Hidden in the Blood: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 5)

Chapter Sixty-Four: Tej, Sunday

"I don't know, honestly," Rachel said. "I haven't thought that far ahead. Emma, Agnes and I are all here at the hospital, but I think Agnes should go back to her kids at the hotel, they're probably missing her."

"Who's looking after them?"

"Mandeep Randhawa, he came up here with Agnes to be with her while the prosecutors interviewed her. Maybe her testimony will be what finally brings the Mercers to justice."

"Oh, about Manny," Tej said. "Joe's on the phone with Sunny right now, and he needs to talk to Manny for some reason."

"Jesus, did something happen to them too?" Rachel cried. "I tried calling Lauren before, but she wasn't answering her phone."

"I'll tell Sunny to tell Joe to call you," she said louder than she needed to, grabbing Sunny's arm to bring her point home to him, because it sounded like he was ending his call.

"God, I hope they're okay at least. That creep from last night showed up at the house in Queensborough, and Joanie was there."

"What?!" Tej blurted. "How do you know?"

"Agnes talked to the guy on her front door camera, it feeds to her phone. She had no idea who the hell he was, and she was miffed at Joanie for bringing his tracking device to the house."

"I'd be pissed too. What if this guy did something bad?"

"Well, if Joe's asking for a lawyer, maybe Joanie did something bad to him."

"Let's hope."

Rachel chuckled and said, "Okay, I'll let you go."

"Thanks for calling, Rachel, even if it was bad news."

"I just needed to talk to my friends at home."

"I'm sending good thoughts for Al's speedy recovery."

"Thanks babe. Goodnight."

She hung up, and Tej looked at Sunny, who was on the phone with Mandeep Randhawa now. "That's right," Sunny said. "Lauren helped stop the home invaders, but her choice of weapon has gotten her in a bit of trouble."

Lauren was the one in trouble? How was she even there? Tej waited patiently for Sunny to end his call, but inside she was screaming in frustration.

"Wait, you still have the children with you?" Sunny asked. "Where's Agnes? Is she okay?" He listened for a moment and whipped around to look at Tej with wide eyes. "Jesus. Okay, I'll talk to Tej,  I think Rachel called her."

He hung up a minute later and stared open-mouthed at Tej. "What the fuck happened tonight?"

"You first. What happened to Lauren?"

"It's a bit of a mess," Sunny said. "I'm a little distressed Manny's in the Okanagan and not here. Lauren isn't entirely off the hook."

"You said she helped stop some home invaders?"

"The police are still confirming the identities of the two guys, but they did threaten Joanie at home, and they did want to know where Agnes was. They'd apparently just found out Agnes was in the same room as John Mercer when our creep from last night showed up at the house too. He forced his way in, and one of the original two just shot him in the face."

"Holy shit," Tej breathed. "When I was talking to Rachel she said the guy had showed up, because Agnes was talking to him at the front door through her phone. But he's dead?"

Sunny nodded, looking numb. "Yes. It's horrible."

Tej looked into his eyes and said, "Did we do the wrong thing Friday night? We kind of orchestrated this man's death."