Rachel dialled Detective Pak again while Joe, Al and Lauren watched her, horrified. When he answered, she cried, "They have Logan!"

"What?" Pak said. "Is that you, Rachel?"

"Yes! They took Logan! Right under our noses! Oh, God, I'm such an idiot!"

"Slow down, Rachel. Tell me what happened."

"Uh... okay... where do I begin? We're here at the resort, just like I told you we were doing... about that: how did they know we'd be here? The only people I told were our families, and you guys. Do you have a mole in your department?"

Pak was silent for a moment. "That's a very good question, Rachel, and one we'll have to explore later. For now, keep going."

"Okay. So, we were using the pool here at the resort, and Logan struck up a conversation with a group of girls who we thought were tourists staying at the resort. He became friends with them, and yesterday they spent the day together. Everything went fine. Then today Logan went out with them again, but when I tried to contact him to bring him back so we could go home and see the damage to the house, I couldn't reach him. Luckily I asked Logan for a number for one of the girls yesterday in case I couldn't reach his phone--"

"Good call," Pak interrupted.

"But when I called that number, I found there wasn't a sixteen-year-old Ukrainian girl on the other end of the line, but a much older woman who was definitely not Ukrainian."

"Did you say these girls were Ukrainian?"

"Yeah."

"Shit," he breathed. "They were probably plants put there to lure Logan away from you."

"You're probably right, because that's what happened. I should have insisted on talking to the girls' parents! If I had, we might have uncovered the whole conspiracy. I asked about it, but Logan looked so horrified that I backed off."

Pak was silent for a moment as he considered her words. "I don't know if you would have figured it out, Rachel. You would have met an adult if you'd insisted on it, I'm sure. You can't just check in a group of minors to a hotel room. There has to be someone of age to sign for it and provide a credit card. The 'parent' might very well have been the girls' pimp."

Rachel gasped. "Did you say pimp?"

"Unfortunately, yes. They were probably underage trafficked girls, brought into this country by the people we're looking for."

"Jesus," she breathed. "You mean like... child prostitutes?"

"I'm afraid so."

Here she was, worried about Logan's safety, when the girls luring him away had probably been coerced into doing it, being far from home without their own parents to save them. Her privilege made her feel wretched. "So, these criminals, they're Ukrainian?"

"They're a United Nations of crime, Rachel. You don't have to limit yourself to one ethnic group. Money will bring all sorts of people together in common cause." He paused and then asked, "Did this woman tell you her name?"

"No, but she did say she was his aunt. I wonder if it's this Auntie Kathy Emma mentioned."

"Birth name, Katherine Marie McTeague. So, we've been putting the pieces together over the past month, and we can say this: if McTeague has Logan, then he's not going to die, at least not yet."

Rachel stood straighter, feeling not so faint as she had after she'd hung up with her. "I think you're going to have to explain that. You've given me hope, but I'm still worried."

"Let me ask you something first. Why are you calling me?"

Rachel blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry? Did I dial the wrong number? Didn't I call the police?"

"You did, but the thing about kidnappers is, whenever they arrange a ransom, the last thing they want is to have the police involved, and warn you that if you do, they'll kill the hostage. I know you're not stupid, Rachel. If they told you not to involve us, you wouldn't."  

She sighed. "You're right. They actually told me to call you."

"I see. And did they say why?"

"They want something that you have."

"Fuck," Pak said under his breath, but the line was good, and Rachel heard it. "I knew it. It makes sense now."

"It does?"

"Yup. Do you want the whole story?"

"Will it help us get Logan back?"

"We're going to do everything we can to get Logan back, but what they want... it's going to take some effort to get it to them."

"Will telling me the story take valuable time away from getting what they want?"

"No. I've already indicated to Marsden what they want, and she's already making phone calls."

Rachel blinked in surprise. "So... you know what it is?"

"Of course we do. A numbered account to a bank in the Cayman Islands, holding roughly a million dollars."

"Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed. She couldn't help herself. "That slip of paper tucked in the cigarette package was the key to a million dollars?"

