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

Chapter Sixty-Six: One Month Later, Sunny, Friday

Finally, now that they had their own place again, Samson the cat was able to return to his rightful home seven months after the fire that sent him living with Al's mother. All the friends, including Agnes, had visited Al at Royal Columbian Hospital, where his family had paid to have him transported from Kelowna General, and they were all there when he finally returned home, and the look on Al's face when he saw Samson already there, awaiting his return, warmed Sunny's heart. Al immediately sat on the couch, and Samson curled up on Al's lap, purring contentedly, and Al looked blissfully happy to have his buddy back. Man and cat spent days together on that couch, recovering together from their respective surgeries.

As for Al's poor mother, who was surely sad to lose a cat she'd grown to love, well, Rachel and Emma had taken her to her local SPCA, and the three of them together had chosen a suitable companion for her. Not a kitten, for they were scooped up from shelters quickly and would have had too much energy anyway, but an adult cat in her middle years, black with white bib and boots and haunting green eyes, by the name of Tabitha. Rachel had told them all this while Al absently stroked Samson's fur. "I'll visit Mom and Tabitha as soon as I'm able, with treats and catnip toys in tow," Al had said when she'd finished.

Al wouldn't be his mother's only visitor, if what they'd told him was true. Al's adventure up in Kelowna had been the catalyst for a thawing of relations between her and Al's uncle Richard, who'd been estranged for a reason Al wouldn't specify. His cousins were also by a lot more; they'd come around once when Sunny and his family were also visiting, and he got to meet them. They seemed nice.

"Do you feel safe enough?" Sunny asked Agnes now, because the Mercers were still a concern. The incident here and the one in Kelowna had caused a province-wide media sensation, with high ranking police and prosecutors giving news conferences about the many charges they were laying against the patriarch, matriarch and certain scions of the family, of which the murder of Patrick was but one. They were out on bail, though on an enormous bond, and were still free to pull their strings if they wanted revenge, or if they wanted to silence Agnes, but they would be financially ruined and held in custody if they committed any further offences while out on bail.

The RCMP, reeling from the embarrassment of the Royal Commission into the very technology that had saved Al's life, rallied around the cause of bringing the Mercers down as a way to boost its members' morale; the funeral for Patrick, in a Langley cemetary, which all the friends had attended to support Joanie and Agnes, had attracted members nationwide, in addition to police from other forces in Canada and even the United States (what it hadn't attracted, Sunny had been dismayed to notice, were either of his parents, from whom he'd alienated himself when he moved west). The militaristic send-off, escorted by men and women in full ceremonial regalia, had been intended to send a message to the Mercers and any others who thought nothing of taking the life of a police officer: we will retaliate, and hard.

Agnes sighed and said, "They offered to put us in Witness Protection, but I couldn't imagine moving away again, going somewhere I don't know, away from my parents, from all of you. You've all been such a support for me and the kids, I wouldn't know what I'd do without you all."

Sunny smiled and squeezed her hand.

"And anyway," she said, "Don't they have to behave if they're heading to trial? If something were to happen to me or my family, or Al, don't you think they'd be the first people they'd look at? Not that I'm not still checking underneath my car for bombs every time I go out."

"I think that's a good practice."

"And there are also the cameras around the outside of the house, and the front door camera that communicates with my phone, so I always see who's out there and can call the police and barricade us inside."