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

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Agnes, Saturday

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."