The Nick Spinelli Romance Mystery Series

Chapter 9

With reluctance, Spinelli headed in the direction of Shannon's office. It was nearly 2:00, time for their next call. He rapped his knuckle on her office doorframe and she looked up at him from behind her desk. A ripple of relief flowed through his body when he noticed the corners of her mouth twitching upward, moving slowly and perhaps forced, but they were still moving in the right direction. He waited patiently for her smile. It took a bit but it did surface.

"Good afternoon, Detective Spinelli."

He returned her smile. "Good afternoon, Miss O'Hara."

The formalities struck him oddly but he went with it in an effort to not rock the boat and keep the peace.

He took a seat in one of the guest chairs opposite her desk and sat quietly as he watched her pick up a legal sized envelope from the top of a tall stack of mail. She sliced the envelope open with a long plastic letter opener. She set both the letter and the opener down on her desk and turned her attention back to him. "I'm sorry but I meant to call you before you came up here this afternoon. Our home visit for this afternoon has been rescheduled for next week so I don't have anything for you on the docket for the remainder of the day."

A blanket of relief fell over Spinelli. He wouldn't have to go on another one of these awful calls for a couple of days but the relief was quickly chased off by disappointment. He found himself wanting to spend time with her but now that opportunity disappeared as well. He stood. "No problem, I'll be downstairs working on the Santa and Elf case. Call if you need me."

"Okay."

Spinelli stepped into the hall outside her office before he heard her loud gasp. He spun on his heel and stepped back into her office to find her staring down at what appeared to be an eight by ten photo. She held the photo in her right hand and the legal sized envelope in her left hand. He watched as she dropped the envelope and used her left hand to help steady the shaking photo. She pulled the photo closer to her eyes.

"What is it a picture of?" he asked as he stepped around her desk and behind her to get a better look. Spinelli stared down at a glossy of Shannon and Santa, and several elves, including Aaron Reed. In the photo, Santa sat on a large red velvet chair. The elves and Shannon surrounded him.

Shannon shifted her attention from the photo to Spinelli who stood behind her, looking over her shoulder. "It's a promotional photo we took at the mall last week."

Spinelli could easily see the sadness flood her bright emerald green eyes. She turned her attention back to the photo. Her shoulders slumped. "Seven of us in the photo, and now two are gone," she whispered.

"I'm sorry, Shannon."

Shannon set the photo on her desk and picked up the small yellow square sticky note stuck to her desktop calendar. She reached up and handed it to Spinelli. "This was stuck to the photo."

He took the note from her. The note read, "Shannon, Be careful of the company you keep, things are not always as they seem. Roland."

He scanned the note again and then looked down at Shannon.

"I don't know what he's talking about. I don't know who he means," Shannon blurted in an unsteady voice, shaking her head.

Spinelli glanced at the envelope the photo came in. The envelope showed no return address and the date stamp happened to be the same day Roland Hudson's body was found. He placed the note in front of her. "Shannon, do you recognize this handwriting? Is it Roland's?" he asked in a calm, controlled voice in an effort to not rattle her any more than she already was.

She studied the note. "I don't know. I don't recall if I ever saw anything Roland wrote."

"Had you spent time with Roland?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, were you friends? Did you do anything together? How well did you know him?"

Shannon thought for a moment. "I really didn't know him all that well. He was just a nice old man who played Santa Claus at the mall. I only ever saw him when we worked together the past couple of seasons."

Spinelli shifted his eyes back to the photo. "How about the other people in the photo? Who are they and how well do you know them?"

Shannon stared at the photo for a moment. "Outside of working with them I never see them. All I know about them is their names and the fact they are college students."

A monstrous wave of adrenaline rippled through Spinelli's veins moving his senses into "full alert" mode and a tsunami of questions flooded his mind. Did Roland really send the photo and message? If so, who, and what, exactly was he trying to warn her about? If Roland didn't send the package, who did? And, how much danger was she really in?

Spinelli looked down and stared into Shannon's big innocent naïve eyes. Unfortunately, he knew the answer to the most pertinent question. Two murders equal a lot of danger.