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“I think so, yes.”
Abby sat back on her heels and gazed at the scene. When she looked up at Robin, tears streamed down her beautiful face. “He’s really nice.”
Robin pulled her daughter into a tight hug and rubbed her shoulders. “Yeah, baby. He really is.”
“But… you know what’s kind of weird?”
“What?”
“They’re all facing the wrong way.”
Robin stared at the faces of the snowmen, taking in their eyes made from rocks or buttons or random other things since Robin figured Jack hadn’t had any spheres of coal handy. They had the same kinds of creative additions for their mouths, but he had managed to use real carrots for each nose.
She pursed her lips and then ginned down at Abby. “No, Abbs, I don’t think they are.”
“But shouldn’t they be facing the street?”
This girl and her placement woes, Robin thought with a wry smile.
“If they were for other people to see, I’m sure they would have been. But these snowmen are foryou.”
CHAPTER15
Jack
Jack was alreadyat work when he got the text from Robin with a picture of Abby in front of the snowmen display. He grinned uncontrollably as he stared down at it. It looked like he’d accomplished his mission to turn that girl’s frown upside down, and the sight of her looking so happy instead of the sad version he’d seen last night was worth every minute he’d spent in the cold.
He’d had help, of course. He hadn’t had trouble stringing Christmas lights at a breakneck speed but building dozens of snowmen in the middle of the night had required a few extra hands.
When he’d told Holly and Nick about what Abby had dealt with at school, they’d been more than willing to help out. Joan provided the carrots and some other accessories, like scarves and buttons and other odds and ends, and she’d promised to keep an ear out for Noelle in case she woke up during the night and wanted Holly.
Then they’d had to wait until Robin finally went to sleep, which had shortened their window considerably. Whatever book she’d been reading in front of the fire must have been seriously good to keep her up until midnight, and every time Jack went outside to make sure her lights were off and saw her sitting there through the sheer curtains of the bay window, he’d been tempted to ruin it and just tell her what they had planned.
But he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t intended to be a surprise for her too. He loved the idea of her waking up and seeing what they’d done for her daughter without being tempted to join them in their mischief. She deserved a fun surprise like that as much as Abby did, and he’d been thrilled when they’d successfully pulled it off.
“What do you look so cheery about this morning?” Holden asked as he approached their desks.
Jack sat up straight and slipped his phone away. “Oh, nothing major. How’s it going with you?”
Holden shrugged and sat down, sifting through some paperwork on his desk without replying.
Something was up with him. Jack knew he was suspicious by nature, and he’d been telling himself not to overthink Holden’s recent change in temperature with him. But since it started the day after Jack asked Tommy to look into Holden’s brother, his Spidey senses told him to be on his guard. He wasn’t sure how Holden would know what he’d done, considering how careful he was, but anything was possible.
As if on cue, Tommy called Jack’s cell.
“I’ll be right back,” Jack said to Holden.
The guy’s head snapped up, and he looked warily at Jack’s ringing phone. “Sure.”
Pretending he hadn’t noticed Holden’s reaction, Jack stepped away and answered the call. “Hey, got anything for me?”
“Sure do. Turns out you were right. He did move to Philly right after the crime. The day after, in fact.”
“Interesting.”
“Yep, and it gets better. He’s gotten into some trouble out here in Philly, including being a suspect in a case where someone was robbed at gunpoint with a .38.”
That was the same caliber of gun used in Matthew’s murder, and Tommy knew it. Jack’s back straightened as he looked around the station to make sure no one was around. “What happened with that?”
