by Laura Scott
Matty’s smile doubled in size and something twinkled in his eyes.
“Was it woof-ness paw-tection?” he asked.
Noelle tossed her head back and laughed. It was a beautiful sound and tugged at more threads inside his heart that he could count.
“Come on, Liberty!” Matty darted down the hall. “Let’s go.”
Noelle glanced at Liberty and nodded. The dog followed the small boy down the hall, and Noelle turned to Adam.
“I haven’t seen Liberty this happy in months,” Noelle said and her eyes shone. “What happened with those ‘bad guys’ I just mentioned was that a gunrunner put a pretty big bounty on her head last year, and we had to stop taking high visibility cases for months. It was unbelievably hard for her. She loves working so much and she was really frustrated. It was hard because I couldn’t explain to her why she was suddenly benched.”
“I can only imagine,” Adam said. He turned as his parents came out of the kitchen to greet Noelle.
He’d intentionally kept the information he’d told his parents about the situation vague. But now she filled them in, quickly and simply, on how a baggie full of smuggled Ecstasy pills had been found inside a toy dog. Liberty hadn’t reacted to any other of the toys inside the van, and so far the narcotics team hadn’t found anything at the Jollys’ warehouses or offices. Quentin was in stable condition, despite needing forty stitches, and had been questioned briefly and would be interviewed at length tomorrow. Something about the way Noelle mentioned Quentin’s name made him suspect that she thought his employee was hiding something.
But it wasn’t until his parents had excused themselves and they were sitting alone in his living room that she volunteered what had been on her mind.
“Did you know Quentin Stacy has a criminal record for drug possession with intent to sell?” she asked. “And that he’s on probation?”
“I did,” Adam admitted. “The way he tells it, he got addicted to painkillers, forged prescriptions to get ahold of more pills and then started selling them. I’m not excusing his past, but he had a rough time readjusting to civilian life from the military and made some pretty big mistakes. Thankfully, he got his life back on track.”
“And you believe his version of what happened?” Noelle asked.
“I do.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Instead, they sat and listened to the sound of snow buffeting against the window and Matty’s excited voice coming down the hall as he showed Liberty around his room. Adam expected her to press him about Quentin again. Instead, her gaze fell on the guitar beside the couch. “You play?” she asked.
“Used to,” he said. “Haven’t gotten around to relearning it after the accident. The convoy I was driving in Afghanistan hit an IED at the side of the road. I only lost a few fingers and ended up with a medical discharge. But a lot of really good men lost their lives.”
“I’m sorry,” Noelle said. “That’s hard.”
There was both a simplicity and sincerity to her tone that he appreciated.
“I keep meaning to pick it back up and teach myself how to play again,” he said. “I used to lead all the carols at my parents’ giveaway events.”
“You’re an only child right?” she said. “No brothers or sisters?”
“Yup,” he said. “Just me.”
“Same here.” She smiled and he wasn’t sure if she was interviewing him or trying to get to know him better. “Did you grow up in this house?”
“No,” he said. “My parents had a house in New Jersey. Carissa and I bought a tiny place in Queens when we got married.” He paused. “Carissa was my wife, and my best friend, and Matty’s mother. We lost her to breast cancer three years ago.”
“I’m really sorry for your loss,” Noelle said, “and for Matty’s.”
Her hand brushed his arm sympathetically and then his fingers of his injured hand linked with hers in a quick and supportive squeeze. Then he pulled back and leaned his elbows on his knees.
“Thanks.” Just thinking of Carissa made whatever he felt for Noelle all the more ridiculous. He liked Noelle. He liked her a lot. But he’d known his late wife for fifteen years before he’d even felt the slightest twinge of anything romantic for her. “When she died, I sold the apartment, my parents sold their house and we bought this place in Bensonhurst together. Matty lived here with them while I was deployed.”
“Your son’s amazing,” she said.
