A Lawman for Christmas

by Marie Ferrarella

  Sighing, he reached for the radio’s receiver and responded. “Did the caller identify herself?”

  “No,” the dispatch officer on the other end of the line told him. “And how did you know it was a ‘she’?”

  “Because, ten to one, if the suspicious truck is parked on Deerwood, it belongs to a plumber paying a call on Mrs. Wilson again.” He recited an address that he had been to before.

  “The caller said the truck has been parked there all day and that it was parked there all day yesterday, as well. According to her, no work’s being done.”

  He’d talked to the owner of the truck the last time this had been called in. Nothing illegal was going on. “Most likely Mr. Wilson is away on a business trip,” Morgan replied.

  He heard a deep chuckle on the other end of the line. “And I take it that Mrs. Wilson’s pipes need cleaning?” the dispatch officer asked.

  “Something like that. It happened last month. And the month before that. Mr. Wilson flies to Washington, D.C., the last week of every month,” Morgan told him. “The call’s coming from a Jill Sellers. Sellers lives across the street and has no hobbies other than watching what her neighbors are doing. That and watching procedural crime shows on TV at night.” The woman had proudly informed him that she was far better informed than the average citizen, thanks to the programs she faithfully watched.

  “Maybe you still better check it out,” the dispatch officer advised.

  “That’s what they pay me for,” Morgan answered. He ended the call, then looked back toward the school entrance.

  Kelsey was nowhere to be seen. With a suppressed sigh, Morgan started up his vehicle.

  He’d better get used to that, he thought, driving away. It would be true soon enough.

  For a minute, she thought she saw him. A squad car had been parked across the street when she walked out of school and her heart leaped. She thought it was Morgan. Thought that perhaps he’d finally decided to talk her out of going to New York.

  Stupid. She looked up and down the block. The squad car was gone. The man just isn’t that into you.

  She had yet to fly out for the interview, but the impression she had gotten when she spoke to the headmaster, Philip Gilchrist, over the phone was that the interview was just a formality. The job was hers. Even before he’d extended the formal invitation to her, he’d spoken to the principal of her school and to some of her teachers at college. Gilchrist had told her that they had glowing things to say about her as a teacher and as a person. Sight unseen, she’d impressed him, especially because he knew some of her professors personally and had a great deal of respect for their opinions.

  Gilchrist had gone on to say that, although he believed in crossing his Ts and dotting his Is, he was fairly certain he knew the outcome of the face-to-face interview. In all probability, he was going to offer her the job.

  All she had to do was say “yes.”

  He wasn’t the one she wanted to say yes to, but life didn’t always arrange itself the way people wanted, she thought ruefully.

  The schoolyard was empty. All the children had been picked up. Kelsey went back inside the building to get her things. It was time to leave.

  In more ways than one.

  Kate sat very still as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line. Sensing that something was off and had been off for the past few weeks, she’d taken advantage of the break in her schedule to call Kelsey. She knew it was lunchtime over at the school where her daughter taught and she was hoping that Kelsey didn’t have yard duty this week.

  She didn’t. But before Kate could ask her daughter if there was anything wrong or unusual going on, Kelsey had said, “I’m glad you called, Mom. I’ve been meaning to call you.” And then there’d been a hesitation on the line before Kelsey asked, “How are you doing?”

  Kate knew Kelsey referred to the pregnancy. She also knew that this was just a stall tactic. Something else was on her daughter’s mind.

  “I’m fine, honey. I don’t feel like throwing up first thing in the morning anymore, which makes your father very happy. I think he was beginning to take it personally.” She laughed softly. “How are you doing?” she asked.

  “Fine. Okay.”

  The response was completely automatic and completely unconvincing. Her mother antennae shot up. She knew something was wrong. “Kelsey, I’ve known you all your life. You never could lie. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.” The pause ran on too long. And then Kelsey said rather quickly, “I’m just probably going to change schools.”

  Kate knew how happy her daughter was teaching at her current elementary school. What had changed that? “Did you get a better offer?” she guessed to keep the dialogue moving.

  “In a way.”

  Kate was instantly attuned to what wasn’t being said. “And in what way isn’t it a better offer?”

  There was another pause, long enough to make Kate uneasy. “Well, I’d have to move.”

  Because Kelsey knew she could always rely on her family’s help, Kate surmised that the physical act of moving from one place to another wasn’t the problem. When Kelsey didn’t elaborate, Kate asked, “How far a move?”

  Kate was surprised that she had to prod Kelsey. Getting information out of her daughter had never felt like pulling teeth before.

  “Pretty far,” Kelsey answered.

  “How far is ‘pretty far’?”

  She heard Kelsey taking a breath before saying, “I’d be moving to New York.”

  “New York?” Kate repeated incredulously. “You mean the city?”

  Instantly, Kate felt torn. Mother birds were supposed to prepare their young to be ready to leave the nest and fly off on their own. But she dearly loved the fact that all of her children lived practically within shouting range. And Kelsey had moved out of the house only a few months ago. She was still trying to get used to Kelsey not being there in the morning, using up all the hot water, muttering under her breath about running behind schedule.