"So, there's a story there, and it centres around Bill Davenport, a sneaky little criminal of all trades. He took to joining up with various smuggling operations and then blackmailing them with evidence of said operations, threatening to give them not to the police, who would appreciate such evidence, but to rival operations to use for raiding and stealing their product. From the amount of money collected in that account, it worked for a little while, when he targeted smaller operations just getting started, worried about the big boys moving in on them. He got too big for his britches, though. He went for bigger fish, and then he paid the price."

"So, those pictures, they were meant to blackmail the big operation, and they killed him to stop him revealing them."

"No, as a matter of fact. He was selling those photos to this big operation, and they decided to just kill him rather than pay him."

"Jesus, that's cold."

"He really was an idiot. He had no idea what these people are capable of. Here's the subplot of this story: those pictures were of the rival organization he infiltrated, and Ms. McTeague happens to be a member of that organization. We arrested a couple of the lower rung players in those pictures, and they gave us the story. She originally partnered with Bill in the early days, since they had Jenna in common. They parted ways after Bill proved himself to be a shit husband and father, but it didn't stop Ms. McTeague from listing one of Bill's kids' names as the owner of a boat they were using in their operation. She didn't appreciate Bill trying to pull a number on her and her crew by sending in Larry Kranski to infiltrate the operation, and she first threatened to kill him to stop him from selling the photos. Bill was smart enough to keep a backup of the photos, at least, and he told her that if anything happened to him, he'd have someone take those photos to the police."

"Do you mean Logan?"

"They didn't say. Most likely Logan was just the deposit box, so to speak. Probably Larry was supposed to do it. Anyway, Ms. McTeague found a better way to put the fear of God into him."

Rachel gasped. "Jenna?"

"It seems Auntie Kathy wasn't going to let a friendship, as dysfunctional as it might have been, get in the way of business. First it was going to be Jenna, then it was going to be Logan, and then it was going to be Emma."

Rachel thought she might faint again. "No," she breathed. "Oh, good God, why?"

"You forget these kinds of people never ask that question. They do it, with no hesitation. They're protecting a business that's making them a lot of money, and they'll take out anyone they need to to do it. Women, children, it makes no difference to them. 

"So, you can imagine when Bill finds out about this, he panics. Maybe Kathy told him herself that she did it, or maybe he finds out some other way. He doesn't do the smart thing and hand the evidence over to her, though. He sets up the exchange with the rival instead, and calls Logan to get the phone to him. And you know how all that went down."

"Jesus," she breathed. "So, we have two gangs here, not just one."

"That's why I say it's better that Kathy got her hands on Logan first. Maybe, as you say, someone in the police is a contact of one of her crew, and they let on where you were going, I don't know. What matters is he's with her. If the other guys got their hands on him, he'd just be dead, because he's a witness to the murder of Larry Kranski and the abduction and subsequent murder of Bill Davenport."

She sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Was it Kathy who torched our house, then?"

"Most likely. She was probably hoping to find that account number and password, so she could get access to that money. She probably tossed your place before she burned it down. Now we know she wants that account. Trouble is, the account has already been frozen as proceeds of crime."

She felt her chest tighten in panic. "Are you able to... unfreeze it?"

"That's what we're working on."

"So, are you really going to let her have the money?"

"Absolutely. She's holding all the cards, for now, anyway.  What we have to negotiate is how we safely get Logan back when we give her the money. She could very well kill him once she has it."

"That's not helpful, Detective Pak."

"Don't worry. We have a hostage negotiator trained in this kind of thing."

"Good. I'm not confident in your ability to negotiate him free."

"I guess I deserve that. So, she told you to call me, then what?"

"I guess once you get the money, I have to call her. She'll tell me where to bring the money to do the exchange."

"Okay. Let us handle the rest, okay, Rachel? The last thing we want is for you to get hurt, too."

"Are you going to be there for the hand off? What if she tells me not to bring you?"

"Honestly, I don't think she'll be able to prevent us being there."

"I hope you're right."

"For now, hang tight, go tend to your house. We'll be in touch."

