6. Leo
6
LEO
W hen Leo’s mother had insisted on throwing a “small get-together” for Christmas Eve, he hadn’t expected the entire family in the state to make the trek out there. But here they were, all eager to chat with Leo and Tess who had both been notably absent the last two Christmases due to work conflicts.
“It’s so good having you home,” his mother sauntered by and grabbed the empty cup from Leo’s hand. Ever the hostess. “Be a dear and help me with the ice, would you?”
He unloaded more bags from the garage into the tray on the counter busy keeping the oysters cold. He snagged some smoked salmon and stuffed it in his mouth before another person could intercept him to chat about the glory days or his job or really anything else. Tess had the right idea, she was busy listening to Aunt Geraldine talk all about her cats. No one wanted to interrupt them out of fear they might be drug into the conversation, so Tess was free of personal questions for the next hour or so. Smart woman, even if she had to hear about Fluffy and her fleas.
Leo heard the telltale bark of his father over the cacophony. “Betty!” There was a pause. “Betty, I’m coming to get you! He’s right here. I promise he’s not in prison.” Leo’s father stormed into the pantry Leo had been hiding in and beckoned him to the phone. “He’s right here, Betty. Look, Leo is gonna talk to you.” He held the phone to Leo, whispering, “She’s in the checkout line at the store trying to buy thousands of dollar’s worth of gift cards because someone told her you were in jail and needed them. She’s beside herself.”
Leo snatched the phone from his father’s hand, swallowing down the last bit of Swiss chocolate Tess had the nerve to hide. “Aunt Betty?”
“Leo, is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Aunt Betty. When are you getting here? The party is just getting started.”
“Thank heavens,” his great aunt Betty’s voice cracked. “They knew your name. The person from the jail. What a coincidence. They even knew your birthday and where you went to high school. They said you needed the cards for the food and stuff in jail! They said you were really embarrassed and needed to keep this secret and?—”
“Aunt Betty, it’s a scam. People do that now. Were they going to have you mail the cards somewhere?”
“Yeah.” Aunt Betty sniffed. “They emailed me all of this stuff and I couldn’t reach you because they said your phone was impounded.”
“Did you try?” Leo asked, running a hand through his hair. Who would try and scam a little old lady? The scum of the earth, that’s who. “I have my phone right here in my pocket. Where are you? I can come pick you up. I want to see these emails.”
And that’s how Leo, on Christmas Eve afternoon, became a super sleuth and spent the next two hours backtracking the IP addresses and learning on the fly how to get the name and information of the would-be swindler.
Aunt Betty sat next to him on the loveseat in the den the entire time, gripping her iced chardonnay with such force Leo thought the glass could shatter at any moment.
“To think I almost gave them everything I had,” she mumbled to herself. Then she’d get on the defensive. “You know I’d do anything for you and Tessie,” she said, squeezing his arm. “Even if it meant keeping it from your parents.”
“I know, I know.”
Eventually, after a “Please save me” look to Tess (which she ignored twice) Tess came over and ushered great aunt Betty toward the food so Leo could finalize the (he’d admit) haphazard detective work. But the job was done.
He even got the guy’s address. After a short call to the police station (and fine, he threw the Agency’s name around too—they were well known after all) it looked like Mr. Scammer would be spending Christmas Eve in jail.
Leo handed off the information to his father who would no doubt pursue the full extent of the law for his aunt. He clapped Leo on the shoulder, “Well done, son. I was hesitant about you being so antisocial on the computer over there, but to actually find the guy? Color me impressed.”
Tess overheard and piped in. “Ironic that you call computer work antisocial when it literally connects the whole world but okay.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “You know what I meant.”
Leo laughed. “Yeah.” But no. No, he didn’t. He was beginning to realize just how big the world was when he jumped into some of Sage’s streams. There were people from all over the world tuning in to watch her play. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but Sage looked totally at ease with the audience, which could be numbered in the thousands watching her. Could he ever be that calm under pressure? He didn’t want to find out.
His brain hurt. He had definitely gone the roundabout way of backtracking everything, and he was lucky he had the tech from the agency to do it. But goodness he needed a nice cup of espresso and some oysters to ease the pain in his eyeballs.
He couldn’t help but glance at the app to check in on Sage. She was at home, streaming. It was a little sad to think about…but then again she’d told him Roz was coming over for their annual Christmas Eve tradition and she’d be fine.
He checked the cameras. She sat in her office, babbling to the camera, a smile on her face, looking totally at ease in her world. If only his father knew how she made money, he’d have kittens, which would be great because it would give him and Geraldine something in common to talk about.
Leo found himself wandering the kitchen and his mind whirred. If he had to get Sage a gift, what would it be? To know someone is to be a good gift-giver. Leo prided himself on being a keen observer and therefore an excellent gift-giver. He got Tess nothing, which she loved. She was always awkward regarding gifts and grand gestures, often feeling uncomfortable with the attention. So, he gave her the gift of expecting nothing.
She got him a bigger towel.
He had given his mother a string of pearls, her favorite, the exception being four black pearls in the middle of the strand, one for each of the people in her family. She cried. But to be fair, she would have cried if he’d given her a candle (he would have gotten her a cranberry-scented one because she liked the color more than the scent). See? He knew her.
He got his dad a new golf bag, one that was more ergonomic for that shoulder injury still bothering him.
But Sage? He could go easy and get her tea, but that just felt so…plain. The woman had an entire cabinet dedicated to the leaves, he doubted another addition wouldn’t mean much. He couldn’t get her any tech stuff since she was very particular and really got everything she wanted from LilyTech.
He could get something for her animal thing. He shivered. Absolutely not. That would be accepting it’s claim that it was a pet and not some creature conjured from a nightmare. (But if he had to get it something, he’d get the animal a spiked vest so it wouldn’t be carried off by vultures—see? A great gift giver. )
Sage still remained a mystery to him. Not unusual. So why did he find himself suddenly ready to solve a mystery?