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

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Joe, Wednesday

Joe found himself spending part of his day acting as a moving service, and never predicted he would wind up injured as a result.

Rachel had made a copy of her house keys for Agnes, and because Agnes had left everything of hers behind in Kelowna, and because Rachel had no real furniture herself besides her bed, it fell to Joe and Lauren to provide out of their own cast offs. They were lending her the air mattress Rachel and Al had once used for a bed, and some old chairs they had in storage. The place was supposed to be just for Agnes to stay from time to time, and she assured them she needed no creature comforts like a TV. Still, with all the added items like lamps and other necessities, it was all more than they could move in Lauren's Nissan Versa, which was the only vehicle they had at the moment, so Rachel booked a Modo van in which to move everything.

They'd decided all this last night, apparently, after Rachel and Lauren had run into Agnes while they were visiting Al, who was now starting to walk again. The two women had taken Agnes in hand and given her a viewing of the house, with the result of finally getting an answer from her; Joe knew very well how persuasive they could be when they worked together. They'd certainly done a number on him when asking him to help move on what was normally a work day for him, and when Johnny grumbled about the imposition of having to take on more of the load for the day, all Lauren had to do was take the phone, and he was putty in her hands.

To Rachel's credit, since she booked the van, she also used part of her day to help him move. Lauren wouldn't have been any help in her condition, so she went into work to catch up on administrative duties and help her other partner, Sanderson, put out fires. Apparently the security guards working at Vancouver Public Library were talking about organizing, and Lauren had known about it longer than the other two partners but hadn't gotten around to telling them before she got injured, so now she needed to smooth things over with them and discuss their next steps. 

Joe didn't envy Lauren her situation. His dad worked in the mill as a member of the IWA, and though it had provided the family with a good standard of living, the system eventually failed him when he was laid off from one mill and had to start all the way at the bottom of another because he lacked seniority in the new bargaining unit. Starting all over again in the green chain at his age ultimately caused the injury that put him on disability leave. Not that Dad ever held the union to blame; it was the employer's working conditions that had injured him, after all, as was the employer's decision to close the mill and take his job away. When Joe and Johnny began their construction firm, the people they took on weren't unionized and hadn't expressed any desire to be so, probably because the prevailing rate had already been established by previous generations of unionized trades workers. Regardless, they'd avoided the headache of dealing with a third party in negotiating rates and working conditions, and as long as they maintained their reputation as a safe, fair and well-paying employer, hopefully they'd continue to do so. If employees at Justiciar decided to organize, it would shake up the entire organization and maybe affect its viability and Lauren's share of the profit, and thus their family's finances.

It might even affect Rachel's employment, and while they were moving furniture into the new house, he asked her, "Are you worried about the security guards organizing at the library?"

Rachel shrugged and said, "Not much I can do about it, so why worry?"

He placed an old armchair down in the living room while Rachel put away some old utensils in the kitchen. An idea occurred to him. "Look, if worse comes to worst and a shake-up happens at Justiciar, for any reason at all, I want you to know we'd take you back at DiTomaso Construction in a heartbeat; you know our accounting is done on contract, and I always preferred your work over theirs."

She closed a drawer and looked at him. "Thank you, Joe. That's sweet of you. I'd like to hope my years working at Justiciar have allowed me to get out from under the shadow of Martin Heath's embezzling frame-up enough that I could find another job, but it's nice to know I have something to fall back on."