Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Part Two: Months Later; Chapter Fifty-Eight: Lauren, Sunday

The investigation by two police departments proceeded on its own pace. The Lawrence Street Detective Club, being private citizens and not members of any official constabulary, had to be content to wait.

DNA testing was backlogged in most police departments, and the VPD was no exception. Months after Detectives Parsons and Reynolds arrived with a warrant to take samples from everyone who was a guest that fateful night, causing much indignation among Lauren's coworkers and many scowls at Lauren herself (although not from Ralph, she was surprised to notice,) results still hadn't come in, and neither detective had felt the need to tell Lauren why they were taking everyone's DNA: to determine whose wineglass was whose, the most logical answer, or because they'd found something on the sheets that suggested someone else had been in the room with Lauren and Al, a much more disturbing notion.

The stolen vehicle investigations, by the VPD and the RCMP, were quicker to conclude, mainly because they were simpler. Parsons informed them they found a partial on the steering wheel of the Elantra that matched a person already in their database for a previous petty crime, so they were hopeful they could track the person down and lean on them to give up their co-conspirators. He wouldn't tell them who the person was, of course, because he didn't want them going after them themselves. Sunny, Al and Rachel passed on what they found about Carrie MacDougall and the van spotted in her garage, but the RCMP couldn't get a warrant to search the property because they couldn't make the disparate facts come together to satisfy a judge.

Lauren had phoned Joanie early on in the investigation to inquire whether they'd made any headway, hoping to leverage their new partnership, of a sort, to get a more favourable outcome.

"I'm afraid there's not much we can do," Joanie had said apologetically. "What we need is for that van to leave the garage, and we need to follow it for a while and take photos of the person behind the wheel. Then we need to get a photo of the VIN wherever they park it. Then we can connect the facts that the van is yours, you don't have possession of it, and someone else is driving it without your knowledge or permission. That's the only way we can get a warrant to search this person's house."

"Why didn't you say so?" Lauren had said. "I can follow that van if they take it out. It's the bulk of what I do."

"If you can do that, Lauren, that would be a big help; we just don't have the manpower to put surveillance on this house twenty-four-seven."

"I'll do it when I can."

She spent every bit of free time she could watching that house. She never did see the van in the garage because all the doors were closed now; maybe someone had spotted her friends, The Three Stooges, in Sunny's Prius the first time and decided maybe they shouldn't be so cocky and start hiding evidence of a stolen vehicle behind a door. There was also the possibility the van was gone, now, taken to a chop shop or burned somewhere to remove all evidence. If that was true, then she was wasting her time here, and she could only hope those fingerprints on the Elantra's steering wheel led here by the back door.

She used different cars for her surveillance, because the area was so exposed and the same car all the time would draw attention. She used her little Versa, as well as the new Toyota Highlander she and Joe leased with the insurance payout from the theft to handle their family, its large patriarch, and the cargo they carried; this wasn't a van recovery mission anymore, although they would take it back if they could. This was personal now. If this was the same woman, and if she was responsible for what had happened to Joe and Rachel, probably through thugs she knew in the area, then Lauren was going to make her pay.

She also used the wide variety of cars that Modo kept in its fleet. Rachel and Al offered to go out with her from time to time, and they used different cars parked around downtown Vancouver; Modo had forgiven them the theft of the Elantra once the circumstances were established, so they were still able to book cars. They didn't use the Elantra again, though, not to go out there; Rachel was afraid it would be recognized, and she didn't want to run into those men again.