The Christmas Cop

by Barbara McMahon

  Jake nodded, planning to head out himself soon.

  Shea had just begun to pick up where she left off in capturing what she could of the volunteer list the next morning when her phone rang. She saw it was the IT guys upstairs.

  “I’m off,” she said. “Not sure when I’ll be back.”

  The test run Stan tried worked. The IT group had begun entering actual data the previous day and found the program worked perfectly–allowing for the different parameters of some of the data, depending on how old the input was.

  Shea spent most of the morning making sure everything went the way it was designed to work. They tried all the different features to make sure things were working. Shea grew more and more confident as the morning progressed. Nothing glitched.

  She went back downstairs when it was lunch time.

  Jake was leaning back in his chair, gazing at the ceiling.

  She looked up but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  "So, what's up?" she asked.

  "Just thinking. I might have to go to the evidence locker later. There's a piece of evidence I want to examine for this case."

  "Lunch in the meantime?" she asked.

  He nodded and pulled out his wallet.

  Shea took his money and left to get their food. She looked forward to lunch each day since Jake arrived. She loved talking with him, learning more about the man, and was pleased to see he seemed as curious about her as she was about him.

  Though she wasn't sure he meant to be funny, she laughed at some of the stories he told. He had a dry sense of humor, so maybe he was leading her on after all.

  Once lunch was finished, she offered to call some of the volunteers. She wanted to hang out at the police station in case any other problem arose with the new program. This way she'd help out and still be available if needed in IT.

  "I'm heading to evidence," he said.

  She listened until the thump of the walking cast could no longer be heard, then dialed the first number on the list. Her time here was growing short. Unless she could come up with some reason to stay, tomorrow she’d be back at her own office.

  Though, when she thought about it, there was nothing pressing at the office. She could stay longer if she wanted.

  If Cal needed her, she'd have to go. But for the time being, she'd stay to help with the Christmas project.

  Chapter Five

  Shea dialed the first name on the volunteer list. After explaining who she was and why she was calling, she received a wealth of information from Betsy Samson, one of the volunteers who had volunteered at Christmas for several years.

  When she finished the call, she started a time line for all the things that needed to be done–from contacting vendors who provided clothing or toys, to verifying names, ages, sizes and addresses of the kids, to rallying the volunteers for wrapping packages and the cops for distribution.

  They needed to contact St. Anne's to see if they could hold the wrapping party there as in previous years. If so they’d stage the presents there as they came in for volunteers to wrap.

  And there was a special list of those who needed food supplies as well as other necessities.

  While the size of the project seemed huge, Shea refused to let herself become overwhelmed. They could do this.

  The police department could do this. They'd handled it for years. She just hadn't had an inkling of how complex it was before.

  She liked challenges.

  Would Jake see it the same way?

  She called Cal.

  "Hey, what's up?" he answered.

  "I'm going to be tied up here a bit longer."

  He groaned. "Now what?"

  "I sort of got involved with the project the police do each year in giving toys to kids in need at Christmas."

  "Sort of? Like you jumped right in and now are knee deep?" he said giving a chuckle. "I know you, Shea. Couldn't someone else do it?"

  "Maybe, but I want to. Things are quiet, you said so earlier. So unless something pops up, I'm going to stay here and see it through."

  "Okay. If something comes up I'll holler, but otherwise, I'll know to find you still at the cop shop."

  "We might need a bit more help," she said slowly.

  "As in?"

  She explained the situation, ending with, "So according to the volunteer, all that group does is wrap presents and stage for delivery. Then on the day before Christmas Eve it's all hands on deck to deliver them. Any chance you or the gang would help? The more the merrier."

  "Help in what exactly," he asked cautiously.

  "First in compiling the data needed to know what to get each child. There's a list, but the flash drive it’s on is corrupted and I don't think I have all the data. So it'll mean calling around to fill in the blanks. Then we need to keep an accurate spreadsheet of age, sizes, toys wanted, that kind of thing."

  "All on a volunteer basis, I'm sure," Cal said.

  "Of course."

  "Anyplace to work there or will we be doing it from here?"

  "There’s really limited space here. But a lot can be done from our office. See who wants to help."

  "Will do. Anything else, like how's the program going now?"

  "Oops, I should have started with that. It seems to be working fine and they're using it with real data with no problems."

  "That's good to hear," he said. "I'll call you back when I see who wants in."

  "Thanks, Cal. This is going to be a great way to get ready for Christmas."

  "Humph," he replied before saying goodbye.

  Shea grinned at his response. He was a softy at heart.

  She suspected he'd present it to the staff as a super opportunity to give back at Christmas and everyone would be on board.

  She updated the list of children as best she could from the corrupted data. Once she had a spreadsheet to her satisfaction, she emailed it to Cal with full confidence members of their team would rally around and start calling to fill in the blanks.

