Page 114 of At Midnight Comes the Cry
Patten gave him a look. “I realize we’re not exactly the Millers Kill Police Department, but I promise you, the five hundred men and women of the Albany force can manage an operation like this.” He held up his hands. “I give credit to Kevin Flynn for hitting everything we needed to know real fast. Smart kid.”
“Yeah. Yeah, he is.” He looked down at Clare and caught the overwhelming pulse of gratitude that she was here, and they were safe, and now—“Do you need us for anything? Can we go home?”
“Since none of you are in any way officially here, no, I don’t need you. I’ll want statements later, but, yeah. Go home.” He raised his hand and smiled cheerfully. “And if I don’t talk to you before then, Merry Christmas!”
THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
CHRISTMAS DAY
O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
1.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24
The pageant had gone perfectly. Hudson had positively dripped with gold, Genny had sparkled as an angel, and Spencer the page boy had resisted biting the frankincense king.
At home, Flynn worked on downloading the whole thirty-five-minute video Hadley had taken (she knew it was too much, but she just couldn’t stop herself) while she got the dinner out of the oven. Everyone dug in, groaning and praising the food, and Granddad didn’t even complain about the green beans not being covered with artery-clogging cream sauce.
She had let the kids decide if they wanted to open all their presents or maybe just one, and they’d voted for everything under the tree. Now, sitting among the detritus of wrapping paper and gift bags, she felt… She thought about it for a moment. Flynn and Hudson were in the family room, connecting a new game console to the TV. Genny was curled up in one chair, lost in a book about a princess who tamed dragons, and across from her, Granddad was nodding off over a half-finished piece of chocolate pie. Store-bought. She wasn’t a masochist.
She felt happy, she decided. Just, simply, unusually, happy.
“We got it all set up, Mom.” Hudson came back into the living room to rummage around for the game cartridge. “You wanna play, Kevin?”
“Naw, I’m going to sit with your mom a bit. I’m old, and this all is tiring me out.” He flopped next to her on the couch.
“I think it’s great.” Genny looked up from her novel. “Like Christmas in reverse; first the food, then the presents.”
“Yeah, but tomorrow…” Hudson’s face flickered.
“Tomorrow you’ll have all your new stuff to play with while I’m working.” Hadley kept her voice upbeat, but firm. They’d been cop’s kids for long enough to know this was how it went sometimes.
“Or…” Flynn looked at her.
“Or what?”
“Or the two of you could come to my parents’ house tomorrow. Everybody will be there, so there’ll be plenty of kids for you to hang out with.”
Hudson and Genny immediately shifted intopleading orphan childrenmode.
Hadley made a doubtful sound. “That’s a lot to spring on your parents with no notice.”
“There are fifteen of us, and that’s just the immediate family. Believe me, they won’t even notice two more.”
Her children were writhing in silence.
“I’m on at sixA.M. There’s no way I can drop them off.”
“Kevin can spend the night here! On the couch!” Genny looked very pleased at her clever solution. Flynn covered his mouth.
“No.” She shot him a quelling glance.
He shifted his laughter suppression into rubbing his face as if he’d left pie crumbs there. “I can come by and pick them up, if they can be ready around ten.”
“Ready? They’ll be bouncing around down here by six.” She sighed. “Okay.” She leaned forward, catching their eyes. “But I expect to hear you were using your good manners.”
“Yes, Mom!”
