Chapter Eleven
Tom nursed a diet coke and contemplated the impromptu party. He should be in his office starting the paperwork on Santa, but he had no desire to figure out the wording.
Bret came to the break room door, went to the fridge, and pulled a drink, too. Neither seemed inclined to talk.
He forced himself to ask. “Coach Gutherie?”
Bret collapsed into a chair at the table. “Left for a family trip as soon as school let out. I called and talked to him. He’ll review his students and get back to me. Parker’s working through the car list. There’s ten in the county. Can you believe that?”
Tom shook his head. “Why does it feel like there have been more roadblocks than clues?”
“Christmas blues. That’s the way it rolls sometimes.”
“Yeah.”
Carmen came through the door, dusty and irritated. “Santa retired early from the party. The old man is heavy. Slade, Clem, and I wrestled him back to the front of the general store, and I handcuffed him to a light pole.”
Tom wanted to grin, but he didn’t have the energy and wasn’t in the mood. “Perfect.”
“Gets better. Slade doesn’t want to press charges.”
Bret lifted his feet to the chair next to him. “Predictable. It’s Christmas. He doesn’t want the bad publicity. Probably caught an earful about his public arguments with Clem.”
Norah popped her head into the room. “Y’all have some visitors out front.”
Tom was tempted to ask if they’d murdered someone. He didn’t want to get out of his chair for anything except his wife or a serious crime. “Who?”
“Mia Devlin and Jake Cara, and the other person says he’s Daniel Leonard.”
Bret looked at Tom. Tom looked at Bret. He shook his head and sighed. “Dammit.” He turned to Carmen. Her innocent facial expression didn’t match the “I told you so” in her eyes.
“Tell the Chief, Norah. Let’s take them in the interrogation room.”
Carmen dusted off her pants. “Separately or together?”
Tom contemplated stalling to let them sweat. Nah. He wanted to go home sometime tonight. “We know what they’re going to say. Might as well do a group confess.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Carmen let her walk transmit her attitude.
Bret smirked, then took a swig of his drink. He wasn’t any more eager than Tom was.
Lord save the children. “Let’s hear what they have to say. They don’t know there is no crime involved with Slade not pressing charges.”
Bret leaned his elbows on the table. “Mia lied to a police officer.”
“True. We might use that as leverage if we have to. But this isn’t going to be a usual confession.”
Bret’s tired grin said it all. “How could it be with Santa involved?”
The two walked to the interrogation room. The door stood open and Tom could hear Mia’s rough coughing. He went in first, assessed the girl, and knew they wouldn’t be hearing from her tonight.
He stopped Bret. “Go get the oxygen pack from the day room and have Norah call for the ambulance.”
“No,” Mia rasped. “I have to tell you.” Her coughing wouldn’t let her continue.
Jake hovered by Mia’s chair. “It was us. The three of us.”
Daniel stayed silent and collapsed in a chair at the end of the table.
“I started…” Mia doubled over.
Tom went to her and checked her pulse. “You. Quit talking.”
She swallowed hard. “They’ll claim it’s them. But it was me.” Tom guessed at her mumbled words.
Bret hurried back in the room, unwinding the face mask as he moved. “Fire Department is on the way.”
“My mom’s gonna kill me,” Mia whispered.
Jake went to his knees at her side. “Don’t worry about that now.”
Bret eyed his brother’s position and gazed at Tom with wide eyes.
Jake and Mia?
“This is the way it happened.” Daniel put elbows on the table and clasped his hands.
Tom skipped the protocols and didn’t stop him.
Dan squared his shoulders, talking rapidly.
“Yes, it was Mia’s idea to do a social media push to get the town to stop bickering and trying to outdo each other.
Jake and I were in from the beginning – even when Mia changed the how of it.
The three of us stole the Santa. Jake and I moved him around town, took the pictures, gave them to Mia, and she posted everything.
We ended it today because Mia’s been so sick.
We set up Santa in the park and bounced.
Mia pulled off the rest. Any questions?”
Bret rolled his eyes at Tom, disgust written in his frown. Tom kept focused on Mia who glared at Dan, but couldn’t say anything with the oxygen mask over her face.
