Blue Alert
“Daniel Mahoney, get your backside in here and get these shoes on. We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago.”
“Aggy, I can’t find Ephelant.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, come here, spud.”
Agnes scooped him into a hug.
“We’ll find him. Don’t worry.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Sergeant Clayton, we need you.”
TJ appeared from the bedroom, buttoning his shirt.
“Sergeant Clayton reporting for duty, sir… ma’am.”
“We have a missing toy. Need to put out a Blue Alert.”
TJ straightened.
“Description?”
“Victim’s name is Ephelant.”
“Last seen?”
“In bed.”
TJ nodded.
“Okay. That narrows it down.”
“We’re already twenty minutes late for Beau and Laura’s baby shower.”
TJ looked at Daniel.
“Your timing needs some work.”
Daniel’s bottom lip wobbled.
“Not your fault, son. We’ll find him.”
Agnes crouched beside Daniel.
“Go on, spud. Tell Jay-Jay what Ephelant looks like.”
“He’s blue and his ears are this big.”
Daniel stretched his arms as wide as he could.
TJ studied him.
“That’s quite an ear span.”
“Troop.”
“I’m taking it seriously.”
“Good.”
TJ crouched beside Daniel.
“Anything else?”
“He’s soft,” Agnes said.
“Useful.”
“He smells like baby shampoo.”
“Excellent.”
“And he’s been chewed on.”
TJ frowned.
“By whom?”
Daniel pointed at himself.
“Me.”
TJ nodded.
“Right. Suspect identified.”
Daniel giggled.
Agnes shook her head.
“Come on, Sarge. Help us find Ephelant.”
TJ saluted.
“Yes, ma’am. Operation Elephant is officially underway.”
They searched the living room, kitchen and Daniel’s bedroom.
Nothing.
TJ checked under the sofa.
Two toy cars, a sock and half a biscuit.
No elephant.
Ten minutes later, Daniel suddenly stopped.
His eyes widened.
“EPHELANT!”
He pointed through the window.
A bright blue stuffed elephant sat in the middle of the porch, its enormous ears sticking out from either side of its head.
In plain sight.
TJ stared.
Agnes stared.
Daniel bolted through the door.
“There you are!”
He scooped Ephelant up and hugged him.
Agnes looked at TJ.
“We’ve just spent ten bloody minutes looking for that.”
TJ nodded slowly.
“Yep.”
Daniel beamed.
“He was waiting.”
TJ crouched beside him.
“Of course he was, Little Lid.”
Agnes checked her watch.
“We’re now thirty-five minutes late.”
TJ stood.
“Well, the victim has been recovered.”
Agnes gave him a look.
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t gonna say anything.”
“You were.”
“I was.”
Daniel looked up.
“Can we go to Uncle Beau’s now?”
Agnes smiled.
“Yes, spud. We can go.”
TJ grabbed the car keys.
“Blue Alert cancelled.”
“Ephelant coming,” Daniel announced.
“He better,” Agnes said.
TJ opened the front door.
“Wouldn’t want another national emergency.”
“Thirty-five minutes late because of a stuffed elephant.”
TJ glanced at Daniel.
“Worth it.”
Agnes smiled.
“It defo was.”
She opened the car door.
“Come on, Troop. Let’s get ourselves to Uncle Beau’s before Laura sends the Mounties out looking for us.”
With Ephelant and Daniel secured in the back seat, they made their way to Beau’s for the baby shower.
Agnes was quiet on the journey, lost in her thoughts.
She found herself thinking about the last eighteen months and how quickly they had flown by.
Eighteen months.
It didn’t seem possible.
When she thought back to where they’d been, she couldn’t help but smile.
So much had happened.
Daniel had arrived in their lives when neither of them had expected it, and somehow, the little blue-eyed menace had managed to turn their entire world upside down.
And she wouldn’t change a thing.
After the judge had ruled in their favour, Agnes and TJ had sat down and talked for hours about what was best for Daniel. They’d talked about work, childcare and how they could make it all work without either of them losing what mattered.
In the end, Agnes decided she was better off returning to teaching at the range. It meant she could be there for Daniel more.
TJ had supported her decision, even if he missed having her beside him in the passenger seat.
She missed it too.
But when she glanced into the rear-view mirror and saw Daniel happily clutching Ephelant, she knew she’d made the right choice.
TJ was still a trooper, but six months ago he’d been promoted to sergeant.
Things were ticking along smoothly.
Almost suspiciously smoothly.
Domestic life suited them more than either of them had ever imagined.
There was something about coming home to the same people every day. Daniel’s toys scattered everywhere. TJ’s boots left where they shouldn’t be. Her own clothes somehow ending up on chairs instead of in wardrobes.
It was messy.
Noisy.
Occasionally exhausting.
And she bloody loved it.
And Patty…
Well, she was one of the things that had stayed exactly the same.
Agnes smiled to herself.
Some things, apparently, were beyond saving.
As for Beau, he and Laura had started dating a few weeks after Agnes and TJ first met her.
Now Laura was eight months pregnant.
And she blamed Agnes for all of it.
Apparently, Laura had thought she was going through early menopause.
She hadn’t been.
