Near the end of the working week, the police handed Agnes the new keys to Patrick's house. Once they'd finished sweeping the house for evidence, they'd brought in a locksmith to re-key the locks. Not only that, they informed her, but they'd also installed a front door camera that would alert her phone whenever someone rang the doorbell. They'd also installed cameras at various points on the outside of the house to deter intruders. They were aware that the perpetrators who killed Patrick were still out there and might have an interest in silencing his spouse and family, as they were in constant contact with the Kelowna detachment and the Kelowna branch of the public prosecutor and knew about Agnes' deposition.
It was too late for Agnes to move in before she left for the weekend and, anyway, she was still reluctant to move there before the bad guys were caught. So, when Joanie suggested she only move her car there while she was away in Kelowna, she was rightly confused.
"If these guys are watching the house," Joanie explained, "and they see your car's there now, they might try something and get caught on camera."
It turned out Joanie had another scheme involving the house, but Agnes didn't know that until later. She drove the car to the house with the kids, left it there, parked at the curb, and then they got into Joe's Toyota Highlander with Al, Rachel and Emma. Their luggage was already packed in the cargo space. Joe was taking them to the airport.
Melissa and Patrick were almost quivering with excitement at the prospect of travelling home, and even more at the prospect of taking a plane there. Her explanation of the reason they were going, that she had to make sure their storage unit was cleared out and their will obtained from the bank, seemed to satisfy them, and she didn't have to tell them the main reason she was going. Their father was dead, why compound their misery by telling them she was giving evidence to the authorities that he might have been a murderer? Let them keep their image of him as a hero in their minds.
When they landed in Kelowna, the kids were startled to be greeted by an escort of plain clothes RCMP officers, but they were also satisfied by her explanation that "Daddy's friends" were there to protect them while they were back home. Agnes knew they would be there because she had to let the prosecutor know of her itinerary, and he let her know they'd be greeted at the terminal.
Of course, Al, Rachel and Emma weren't to receive the same red-carpet treatment, and even being on the same plane together didn't put them under the protection of the authorities. Only Mandeep Randhawa, Agnes' lawyer, was able to go with them in a nondescript black SUV that was probably armoured. Agnes would meet them back at the hotel later, where they were able to get adjoining rooms.
"Is all this necessary?" Agnes asked the driver as they made their way from Kelowna International Airport along Highway 97 to the city. Agnes had been startled by the gut-punch of emotion she felt upon returning to the place where she'd lived, mostly happily, for fourteen years. Was this home? At one time she thought it had been, but she'd lived more of her life in the Lower Mainland than in the Okanagan, so maybe that counted more as home for her, even if that home hadn't had Patrick and the kids in it. And anyway, there was nothing left for her and the kids here, no family on either side. This was the place where she escaped her parents' influence and lived her own life at last, that was all. She was strong enough to live her life back in the place where she grew up, now, with her children's well-being her primary motivation, not her parents' approval.
"Constable Marinville was a colleague of ours," the driver said. "If the Mercers are involved in his death, we don't want any harm to come to his widow and family while they're back in their territory."
"It's a good precaution to take," Mandeep said from the front passenger seat. Agnes sat with the kids in the back. "This way you get taken straight to the prosecutor's office to give your testimony, and safely back to your hotel room."
"Can I be accompanied to get my wills out of the safety deposit box at my bank, and to my storage locker?"
"We can do that," the driver said.
"There's an event I'm attending tonight," she said. "Would it be possible to have someone guarding the kids while I'm out?"
"I've agreed to be there with your children," Mandeep said.
"Do you really have to go, Mom?" Patrick asked.
"What event is this?" the driver asked.
"There's a small winery holding a social event celebrating the release of its newest batch of ice wine," Agnes said. "My friends Al and Rachel, and their daughter Emma, are attending it because Al is visiting family. They had an extra ticket and invited me." She squeezed Patrick and Melissa to her and said, "I'll only be a few hours. I'll wear a fancy dress, drink some wine, say hello to Al's family and come back to the hotel room. You two can order room service and watch a movie."
"Yay!" Melissa said. "Will Emma be there the whole time? I want her to watch the movie with us."
"Now that's an interesting idea," Agnes said. Melissa and Emma had gotten on like a house on fire last Sunday, and her daughter saw Al's adopted daughter as a cool older friend because she liked all the things she did. "We can ask them later; maybe I'll take Emma back with me a bit early, and you three can watch the movie together."
The public prosecutor's office was in an anonymous steel and glass building in downtown Kelowna. They parked underground and travelled up an elevator right to their floor. They were greeted by a group of men and women whose names Agnes forgot almost immediately, but Mandeep took care of all the formalities so she didn't have to worry; all they wanted was her story. The kids grumbled about being made to wait while she sat in another room talking with other grown-ups, but someone was kind enough to predict that witnesses sometimes brought their kids with them and had a room ready for them with refreshments, a TV and colouring books for their comfort.
She went over the events of that fateful night, again and again, and then the visit by the Mercers, and they grilled her about dates and times. She understood their need for clarity, but their repetition exhausted her. By the time they shook hands to end her visit, all she wanted to do was check into the hotel room and lie down for a few minutes, but she still had the bank and the storage locker to visit. It was going to be a long day.