Bret raised a brow at Jake. “Is that true?”
“Every word. Can we call Mia’s mom?”
Bret had dealt with the teenagers in this town for years, but this hit different. “Norah’s taking care of it. What were you thinking?”
Jake rose to his feet and planted his palms on the table, staring at Bret with a serious mad on.
“I was thinking y’all make this town sound like angels walk on Main Street.
But from where I’m standing? All I’ve seen is people arguing about decorations and who wins Christmas.
If this is the real Echo Falls, I’d be better off with Dad. He doesn’t pretend.”
“Don’t you even think about going to your father, young man.” Georgia Cara stepped into the room, glare blazing, and every person at the table ducked.
Mia bent double in a fit of coughing, and Jake held her steady in the chair.
Carmen came to the doorway. “Fire Department is here.”
Ned Foley, the FD paramedic, elbowed past everyone with his medical kit. He bent to assess Mia. “How long has she been coughing like this?”
“She was in the hospital for a few days with pneumonia. But she got worse this afternoon.” Jake passed all the medical information on to Ned. The kid knew a lot of details.
“Brother,” Bret whispered to Tom under his breath. “Puppy infatuation or girlfriend?”
“Mia’s letting him, so guessing girlfriend.”
Tom shifted so Dan could see him. “We’re going to set aside exactly what happened, thank you Dan for the brief confession, and let these guys get Mia to the hospital. But I still have questions.”
“Like what? I told you everything.” Dan settled back in his chair, defensive but resigned.
“What vehicle?”
“Black Toyota Runner. It’s my brother’s.”
“Did you have permission to drive it?”
“Yes. Does he know what we were doing? No.”
Ned straightened. “The Santa thieves, huh? Genius. Let me get her out of here and to the hospital before Dr. Jackie goes off duty. Is her mom on the way?”
“Yes,” Norah answered from the doorway. “Unless you want me to reroute her to the hospital.
“We’ll be gone from here before she gets here, so yes. Come on, Mia, let’s get you to the stretcher.”
“I can walk,” she rasped, grabbing for Jake’s hand.
“No, you can’t. It’ll put too much strain on your breathing.” Ned removed the mask and handed the equipment back to Bret.
Ned had a stretcher parked in the hallway manned by a volunteer. Tom shifted to let the medic and Mia pass.
Jake went to the door. “Can I go with her?”
Bret grabbed one arm and Georgia the other. “No,” they both said simultaneously.
A mutinous expression crossed his face, then he shut down, lapsing into blank eyes and no expression.
“Jake, you’ll be in the way until Dr. Jackie sees her. You can go later.” Tom shouldn’t have made the promise without asking Georgia, but if it settled the boy so they could ask more questions, he’d pay the price.
“Chief is on line one.” Norah’s frown was an anomaly for a dispatcher who kept neutral. “They aren’t wrong. It was getting pretty ridiculous.”
She disappeared, and Tom stepped across the hall to the detective office to take the call.
“Chief.”
“Brief me.”
“Mia, Jake Cara, and Daniel Leonard are our culprits. Santa’s been returned. Slade won’t press charges.”
“I thought Mia was helping you?”
“I haven’t questioned her about that yet. She’s on her way to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Difficulty breathing. She has pneumonia. We’ll wait for Dr. Jackie’s assessment.”
“The other two?”
“Sitting here with parents.” One of them anyway. Daniel’s grandfather wasn’t mobile, and his dad was sometimes missing in action.
He’d have it sorted before the Chief read the report.
“Do you need me?”
“No. Problem solved. Only the reports to write.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Good night.”
Tom glared at the receiver as the man disconnected. When did he ever not come in and take a personal interest? What was going on? Tom rolled his neck and hung up the phone.
Lifting his cell, he texted Summer he’d be late. The heart emoji took the edginess off his mood.
He walked back to the interrogation room. “Boys, chairs. Georgia have a seat. Daniel, do I call your grandpa or try to find your dad?”
The teenager shrugged. “Grandpa, I guess.”
Jake leaned over and whispered to his mother.
She grimaced, staring from boy to boy. “I’ll act as his attorney until he gets an adult here.”
Bret leaned against the wall and stayed out of it. When the suspect was his brother, it was for the best.
