Welcome, Heather Haven

Richard blogs about his sister, Lee Alvarez, from Murder is a Family Business.

My sister is the best but she can drive a person crazy. She takes chances, she doesn’t listen to reason, and she certainly doesn’t listen to me. Maybe that’s because she’s three years older. Lee’s pretty smart, but don’t tell her that; I like to pretend I’m the smart one in the family. I’m a computer genius, if I’m to believe any of the write-ups in Wired, but Lee’s got this other talent, which is pretty awesome.

She’s a natural born ferret. She can find anything or anybody, anytime, anyplace. That’s why she’s got a reputation as one of the best investigators at Discretionary Inquiries. Some people might say that’s only because our mother is CEO of D.I., but nepotism will only take you so far, especially with Lila Hamilton Alvarez. Behind her back, I call Mom ‘Our Lady’ and she’s designer tough. I’ve known her to crack open a coconut just by staring it down. We’re quite a family.

But back to Lee and her ferreting, I remember when I was in the 6th grade, this bully a year or two older, started beating me up after school for no reason. Lee found out that his dog had been missing for three weeks and he was taking his frustration and anger out on me. Wearing her non-judgmental hat, Lee went to him and said that she would find his dog if he promised to leave me alone after that.

Even I didn’t think she could pull that off and I knew about her skills from day one. This kid laughed in her face but she got him to promise. Long story short, Lee took her bicycle out every day after school and found the guy’s dog five days later chained in a yard in East Palo Alto. She had to walk back with dog in tow, because she’d traded her Schwinn for him. The bully turned out to be pretty nice guy after that, serving in Iraq now, and we still keep in touch at Christmas.



Anyway, that’s the kind of sister Lee is. She’s got your back. Which is good. She may drive me crazy but when Murder is a Family Business, she’s exactly who you want to be hanging out with.

Read more about Heather and Murder is a Family Business at
http://www.heatherhavenstories.com/