Al had become inured to the fact that his staff badge wouldn't work if he pressed it to the RFID reader with his hand. There was no point in asking Security about it again, because he was sure a new badge would only give the same result. He'd become expert at leaning in with it hanging from a lanyard around his neck and letting it tap the reader on its own. That always got him in, but it earned him a few curious looks from his coworkers.
It wasn't just at his work where this phenomenon presented difficulties. Whenever he booked a Modo car, the fob reader on the car would malfunction if he pressed the fob to it with his hand. He often had to get Rachel to use her fob if she was with him, and when he explained his theory to her, she showed her sympathy in typical Rachel fashion by laughing at him. "We should be relieved these nanobots of yours are only interfering with electronics on contact," she said. "Imagine the damage you could be doing, like making airplanes fall out of the sky. I have to wonder if you really are pinging cellular towers like we feared. There's no way to know without being on the inside, nor is there any way to know if anyone's tracking you."
"Thanks, honey," Al said sardonically, "I feel much better now."
Today, he'd barely sat at his desk when the workroom phone rang. No one was around to answer it. He sighed and picked up. "Good morning, Catalogue workroom."
For a millisecond he thought it was going to be Lauren; she'd called him on this phone the first time he heard her voice in thirty years, to let him know Mrs. Anderson had passed away and to invite him to the memorial to reunite with his old Queensborough friends. Another time she'd called him when his work day was almost over, and they'd had an unexpected session of phone sex that still made him hard whenever he thought about it. She always asked for him by his full name in allusion to that first time she called him; it was a kind of shtick with them.
The woman on the other end only asked for Al, though, so he knew it wasn't her, and the anticipatory tingle he'd felt on the back of his neck disappeared.
"This is Al," he answered.
"Hey, Al, it's Daphne here."
"Oh, Daphne!" It was his cousin, calling from upstairs in the VPL Foundation office. "Hi! How's it going?"
"Good, good. I just wanted to call you before I forgot. Did you get your formal invitation and tickets by email?"
She meant the ice wine event being held by her brother, Richard Junior. "Yes, I did. Four tickets. Thank you for arranging this, and please thank Richard for extending the invitation."
"Actually, we've talked, and he's excited to meet you. He's getting to the age where he's interested in his family history, and he's been on those genealogy websites creating a family tree. You're a branch he doesn't have a lot of info for, so he wants to get your story."
"Really?" Al was stunned. "Won't he be busy that night? You know, hosting the party?"
"Come early. Bring your family in the morning, you can get to Kelowna by early afternoon. He'd have time to chat with you. I'm going up Friday night so I'll already be there. Mom and Dad and Marie will be there too, but Jason's bowed out this year, unfortunately; he doesn't feel too festive right now with his divorce."
"I understand. Wait, did you say your mom and dad will be there, too?"
"Of course! They're there every year, it's an excuse for them to go visit Richard and their grandkids."
Al wondered what Uncle Richard would say when he saw Al and his family there. He hadn't come round to visit them as he'd promised yet, and Al had bent if not broken his promise not to reach out to Richard's children. He cleared his throat and asked, "Does Uncle Richard know we're coming?"
"No, actually, we want it to be a surprise."
"Uh..."
"Is that a problem?"
"Well, no, but... I'm not sure I'll be bringing the whole family. Logan might not want to come, you know teenage boys."
"I grew up with brothers, so yeah. Don't worry, you can always bring a substitute. Just let them know by email."
"Oh. Well, all right."
"One more thing: I know the invitation says black tie but I want to reinforce that it really is black tie. I mean tuxes and fancy dresses, here."
Al wondered if Daphne thought he didn't know what black tie meant. Certainly, he didn't attend such events on a regular basis, and maybe the clothes he wore were sometimes wrinkled because, as Rachel always told him, he couldn't wield an iron to save his life, and maybe Daphne noticed whenever they saw each other, and maybe his suit was from Tip Top Tailors, but he knew the calibre of guest this event would attract, and he knew how important it would be to dress well. "Will it be okay that I rent a tux?" he asked, trying to hide his irritation. "Rachel's already bought a fancy gown, she's looking forward to this more than I am, I guess I don't take her out to fancy dos that often."
Daphne barked a laugh. "Typical married man. Is she the type who likes fancy dos?"
