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The worst part about being a PI of her caliber was that sometimes she already knew the answer before she even had all the facts. Missing puzzle pieces doesn’t mean she can’t get the full picture, just that she had to find the missing pieces for those who couldn’t. It wasn’t so much that she missed the thrill of the chase, as it were. Rather, some truths were much harder to face in spite of them so clearly sitting in front of her.
This truth was one she had no business of knowing. If she had just done the professional thing and reached out immediately instead of trying to do it for them, she would have never have been in this situation.
She dialed their number. The phone rang once… twice…
“Hey Jancy! What’s up?” The pleasant voice of one Grendan Highforge called out from the other side of the line.
“Yes, hello Gma. How are you today?” Pleasantries first. She was a woman with standards after all, and even then she was dreading the actual topic of her call.
“Oh well, I’m doing great!” She certainly didn’t need any of her detective skills to tell that they were being genuine. “How are you, Jance?”
“I’m doing well.” Jancy stated quickly. It didn’t really matter if that was true or not, this call was going to be uncomfortable enough without bringing her own emotions into the mix. Though she fears that bridge has long since passed. “About the matter of my call-“ she hesitated. How odd, she hardly ever does that. Maybe it was because she had allowed herself to get attached. PIs weren’t supposed to do that, especially not one of her caliber. She had to stop letting her own feelings get in the way.
“Uh, Jancy?” Grendan asks, his voice was much more timid than it had been. Maybe she should’ve done this in person.
“There is some missing information from when you filled out your contract.” She hesitates again.
“Oh, is that it?”
“Well, no. I took the liberty of doing some… digging.” The other side of the line gets quieter, as if he had suddenly froze. She continued, “I’m sure you’re aware but the Highforge estate is also located on Crescent Hill. I believe you told me you got turned away from entering that neighborhood?”
Still no noise from the other side of the line, it was as if he had stopped breathing. “Grendan?” Jancy inquired, “Grandma?”
“Sorry- yeah I said that, didn’t I?” Grenda’s voice was much quieter, lighter. As if she had been holding her breath.
“I also found a story run in a local tabloid… it’s disreputable garbage, but a story like this would usually run in larger papers unless someone had the influence to stop it.” It had taken everything in her not to shred the whole magazine but she had found it archived in a library and she would never harm the library’s collection, no matter how mad it made her.
“Oh.” Was all she heard from the other side of the line and she’d be lying if she said it didn’t break her heart.
“The actual matter of my call was to ask who I should put down as your emergency contacts, is there anyone else that comes to mind?” Jancy asks with pursed lips.
“Uh-“ a pause of silence. “I don’t know.” They said in such a small voice. “Could I call you back later, maybe?”
“Of course, Grandma.” Jancy said softly, hoping it sounded comforting instead of pitying, “Take your time.”
After hearing a small noise of confirmation from Grendan, Jancy took that as her cue to hang up. Placing the phone back on the receiver, she let her face fall.
I majorly fucked that up, didn’t I? She thought to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose. She definitely should have done that in person, what kind of idiot was she to bring it up over an unprompted phone call?
But she knew exactly why she hadn’t done it in person. Who would want to be confronted by their boss about a family life that was clearly none of her business while sitting on the dinky little rolling chair she kept for guests? The phone call gave them distance, that’s why she had done it.
Even if it killed her not to be able to envelop the dwarf in a hug because they just sounded so sad. But of course that was highly unprofessional, and there’s no reason why Grendan would want a hug from her anyways so it was all for the best.
She just had to support him from afar.
A little unknown fact about Jancy True was that she hated paperwork. Now there was value to paperwork, she had enough common sense to admit that much. Information and events were important to keep track of and writing it down was the best way to do that. However, that did not make paperwork any less boring. Lines of text blended together and every form she filled out seemed to have one more box of required information than the last.
Hiring Rosé had been an easy choice to make. Now was it really just to take some of the paperwork load off of her own back? No, not at all. Jancy was hesitant to admit it to herself but she had become attached to Rosé and her other interns the first night they worked together. When Rosé had asked if she could help around the office, Jancy had agreed before she had a second thought.
Reading through Rosé’s batch of paperwork, maybe she should have had a second thought. Setting down the page in her hand, she pinched the bridge of her nose. She appreciated her intern’s... enthusiasm while filling out this that and the other form but there were more than a few things that needed revisions. She had to wonder if hiring Rosé had actually decreased her workload at all.
The creaking of her office door made her sigh, “Rosé, dear, if you were confused by my explanation on how to fill out the forms you could have told me-“ However, looking up she was not met with the tall figure she was expecting. Instead, a rather sheepish looking Grendan stood at the other end of the room.
