Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Rachel, Monday

The call from the social worker came after dinner, as promised. Maureen Glynis was the case worker who liaised between them, the Ministry, and the biological parents.

"Hi Rachel," she said. "So. Difficult things to discuss."

"Yes."

"Are you within earshot of Emma right now?"

"No. As soon as I saw the number for the Ministry on my phone I ran up to my room."

"Good." She sighed and said, "I take one weekend off and come back to this."

"Did you know Jenna visited on Saturday?"

She made a plosive sound, as if she'd been holding her breath and somebody had slapped her back. "I'm sorry about that. She never told me she was going to do that. Then again, that's pretty much in character for her. Oh, God," she said, "I just used the present tense with her."

"Have they told you how she died?"

Maureen was silent for a moment. "This is why I wanted you to be away from Emma, because you and I need to agree on what to tell her before I come and tell her."

Rachel sighed in relief. "So, you will tell her? I don't have to?"

"I think it's best if it comes from me."

"Thank you. So, when you say we need to agree... does that mean it wasn't a natural death?"

"The coroner listed alcohol poisoning as the cause of death," she said. "However... the manner of death has been checked as undetermined."

"Jesus..." Rachel breathed. "When it's alcohol poisoning, wouldn't that be something like, 'death by misadventure'?"

"Yes, normally. Suicide could also be checked, but it's hard to prove that unless there's a note. Jenna was an alcoholic, and most alcoholics don't drink to kill themselves. And then, um, there's a bit of suspicion about how Jenna was found that led the police to believe she might not have drank that alcohol willingly."

Rachel gasped. "You mean... someone might have forced it down her throat?"

"They're still investigating."

"Which police are investigating?"

"New Westminster Police. Jenna was residing at Westminster House."

"Oh! Huh. I wonder if Tracey and Rhodes are on the case."

"Who?"

"Sorry, a few years ago, Al and I were involved in a case the New Westminster Police investigated. Those were the two detectives we dealt with."

Silence for a moment. Then Maureen said, "Was this ever discussed in your application?"

"No, but that's because it wasn't anything serious. I was executor for a will, and as we were cataloguing the house's contents, we discovered the mummified body of a baby in the coal cellar."

"Oh! Okay, so nothing that led to charges against you or Al."

"Right. You know, Maureen, when you say she might not have drank it willingly... when I was talking to Jenna on Saturday, she seemed sober, and she mentioned struggling with sobriety and needing to see her kids to give her the strength to keep going with it. That woman was trying to better herself to get her kids back, and that doesn't align with the circumstances of her death."

Maureen was silent a moment before she said, "That does sound suspicious, and you make a good point, and I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but... Jenna went through the treatment program multiple times. She'd sober up, find work, get her kids back for a while, and then something would come up, some new stress, maybe the father would pop back into her life, screw her around, she couldn't cope, and then she'd be off the wagon again; or she'd hook up with some new guy who drank himself, and she couldn't stay sober when her partner wasn't, especially when there was alcohol in the house. I don't want to diminish the effort she might have been making, but this was a pattern with her."