"I think in her previous life, when she worked as an accountant at a big firm downtown, she might have attended business functions that required dressing up. She has a very good sense for designer clothing, and I think that's where it came from. Just before she reunited with me, though, her fortunes took a tumble, I won't go into it." He wouldn't go into it because he had no desire to mention the CEO, the grisly fate that befell him and what the LSDC had to do in the aftermath. "Since then," he went on, "she hasn't found many opportunities to attend functions like this; her new workplace doesn't have the budget for them, and she's otherwise been busy with family life."
"Well, if she likes wine, she'll like this event."
"Oh, she likes wine, all right." He heard himself and chuckled awkwardly. "Shoot, sorry, that made her sound like an alcoholic. She's not an alcoholic."
"I believe you. Just from the times I've seen her she seems, to me, a capable, level-headed person."
"What about Emma? Should she be dressed fancy? I don't want her to feel self-conscious."
"You're a good dad, you know that? As long as her clothes aren't food-stained, I doubt anyone will care."
"I can't guarantee that. Her motor control isn't consistent." She knew about Emma's FAS diagnosis.
"If you'd rather not have her attend the party, maybe you can bring friends up with you and they can take her out on the town. Kelowna is a lovely city."
"That's an idea. I'll think about it."
"Okay, well, you have my cell phone number. Why don't you call when you've arrived in Kelowna and we can make arrangements. Have you booked a hotel? Unfortunately, all of Richard Junior's spare bedrooms are already spoken for."
This was what cousin status granted. He supposed he should be happy they got the invite at all. "Yes, we've booked a hotel in the city, we'll be fine."
"Fantastic. We'll see you then."
She hung up. Al went back to his desk and, after logging into his computer, he noticed a text on his phone from Agnes.
Lunch today?
Al smiled and texted back: I thought you were taking time off work.
My parents offered to come to the townhouse to babysit. I can't make any funeral arrangements yet, and I still need to work. I'm going for an interview for a full-time position and I don't want to miss it.
Great! Good luck! When is it?
This morning. We can debrief afterwards.
They agreed on time and place, and Al finally started his work day.
When he met her later at the Triple O's, across Hamilton Street in the CBC building, she opened her arms to him and said, "I need a hug."
He obliged, but he was uncomfortably aware that they started every work lunch like this and that if Rachel found out about it she might disapprove, especially if she knew how much Al liked it. He didn't forget that quick, passionate kiss they shared when he was in the hospital.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Did you bomb the interview?"
"No, I think it was good, fingers crossed, but I received a call not long after from the Kelowna office of the Public Prosecutor."
"Oh!" He looked at her and saw her worried look. "You're not in trouble, are you?"
She shook her head. "No, but they got the news about Patrick's death, and now they want me to give in-person testimony about the circumstances around the murder of J.J. and the possible retaliation. They got the DNA results from the blood they found in the mudroom drain and they were just about to press charges against Patrick, but now it's going to form the basis of their investigations into the Mercers."
"Holy shit," he breathed. "Wait, did you say in-person testimony?"
She nodded. "They want me to go to Kelowna."
"Wow, what... when do they want you to go?"
"As soon as possible, they said. I can't just drop everything and go. I have my kids to worry about. Plus I should call Mandeep Randhawa and tell him about this, he'll probably want to come too."
"You're right, you'd better do that. If you're meeting with a prosecutor you need representation, even if you're just a witness." Al had learned this lesson from past experience, when he'd nearly been a suspect in Rachel and Joe's disappearance when they were missing, and when he'd found himself behind bars for speeding and fleeing the police.
"Jesus, how are we going to get there?" she whined. "It's the middle of winter, and the Coquihalla Highway is probably buried in snow. I don't want to drive my little car in that weather."
"What about a plane? They do have flights there. One hour at most."
"Huh. That's an option."
"We were thinking of that ourselves, since we don't own a car anyway. I don't know if you remember, but we're heading up to Kelowna this weekend, for the ice wine festival my cousin is holding." He'd told her about his reunion with his cousins, neglecting to mention that they were actually half-siblings.
"Right!" Agnes said, brightening. "Maybe I can arrange to give the testimony this weekend and come up with you guys. I'd appreciate the company."
"Sure, why not? Hey, do you want to attend the festival with us? I got four tickets but I doubt Logan will want to go. You can dress all swanky and meet my cousins."
Agnes' eyes widened. "Really? With you and Rachel?"
Al wondered what Rachel would think of the idea. Maybe if he framed it as her needing to go up to give testimony, and they had the extra ticket... "I'll talk about it with Rachel and get back to you, but for sure we can all go up to Kelowna together."
