Alna arrived at home after a long day, feeling both disturbed and annoyed. This particular case of hers hadn’t been at all challenging. In fact, she was quite convinced that, if she had not interfered, the police would have figured it out by themselves shortly. That didn’t mean she couldn’t help, however.

  Especially when there seemed to be no cases for her these days. Not for the past couple of weeks, anyway. That was not to say that crime had ceased, but the ones that were occurring were ones Alna trusted the police with, or out of her league.

  The lack of cases gave her time to work on her current course, which was a definite advantage.

  “Aw, man!” one twin exclaimed as Alna entered the house. A smile worked its way to her lips at the sound of defeat. She removed her sandals and peered into the living room, where a familiar sight greeted her: Colton was looking rather put out, having lost a sword battle to Marianna, it seemed. Marianna looked quite pleased with herself.

  “Well done,” Alna commented, leaning against the wall. Her computer bag hung on her opposite shoulder.

  Her words caught Marianna’s attention, who looked up at Alna with a bright grin. “I thought so,” she agreed, while the boys grumbled to themselves.

  Hopping to her feet, Marianna walked over to Alna, drawing her in for a quick kiss. “How’d it go?” she asked in a soft voice once they pulled back.

  “Well enough,” Alna replied, equally quiet. “I’ll tell you later.”

  Marianna nodded her acceptance and walked back to the couch, where she started yet another round with the boys. Alna watched them for a moment before heading to the kitchen.

  “Hey, Alna,” Dad said, glancing up from the salad he was preparing. He was the prominent cook in the family, seeing as Mom’s job was generally the more stressful one. During tax season, she would take on some more kitchen duties, with Alna stepping in if need be.

  “Hello,” Alna said, a bit cryptically, as was her norm. She leaned her hip against the kitchen table, knowing Dad would want to talk to her for a while.

  He needed a haircut, Alna noted. Dad’s black hair was in danger of hanging in his eyes, obscuring his vision. Her mother would find it endearing.

  “Mom’s not home,” Alna stated. She could have been napping after a long day of work, but Alna doubted it. There had been no evidence that she had returned home since leaving this morning. No shoes left by the door, no car keys hanging on the wall. Nothing.

  “No.” A worried frown appeared on Dad’s face. “I texted her a while ago. She doesn’t think she’s going to be home for supper.” For a moment, he stilled, staring at the salad. His face looked pinched.

  Alna felt a flicker of sympathy. Her parents had been married for almost nineteen years, having had Alna little more than a year after their marriage. Despite this, they were still very much in love. Perhaps not in obvious ways like television shows depicted, but nonetheless, that they loved each other was indisputable. Dad hated it when Mom worked this hard, despite respecting her passion for her job. Alna had noticed him try to help her out in little ways in times like these: buying her wine and bath bombs, for one. Alna had even seen him carry Mom to bed once after she had fallen asleep during their at-home movie date.

  If there was ever a marriage to aspire to, Alna thought, glancing back at the living room, it was her parents’.

  Presently, Alna said, “That’s unfortunate.” She didn’t particularly like Mom exhausting herself, either, but her job was important. Alna knew she would rather miss sleep than allow someone to die on her watch. She always took her job a little too personally.

  Alna thought for a moment before asking, “Do you require any assistance?”

  Dad visibly shook himself, giving her a warm look. “No, I’ve got it. Go enjoy yourself. I’ll let you know when supper’s ready.”

  Alna nodded her acceptance and went downstairs to drop her stuff off. She tossed a load of laundry into the washing machine and headed back upstairs.

  Marianna was sitting in between her brothers, meaning there was no way Alna could take a seat by her girlfriend. She settled onto a cushion next to Colton and pulled out her phone. Marianna sent her a quick smile before refocusing on the game.

  Despite being rather uninterested in video games, Alna watched the trio battle it out on the television for a few minutes. Playing video games with her brothers had become a common occurrence with Marianna. She was quite the gamer, able to play just about anything. Battles, races, or a simple game of Pac Man; not one of them phased her. Ever since learning this, the boys made playing with Marianna a regular habit, constantly trying to beat her. They failed, more often than not.

  Seeing as it made Marianna feel welcome in the Holt house, Alna was hardly going to complain. Marianna had been living with Alna and her family for over a year now, and Alna would not deny she enjoyed having Marianna here. Especially with their sleeping arrangements these days.

  “Yes!” Marinna cheered, throwing her hands up in victory. She had won yet another round against the boys, who were grumbling to themselves. Thankfully, despite being ten years old, the twins were not sore losers, thus saving everyone from the threat of a tantrum.

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  “Someday, we’re gonna find a game you’re actually bad at,” Evan declared, sounding a bit put out.

  Marianna grinned, her eyes shining as she half hugged the boy in question. “I’m sure you will,” she agreed. Colton watched them with a slight frown that softened when Marianna hugged him as well.

  “Can we play another round?” Evan asked hopefully.

  “Uh,” Marianna said, glancing toward the kitchen. “Sure, why not?”

  And thus, the gaming continued.

  Alna watched for five minutes, soon finding herself bored. She pulled out her phone, opening her random facts of the day application and scrolling through a list she had never looked at. That done, she read a couple of articles on her news application. There were some horrifying stories about people who had been murdered in Edmonton, Canada, but seeing as that was in another country, solving it was not Alna’s concern. Not to mention how difficult it would be.

