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

Chapter Sixty-Three: Al, Monday

Al spent most of Monday worrying about whether or not HR would find out about his arrest, and then being disappointed when nobody from HR called him by the end of the day. He supposed the police didn't feel the need to call his employer and tell on him.

Modo, on the other hand, didn't waste any time calling him. In the aftermath of the accident, the arrest and the tow, he hadn't returned the car before the booking ended, and they were none too pleased to discover the car had been in an accident with a police cruiser, after a high speed police chase, and he'd neglected to call them and report it. Parvati, with whom he remembered speaking the time he'd been looking for the car Rachel had booked, and who'd been so sympathetic, now stiffly informed him that his account was being suspended pending the resolution of his appearance in court; if he received jail time or had his license revoked, that would be it. Even if they decided not to revoke his membership, there would still be some hefty fines to pay before he would be square with them again and, to his dismay, Rachel wasn't allowed to book either because he was the member and she was the secondary driver. He felt wretched, but he didn't think he would have done anything differently.

By the end of the day, he was thoroughly depressed, and he wanted nothing more than to go home and huddle under the covers. Just as he was about to leave work, however, his phone rang. It was Rachel. "Hi, honey," he said. "I'm just leaving work now."

"Al," Rachel said, "I'm still at work too."

"Oh, okay," he said. "Are you going to be a while? Should I start dinner?"

"Um, could you actually come over here?"

Al was confused. "You mean, go to Justiciar?"

"Yes. Lauren is here with me. We'd like to talk to you about something."

Al stood blinking rapidly as he listened to his wife. This was not how she talked at all. The tone of her voice, too, signalled something was wrong. "What's going on?" he asked.

"We'll tell you when you get here."

Al wondered why she would want him to go over there. She never had before. Oddly, the memory of last night came to him, when Lauren had been driving them back from Aldergrove, and Rachel had consented to them getting together again, and Al had met Lauren's bright eyes in the rear view mirror. He wondered for a millisecond if Rachel was inviting him over for just that, a wild romp in Lauren's office, which apparently had been the scene of her and Rachel's trysts before Lauren confessed their affair to him. He dismissed that possibility; why not just take the fun to their apartment? It would be more comfortable there, and more private.

"You and Lauren are there together," he said. "In Lauren's office?"

"Yes."

Suddenly he had a thought. "Are you on speakerphone?" He quickly added, "It feels tinny on my end of the line," just in case someone was listening and they wondered why he asked that question.

"No," she said.

"Is there someone else in the office with you?"

"Yes." Flat, toneless, matter-of-fact.

"Should I call the police?"

"Yes."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thought. "I will, and I'll be there right away."

"See you soon." How Rachel remained so calm and emotionless right now Al couldn't fathom, but it was probably what saved her, because she wasn't letting on to whoever was there with her and Lauren that she'd alerted him to a potentially dangerous situation.

Al hung up and just ran. He didn't sign out, didn't grab his jacket, or his backpack, just made sure he had his phone, wallet and keys, and bolted, stunning other VPL employees in the halls as he weaved around them on the way to the doors.