Bea got the kettle going once the papers were out, getting cups and tea pot down for tea. They were going to be working on this for a while. Might as well have some tea to fortify them through the search. She thought while she got the tea ready, humming a little bit. “He had lots of old friends. Men from back in his own uni days that had moved on to other places that he hadn’t seen in years.”

And of course there were even older friends. From when he was younger than she was now. But those were even more distant than his uni friends. And there were old colleagues. Ones who’d gone to other schools to teach, or had walked away from teaching like he had. There were so many people her father had met in his life, and it was hard for even her to say who were friends and who weren’t, who were the people he’d kept in touch with, and who were the ones he’d trusted enough with this thing that he hadn’t trusted her with while he was alive.

“There’s a pile of letters,” she said turning around and bringing a little tray over with everything they’d need for tea for a while. “It wouldn’t hurt to take a read through them to see what kind of relationship they had. Decerne which one of them might be the most trusted of them.”

[center] 《》 《》 [/center]

Rebeca smiled and laughed a little. “Call it what you like,” she said. “Doesn’t make much difference to me.” She looked over her shoulder at her father and gave him a little wave. “I’m going to see her out.” He just nodded and went back to whatever it was he was doing before they arrived. 

She stepped past Estella, but didn’t walk too far ahead of her either and waited for her to turn around and follow her out of the ship. Before they parted ways, she stopped and smiled at the other girl. “Truly, thank you,” she said with a smile. “We’ll be certain to recommend you to anyone for your professionalism.”