Mrs. Mackenzie was still chatting with Agnes when Sunny and Rachel walked back to the waiting room. Rachel sat down next to Agnes, and Sunny sat back across from them. Tej still sat in the same chair, stunned by Agnes' revelation.

Agnes looked at him, then at Rachel and Mrs. Mackenzie. "Suddenly it's not so private," she said.

"You're not going to discuss anything about your case in front of us," Rachel said, gesturing to herself and Mrs. Mackenzie. "We're going to go outside for some fresh air. However, Sunny did inform me of your need for alternate lodgings, and I happen to have a place you can stay for a while."

Agnes reared back and looked at her through slit eyes. "Are you punking me right now?"

Rachel shook her head. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know," Agnes said slowly. "I guess I'm a little thrown by how generous your offer is."

"It's not just me who's offering. Al wants to do this too. Honestly, it helps us too; we're still living at Joe's while Al is convalescing, and we should have the new place occupied to keep to the terms of our insurance."

"Well, I... wow, this wasn't what I expected at all." Agnes fanned at her face to keep tears from coming. 

"It would get you to a place where your husband couldn't find you while we sorted this out," Sunny said.

"I know, but..." Suddenly she stood and paced, wrapping her arms around herself. "I just don't know if I can accept it."

"Why not?" Rachel asked.

"It's just that... what if we go there, but my husband asks my parents where I am?"

"It's three bedrooms, so take them with you if you can make it work."

Agnes stopped pacing and looked at her. "But... they've lived there as long as I can remember, as long as I've been alive. I can't imagine they'd want to move."

"Maybe if you explained the circumstances necessitating the move?" Sunny said.

"That's the thing. I haven't really explained to my parents why I've come home. I'm still coasting on the honeymoon they're on being around the grandkids so much; they haven't seen them in years."

Sunny looked at Rachel, who shrugged. "Well, it's an option," he said. "You don't have to take it if you don't want to."

"Can I think about it?" Agnes asked.

"Sure," Rachel said, standing up. Sunny could tell she was hiding her irritation; it must have cost her a lot to reach out to Al's once serious girlfriend, and Agnes' reluctance must have felt like a slap in the face. "I'll leave you to your discussion."

Mrs. Mackenzie stood with her, and they made to go. Tej said, "I'll join you," and the three of them left together.

Once they were gone, Sunny turned back to her and said, "Okay. I'm not recording anything we're going to say, now, because I don't want to be on record counselling you to do anything illegal. I just want to know the circumstances leading to your flight from the family home before I contact my colleague who works in criminal law."

She sighed and shrugged. "He cheated with his partner."

"Another RCMP officer?"

"Yes. Apparently the camaraderie they shared eventually led to more. There was something else. Her husband abused her, and Patrick found out. When you're partners, you can't hide things like that forever. Patrick is... well, he hates when men are violent with women. He grew up in a home with a father who hit his mother, and he travelled west as soon as he was able to because he couldn't stand it anymore; he'd tried to get his mother to leave, but she wouldn't."

Sunny nodded, knowing all about the mindset of abuse victims, and how hard it was to change that mindset. His own sister had probably suffered a low-level emotional torture for years before she finally tried to escape with the man she probably should have married after all, and then tragically paid for it; Sunny had never known a thing about it until it was too late.

"Okay, so," he said, "Patrick became emotionally involved with this woman because her husband abused her?"

"I don't know if that's true or if he was already involved with her when he found out. When he found out, though, he knew he had to do something about it."

"Because he styles himself as some champion of women in need?"

Agnes shrugged.

"And he didn't see the irony that he was committing adultery against the woman who still needed him to be a good husband and father?"

"Honestly, he probably viewed his home life as safely locked down, so he considered himself free to fight this new battle. It didn't hurt that his colleagues on the force had teamed up with him; police don't look kindly on attacks on their own."

"So, how did you find out about this?"

"He came home late one night, and I found him washing up in the downstairs mudroom. He had blood on his hands and clothes, and he'd stripped down to erase all evidence on his body. The clothes he was going to burn." 

"Okay, that looks suspicious, but unless you had telepathy you couldn't have known what he'd done. Did he tell you?"

