The Hero Next Time: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 4)

Chapter Fifty-Five: Lauren, Sunday

Rachel put her phone away and looked at them. "That was weird."

"What was?" Lauren asked. She was back in her hospital bed, the illicit wheelchair now back where it was supposed to be, and Gary Somers had left for the night after promising to find more information about the woman calling herself Naira Sandhu. Joe had gone back to tell Rachel what Gary had told them, and she'd come back to the emergency room to be with them while she called Sunny and told him what they'd found out. He'd confirmed he hadn't told Birinder about the accident, so they knew they were on the right track.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't know. It just seemed like Sunny was eager to get me off the phone. Don't get me wrong, he was just as surprised as we were to know Naira was in Al's room, but he didn't linger to speculate about it."

"Well, it is late," Joe said. "Maybe he wanted to go to bed. Unlike us, he has to work tomorrow."

"I know, but... I couldn't help feeling someone was with him in the room when he was talking to me."

"Probably Tej," Lauren said. "I'm sure they were getting ready to turn in."

Rachel sighed in resignation. "Yeah. Probably. Look, if Sunny never told Birinder about the accident, then Naira had some other way of knowing about your being here, and that makes her complicit in all this. We need to call the police and tell them Al needs protection."

"Which police, though?" Joe asked. "We have the New West police and IHIT investigating Jordan's murder, and the RCMP investigating the accident."

"Call Joanie and see who would have jurisdiction on this," Lauren said. "My intuition is it's the Horsemen, since this hospital's in Burnaby. Just to be safe, though, Rachel, why don't you call Goncalves, since she's on duty tonight."

Rachel grimaced at the thought of calling a woman she had little respect for. "I can't call Tracey?"

"He has the night off, Maria told me. I know you like him better, but the poor guy needs a break."

Rachel barked a laugh, but nodded. She stepped out of Lauren's curtained room to make the call. 

Joe was left with Lauren in her room. He peeked in on Tosh to make sure he was still asleep, then stood staring at her wordlessly.

"Don't you need to call Joanie?" she asked.

"In a minute," he said. "We need to talk about something first."

She gulped and said, "Are you not coming home after all? Was what you said in Al's room for Rachel's sake?"

He shook his head in frustration. "No, of course not, I meant what I said. You need me now, just like Joanie needed me. I'm not going anywhere. What we need to discuss is what happens if worse comes to worst, and Al doesn't wake up."

Lauren's stomach dropped. Again, she thought she might be sick. "Oh," she said weakly.

He looked toward the curtain to make sure Rachel wasn't coming back, and then said, "She's going to need us more than ever. Emma and Logan are going to need us."

She nodded. "Oddly enough, I discussed that with Naira while I was playing along, hoping she wouldn't do anything drastic if she felt cornered."

Joe chuckled. "Really? That must have been a surreal conversation."

"It was. We were both pretending her presence in Al's room wasn't completely out of the ordinary. If I was a hundred percent, I might have taken her down and held her until police arrived."

"I know you would have, and I'm glad you weren't. These past couple of days have been hell enough without you endangering yourself a second time. I don't want to lose you again."