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

Chapter Two: Agnes, Monday

Agnes Chu began her first official day of work at Vancouver Public Library after her two-day paid orientation last week with the rest of the intake of new librarians, which had included a talk with the Chief Librarian and the president of the union representing the staff; training on Horizon, the Integrated Library System VPL used for its circulation, acquisitions and cataloguing of materials; training in reference and programming procedures; and a tour of the Central Branch and its collections of both circulating and reference materials.

Because of her previous experience in children's programming, she was immediately offered hours in the Children's Department at Central Branch by Human Resources. Because the library gave preference to internal candidates for full-time positions, she began as an auxiliary librarian and hoped she could apply internally for full-time work as soon as possible; Vancouver was an expensive place to live and, after circumstances had forced her to leave her full-time job, and her life, behind, the only accommodation on offer was her parents' house, and she didn't want to impose on them for long, because they were driving her and her kids crazy.

Teresa Evans, the head of the Children's Department, greeted her warmly and showed her where she could store her things, then offered her a desk at which she could log in to her work email and the Hub, the library's internal message board and resource for all procedures and helpful hints. Since this shift was going to involve performing a storytime, Teresa showed her the room where books, puppets and felt story boards were kept for quick use; often children's librarians purchased their own items out of pure preference, but she hadn't brought hers with her in her rush to leave.

"The library assistants are going to prepare the space and take numbers for statistics," Teresa said, "so all you have to worry about is readying for the program."

"Thanks very much, Teresa," she said.

"Are you just out of getting your MLS, or did you come from another library?" Teresa asked. It was a roundabout way of saying, "You look older than most new librarians we get here."

"I used to work at Okanagan Regional," she said. "I did lots of programming there."

"Oh, thank goodness, so this isn't your first rodeo."

"Nope, I can do this in my sleep."

Teresa sighed in relief. "Great. Feel free to check your email and see the latest updates on the Hub, and I'll check back with you in fifteen."

After Teresa walked away, Agnes checked her email. Already, she had new call outs from supervisors at other worksites for filling shifts, and she had to look at the map she was given at her orientation to see where some of these branches were located. There were over twenty of them, all over the city, and it was a good thing she had a car. She emailed back her availability just in case they hadn't been filled yet, then logged out and checked the Hub.

Aside from the usual updates on procedures and welcoming new staff, she noticed there was a search bar where you could do a quick search rather than follow the directory.

She clicked on the search bar and typed, "Al Mackenzie."

She didn't know if it would work, but to her surprise, there he was. His photo, a little older now but still him, his work department, even a phone number of the department where he could be reached. He was still working here after all these years.

She worked her shift, doing a storytime on the fly with picture books she found in the resource room. She didn't use the puppets this time but did her own singing and fingerplays. As she told Teresa, she could do them in her sleep. Once she was finished with her shift, she went to the Cataloguing Department, which was incidentally on the same floor as the Children's Department, just across an atrium filled with book trucks containing new material to be catalogued and made shelf ready. She hunted the desks, hoping to see his familiar face, but didn't see anything hopeful until she saw one empty desk and the pictures on it.

There was Al, in a picture with a blonde woman with green eyes. The two had their faces smooshed together in a selfie, and they were laughing. She was pretty, and her open joy actually made her beautiful. Agnes felt a sharp tug on her heart. In another picture, he was with the woman and a tall teenage boy and a smaller, younger teenage girl, both with baby blonde hair. Did Al have kids with this woman? They didn't really look like either parent; their blonde was different from the woman's dirty blonde, and they seemed too old to be Al's kids, if Agnes had her timing right. Maybe they were the woman's kids, and he was their stepfather?

There were other photos, probably of other friends of Al's. One had an enormous, auburn-haired man with a small Asian woman in his arms like a bride, obviously hamming it up, both smiling at the camera. One had a South Asian couple, the man wearing a pink turban and a smart tailored suit, the woman gorgeous in a clingy black dress.  

"Hey, can I help you?" a woman's voice said at her shoulder.

She yelped in surprise, whipped around, smiled and said, "Hey! Sorry, is this the Cataloguing Department?"

"Yes, it is."

"Would you happen to know if Al Mackenize works here?"

Her face fell, and she said, "He does, but he's not here right now."

"Oh! Is it his day off?"

"No, actually he's on sick leave."

Agnes' stomach dropped. "Oh, no. Is he okay?"

The woman grimaced and said, "I don't know if I should say... medical stuff is confidential..."

"Would it help if I told you I'm an old friend of his, that I just started working at VPL after working for years at Okanagan Regional Library, and was hoping to reconnect with him now that I'm back in Vancouver?"

The woman sighed and said, "Well, look, maybe I can tell you one thing. When we learned of his condition, we contacted the union to send a flower arrangement to his hospital room. If you want to go to Burnaby Hospital, that's where he is, in the ICU."

Thanks for reading this far! If you've read the previous novels in this series, you might remember Al recounting previous girlfriends. Agnes is one of them, and now she's back, and you can imagine the tension she'll cause when she meets the people in Al's life, especially Rachel. If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks, and leave me a comment, I'd love to hear what you think!

Now, let's see what Al's up to by clicking on, "Continue reading."