"Thank you, Detective Pak. Sorry I was pissy with you."

"You're forgiven. Bye."

She hung up and looked to the others. "Did you get all that?"

The trip home was a nightmare. 

Rachel rode in the Highlander with Emma and Naomi again, and the whole way Emma asked where Logan was, why he wasn't with them, and when she explained about Auntie Kathy, she kept lamenting that her mother had told her to watch out for her, and that she'd never forgive herself for not predicting this would happen.

"We never saw Auntie Kathy because we were never meant to see her," Rachel told her. "Don't beat yourself up about it. I'm the one who should have known those girls were a lure."

"Is she going to hurt him?"

"Not if we can help it, sweetie. The police are helping us."

"Did she really burn our house down?"

Rachel glowed a little when Emma used the word our, but it made her sad too, because now it was gone. "I'm afraid so."

"You can come live with us for a while," Naomi said enthusiastically.

"Sleepovers every night!" Emma said, suddenly seeing a silver lining.

Rachel locked eyes with Joe in the rear view mirror. She knew what he was thinking. They'd just called a truce on what could have been an internecine war within the LSDC. As soon as Rachel had hung up with Detective Pak, time had stopped standing still, and she'd had to figuratively put her hands up between Joe, Al and Lauren and prevent an argument from breaking out. The priority had changed to packing and leaving, because there was no way anyone was going to enjoy their vacation now. 

Really, if she knew where Logan was, the priority would be going straight there, but Katherine McTeague was not going to reveal her location until they had the money; for all Rachel knew they were in a moving vehicle, since it hadn't been that long since Al had brought Logan to meet the girls, dropping him right into McTeague's hands. Emma had it on the nail: if anything happened to Logan, Rachel would never be able to forgive herself for being so stupid.

They were a caravan of vehicles driving home along Lougheed Highway. Lauren and Al drove together in Lauren's car in front of them; there was no way those two were spending time together in the same vehicle as Rachel and Joe, even if their being alone together was the reason for the acrimony. 

The Parhars were behind them in Tej's van. Sunny and Tej had been a godsend, keeping the kids calm at the pool while Rachel, Joe, Al and Lauren had their existentially threatening encounter on the threshold of Rachel and Al's room. 

Joanie took up the rear in her pickup truck. To her credit, she couldn't stay at the hotel either, feeling the need to offer some kind of support, even protection, in case anything happened to them on the way home. She didn't have her gun with her, she'd said, but she had other items she might be able to use in a pinch. Rachel felt reassured by her presence, and that was why she couldn't entirely blame Joanie for the shit show that was this weekend. Really, they all shared the blame. Even Tej, a little, though she had been more willing victim than aggressor. Sunny and the kids were probably the only ones free from guilt.

Rachel couldn't even allow herself to think about what Al and Lauren had been up to behind that locked door. She knew it was ludicrous to be angry about the two of them having sex when they did plenty of it in Rachel's presence, but there was something about them doing it without her that made her seethe inside; it wasn't enough that Lauren got to sleep with her husband, now she wanted him on his own, without at least having to give some attention to Rachel too? That was Lauren asserting dominance again, and the resentment it generated made Rachel want to grind her teeth to breaking. 

Before this weekend had ended in disaster, Rachel had been sympathetic to Lauren, because Joe really had been a bastard, inviting Joanie up here without telling anybody. Now, though, that sympathy was tarnished by an incredulity at Lauren's choice to pour gasoline on this most explosive of situations. What the hell had she been thinking? Hadn't she known how Joe would react to this, or had that been her intention all along, to prod him into doing something he would regret? If that had been the case, then she wasn't a very good friend to Al, because she'd put him in danger, not herself, nor was she being a good friend to Rachel by taking her husband away from her.

It didn't occur to her to be angry at Al, even though she had every right to be. Al was Al, earnest, empathetic, unable to resist comforting a friend, especially a pretty female friend. All Lauren would have had to do was bat her eyes at him, maybe work up some tears, and Al would be putty in her hands. Rachel loved Al for his kindness, but sometimes he let kindness get in the way of his self-interest, which should have included staying alive; she'd seen the look on Joe's face when he'd pounded on that door. If that door hadn't been there, Rachel's room might have ended up a crime scene. 

