six.”

“Come on now, you know black don't crack,” Essie said. “But that's not even your biggest problem.”

Sydney pursed her lips. “Keep going.”

“Well, based on the records here, Sheree Vern graduated high school in Ontario in 2004.”

“OK,” Lissandra said. “So?”

“So, up to 2004, there is activity for her. Bank accounts, medical records, tax information, basically proof of life,” Essie began. “But after that, there's nothing.”

“Nothing?” JJ echoed. “What do you mean ‘nothing'?”

“There's no registration at a college, no credit card or bank account activity, no doctor visits or dental checks, no nothing. She didn't even file taxes. It was as if she dropped off the map from 2004 until about two years ago,” Essie said. “As far as this country is concerned, for seven years she didn't exist.”

Sydney shook her head, confused. “How could she just not exist? She must have been somewhere doing something.”

“Exactly,” Essie said. “And I have a feeling if you figure that out, you'll be a lot closer to figuring out where she is.”

“This is ridiculous.” JJ shook her head. “This is not some TV show. There must be an explanation for where she was. Maybe she was out of the country or something. Living overseas. For the year I was away, my record probably looks like that, too.”

“No, sugar,” Essie said. “Even if she was away, there would be some clue. Flight records, immigration records, visa requests, border check-ins. Plus you still have to file your taxes even if you're out of the country. There is nothing for this woman. Her passport was not used in 2005 or during the time that she was off the grid.”

Sydney got up and began to pace as thoughts began to stir in her mind. It was ridiculous. So ridiculous that she didn't want to say it out loud. But she had to.

“What if . . .” Sydney paused as her sisters and aunt turned to look at her. “What if she was someone else?”

“Huh?”

“In the seven years that she was missing, what if she was using a different identity?” Sydney asked. “It would explain why she was able to be off the grid for so long.”

Essie shrugged. “Could be. But you said this girl has family, right?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said.

“So why didn't they report her missing or dead that whole time?” Essie asked. “They must have been in touch with her. They must know something. They're the ones you need to talk to.”

Lissandra cleared her throat, JJ's eyes fell to her lap, and Sydney avoided looking at both of them.

Essie's eyes passed over the three of them one by one.

“OK, spit it out,” she said finally.

“What?” JJ asked.

“You girls are hiding something,” Essie said, narrowing her eyes. “You stink of it. So you might as well tell me what it is.”

Sydney waved away her aunt's suspicion. “It's noth—”

“Sydney's dating Sheree's brother.”

“Lissandra!”

Essie turned to Sydney, an eyebrow raised.

“It's not what you think,” Sydney began. “We actually started dating before we even knew our siblings were married. We grew up together. His dad was friends with our dad. And Sheree is only his half sister.”

“Half is better than none, sugar,” Essie said. “And if you want to find this Sheree girl, you're going to need to work that half.”

“We already broke up,” Sydney said.

“Only in your mind,” Lissandra supplied. “He called twice while you were still at the hospital.”

Sydney sank into a chair and rubbed her eyes.

“This isn't right, Syd,” JJ said. “You can't use his feelings for you to pump information from him about Sheree.”

“JJ, if you don't have anything useful to say, why don't you shut up,” Lissandra snapped.

“I am not going to sit here and act like this is OK,” JJ shot back. “We want to find Sheree, but we can't walk on people to do it. That's not the way.”

“And what other way—”

“No,” Sydney cut Lissandra off. “JJ is right. We're not going to use Hayden to find Sheree. I'll ask him what he knows, and if he doesn't know anything, we'll find another way.”

“You sure that's going to be good enough?” Essie asked, leaning back in her chair.

Sydney stood up as they prepared to leave. “It will have to be.”

Lissandra hissed her teeth as she stood up. “I swear I am the only one with any backbone in this family.”

“If that's what backbone looks like, then thank God for that,” JJ muttered.

“Girls, I'm sorry about Dean,” Essie said. “Let me know what ward he's on and I'll send over a basket.”

Sydney looked at the sadness on her aunt's face. “Or you could come visit.”

Essie snorted and busied herself with some papers on her desk. “Please, you know your momma and me can't be within twenty feet of each other. And I know she won't leave that boy's side till he opens his eyes.”

Sydney nodded.

“But if I can help you find this hussy, I will,” Essie said with renewed vigor. “You find out what you can from that boyfriend of yours and let me know. In the meanwhile, I'll keep digging. If it's there, Essie will find it. You can believe that.”

Sydney and her sisters said their good-byes to Essie before exiting the office. Lissandra blew a kiss at the actor/receptionist, who scowled in return.

“See, it was a good thing we came,” Sydney said as they headed down the stairs to the sidewalk. “Now we know something that we didn't know before.”

“What's that?” JJ asked.

Sydney slipped on her sunglasses as she stepped out into the bright sunlight, even as the harsh reality of their situation hit her.

“When it comes to Sheree, we're not dealing with an amateur.”