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

Chapter Forty-Six: Lauren, Summer, 2011

Charlie was missing. Lauren drove her little Nissan Versa down block after block, scanning the streets for any sign of him. She was reminded of the days she spent with her friends looking for lost dogs in Queensborough, except she was alone, she wasn't on her bike, she wasn't going to be paid for finding him, and this wasn't fun. This was a dog she knew and loved, and she was dreading seeing him on the side of the road like she saw Milo that first time she met everybody.

How Charlie had gotten out of Johnny's yard she didn't know. His sons were usually really good about keeping the gate latched. They adored Charlie and didn't want to see him go missing. But now she was spending her rare free evening searching the streets of Burnaby instead of being home with the kids she hadn't seen all day.

Her phone rang on its hands free device. It was Johnny. She answered. "Hey, Johnny."

"Hey, Lauren. Any luck?"

"Nothing. You?"

"We've put up posters all over the neighbourhood and posted pictures of him on Facebook lost pet groups. Our contact information is on all of it."

"Okay."

"Look, you've been out a long time. Maybe you should call it a night."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I can't keep you away from your family any longer. I know you love Charlie but there's only so much you can do."

"Okay. I'll just finish this block and go home. I'm at least a kilometre out from your place."

"If he's gone any further than that, then it's going to take a lot more than us to find him."

"Right. Talk to you later."

She hung up and scanned the remaining streets and the spaces between the houses. Unless she saw Charlie loping along the sidewalk, she wasn't going to find him this way.

She headed home, stopping at the Safeway for some milk because they always seemed to run out of milk before they grocery shopped on the weekend. When she finally arrived home, the kids were in their pyjamas, watching TV. Joe saw her and quickly put his phone down, looking like she'd caught him watching porn, something she'd done many times when computers were anchored to desks and you couldn't take your device into the bathroom for some privacy. She never faulted him for doing it; everyone had fantasies that couldn't be fulfilled by their partners. He always looked so mortified about it, though, that she eventually never let on that she'd seen anything, nor did she look at his history, not wanting to see what it was that had tantalized him so. She didn't think he would be watching porn on his phone, though, at least not in the same room as the kids.

"How'd it go?" he asked, playing it cool.

She shrugged. "No luck."

"I'm sorry, babe."

She put the milk in the fridge and motioned him to step over to the other room with her, out of the kids' ear shot. They weren't aware yet that Charlie was missing, and she and Joe had agreed not to tell them until it was absolutely necessary so as to not unduly alarm them before bedtime, or else they'd never go to sleep. They adored Charlie, who'd become for them an older brother, a chill elder statesman, accepting of all their love and affection with grace and dignity. He wasn't as energetic and spry as he used to be, not as able to chase them and fetch for hours, but they seemed to love him all the more for it, because he stayed still for them now. For all Naomi and Tosh knew, Mommy had gone out to buy milk, and that was all, even if she'd taken an overly long time to do it.

"So?" she asked.

"So... what?"

She bunched his shirt in her hands and said, "Are we... still on for tonight?" She'd let Rachel and Al know to expect a Skype call tonight and hopefully they were standing by for another show.