Even if all they'd been doing was talking, couldn't they have done it anywhere but a locked hotel room? Hadn't he understood how bad the optics had been? Maybe where Lauren was concerned, Al had been willing to take the risk. Maybe he'd been angry at Joe, too, for rubbing Joanie in Lauren's face, and he'd been willing to cooperate in turning the tables on Joe. That was a game Al would have lost spectacularly, and Rachel knew her presence had been the only thing that had kept Al safe, and it pissed her off that she'd had to be the one, once again, to be the referee for all of them.

"So, Emma," Joe asked, "would you be all right sharing a room just with Naomi? I don't think we can put Logan in there as well. I know you two share a room at home, but I don't think Naomi would be comfortable sharing a room with him too."

"It's okay," Emma said. "No boys allowed, right, Naomi?"

"Maybe he can stay in Tosh's room," Naomi said.

"Can't he sleep on the couch?" Tosh asked uncharitably. 

"Yeah, true, you're right," Joe said.

This was assuming, of course, that Logan would be around to share the house Joe so generously offered to them even after the disaster of before. "I really can't thank you enough for letting us stay with you, Joe," she said, and was irritated to feel tears in her eyes. This was not the time for them. 

"It never even crossed my mind to withhold the offer, even as things stand now. You're one of my best friends, Rachel, and your kids are like my kids, and I couldn't let you make any other arrangements, especially with Logan's safety in jeopardy. We need to stay close now, for everybody's protection."

Shit. Now the tears were flowing. She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

She felt the girls' hands on her arms, stroking gently, and it made her cry harder, knowing they were trying to comfort her, because it should have been the other way around. It was just everything: knowing they were coming home to a smoking wreck that was their house; knowing Logan was out there somewhere, imprisoned, maybe hurt, maybe worse.

"It's okay, Mum," Emma said. "We'll be okay."

For a minute she didn't really process what Emma had said, she was still too deep in her own despair. Something deep in her limbic system must have snagged the words as they passed through her ears, though, because she wiped her eyes and looked at Emma. "Did you just call me Mum?"

Emma shrugged. "I know you're not my mom, but to me you're more than just Rachel, and I thought Mum is close enough to Mom without being Mom. Does that make sense?"

"Oh!" Now she was crying again, hugging Emma close and kissing the top of her head. "That makes perfect sense, and I love it!"

"Now you just have to adopt her and make it official, Auntie Rachel," Naomi said.

"As soon as we get the go ahead, kiddo, I'm making it happen." She couldn't tell them that the go ahead might come sooner rather than later, now that Emma and Logan's father, the one known obstacle to their getting full custody of his kids, was dead. Rachel didn't think Emma loved her father the way she loved her mother, since he hadn't been around much, but the last thing Rachel needed right now was another emotional landmine to step on.

"I should warn you," Emma said, "Logan probably won't call you that."

"It's okay. I think it would sound weird coming from him, but from you, my little snuggle monster..." She squeezed Emma tighter. "... it sounds perfect."

When Rachel looked upon the charred remains of their house, the first thought that came to her was, Wow, how did they keep it from spreading to the adjacent homes? 

It was probably shock that made her think something so irrelevant. The thing about their home was that it shared walls with the townhouses on the left and right, and it was gutted from the inside out. Fire crews must have been alerted right away; either that, or whoever had started the blaze hadn't used an accelerant, just lit whatever had been around, and the burn had been slow.

"It's all gone," she breathed, realizing the only things they owned in the world were what they'd brought with them on vacation. Their clothes, their shoes, everything in a few pieces of luggage. Luckily they had their phones and wallets, or they'd be in real trouble, but there were laptops, the TV and other valuables burned up, unless Kathy's crew had just decided to take those when they couldn't find what they really wanted.

She felt an arm slide around her waist and looked to see Al beside her, also looking at what was left of their home. "What matters is none of us were in there," he said. "We're alive. We can recover."