  Someday, when Alna was a police officer, she would have more freedom when investigating crimes. For now, it was a simple matter of waiting for Marianna to graduate high school so that they could move out of the Holt house and get started on their respective postsecondary education.

  One article caught Alna’s attention. One of Brigate’s rich bachelorettes, Hazel Tibot, allegedly had one of her necklaces stolen. According to the article, the necklace was made with genuine diamonds, and worth at least a couple thousand dollars. Which explained why someone would steal it.

  Perhaps Alna would look into it if nothing more pressing, and accessible, came up. She probably wouldn’t, though. Stolen jewellery was not exactly what Alna saw as important. Even if Tibot donated her wealth to various charities.

  “Supper,” Dad called from the kitchen, making Alna look up from her phone. She looked down at it again, frowning at the time it displayed. Five-thirty and Mom still wasn’t home. Hopefully, she would be home soon. With the hours she had been working of late, it was only a matter of time before she suffered some kind of mental breakdown.

  As Alna trailed after Marianna and her brothers, she composed a mental list of things that could help her mother relax: peppermint tea, a good book, a day at the beach. Perhaps she would suggest a beach day this weekend if the weather cooperated. She would have to go out and buy some tea at some point; Alna was certain they didn’t have peppermint at the moment.

  After dinner, Alna and Marianna helped clean up, as was their norm, before heading downstairs.

  Marianna laid down on their bed, hands behind her head as she gazed up at Alna.

  “So, the case?” she said. “How was it?”

  Alna sat by Marianna’s feet, resting her back against the wall. “Well enough. Eric McGrath stole a substantial amount of money from the owner of The Market. All I had to do was follow the paper trail, so to speak. The police will probably arrest him soon if they haven’t already.”

  “That’s good,” Marianna said with a smile. Alna said nothing in response, frowning at the wall.

  “Alna?” Marianna questioned, sitting up. She placed her on Alna’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  Meeting Marianna’s cerulean eyes, Alna sighed. “Just…prejudiced people,” she said vaguely. “They bother me.”

  If it was anyone else, Alna might have refused to say anything at all. But this was Marianna, and as they had both learned, she was the exception to many of Alna’s rules.

  “What happened?” she asked, eyebrows pinching.

  Alna once more directed her gaze to the wall opposite her. Marianna had added her own touches to the bedroom since moving in. A poster of a television character she liked hung above the bed, while a dreamcatcher hung from the ceiling. Alna wanted her to feel at home, after all, and it made the room seem less bland. Decorating had never held much interest for Alna, unless one counted her writing on the walls.

  In the present moment, Alna said, “I stopped by a grocery store to pick up something sufficient for lunch. There was a man there––couldn’t have been more than twenty.” Alna closed her eyes, pressing the heel of her hand into her forehead. “The short version is, he accidentally cut in front of another man at the till. Of course, because he was…not white, the other man blew up at him, yelling about immigrants and some more creative insults I would prefer not to repeat.”

  Marianna looked even more worried. “And what did you do?” she asked, stroking Alna’s cheekbone. If it were anyone else, even her parents, Alna might not have accepted the comfort so readily. Yet with Marianna, Alna leaned into her hand.

  Despite the topic, Alna smirked a bit. “I believe I ‘tore him a new one,’ as the saying goes.”

  Marianna grinned, kissing her. “Good. Sounds like he deserved it.”

  “Oh, he most certainly did,” Alna agreed.

  Marianna giggled.

  They decided to do some research after dinner. They’d agreed months ago that, once Marianna started college, she and Alna would live together. After all, Alna planned to move to the city Marianna’s college was in, anyway. Living together made the most sense.

  “It’s got a nice living room,” Marianna said as they looked at an apartment online.

  Alna hummed in agreement, peering over Marianna’s shoulder. Instead of using the chair Alna had bought her over a year ago, Marianna had taken a seat right in Alna’s lap. It was an arrangement that Alna was quite happy with.

  “We could contact them,” Alna agreed. “See if they would be amenable to us having a look around when we go up.”

  “Yeah,” Marianna said, snatching her phone off the desk. She made a quick note, and then set it back down, scrolling through the images of the apartment once more. It looked rather comfortable, if small. The images online showed an apartment with a common room, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. It was plain, with its walls painted grey and wood-panelled flooring, but well heated. According to the advertisement, anyway. This was why she and Marianna would make a trip up to South Rock at the first opportunity. They had already been there to check out the college, but visiting the places they would potentially be living in was a necessity.

  Alna allowed the silence to reign for a while, calculating the cost of the residence. Seven hundred and seventy-five dollars a month was quite reasonable, especially for a city. With the money Alna’s parents had saved up for her over the years, she should be able to pay it. There was no way Marianna would pay rent if Alna could help it. She was already applying for student loans. The last thing she needed to worry about was rent on top of tuition and the various other college expenses.

  Marianna let out a soft chuckle, bringing Alna’s attention back to her.

  “The building is owned by a lady named Harlie Baker,” Marianna commented, twisting around to grin at Alna. “Almost seems like fate, doesn’t it?”

  Alna smirked. “That it does,” she said, pressing a kiss to Marianna’s shoulder. “That it does.”