"I'll need to bring the kids, I think. They won't want to be separated from me even for a day now."
"I get it. Let me see if I can convince some of the others to come up, maybe they can look after the kids while we go to our function."
"Okay!" she said, her smile a mile wide. "My outlook for this weekend has improved!"
They ordered burgers and fries, and Al bought a strawberry milkshake to share with Agnes. He didn't think Rachel would approve of that either.
She sat down and took a sip of the milkshake. "Yum. I still remember when you'd have milk with your meal. Is this a close substitute?"
"You still remember that?"
She smiled and placed a hand on his. "Of course I do. It was one of those endearing quirks of yours."
Al squeezed her hand and let it go to unwrap his burger. "So, how was yesterday? How are the kids holding up?"
To Al's surprise, she brightened. "You know what? Joanie took the day off too, and she took the kids and me out for a day trip. We went to Granville Island; the kids had fun at the Kids Market, they have that indoor activity park and ball pit, and all those toy stores."
"Oh, yeah, right. I love their public market, great meat and produce, and Lee's doughnuts!"
"Yes! We got a few of those, too! Joanie's such a kind person to take the kids' minds off Patrick. I can see why he liked her so much."
"That is nice of her. Maybe it took her mind off Patrick as well. Kids have a way of making you focus on the moment, giving you no time to brood."
"True. She did make a quick stop at Patrick's house, first, though."
"Oh! Really? Why?"
"To snoop on the investigation. We ran into a couple of New Westminster police detectives and had a chat."
Al smiled. "Did they happen to be Tracey and Goncalves?"
Agnes' eyes widened. "They were! How did you know?"
"We've dealt with them in a couple of previous cases."
She frowned. "Cases?"
"Well, when I first reunited with Rachel, she'd been named executor to the estate of a woman named Martha Anderson. I went with her to catalogue the contents of Mrs. Anderson's house in Queensborough, and when we were there we discovered the mummified body of a baby in the coal cellar."
"What?!"
"Yeah, so we called the police, and that's when we first met Tracey, who was with his old partner, Detective Rhodes."
"Oh, yeah, they mentioned him, too. He lives in the neighbourhood of Patrick's house."
"Actually, Goncalves was there, too, except she was just a constable then, with her partner, Mason Chan, who was Rachel's ex-husband."
Agnes gasped. "Oh, yeah, Sunny mentioned Rachel used to be married to a cop. Huh. Did they find out what happened?"
"Yeah, the baby was a still birth. Mrs. Anderson was pregnant when she was very young, and she nearly died herself from the complications."
Agnes' face fell. "That's so sad."
"It was. The second time we ran into them was when Logan and Emma's biological mother was murdered. Tracey and Goncalves investigated her death; the woman responsible kidnapped Logan later, and that resulted in the gunfight for which Joanie received her medal."
"Jesus! Joanie told me about that gunfight. She said Lauren was with her when she got shot."
"She was. And Rachel nearly got killed herself, by the woman who kidnapped Logan. If she hadn't been wearing a bulletproof vest..."
Al thought Agnes' eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. "You never told me you and your friends did such exciting things!"
Al shrugged. "We just stumbled into things and did what we had to do. We never looked for adventure."
"Still, I remember when you told me about your little club when you were kids. It's like you're still going out looking for lost dogs all these years later."
"Well, it nearly got me killed, so I wouldn't recommend it."
She frowned. "You mean your coma?"
He nodded. "That rollover I was in with Lauren happened while we were trying to evade a car that was trying to run us off the road; it was driven by the same people, we think, who killed the previous owner of Patrick's house and shot Sunny."
"Holy shit!" Agnes squawked, drawing a few curious eyes from other diners. "Did those detectives also investigate that man's death?"
"Yeah, because his body was found in Glenbrook Ravine."
Agnes sat back and shook her head in wonder. "Why do I have a feeling we're going to find ourselves involved in another adventure if I go up with you to Kelowna?"
"I don't think so," Al said. "We're just going to meet some cousins and drink some wine. What could possibly happen?"
Al would come to regret those words later.
Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you read so far, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. If anything doesn't ring true about radio signal communication and jamming, leave a comment and let me know; I strive for authenticity.
To see how Joanie is dealing with her first day back at work after Patrick's death, and that hashtag that's causing her so much grief, click on "Continue reading."