  Turning to the volunteer file, she worked on getting as much data from that one as she could. She'd make a few calls to see who was available this year and what they could do. And asked each one if they knew anyone else who might want to be involved.

  Shea was so engrossed in her task she didn't notice the tell-tale thump along the hall and was startled when Jake appeared in the doorway.

  "What, you couldn't hear me a mile away," he said noting her surprise.

  She shook her head. "Guess not. Any luck in finding the killer?"

  "A promising lead actually. A couple of things to check on first, but I definitely suspect someone. Any luck with the volunteers?"

  "I've only talked to a couple. So far what I'm discovering is they wrap presents and sort them by child. Some even deliver to help out. They haven't been involved in collecting the items. That, apparently, was Harry's part."

  Jake sat in his chair and frowned.

  "I know nothing about buying things for kids."

  She picked up a printed copy of one of her spreadsheets and carried it over to him.

  "I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds, but I've got this under control."

  She put it in front of him.

  "Names, ages, addresses, wants, needs and sizes," he read the headings.

  "I've got people calling to get updated information. Once we have a complete list, we can sort by each heading if we need to."

  "So?"

  "So if kids need new jackets, we can sort by needs, then sizes, then order that many."

  He nodded. "Toys?"

  "With this many kids, I'm sure there’re going to be some duplicates in the toy department, same thing. We order however many of what kind we want. The complicated part comes in wrapping and labeling and sorting so each family's complete," she said, skimming over the top sheet.

  Jake studied the pages.

  "We’ll want to put them all together once wrapped so each volunteer takes all the presents to each family and we don’t have them crossing each other in the d
riveway," Shea continued.

  He looked at it again, flipped up a couple of pages.

  "Lots of names," he said.

  "One hundred fifteen to be precise," she said. "And that's before anyone else might show up like Jason did to ask for someone else to be included."

  "Is he on here?"

  She nodded. “And I added Susie, too. We should find out about the other kids in her family if there are any."

  Jake looked at her. "You should be running this. You've got it covered."

  She smiled and shook her head.

  "This is a Mondano PD event. I'll help, but you're the Christmas Cop."

  He scowled again.

  Shea laughed.

  "I've got a list of places to call to see if they can collect the presents and hold until Christmas Eve, but I think it'll be more likely to be offered if you make the calls."

  She gave him a list and updated him on what the volunteers told her.

  He glanced at the folder he'd carried up from Evidence, clearly wanting to get back to his cold case. Glancing at his watch, he nodded and picked up the phone to start making calls.

  Shea was ready to call it a day. She'd visited the IT department again, pleased to see everything was progressing smoothly. Fingers crossed that one little correction was all the new program needed to work flawlessly.

  Stan and the others were pleased with their accomplishments getting closer to catching up to where they'd hoped to be by now.

  She shut down her computer.

  Jake looked up. "Leaving?"

  "Yes. It's been a long day."

  "Want to have dinner together?" he asked.

  Shea looked at him, surprised by the invitation. "Tonight?"

  "Do you like Chinese?" he asked, nodding his head.

  "Sure."

  "There's a place a few blocks over."

  "Okay. Now?"

  "If you can hold on a few minutes, I'll wrap up here and we can leave. It'll be an early dinner, but we'll beat any crowd."

  She nodded and sat down, uncertain by this turn of events.

  Probably he wanted to talk more about the Christmas project. She had a skill for organization, from organizing computer code to be most efficient, she thought. She hoped she'd covered everything.

  Shea met Jake at the restaurant. While only a few blocks away, she knew that’d be too far for him to walk with his broken ankle. But she relished the exercise. It was cold, but dry. The air felt invigorating.

  As it turned out, there was limited parking by the restaurant, so she was glad she’d walked.

  Stepping inside, Shea's mouth began watering.

  "It smells divine in here," she said with a happy smile at him.

  She loved all kinds of food, and hadn't had Chinese in a while, so this was a treat.

  They were seated in a booth near the front.

  Once they ordered plates to share, Shea looked at Jake.

  "Did you want to talk about the Christmas project?"

  He shook his head.

  "Not especially. It looks like more work than I expected, but thinking on it, Harry was pretty much off the duty roster each December. I should have expected it to be more than a quick fix. But we can talk about it at work."

  "So why the dinner invitation?"

  His gaze seemed uncertain. He cleared his throat. A sign of nervousness?

  Not possible, Shea thought.

  "I wanted to see you, that's all. Away from work."

  "Oh."

  A warm glow settled near her heart.

  She found him fascinating. Did he have a similar interest in her? That would be way cool.

  He continued to look at her and Shea floundered around for something to talk about.

  It’d be totally awkward if they just sat here silently staring at each other.

  "So, have you decorated your place for Christmas yet?" she asked brightly.

  He shook his head.

  "I'm not much for decorations. For the most part, it's just another day for me. I usually work as I told you."

  She remembered he had no family to celebrate with. And that she'd invited him to spend the day with her.