She was pregnant.
And despite the blame being firmly placed at Agnes’s door, both Beau and Laura were over the moon about becoming parents.
By the time they pulled up outside Beau’s house, Daniel was already bouncing in his seat.
“Cake,” he announced.
Agnes glanced over her shoulder.
“We haven’t even got inside yet, spud.”
“Cake.”
TJ looked at her.
“I think he’s made his priorities clear.”
Agnes sighed.
“Of course he has.”
TJ parked and switched off the engine.
Daniel immediately reached for his seat belt.
“Easy, son.”
“I want cake.”
“We heard you.”
Agnes opened her door.
“Come on, then.”
Daniel scrambled out, Ephelant tucked firmly under one arm.
The front door opened.
Daniel spotted Beau.
His whole face lit up.
“UNCLE BEAU!”
He shot across the path at full speed, Ephelant bouncing under his arm.
Beau laughed and bent down just in time to catch him, scooping him up and settling him against his hip.
“How’s it going, big man? You keeping these two out of trouble?”
He pointed suspiciously at Agnes and TJ.
Daniel giggled.
“I lost Ephelant but we found him and now he wants cake.”
He delivered the entire sentence in one breath.
Beau looked at Ephelant.
Then at Daniel.
“Does he now?”
He glanced towards the house.
“Well, it just so happens Laura bought someone’s favourite muffins.”
Daniel’s eyes went wide.
“Muffins!”
Beau barely got him back on his feet before Daniel shot through the front door.
Beau watched him disappear.
“Well. That worked.”
Agnes shook her head.
“You know how to handle him.”
“I’ve got skills.”
TJ walked past him.
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
Beau grinned.
“Come on in.”
They followed Beau inside, where the house was already full of people and the sound of conversation.
Daniel immediately disappeared into the crowd, clutching Ephelant under one arm and apparently having forgotten all about the missing-elephant emergency.
Agnes barely had time to take off her coat before Laura’s enormous pregnant belly appeared around the corner.
“Look who finally decided to show up.”
Agnes looked at the belly, then at Laura.
“Bloody hell, you sure there’s only one in there?.”
Laura grinned.
“See? This is what happens when you bring trouble into my house.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
TJ snorted.
Agnes turned towards him.
“Don’t encourage her.”
“I didn’t.”
“You laughed.”
“I did not.”
Beau walked past them.
“It was definitely him.”
TJ looked at Beau.
“Traitor.”
Laura laughed.
Daniel appeared beside Beau, muffin in hand.
“Ephelant gone.”
Beau crouched down.
“Where’d he go?”
Daniel shrugged.
“Dunno.”
“Where did you put him?”
Another shrug.
“Dunno.”
Beau sighed dramatically.
“Okay. I’ll find him.”
Daniel pointed at him.
“Cake.”
Beau stared at him.
“You’ve already had a muffin.”
“Cake.”
Laura laughed.
“Beau, you’re being trained.”
Beau sighed.
“I am beginning to realise that.”
Beau crouched down beside Daniel.
“You’re dangerous, you know that?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Am I going to have to arrest you one day?”
Daniel thought about it for a moment.
Then shook his head.
“No. Me nice.”
Beau smiled.
“You’re nice?”
“Yeah.”
Daniel pointed at him.
“Uncle Beau naughty.”
TJ immediately cracked up.
Agnes shook her head.
“Out of the mouths of babes.”
Beau looked at TJ.
“You teach him that?”
“Nope.”
TJ was still grinning.
Daniel wandered off again, muttering to himself.
“Beau naughty.”
Beau stared after him.
“I’m never buying that kid cake again.”
Daniel stopped dead.
He slowly turned around.
“Cake?”
Beau closed his eyes.
“That’s what I thought.”
TJ grinned.
“Definitely dangerous.”
They eventually settled into the living room, Beau and TJ laughing over beers while Daniel played happily with Laura’s nieces and nephews.
Agnes had slipped easily into conversation with Laura and her friends and family, laughing along as stories bounced around the room.
For once, there was nothing to worry about.
No court hearings. No police calls. No high speed chases.
Just family, laughter and the comfortable chaos of a house full of people.
TJ glanced across the room at Agnes.
She was laughing at something Laura had said, one hand wrapped around her drink, completely relaxed.
Beau followed his gaze.
“She’s happy,” he said.
TJ nodded, taking a drink.
“Yeah.”
Daniel’s laughter carried through from the other side of the room.
TJ smiled.
“Can’t ask for much more than that.”
Beau lifted his bottle.
“To that.”
TJ clinked his bottle against it.
“To that.”
“We’ve come a long way, partner. All three of us,” TJ mused.
Beau glanced across the room at Laura, then down at his beer.
“Yeah. Who would’ve thought I’d be a dad at nearly fifty?” he sighed.
TJ took a sip of his beer.
“Yep. You’ll be taking him to school on your mobility scooter.”
Beau slowly turned to look at him.
“Very funny.”
TJ grinned.
“I thought so.”
“Just remember, Sergeant, I know where you live.”
“Yeah, and Daniel knows where you keep the cake.”
Beau narrowed his eyes.
“You’re both dangerous.”