She knew she shouldn't complain, though. Compared to Al, her day was light. She'd at least had a good night's sleep the night before. Unbeknownst to her, Al and Rachel had gone to a bar last night with Lauren, Joe, Sunny and Tej to assist Joanie in a sting against the person or persons who'd created the hashtag that objectified Joanie on the Internet. Agnes was a little miffed that Joanie hadn't even bothered to tell her; they were still living at the townhouse together, and she thought they'd developed a kind of friendship. Maybe Joanie hadn't wanted to bother Agnes with this side trip while she was dealing with her own difficulties. In any case, they'd been out late, and then Al had had to visit the animal hospital early this morning to check on his dear cat Samson before leaving for the airport. He'd told her all this while they were on the plane. Samson was resting comfortably, he'd said, but Agnes could tell from the wetness of his eyes that he'd probably worried all night about his furry friend, who'd played a nearly miraculous role in waking Al from his coma more than two months ago. He must have been exhausted today, but when Agnes and the kids finally checked into the hotel and met them in their room, he seemed as fresh as a daisy; maybe he'd had a quick nap while they were away.
"How did it go?" he asked her.
Agnes shrugged and said, "About as well as it could have. I think they were satisfied."
"Did they say anything about what they would be doing with your testimony?" Rachel asked.
"No, but they did tell me I should be ready to give the same testimony in court if I'm called to."
Al and Rachel looked at each other while Patrick and Melissa climbed on to Emma's bed to watch TV with her. "That could mean they're closing in," Al said.
"I wonder if they have evidence and testimony regarding other crimes the Mercers committed," Rachel said. By now everyone in the Lawrence Street Detective Club, as Al had called his friends from Queensborough, knew about the Mercers; either Al or Sunny must have told them. Probably Al; Sunny didn't seem like the type to break attorney-client confidentiality, but it ceased to matter to her now that Patrick was dead.
"If they do, they're not going to tell me," she said. "Mandeep told me to expect a cone of silence if they're building a case."
"Where is Mandeep?" Al asked.
"Resting in his room. I think he said he was also going to phone his wife and check in at home."
"Is he really okay looking after your kids for a few hours?" Rachel asked.
Agnes nodded. "About that. Melissa wanted to know if Emma might like to leave the party early with me, and she can watch a movie with them in their room while the two of you enjoy the rest of the party."
"Can I?" Emma asked eagerly. "We can have popcorn and candy!"
Al rubbed his chin in thought. "That sounds all right," he said, "but I just want to be sure I've introduced you to everyone before you go. You still haven't met my cousin Richard Junior, and then there's Uncle Richard and Aunt Linda, they'll be there too."
"And I can call them Uncles and Aunts, but I can't say you're their half-brother," Emma repeated as if it were a formula she had to study for a test.
"That's right." Al looked at Agnes and said, "What about you? Are you willing to leave the party early? I wouldn't want you to cut your fun short."
Agnes looked to Rachel. Was that an eye roll she saw? "To be honest," she said, "I'm already tired out from everything I've had to do today. I might want to unwind early in my room anyway."
"Were you able to find your will?"
She nodded. "Everything is left to me. He never changed it."
"That must be a relief," Rachel said.
"Definitely. And Patrick had the storage locker cleaned out, so I was able to close it without much fuss. Everything must be in the new house or donated or sold."
"Were you able to trust that he wouldn't get rid of anything important to you?"
Agnes shrugged. "I really can't think of anything at the old house that would have meant that much to me. I took everything important with me when I left." She looked at Patrick and Melissa, and to her embarrassment felt the sting of tears in her eyes. "He took care of so much, and all I was doing was hiding from responsibility."
"That's not entirely true," Al said. "Your focus was on the kids and their welfare. How often did Patrick have them while he was here? One weekend in four?"
"Anyway," Rachel said, "That's all taken care of. We need to get changed for the party. Why don't you show me what you're wearing."
Suddenly Agnes felt like a teenager going to prom, although she'd never attended her own prom, so afraid was she of the dreaded drunkenness and loss of virginity that was supposed to happen at proms. With Rachel accompanying her to her hotel room and gushing over the simple yet elegant black dress she'd bought on the fly, she finally felt like she had a girlfriend she could feel normal with. If only she had Al waiting for her at the end of the night, that would have completed the fantasy, but this was almost as good.
"Wear the pearls," Rachel said. "They work with your skin tone and perfectly contrast with your dress."
When she returned to the hotel room, all made up, she felt oddly nervous about Al seeing her, but when her kids announced that she looked like a princess, and she saw Al had changed in the bathroom into his tux, she felt for a minute like she was attending her prom. For a tiny piece of time carved out of the continuum, she could imagine the two of them as seniors in high school even though they hadn't met until they were thirty.
Then Rachel emerged from the bathroom in her dress, and Agnes' spirits sank. She was stunning all made up, her dirty blonde hair in a chignon, the dress a wine red with sequined bodice. She looked like sex on legs, and if Emma wasn't sharing their room Al would probably have gotten lucky tonight. Hell, even Agnes felt stirrings for her, which only increased her jealousy.
"I feel like the luckiest man alive," Al said.
"You are," Rachel said.
He would be, too, but for other reasons, although none of them were to know that until the end of the night.
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 witness testimony or police procedure, leave a comment and let me know; I strive for authenticity.
To read about Al's reunion with his family, and a surprise none of them expected, click on "Continue reading."