"No. When I asked, he said he hit a deer on the side of the road, and he had to drag it into the bushes before he could move the truck. I didn't believe him, of course, and I never saw any damage to the truck later that would prove what he said. The look on his face scared me, though, and I didn't want to challenge him on it; not for my own safety, necessarily, or for that of my kids. I was actually more afraid something would happen to him, arrest or firing, and then our family's security would be compromised; we'd lose the house, be out on the street."

"I get it.  You didn't think he'd hurt you, but if something happened to him, you'd lose one of the family breadwinners, and your kids would lose their father."

"Yes, plus, I mean, I still loved him, even if I smelled another woman's perfume on his clothes, or another woman's..." She cleared her throat and said, "... scent on his fingers."

Sunny felt heat rise to his cheeks, and he tugged at his collar. "May I ask how the two of you met?"

Agnes smiled wistfully, and Sunny could tell even now that the ghost of that love still lingered, maybe not for the man he was now, but for the man he'd been when they met. "I'd moved to the Okanagan a year or two before, and was working in Kelowna. I wasn't looking for a relationship; I was still heartbroken after fate tore Al and me apart."

Sunny flinched at the choice of words. This woman still held feelings for his friend, even after all these years. He was glad Rachel wasn't listening to this.

"There was a violent incident in the library, I can't even remember what it was about," she went on. "Sometimes people use the library because they have no other place to go, it's warm and welcoming, and no one expects you to buy anything for the privilege of being there. Sometimes they come in drunk or with drink in hand, and sometimes they have conflicts with other people in similar situations."

"I get it. So, this police officer, Patrick Marinville, he responds to this incident?"

She nodded, pleased that he was keeping up with her. He had a feeling she was quite brilliant and didn't suffer fools, but there was also a neediness there. Poor Al wouldn't have been able to resist her. He himself was charmed, and he barely knew her.

"I was the one who called our security guards to the incident; the Kelowna branch of ORL is big enough to need them. They called in the police to make the arrest once they had the parties separated and restrained. Patrick got my statement afterwards. I was blown away by how large he was; your friend, Joe? He reminds me of Patrick. But more than that, he was kind. He understood that the incident was traumatic and made sure I had a full debrief, pointing me to mental health services in the area; I used the one offered by my employer, but still, it was considerate of him."

"Incredible," Sunny said. "Rachel was married before Al, you know, and her husband was also a police officer, and they'd met following an incident to which he'd been called."

"Huh. Well, it's not the conventional way people meet, but there is something primal about it, isn't there. A big, handsome man rides in to help you when you're in distress? It wasn't a big surprise when he returned later and applied for a library card, and I bent library policy and privacy legislation by calling the number on his application form; he wasn't surprised at all that I'd called, and he asked me out immediately. The rest is history."

Sunny smiled. "Okay. So, you didn't want to lose your husband and the father of your children, so you kept quiet about what you saw."

Agnes shrugged sheepishly. "I'm not proud of it."

"I understand, though. I do. What changed? Something new must have arisen for you to finally decide staying with him was worse than running." 

"Well, here's where I really feel ashamed."

Sunny blinked in surprise. "There's no need for you to feel shame. You didn't do anything wrong besides keep your mouth shut."

She sighed. "That's nice of you to say, but... okay, let me explain. Time goes by, and I'm getting confident that, whatever Patrick did, there won't be any blow back from it. No criminal charges, no firing. Then, one night, I get a knock on the door. Patrick is out on shift. I open it and see two men standing on the doorstep. One older, one about my age or a little younger. You're probably wondering why I'm opening my door at night without my husband in the house. It's Kelowna, not Vancouver."

"I'm not judging. Who were these men?"

"The father and the brother of the man Patrick killed. They wanted to pay a visit and let me know what my husband had done, and to ask if I knew about it. I denied it up and down and, to my relief, they believed me. Maybe they saw how scared I was. Anyway, they took great pleasure in telling me the name of the woman with whom he was cheating, as if I didn't already know. They wanted to warn me that they'd be seeking retribution against him and against those who helped him."

Sunny nodded. "I get it. You never feared for your life or your kids' lives from Patrick, but from those hunting him."