Tom pulled out a chair and sat across from Georgia. “We can work with that. Slade isn’t pressing charges. So other than Mia lying to me, I’m going to informally recommend some serious community service for these two. Mia’s will have to go to the judge.”
Georgia frowned. “Why?”
“She’s still in a restitution phase for blowing up a mailbox last year. It’s not yours to deal with. I’ll get with her mother and the judge. Does this work for you?”
“Yes, but I’d like some say in their community service.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
“What did you have in mind?”
Tom stayed silent, sorting through options. “Summer is about to launch a large mural project for the town. She’s going to need a couple of strong helpers to carry paint, clean up, be at her beck and call no matter what.”
Georgia glanced at each boy. “Like a job with no pay. Acceptable. What else?”
“Whatever Clem and Garrett Slade want. I’ll ask them both, and we can finalize it after Christmas. At the very least, they can assist Clem and Garrett in putting away their Christmas decorations.”
“Done. Anything else?”
“They both take CPR and First Aid at the fire department. You should have been able to assess Mia earlier and take her to the hospital. Lack of oxygen was turning her lips blue.”
Jake hung his head. Daniel straightened in his chair. “We can do all those things. Can’t we, Jake?”
“Yes.” Jake straightened. “I’m sorry. We did the wrong thing.”
Daniel added his reasoning. “Nobody listens to us. Especially not my family,” he added in a quiet mumble.
“Is that why you were recording the argument?”
“Yeah. Only Mia didn’t think the video was the way to handle it. It’s when we changed our idea and moved Santa around with the little signs.”
Tom sighed. Sucked to be their age. “Wrong thing, right reasons. We’ve all been there, but consequences don’t change. Agreed?”
Both boys nodded.
Bret straightened from the wall. “Is it all right if I take these two to the hospital to check on Mia?”
Tom crossed his arms and leaned on the table. “All right with me. I’ll write it up. You both have to sign it, and Georgia, too. It has to go through the chief to the judge, and he has to agree. Understood?”
“Yes.” Georgia rose and zipped her coat.
“You can hold on calling Dan’s grandfather. I’ll get him home.” Bret signaled to both boys. The four left, leaving Tom rubbing his temple.
Carmen bit her lip to temper her grin. “We’re gonna have to talk about Mia, aren’t we?”
“Yeah.” There were times he wished he never had faith in anyone. But that wouldn’t be true to who he was.
Carmen studied her nails. “She did prod me to get current in forensics, so there is that.”
“Me, too.”
“And she wasn’t wrong in her assessments of the scene, but she knew more than she told us.”
Tom vehemently shook his head. “Don’t quote anything about not guilty, omissions, and the law. Just no.”
Carmen grinned. “Am I writing the report or are you?”
“Me. I’m the one who made the deal and have to explain it to the chief.”
“Works for me, boss.”
Tom leaned back in his chair, wishing for his sweats, his recliner, and a cup of hot chocolate with Summer right next to him. “Last year, it was an abandoned baby, and we were in this room questioning his brother for dropping him with no regard. That guy went to jail.”
“Fun times.” Carmen smiled and bounced out the door like a burglary call had sounded.
He rose, shoved the chair under the table, and switched the lights off.
Jake and Mia. Would being a couple help those two stabilize or be one more drama for the books? Love’s path was always crooked in this town. But he’d keep the faith. He’d been smitten with Summer since high school, and that turned out for them in the best way possible.
Hoping the night crew was ready to take over, he checked in with Rafe Lopez and stopped in dispatch.
Norah was clearing her desk. “Night, Tom.”
Tom gazed out the window at the bright lights of the hospital. Darkness shrouded the streets. “You go home, too, Norah.”
“Shift change is in a half hour. Jared’s on his way in. Angels walking on Main Street?” She shook her head, laughing silently.
Tom found the humor he couldn’t show in the interrogation room. “You heard Jake say that?”
She nodded and giggled. “I think it fits. Merry Christmas.”
Not angels. Santa’s elves had run amok. Tom sang the lyrics to a favorite Christmas song. “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, Norah. It’s the best time of the year.”
Could he make the announcement on social media, too?