It took her about 3 seconds longer than normal to recover from her surprise. “Grendan, dear! It’s wonderful to see you, I didn’t realize you’d be stopping by.” She says, standing up to greet them properly. The last time they talked had been the phone call. In all honesty she had been expecting Grandma to avoid talking to her for as long as possible.
“Oh I didn’t call, that’s my bad.” Gma said, carefree smile plastered on her face. It looked genuine and all of Jancy’s detective instincts agreed that it was. Even still, she couldn’t be sure. Somehow she couldn’t fathom Grenda being okay with Jancy’s actions.
Realizing she once again was hesitating, Jancy took to pulling up her rickety guest chair. “Have a seat, can I offer you a drink?” She asks.
Grendan who looked just as relaxed as when they had walked in replied, “No need, I’ll be on my way in a minute, I didn’t want to keep you from work.”
Jancy hummed, retaking her seat. She took an additional moment to study her intern’s face. No malice… no discomfort… Grendan’s face was entirely just… pleasant. For once, Jancy really didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. Hesitating again, really she has probably hesitated more in the past 48 hours than she had in her entire life, Jancy initiated the conversation, “What did you wish to discuss, dear?” Dear… Did she really have any right to use that term of endearment so freely? Probably not, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Oh, I got the numbers for my emergency contact form.” Grenda says, reaching into their right pocket and frowning for the first time today. Then they reach into their left pocket and find what they’re looking for, a slightly crumpled piece of lined paper that had been hastily torn out of a notebook.
Seeing the number scrawled on it, recognition flared in Jancy’s eyes “Is this…”
“Mhm!” Gma confirms. “Rosé said she’d be my emergency contact. York wanted to be one too but we’re still working on the whole getting him a phone thing.” He said with a chuckle, “The second we figure that out he’ll give you a call.”
“I look forward to it.” Jancy mutters, the idea of York operating a cell phone was definitely an amusing image.
“Actually I’m here for York and Rosé as well, I wasn’t going to ask them to be my emergency contacts with nothing in return. They wanted to have me ask you if I could be theirs as well.” Grandma explains, voice tinged with hopefulness.
“You do understand the impracticality of this arrangement?” Jancy asks, perhaps in a ruder tone than she meant to use.
Grendan doesn’t seem put off by it at all and rather just laughs. “Yeah.”
Jancy takes a moment to ponder to herself whether she should really allow this. “You three are quite fond of eachother… and so quickly.”
“Of course! And we have you to thank for that.” Grenda says, smile unwavering.
Jancy forces herself to meet Grendan’s eyes, still searching for something, any emotion that would correlate to how they should feel about her at the moment. But she isn’t even able to detect the smallest fraction of annoyance… her eyes drop back to the paper. “I suppose that’s true.”
Gma hums, “Y’know Jance- I wasn’t really in the best mindset before the case.” He states, Jancy’s focus immediately snapping back to them. Grendan’s smile drops in turn for a more serious expression. “I mean you kind of already know, I was completely alone for the first time in a life and the only thing I really knew how to do was walk dogs.”
“I honestly don’t remember applying here, I had been dropping my résumé off literally all over town, wherever the dog-walking took me. You can imagine I hadn’t gotten that many calls for even just an interview.”
“So when I got your call about my résumé being accepted I was trying to figure out what the hell it was that made you want to hire me. My name? My animal skills? I had nothing."
"Obviously I didn't want you to know that so I did my best to seem like I was definitely qualified to be here... not that I did a very good job.
"Of course after meeting the other two I was even more confused, but somehow you took three idiots and lead them to solving a murder mystery!”
Grandma look directly at Jancy, “You brought us together. I have someone to be my emergency contact because of you.” Gma’s smile finds its way back onto her face. “I have a family again, and you’re kind of an important part of it.”
Jancy doesn’t speak, stunned into silence.
“Anyways- York, Rosé, and I are headed to lunch. You’re welcome to come if you’d like!” Grendan says hopping off her dinky little rolling chair. He was probably taller in the chair than standing.
Walking over to the door, Grenda opened it just for Rosé and York to tumble into the room one on top of each other.
“WE WEREN’T LISTENING!” Rosé yelps while getting up from on top of York.
“We might as well have not listened considering I couldn’t hear a damn thing over you whispering in my ear, Rosé.” York states in his normal nonchalant manner, albeit with a pointed look.
“You’re the one who bragged about your super incredible orc hearing! I wanted to know what they were saying, I’m nosey!”
Jancy sighed as her children continued to bicker all the while Grendan laughs at their family’s antics. Huh… her children.
No longer with any hesitation Jancy stands up from her chair, pushes it in, and dons her coat. “Come along children, I’m overdue for a lunch break.”
Grandma smiles at her and she smiles back. She doesn’t need any detective skills to know both are genuine.