Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Four: Lauren, Monday

"They also didn't seem to believe the story about finding Joe's phone until I gave them the card of your friend in the RCMP. Luckily I was still wearing the clothes from that day and still had it in my pocket. They'll probably give her a call to confirm."

"Okay. She's not really my friend; we haven't seen each other in years. She was more like an ally in school against the boys' club."

"Oh. Okay." He turned to her and said, "They also pulled a gotcha on me."

She turned to him, stunned. "What?"

"Right at the end of the interview, they showed me a couple of things they found on Rachel's phone."

She gasped. "Shit, I really wish we'd gotten our hands on it first. What did they find?"

He cleared his throat and said, "The first thing they showed me was pictures of you and Rachel. Naked, and in various positions."

Lauren groaned and put her hands over her eyes.

"I'm really glad you told me about you two before I saw those," he said, "or I would have given the police motive. They deflated like balloons when I told them I already knew. I think they think we're one big swingers group, now."

"Why did she keep those?" she asked herself, shaking her head. She looked to Al. "You have the passcode for her phone, right? You could have found those at any time!" Then she thought about Joe's phone, and guessed that sometimes people took those risks anyway, maybe intending to get rid of them at a later date and not getting the chance. Or maybe they just trusted that their spouses would never look at their phones without their permission.

"So, you remember them?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, feeling embarrassment creeping in. "We were just playing around. Just being wild and having fun. I thought she'd get rid of them. We talked before about recording ourselves, but we knew it was just too much of a risk, especially where Joe was concerned."

Al was silent a moment as he drove. Then he said, "It's funny. I know you told me about you two, and even though we've all watched ourselves doing it with our respective spouses, I still reacted a little, seeing the two of you in those pictures. A little bit of shock, and a little bit of arousal. I think it got real for me, when I saw them."

"Well, I'm glad you knew about us, too, just so you were more prepared when they showed you." She stared out the window for a moment so her cheeks could cool down. "So, what was the other thing they showed you?"

"That was a little stranger. I can't understand it."

"You have me intrigued, Al. Spill."

"It was a text exchange."

"What?" she squawked, nearly jumping out of her seat.

"Yeah. It was between her and a number I didn't recognize. I mean, all of us probably have our numbers programmed into our phones by now so it shows up in the call display. So, who was this? I couldn't intuit it from what they said."

Lauren thought about that for a second. It couldn't have been the same conversation she'd seen on Joe's phone. One unrecognizable number she could understand, but not two. These were their regular phones, not burners. "Can you remember what it said?" she asked, bracing herself just in case.

"It appeared to be a negotiation over some kind of purchase. I think they came to an agreement on the price, but hadn't come to a time or place for the exchange."

"Huh. And this is something you never knew about?"

"No."

She rubbed her chin while she thought about it. "Don't you have a birthday coming up? Halloween, right?"