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

Chapter Fifty-Five: Sunny and Tej, Friday

The Lawrence Street Detective Club walked into a bar. It sounded like the opening line for a joke, but that was what happened.

As a rule, Sunny didn't go to bars and pubs. His religion discouraged the drinking of alcohol, so why court temptation by entering an establishment that served it? The thing was, he went to restaurants that also served alcohol and managed to resist temptation just fine, so he didn't think he'd fare any worse entering the Kicking Horse Bar and Grill, on Fraser Highway in Langley. Besides, drinking alcohol would be detrimental to him right now, because he needed to be alert. He was on a case, and he was acting as an extra set of eyes and ears for his wife.

Being an adherent of a religion that forbade alcohol, he had great respect for members of other faiths that did as well, and he shook Constable Fatima al-Rashad's hand before they went inside and said, "You're doing a great service keeping an eye on the entrance and on the guy who took your pictures without your consent."

The police officer, now out of uniform and dressed for winter in a puffy coat over snow pants even though it had only snowed a few centimetres the night before, smiled brightly. Her face, where exposed by her purple hijab under a very Canadian toque, was pretty, her skin a shade lighter than his and his wife's. "I feel like the rest of you are pulling more weight than I am, though," she said.

"Nonsense. You'll be out here in the cold."

"I'll be in my car, looking through binoculars. I can turn the heat on, at least."

"Still, you didn't have to come out tonight. Isn't Friday your holy day?"

Fatima shrugged. "It's after sun down now, so technically it's over." She looked at the others, and her gaze rested on Lauren and Al a little longer than the others. Her brow furrowed, and she said, "You two look familiar. Have we met before?"

Lauren actually looked sheepish when she said, "Yeah, actually. A couple of years ago, Al here got arrested for speeding and fleeing the police."

Fatima gasped and brightened. "Yeah, but it was you I remember! You threw that guy because he had your sword!"

Lauren chuckled. "Yup. I got the sword back, thanks."

"I'll always remember that because of the sword, it was so out of the ordinary for a Sunday night."

They shook hands with her, entered the bar and took their stations as they'd planned before coming here: Lauren, Rachel and Tej were sitting at a table, posing as a group of women enjoying a TGIF night out, none of them wearing their wedding and engagement rings. Seeing Tej without hers tugged a little at Sunny's heart, but he knew they had to do it to appear as proper bait; not that a lot of men wouldn't hit on them anyway, they were all gorgeous in clothes they didn't normally wear in day-to-day life. Tej was in the clingy black sheath dress she wore the night she seduced Joe; Rachel was in form fitting jeans and an emerald green halter top; Lauren, apparently, was in the tiny dress she wore when entrapping the man who was later discovered to be a rapist. Seeing all that exposed skin, the cherry blossom tattoo peeking under the spaghetti strap of Lauren's dress, made Sunny remember his own fabulous evening last Saturday, when she and Rachel had been naked, wet and all lathered up, doing things to his body that only Tej had been allowed to do up until then, and to his embarrassment he felt himself swelling down below, and chided himself for his lack of focus. 

Al and Joe sat on stools at opposite ends of the bar, both with direct lines of sight to the women's table. Sunny was to take a booth near the back of the bar, and Joanie was going to enter and sit on her own. From there they would all see what happened, and respond as a team.

"Agnes called Sunny today," Tej said. "They've released the house to her after installing security features, like a front door camera, to make her feel safe when she moves in."