She nodded. "Plus, it was beginning to dawn on me that Patrick had made quite a mess of things, and I didn't want to stay around to help him clean it up. I had to get out quickly, so I sent out my resume to libraries in the Metro Vancouver area, because that was the only place I ever considered running to, home. Luckily, Vancouver Public Library offered me something, even if it was auxiliary, so I made a run for it. I just packed the car one day while Patrick was working, took the kids out of school and headed for the hills. The house is in Patrick's name because he already had it when he met me; we never considered changing it because we never thought we'd split up..." These last words squeaked out as Agnes broke down, sobbing into her hands. It had probably dawned on her, finally, everything she'd given up.

Sunny removed his pocket square and offered it to her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Thank you," she squeaked, taking the handkerchief.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It must have been terrifying."

She nodded and blew her nose into the handkerchief. "Oh, sorry," she said.

"Keep it, I have more. Now, the house is going to be a problem when we file for divorce..."

"I don't want it, and I don't want the money that comes from the sale. I'm glad I didn't have to worry about it, actually."

"Still, Agnes, money is going to come up whether you want it to or not. At least think about its usefulness for the kids if not for you."

She sniffled and said, "Okay."

"We'll put in a claim for a portion of the sale citing the number of years in which you resided there, contributing to the household income." 

She looked up at him and said, "We?"

"You're going to need help with the paperwork, and I'm not going to leave you dangling when you need help."

She took his hand and said, "You don't know how much this means to me. Look, I don't know how much I'll be able to pay you--"

"Like I said, I'm working pro bono on this one. If at the end you win a significant settlement in the divorce, if you like, we can come to an agreement on court and administrative fees."

She nodded eagerly. "Deal."

By the time he called Mandeep Randhawa to apprise him of Agnes' situation, the whole gang had returned to base. Rachel, Mrs. Mackenzie and Tej had finished their circuit of the outside of the hospital, and Lauren and Joe had returned from bringing Samson home. 

"Here are your keys, Mrs. Mackenzie," Lauren said, handing them to her. "Thanks for recommending the trip. I think Joe and I needed it." To illustrate what she said, Joe wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her to him.

"Yes, I think you did," the older woman said as she put them in her purse. 

Sunny had the idea Mrs. Mackenzie saw a lot more than anyone thought she did but was too polite to say.

Rachel peeked into Al's room and said, "Al's sleeping right now, because it's still tiring to engage with people so soon after coming to full consciousness."

"Oh." Lauren's face fell. "I was hoping to talk with him more." When everyone turned to her, she cleared her throat and said, "Plus, Joe hasn't even seen him."

"I can wait," Joe said. "I think our kids have had enough time on their own, they've probably ruined the house. We should go."

"I think I should go too," Agnes said, standing up. "I promised my kids I'd take them to a movie."

"Enjoy your evening," Sunny said, "and then let us know when you decide about the house."

"Oh, did you already have your talk?" Lauren said, sounding disappointed.

"We did, but I'll be in contact with you, Lauren. I may have need of your firm's services."

"Oh! Okay, well, I'll wait to hear from you."

"I didn't know you were a P.I., Lauren," Agnes said.

Lauren shrugged. "Well, out of commission for now, but we have other capable investigators if you need one."

Agnes looked to Sunny. "I guess we'll see."

She waved goodbye to all of them. They watched her go, and Rachel said, "That one likes to look gift horses in the mouth."

"Thank you for controlling yourself," Sunny said. "I know you were ready to tell her off."

"What do you mean?" Lauren asked. "Did you go full jealous wife on her?"

Rachel gasped. "Am I that obvious?"

"We don't blame you," Joe said. "You've had enough of dealing with other women in Al's life."

Everybody cleared their throats awkwardly. Sunny noticed this about Joe, that he couldn't help passive-aggressively alluding to the affair between Al and Lauren that had nearly ruined two marriages and the bond holding the LSDC together.

Rachel shook her head and said, "I offered her our new place to lie low for a while, and she said she had to think about it."

"What the hell?" Lauren said. "I guess she's not in as much danger as you've implied, Sunny."

Sunny scratched his beard and said, "I don't know about that."

Thanks for reading this far! I hope you were surprised that this wasn't another abusive husband chasing a runaway wife story. There are enough of those. If you liked what you read so far, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! 

To see how Joanie reacts to a job offer she didn't expect, click on "Continue reading."