  “Is this something you really want to do?” Kate pressed.

  “Well, the offer came in last month and when I spoke to the headmaster he sounded eager to have me join the staff. He said the interview would pretty much be just a formality, and that if I decided I wanted it, the job was mine.” Her voice gained speed as she spoke. “The salary’s better because it costs more to live in New York City than it does here. I’d say it was pretty much the same salary—”

  “You’re not answering the question, Kelsey,” Kate told her gently. “Is going to New York City to teach something that you really want to do?”

  “Well, strictly speaking,” Kelsey hedged, “I don’t want to leave you with the baby coming and all. But I’ll make sure I can get a leave of absence to fly back and help you when the big day comes.”

  That still wasn’t answering her question. Kelsey wasn’t excited. She wasn’t taking a job—she was fleeing. Kate felt it in her bones. “Kelsey, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong, Mom,” Kelsey insisted a little too adamantly. “It’s just time for me to leave the nest, that’s all.”

  “The nest, I can see. You’ve already done that,” she reminded her. “But the state?” Kate paused, waiting. “How does Morgan feel about your going?”

  Kelsey struggled not to let her emotions get the better of her. Her mother had enough to deal with without having a daughter unloading on her.

  “I doubt if he feels anything at all, Mom,” she answered. “He said the decision was mine.”

  “Maybe Morgan doesn’t want to influence you or make you feel that he’s ruining a big chance for you.”

  “No, it’s nothing that noble,” Kelsey assured her. “I really don’t think it matters to him one way or another.” And then she revised her statement. “Actually, I think he looked rather relieved when he heard I was thinking about going out for an interview.”

  “I don’t believe that, Kelsey.”

  “
You didn’t see him when I told him,” Kelsey pointed out. Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence. Kelsey pretended to clear her throat.

  She needn’t have bothered. Kate was well versed in Kelsey-speak and she had already picked up on the small, telltale signs in both her daughter’s voice and the way she’d said what she had. Kelsey was hurt, very hurt, by what she perceived as Morgan’s indifference. Kate strongly doubted that the patrolman was indifferent. He was undoubtedly still just struggling to deal with his growing feelings for her daughter. Most likely, when Kelsey had mentioned possibly moving to New York, he took that to mean she was leaving him and his sense of self-preservation had kicked in.

  Just the way it had with Bryan all those years ago, Kate remembered. At the time he had been a widower falling in love for the first time since his wife had died. His fear of being hurt again had almost caused her to leave him.

  “Don’t you think you should talk to him again?” Kate suggested gently.

  “No point, Mom,” Kelsey said briskly, fighting the urge to break down and tell her mother how badly she ached inside. Her mother was always a huge comfort, but Kelsey wasn’t a little girl anymore. She couldn’t come running to her mother every time she fell down and scraped her knees. Or her heart. “Look, I have to go. I promise I won’t just disappear into the night. I’ll keep you updated.”

  “And when are you going for the interview?” Kate asked.

  A round-trip ticket sat on her bureau. “I’m flying out Friday morning.”

  Friday morning. Today was Wednesday. That gave her very little time to pull off a miracle, Kate thought. “Come to dinner tomorrow night,” she invited before Kelsey had a chance to hang up.

  “Can’t. I have too much to do.” She had a feeling that if she came to dinner, her mother would have everyone else there to try to talk her out of going. And because she really didn’t want to go, she would be an easy mark. She needed to get this moving. “We’ll talk,” Kelsey promised again.

  The line went dead.

  Kate replaced the receiver in its cradle. If Kelsey was thinking about taking the job in New York because she felt that this move would be good for her career or she’d always wanted to live in New York City, she would have hidden her disappointment, wished her daughter well and been glad for her.

  But Kelsey wasn’t doing this because the city held allure for her or the job was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She was hurt and needed to lick her wounds far away from the cause of those wounds.

  Kate squared her shoulders. Not if she had anything to say about this. To Kate, silence had always been love’s worst enemy. It was time to pull her daughter and Morgan into a meaningful dialogue.

  Moving her computer screen so that she could look at it better, Kate punched in the code to open her appointment schedule for the afternoon. She needed to make a few changes.

  “Hey, there’s somebody to see you, Donnelly,” one of the patrolman said as he walked into the locker room. He jerked his thumb toward the entrance door. “Nice-looking lady.”

  Morgan instantly thought of Kelsey. The next moment, he scolded himself for allowing his hopes to get the better of him. Kelsey was out of his life.

  He’d had just finished changing out of his uniform and into his civilian clothes. Shutting his locker, he asked the other man, “You get a name?”

  The patrolman shook his head. “I would have gotten a number if I could have. But she wouldn’t give me a name, said she just needed to talk to you. Some guys’ve got all the luck,” the man lamented enviously as he crossed to his own locker.

  Morgan frowned. He had to stop letting his imagination get the better of him. This was probably just some citizen he’d dealt with earlier. His shift was over for the day and he had been thinking about what to do with himself until it was time to come in again tomorrow. Life had just become a string of minutes that had no meaning and led nowhere.