She put her head on his shoulder, grateful for his arm around her, his comforting presence. He was still her husband, regardless of their confrontation with Joe and Lauren earlier. He might have been a dumbass for going along with whatever game Lauren had been playing, but he was still there for Rachel at the end.

Suddenly Emma gasped. "Samson! What about Samson!"

Al held out his hand to her, and she let herself be drawn into this family embrace. "He's safe, remember?" Al said. "I brought him over to my mother's house before we left."

The other friends and their kids hovered around them, looking at the wreck. Even Joanie huddled in, infected as the others were by the enormity of Rachel and Al's loss.  

"I bet the neighbours on either side of you had to be evacuated as well," Joe said. "They won't be able to move back in until the fire investigator determines the structure is sound. At the very least, their homes are going to reek of smoke for years."

"I hate to bring this up, guys," Sunny said, "but did you have fire insurance on your home?"

"Of course we did," Rachel said. 

"Well, that's a relief, because you'll need to make a claim, and your neighbours will probably sue for damages."

"I couldn't care less about that right now, but thank you for adding to the list of stresses in my life."

"Hey, Rachel, you know we're here for you guys, right?" Sunny said, touching her arm. "I can help you navigate the paperwork and the legal process, and if there's a point of law I'm not familiar with, I can recommend a colleague."

"And you're staying with us while all this is happening," Lauren said. "We'll set up the rec room downstairs as your base."

"Thank you so much," Al said. "For everything."

"And we'll make this woman pay for what she did, if we can," Lauren added.

"Lauren," Joe warned. "Let the police handle this. We don't want to endanger Logan."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't do anything to put him in harm's way."

Rachel felt encouraged by this exchange. It meant they weren't focusing on their marital troubles for a minute. "I don't think we can do anything until we get the go ahead from the police, anyway," she said. "I better call them and let them know we're back. Maybe I need to get some kind of report about the fire for the insurance... Jesus. Al, we better call your mom and ask her to hold on to Samson, I don't know if it'd be a good idea to bring him over to Joe and Lauren's house... oh, God, I should probably call my mom too... not looking forward to that..."

Al squeezed her against him and said, "We'll take care of all that, don't start spinning, it doesn't all have to happen at once."

"Yeah, why don't we all come back to our place and just rest for a while," Joe said, startling her that he was agreeing with Al. "We've had a long journey, and we have a lot to deal with. There's nothing more we can do here; we certainly can't go in there and root around, it's not safe. We'll go home, we'll decompress, we'll do some laundry and we'll get organized."

"Yeah," she said, after giving the place one long last look. She'd loved that house. It had been just enough house for them. How were they going to find another one like it?

"I guess we'll go too," Sunny said. "But call us if you need anything, okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Sunny." She opened her arms to him, and he and Tej both stepped in for a hug. She smiled when Tej's hand rested briefly on her ass. Lauren was right, they had to watch her, she was a little vixen.

After the Parhars left, Joanie took that as her cue to leave. "I'll echo what Sunny said," she said. "Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks, Joanie," Al said, ever the diplomat.

She gave Joe a hug, which Rachel thought a little brazen with the kids there, but they were now down to the people who knew what was going on, so it wouldn't cause any scandals. It wasn't going to help matters when she left them alone, but she supposed the woman needed physical reassurance as much as the rest of them did. To be safe, Joanie gave Lauren a hug too, which Lauren returned stiffly, and then Naomi and Emma hugged her together, which seemed to touch Joanie greatly, because she closed her eyes and looked blissfully happy.

After she left, they stood looking at each other. Then Lauren turned and began walking to her car. "Coming, Al?" she called over her shoulder. Al gave Rachel a pained look but followed after her.

Joe stood absolutely still, but his jaw was moving as if he were chewing glass. She touched Joe's arm and said, "Come on. Let's go home." 

Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. If something doesn't ring true about police procedure and fire investigation, leave a comment. I strive for authenticity. To see how Joe's doing the day after those responsible for his marital discord have moved into his house, click on "Continue reading."