“He is,” Adam said. There was another pause, longer this time, and he was surprised they’d lasted this long without Matty charging in. Then again, he seemed pretty taken with Liberty. “You said you wanted my help with something?”
“I do,” Noelle said. He watched as she took a deep breath and emotion flickered across her face. But when her eyes met his, they were strong and steady. “Canadian organized crime is one of the biggest suppliers of MDMA and our intel indicates drug smugglers have been bringing it into the country via the ports. We’re talking large quantities here. The empty shipping container, which started this investigation, probably contained thousands of items stuffed with pills—in this case, toys. Whoever the buyer is who received it, they’re a new player we haven’t dealt with before, and they probably have hundreds or thousands more hidden somewhere, which will then be passed on to distributors who’ll fan out and sell it across the country. Nobody out there is smuggling just one single baggie of pills through the ports this way.”
Right, this wasn’t a social visit. This was her job and he’d do well to remember that. He sat back.
“And obviously, the K-9-team who searched my family charity didn’t find thousands of toys filled with drugs in my warehouse,” he said.
“Right.” She nodded. “Also, they’re not just looking for a big warehouse of items, they’re looking for an infrastructure and contact network used to distribute the drugs. It’ll be a huge operation.”
Not a small mom-and-pop-style charity, then.
“So how do you think the toy got in my van?” Adam asked. “Do you think it was planted?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Noelle said. “But Liberty initially seemed to pick up a slight trace of something around the stage at the mall, specifically around Matty. Now, it was so faint she disregarded it almost immediately. Sometimes K-9 dogs double check an area before moving on, especially if there had been something there at one point that’s now gone. She also could have been leading me to the shipment of toys in the van. But it’s also possible Matty somehow inadvertently came in contact with another toy containing pills at some point and that’s what she was detecting.”
Adam let out a long breath. He ran his hand over his mouth.
“Matty hasn’t been in the warehouse for weeks and the only person who packed the van was Quentin,” Adam said. “I don’t want to scare or worry Matty by making him think something’s wrong, but the idea of him accidentally coming into contact with MDMA is worse.”
“I know,” Noelle said. “Normally I wouldn’t even mention it to you, let alone pursue it. But even though we don’t know each other well, it’s so obvious to me how much you love your son and want to protect him. I knew that you’d want to know.”
He swallowed hard, not sure what was caught in his throat. She was right. While his rational brain told him there was probably no reason to worry, just the idea of Matty coming near those kinds of drugs was unthinkable. “So, what do I do?” he asked.
“I want to run something past you,” Noelle said. She leaned forward. “Liberty and I are off duty, but being a highly trained K-9 dog, Liberty will still signal a little if she detects narcotics or firearms. She instinctively flinches. My colleague Officer Raymond Morrow says his K-9 dog, Abby, dances a little when someone who’s carrying drugs passes by her on the street, or in a coffee shop or office. Liberty just gets a little extra alert. If you and Matty give us a tour of the house, and Li
berty signals to something, we can then pursue a proper search. If not, then at least you’ll have peace of mind.”
“We can do that,” he said. “I have a licensed handgun in a safe in my room and my father was on prescription painkillers for his back last year, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing like that here now. Thank you both for telling me Liberty might’ve sensed something around Matty and offering to help put my mind at ease by making sure whatever it was isn’t in the house. You said there was a second thing?”
“The Brooklyn K-9 Unit will be sending officers to monitor the two toy giveaway events you’re doing tomorrow,” she said. Yeah, he’d expected as much. “Seeing as it’s Christmas Eve and it’s the last two big giveaway things you’re doing this year, if someone is using your events to move drug-laced toys, they’ve got a pretty tight window to do it in. It was really clear from talking earlier just how much helping those kids matters to you. And we don’t have to be disruptive or wreck what you’re trying to do to be effective at our jobs. So, I just wanted to let you know we were open to finding ways to help accomplish your goals while fulfilling ours.”