  He supposed that talking to his visitor was a good way to stall. God knew nothing waited for him at home. He’d dropped Kate’s car off at her house yesterday, while she and her husband were at work, getting one of the officers to bring him back to the precinct. That left him nothing to work on, nothing to do but think.

  He didn’t want to think.

  “See you tomorrow,” the patrolman called out to him as he walked out.

  “Yeah,” Morgan muttered.

  And then he froze.

  It wasn’t just some citizen waiting to speak to him. It was Kate.

  Had something happened to Kelsey? Then he remembered. She was probably here to thank him for dropping off the car. The blanket of disappointment almost suffocated him.

  “Mrs. Marlowe, what are you doing here?” he asked. She seemed concerned. “Is there something wrong with the car?”

  “No, the car is wonderful,” she said, a quick smile curving her mouth. “It actually runs better now than when it was new.” Reaching up, she placed her hand on his shoulder. “You’re a magician.” The embarrassed smile that flashed across his face belonged to the boy she knew he must have once been.

  He watched her. Was this about Kelsey after all? He reined in his thoughts, trying not to get carried away without further input. “Then if it’s not about the car, why—”

  “Because I’m going to do something I don’t ordinarily do.” She looked around. They were right in front of the locker room and what she wanted to say required a little privacy. “Is there somewhere we can go that’s out of the way?”

  Private by nature, he definitely didn’t want anyone overhearing his conversation with Kate. He suggested, “We could sit in my car.”

  She smiled. “That’ll be fine.”

  As they left the building, Kate surprised him by hooking her arm through his. She began talking again.

  “I don’t believe in butting into my children’s lives,” she told him. “But I really can’t just stand off to the side and watch, either. Because of my profession, I feel I have to speak up—especially when I’m watching a train about to be derailed.”

  Reaching his car, Morgan unlocked it and held open the passenger door for her. He’d said nothing while they were walking, but now he felt he needed to tell her that she needn’t waste her breath. Kelsey was doing what she wanted to do, and that involved leaving him.

  “Mrs. Marlowe—”

  Kate raised her hand to silence him as she sat down. “Let me speak first, Morgan, and then you can protest all you want.”

  Rounding the hood, Morgan got in on the driver’s side. He closed the door and shut out the rest of the world. “Go on.”

  “The pursuit of happiness is guaranteed under the Constitution,” Kate began. “What the Constitution doesn’t tell you is what to do about it if you have the great fortune to actually stumble across that happiness.” She smiled, shaking her head. “It doesn’t happen nearly as often as the movies and song writers would like to have us think it does.” She shifted slightly in her seat. “I have always believed that if someone is lucky enough to encounter happiness, he or she should do everything in their power to hang on to it, not just let it go because something ‘might’ go wrong.” She looked at Morgan pointedly.

  She had no knowledge of the words that had been spoken between Morgan and her daughter, but given what he had gone through, she could guess. Especially because she had lived through it with Bryan herself.

  By Morgan’s expression, she could see that she’d guessed right.

  “By walking away,” Kate continued, “that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you make it go wrong. I’ve watched you and Kelsey together. You fit,” she told him simply. “You make each other happy—not an easy feat where Kelsey is concerned, I might add.” She smiled fondly. “My daughter is headstrong and, although I love her dearly, I am aware of her flaws. She is not the easiest person to live with.

  “But Kelsey lights up whenever you’re around.” Kate placed her hand on his, making contact, silently offering Morgan a bridge from his world into hers—and her
daughter’s. “And I’ve noticed that the same goes for you.” She paused for a moment, looking into his eyes. Searching for a sign that she had gotten through to him.

  “Don’t throw all that away because of some misguided notion you have that you can protect your heart if you don’t allow yourself to care,” she implored. “You’re only condemning yourself to a life of emptiness.”

  Taking a breath, she waited for him to speak.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When the silence continued to drag on, Kate leaned over in her seat and softly prompted, “You can talk now, Morgan.”

  He was accustomed to maintaining his distance, or had been until Kelsey and her family changed all that. They had just invaded his space as if they belonged there. As if he was one of them and belonged in their world and they in his. Pretending otherwise, especially to Kate, seemed like a futile thing to do. He had a feeling Kelsey’s mother could see past the smoke and mirrors, could see the hurt he felt.

  “Is she really leaving?”

  “That’s what she says,” Kate answered. “The flight’s tomorrow morning.” She glanced at her watch. “She’s home, packing. Give her a reason not to.”

  If Kelsey was packing, then she wanted to go. He had no right to stand in her way. “Mrs. Marlowe, maybe this is all for the best. She can do better.”

  Why were men so stubbornly pigheaded? Kate wondered in affectionate exasperation.

  “No,” Kate said emphatically, “she can’t. From where I’m standing, my daughter is about to walk away from someone very special.” She covered his hand with hers for emphasis, driving the point home. “And so are you. If I were strong enough, I’d get you both in the same room and knock your heads together. But I’m not, so I’m going to have to rely on the fact that you both are reasonably intelligent people who’ll see the light if I can just get you to turn your heads in the right direction.”

  Finished, Kate looked at him expectantly. She had done all she could. The next move, they both knew, was his.