  It’d been an off the cuff invitation, but she really hoped he'd follow through on his acceptance.

  "Let me guess, you have," he said.

  She smiled. "You bet. The minute Thanksgiving was over, it was time to get ready for Christmas. I did my shopping early for my parents since I needed to ship their presents to Florida. I love this holiday and enjoy decorating so I feel the joyful spirit every time I go home."

  "What besides a tree?"

  "Holly garlands, pine cones, candy canes and little decorations all around. And, of course, a creche to celebrate the baby Jesus' birth."

  He nodded.

  When the meal was served, the talk gradually moved to where they lived and then what they did for recreation. Shea wasn’t surprised to find he was more of a workaholic than someone who relished down time.

  Similar to her.

  She found computer work fascinating and never seemed to get tired of it.

  She asked him more about the circumstances around his injured ankle and the conversation veered in another direction. His frustration at being limited came through in his recounting the weeks at home when he could do very little.

  "So even desk duty is better than hanging out at my place," he finished.

  "And it'll be all the better if you end up solving one of the cold cases."

  He nodded. "I won't feel like it's merely busy work if that happens."

  When they finished, Jake learned she’d walked to the restaurant. He offered to drop her back at the police station to pick up her own car.

  “I’m good with a walk. And it’s only a few blocks. Who’d be out wanting to mug anyone as cold as it is tonight,” she said as she walked with him to his car.

  "Thank you for a fun evening and good food," she said, smiling up at him before he opened his car door.

  "I enjoyed it, too."

  He hesitated only a second before leaning over and kissing her lightly.

  Shea felt heat rocket through her.

  When he pulled back she felt abandoned. She wanted to grab him and go for another kiss.

  But he gave a half smile and said good night.

  Almost in a daze she watched as he got into his car and started the engine.

  She waved as he pulled away, then turned to walk back to her car. Or float back, almost.

  A totally unexpected evening.

  Shea spent a restless night reliving the kiss and wondering if it meant anything, or was just a way to end a pleasant evening.

  She didn't want to read anything into it that wasn't there.

  But she was more than willing to imagine a future that included lots more kisses from her solemn cop.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, Shea decided to postpone seeing Jake. She’d spent a restless night and felt unsure of her own emotions.

  She decided to head for her office. She'd stopped by several times during her sojourn at the police department, but still there were piles of mail, non-urgent phone messages, and a stack of updates on various projects their company had contracted all sitting on her desk.

  Might as well get through as much as she could this morning.

  Cal arrived shortly after she’d plunged into reviewing all the current projects, trying to get a handle on things that’d happened while she'd been focused on the glitch in the police program.

  "Hey stranger. I didn't know you'd be in today," he greeted her, holding his cup of coffee.

  Shea smiled as she returned the greeting.

  He always had a cup of coffee in hand until noon. Once the magic hour arrived, he didn't drink any more until the next morning. She guessed he went through about six cups before noon every day.

  "Thought I’d better make an appearance before the rest of you forgot me," she said with a grin.

  "Like that'd ever happen. Are you satisfied the P
D program is fine?"

  "I hovered over them a few times yesterday to see if anything cropped up, but it seems to be going great. They know to call if anything else comes up, but so far so good. I think it was just that one glitch, so they should be good for years ahead. I'm looking over some of the other project updates. Martin seems about ready for beta with the program he's working on."

  "I know, cool, huh? Super fast, so I'm a bit leery the beta test will be flawless, but he's a genius, so it could be good from the get go."

  "Did you ask everyone about helping with the kids?"

  "Yep, and everyone’s on board. In fact we started yesterday calling from that list you sent. I made an executive decision to allocate the hours between four and six for calls. No trying to do it haphazardly."

  "An executive decision, huh?" she said with a smile.

  They normally made decisions together, but she was pleased he was so on board.

  Cal shrugged, took another sip of coffee. "You back for good now?"

  "I don't know. I might spend some time at the cop shop working on the Christmas project. I know most of that I can do here. Maybe."

  "Great, that's definitive. Go if you need to, but don't forget this is where you really belong."

  "Never. Now go on and let me get back to work or I'll feel like I'm starting over."

  He nodded and moved on to his office.

  Shea was well into reviewing the updates when her phone rang.

  "O'Riley," she answered.

  "Where are you?" Jake asked.

  "At work. Where are you?"

  "At work and I'm not seeing you. Are you up in IT?"

  "No, actually I'm at my work, catching up. The Mondano PD isn’t our only client, you know."

  He was silent for a moment.

  "Fair enough. Are you coming here today?"

  She thought about their kiss. Would things be awkward between them?

  Or was she the only one even thinking about it?

  "Do you need me to come in? There isn't much I could do there that I can't do here. And we're in a holding pattern anyway until all the kids' parents have been contacted. Until then we don't know what to ask for in donations or what to tell volunteers about wrapping the presents and delivery. Did you get a place for us to store the presents?"