He sat back. Whoa. Not only had Noelle taken him aback by her thoughtfulness about Matty, she’d now done it twice. He’d learned firsthand while deployed in Afghanistan how hard it was to juggle being compassionate to those around him while also doing his job at the top of his game. The fact she was even aware of how uniformed cops could impact attendees at an event like his impressed him more than she knew.
“I appreciate this so much,” he said. “But I like the idea of having you visible and in uniform. I think it’ll be good for the kids to see cops helping out at something like this.”
She smiled. “I agree.”
The floor creaked with the telltale sound that Matty was coming down the hall, followed closely by the clack of Liberty’s paws. A moment later his son’s smiling face appeared around the corner.
“Can I help with your police work?” Matty asked. “I’m good at noticing things. And Liberty and I make a good team.”
Noelle slipped off the couch and crouched down at his level.
“Well,” she said. “I’m wondering if you know anything about FlupperPups.”
Matty’s eyes widened. “I do!”
His son turned and ran down the hallway before Adam could remind him to walk. Seconds later he was back holding a department store Christmas flyer. Matty pointed at the row of FlupperPups that matched those she’d seen on the box. There were eight breeds, including a beagle, a golden Lab and a husky that had been enthusiastically circled. But it was the small word typed under the black Lab dog with the big red bow that caught his eye: Rare. He glanced at Noelle and could tell she’d caught it too.
“What does it mean this black dog is rare?” Noelle asked, and he suspected it was because she wanted to hear Matty’s take.
“It means it’s supposed to be special because it’s hard to find,” Matty said. He pointed his finger down the line of dogs. “They go really-easy-to-find, sort-of-easy-to-find, harder-to-find and super-hard-to-find. But it’s silly. Why does being hard to find mean it’s better?”
Adam noticed the husky that Matty had circled was right in the middle of the list.
“I agree,” Noelle said. “Making toys hard to get is very silly.”
Matty beamed. Soon afterward, Adam gave Noelle and Liberty a tour of the house. To his surprise, and with his permission, Noelle turned it into a game, getting Matty to help hide a special small rubber ball in different rooms. Sure enough, Liberty twitched her ears near his bedroom safe, but beyond that the dog didn’t react to anything else in the house. He was relieved. An hour later, after several games of hiding the ball and a quick mug of hot chocolate with both large and mini marshmallows with his parents and Matty, Noelle and Liberty started their goodbyes. Adam got Noelle’s coat and held it for her while she slid her arms into her sleeves. After a few more last-minute goodbyes from Matty to Liberty, Adam walked Noelle out.
They stood outside for a moment, in the darkness, with snow falling so faint around them it was almost invisible except when it crossed the golden shafts of streetlights. His eyes searched her face.
“You’re worried,” he said.
“I am.” She looked up into his eyes, and for the first time since they’d met, it was like he could fully see through her crisp and impressive professionalism to the vulnerable person inside. “Is it that obvious?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. He wasn’t sure how he could tell. “But it just seems that something’s bugging you. Do you want to talk about it?”
His hand brushed her shoulder and she didn’t step away from his touch.
“You saw those pills,” she said. “They look exactly like candy. There could be thousands of toys stuffed with drugs out there. According to our forensics team, the contents of that baggie alone was worth over two hundred thousand dollars on the street. People have been killed for less. Your family could be right in the middle of this and your toy giveaway was almost completely derailed.”
“But it wasn’t in the end,” he said. “Every kid went home happy today, I’ll protect my family and you’ll solve this case. It’ll be okay. I have faith. And you should too.”
Then somehow he found his arms parting. She stepped into them, and he hugged her to his chest. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back. The strong, driven, beautiful cop he’d only met a few hours earlier stood there, in his arms, as if it were the most natural thing in the world and he’d been hugging her goodbye outside his front door for years.
“Noelle!” His mother’s voice sounded behind him. He and Noelle sprung apart as his mom ran down the front steps. She’d come out in such a hurry her coat wasn’t done up and she was wearing his father’s shoes instead of pausing long enough to put on her own boots that required lacing. “I just remembered something.”
