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They murmured their discontent, but their eyes stayed glued to the TV, enraptured.
“Just get down here. Bring them with you, you can set them up in your office. It won’t take long,” The chief said, then hung up, not allowing me to question him any further.
“Fuck,” I sighed, eyes lifting to Downy. “The chief wants us to come in.”
He grimaced and finished his beer. “Sounds like I’m not going to like what he has to say.”
I had a feeling I wasn’t going to, either.***“You’re shitting me,” I said, my head all of a sudden pounding.
The chief shook his head. “No, unfortunately not. They found him this morning after the man’s kids asked if they could get into the room to remove the valuables from the house.”
Fuuuuck.
Jesus, this was just what we needed right now.
And I’d known that that operation stunk.
I should’ve known it was going to happen.
Every fucking thing that Pierson Howell worked on went sour.
And after weeks, I still hadn’t found the connection that I knew was there.
Instinct was telling me that there was something about that operation that connected to Reese.
I hadn’t figured out how, yet. But I would.
“So how’d he die? Was it in the explosion?” Downy asked from his position across the table from me.
“The autopsy hasn’t been done yet. We’ll know in the next twenty four to forty eight hours,” The chief said, standing.
We stood, too.
We weren’t stupid.
“Try to be accommodating to Pierson. I know he’s hard to work with, but he’s good at his job,” The chief chided.
We both nodded and walked out of the chief’s office, knowing damn well and good that Pierson fucking Howell was about to become a pain in our asses.
When the door shut behind us, Downy looked back to make sure the chief hadn’t followed us out before he started. “They’re going to blame us for fucking that op up, then we’ll have to hear about how Pierson was the better man to run SWAT. Then he’ll get his cronies to start in. It’ll be like a fucking soap opera.”
I agreed. “Yep.”
We’d just rounded the corner to my office when I heard Katy’s favorite part start to blare through the station’s conference room.
I found the two girls in the midst of nearly three quarters of the police station, all of them watching Frozen as if they’d never seen it before. Men and women alike, with Rowen and Katy in the middle of it all, stretched out on the conference’s table with their blankets and pillows.
“That’s not something you see every day,” Downy muttered, a small smile kicking up the corner of his mouth.
I nodded. “No, it’s sure not.”
Rowdy, the KPD’s oldest and fattest, sat in the middle of the room, snacking on a donut while he watched Elsa turn the large mound of snow into a massive ice castle.
Then there was Nico, the last person I would ever expect to see watching a Disney movie, propped up against the back of wall, eyes glued to the TV.
Michael was at his side, and Bennett’s head poked up over the standing crowd across the room.
“You think they’ll get pissed when I take the movie with me?” I asked as I walked into the conference room.
Downy shrugged. “Maybe. Just leave it here.”
I shook my head. “I’d rather kill myself than not have it just in case one of the two of them wants to watch it. It sits on repeat in my DVD player. All they have to do is turn the TV on now.”
Downy smiled and lifted the remote, pointing it at the screen and pressed stop.
Groans and boo’s filled the air as every pair of eyes in the room turned to glare at Downy, even my two girls.
“It’s bedtime,” Downy said, gesturing to the two girls. “And they have to have their movie to go to sleep.”
That seemed to console most of them, but I had to promise to bring it back the day after Christmas so they could finish it, which I would.
“Alright, ladies. It’s time to go home,” I said, gathering dolls, blankets, and cups.
They came down dutifully, each grabbing onto a hand as we walked out to my truck.
They waved goodbye and promised to return, making some of the most hardened cops on the force smile.
“You two girls have my men around your fingers, don’t y’all?” I teased as we got into the car.
Rowen, the one I was helping in first, smiled. “Mommy says all I have to do is smile and I get what I want.”
I didn’t doubt that one bit.
The ride home was quiet as both girls fell asleep as soon as we pulled onto the main road.
By the time we pulled into my spot in the garage and shut the engine off, both girls were snoring.
Juggling two girls, instead of just one, was quite difficult, but I managed it as I took each of them to their perspective bedrooms, covering them up, and closing the door.
I found Reese in my bedroom again.
I quite liked her making herself at home.
This time, she was wrapping presents on the floor with the phone held in between her ear and her shoulder.
“No, he hasn’t invited me to Christmas dinner yet,” she teased, making a face at me.
My mother. Again. They’d been quite chummy lately. Yay…not.
I shook my head and started stripping out of my shirt, shoes, socks, pants, and underwear before heading to the shower to wash the day off my skin.
She followed me, watching my progress as she continued to speak to my mother, which was incredibly unnerving to think about.
“I’m invited, you say? I’ll come as long as there’s an apple pie,” she quipped.
“And pumpkin!” I yelled just before turning the shower on.
She watched me step in, and I watched her watch me.
“Alright, well I’ll see you Christmas Day. I know, thanks for calling. Sure. Bye,” She said quickly.
She placed her cell phone down on the bathroom counter before hopping up.
“Where were you?” She asked.
There was no worry in her tone, just curiosity.
I quickly explained what the chief had told me, and I watched her face take on a hint of sadness.