* * *
Heat rose to Noelle’s face as Irene hurried down the narrow driveway. What must she have looked like standing there with Adam’s arms around her? She glanced at Adam, but he wasn’t meeting her eyes. Irene hurried to her car and popped the trunk.
“I’m sorry. I completely forgot I had this,” Irene said. She leaned in, lifted a blanket and pulled out a FlupperPup. It was a husky just like the one Matty had circled. “I bought it for Matty yesterday and hid it in the trunk so he wouldn’t see me bring it in.”
But Noelle knew from the moment she took it that it didn’t have drugs inside. The weight and balance were entirely different, and when she shook it lightly, nothing rattled. She held it up to Liberty and the dog agreed. No drugs. Irene was worried that she’d wasted Noelle and Liberty’s time. But Noelle was quick to reassure her that it was actually really helpful to know what a FlupperPup that wasn’t filled with drugs felt like. Not to mention, she was thankful for the well-timed interruption of the awkwardly long and probably ill-advised hug. She wasn’t even sure what it was about the handsome widowed father and military veteran with the deep compassionate heart and impressive precision-driving skills that affected her quite the way it did. But whatever it was, she made sure that her good-night and goodbye were extremely professional.
Despite the fact that Noelle tossed and turned so much in her bed that night that Liberty went to sleep on her dog bed, Noelle was laser-focused on keeping everything highly professional when she greeted Adam and his family the next morning at the community drop-in center. No more hugs. But she needn’t have worried, because Adam’s crisp handshake and polite “Good morning, Officer,” made her suspect he regretted the hug too.
Thankfully, there was plenty of work to do and no opportunity for any more time alone or awkward moments. The event was in a large community shelter and included a free brunch, carol singing and games. Both she and Liberty, and Raymond and Abby, had done a complete sweep of the place before it had opened. Then the shipment of toys had been se
arched and sniffed thoroughly by the dogs when they’d been delivered, before they were placed under the tree. But they’d found absolutely nothing suspicious.
Raymond and Abby relocated to the front door once the event started, taking occasional strolls around the room. At his suggestion, she and Liberty stayed close to the Jollys, helping as they handed out toys, led everyone in carols and dished out food for the potluck. By midmorning she was standing beside Fred, helping him serve up bagels and toast at one end of the long buffet line, with Liberty lying under the table by her feet. Adam was partway down with Matty, singing carols together as they served up bacon and sausage. Seeing how happy they were together made her own heart swell. She knew she wasn’t supposed to get emotionally attached to people on her cases. But she couldn’t help but admit she liked the Jollys.
Especially Adam. He was this amazing mass of contradictions. Incredibly focused one moment and yet flexible the next. Professional in an instant and yet deeply caring. There was just something special about him, like an Advent calendar with so many doors she had yet to see inside. His eyes met hers above Matty’s head, and even though she knew she should look away, she found herself holding his blue-eyed gaze.
Help me, Lord. I like this man a lot more than I should.
A soft wet snout brushed her hand. She looked down. Liberty was at her feet and looking up at her, her deep brown eyes warm and insistent. Had she sensed Noelle’s discomfort?
“I’m going to take Liberty for a quick walk around the building,” she said, turning to Fred. “Can you handle the toast until I get back?”
“Sure can.” Fred chuckled. “But if something goes terribly wrong I’m sure it won’t be long until somebody steps in to save me.”
Noelle laughed. “Thank you. Back in a minute.”
She nodded to Raymond and his K-9, Abby, across the room and signaled that she was going to walk around. He nodded. She looped Liberty’s leash around her hand and slipped out from behind the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Adam’s eyebrow rise in question as he watched her go. She led Liberty through the tables of happy families eating brunch and past the towering tree decked out in sparkling lights, and then led her down the back hallway toward the alley behind the center. The noise of the celebration faded. She heard Liberty bark softly and felt her tug her leash.