This story is about breast cancer. I know for some it might be difficult if not impossible to read. I understand. I’m not one who likes to give or get spoilers but there are times when they are appropriate. Should you need to know any details before you make the decision to read this please contact me.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Monday, February 27, 2006

The previous week had been busy for Dan with another break-in on Thursday. This time it was Roberts’ Trophy and Engraving. Dan felt bad for Nick Roberts’ family. They had finally gotten their business going and this break-in would set them back. Not only did they steal a large amount of cash, but they also damaged their main engraver. Insurance would cover most of it but it would be at least two weeks before the replacement parts would arrive.

Over the weekend, Hallie and Dan had invited Mart, Diana and their family over for dinner to share their happy news. Both Mart and Diana were ecstatic. Tommy and Alex weren’t very impressed, but Jill and Jody couldn’t wait for another cousin to spoil. Stella was getting to that age where she was more trouble, in their eyes, than fun.

On Sunday, the Mangans joined Honey, Brian and their kids for brunch at the Country Club after church. The primary reason was to tell them their good news. It also gave Dan time to fill Honey in on the latest break-in without going over to the agency.

Neither Honey nor Dan had told Trixie about the case before Monday. While Trixie seemed to recover from the chemo more quickly this time, she made a real effort to leave work at the agency while she concentrated on getting her strength up and spending some needed time with her children.

By Monday morning Trixie was ready to head back into the office. She was excited about spending time with her partner and best friend, but wasn’t looking forward to the work that needed to be done. She didn’t want to delve into a bigger case that would have to be put on hold in two weeks when she went through her last round of chemo, so she had resigned herself to having to do the routine background checks that, while they were not very exciting, helped to keep the agency profitable.

After seeing the kids off onto the bus, and giving a lingering kiss to Jim as he left to go up to the Academy, Trixie headed into town. She dropped off Jenny and then made her way to the office. When she walked through the door, she was surprised to see Honey already working. Trixie had left earlier than usual to get to the office.

Honey looked up as Trixie breezed through the door. The two friends hadn’t spoken since Thursday. After exchanging hugs, Trixie hung up her coat while Honey refilled her coffee mug and filled one for Trixie.

“You look great, Trix,” she said. “Are you ready for an exciting day?”

Trixie chuckled, “I don’t know if you would call routine background checks exciting, but it will be a welcome break from praying to the porcelain god.”

“Oh, I think you will be interested in the latest background check we need to do for a case I took on last week.”

Trixie looked concerned. After their interviews with Todd Roberts and Shelby Jacobson, the two had decided they really couldn’t do justice to any more clients until Trixie had made it through her last round of chemotherapy.

“I know we discussed not taking on any more bigger cases, but I just couldn’t turn this one down,” Honey started. She then proceeded to tell Trixie about Dan’s dilemma and how they would be helping him.

“I knew that something was bugging him that didn’t have to do with his family,” Trixie said. “It sounds like a challenging case that we’re going to have to tread lightly with so the PD doesn’t get wind of it.”

Honey walked around her neat desk, pulled out a file folder and handed it to Trixie. “You’re right about that. I just feel so bad for Dan. He’s been put in a very uncomfortable situation that he doesn’t deserve. It sounds like Molinson wants to just stick his head in the sand and hope it will go away. That doesn’t sound like the chief at all.”

“I agree,” Trixie said. “And when word gets out that Dan hired outside help to solve this case he won’t be very popular on the police force.”

“Dan made the decision before he approached me that no matter what the outcome of this investigation was, he would be handing in his resignation once it was over. He felt the city of Sleepyside deserved to be protected, but he also knew that he would be compromising the trust of his fellow officers by going behind their backs, even though it is justified.”

“Well, why don’t I do some computer research on McDaniels? The basics shouldn’t take much more than the rest of the day,” Trixie said. “Is Dan working today?”

Honey sat down at her desk and began going over some information she had discovered last week. “I’m not sure. Why?”

“I just thought that if he was, he might just want to have lunch with two of his favorite gals,” Trixie explained. “We could meet him over at the police department. I’d like to get a read on some of the officers.”

“I’ll call over to see if he’s available for a late lunch. Hillary will be here at one o’clock so we can take as long as we need.” Honey reached Dan on his cell phone. He was out following up on several of the break-ins. He said he’d make a point of being back to his office by then and they could walk over to Wimpy’s for lunch.

The two friends worked silently for awhile. It had surprised Trixie that she really enjoyed doing research on the computer. She hadn’t thought that she would be able to sit at the computer for long stretches of time. Once she got going, she just kept digging and digging. Hours could go by without her realizing it.

All of a sudden she said, “Oh my God!”

Honey looked up with concern in her eyes. “What did you find out?”

“Not much yet,” Trixie could hardly contain her excitement. “I think, however, I’ve figured out the obvious solution to our investigator problem.”

All of a sudden Honey’s eyes lit up. In unison they both said, “Dan!”

“Why didn’t we think of that before?” said Honey.

For several minutes they discussed approaching Dan about joining the agency. “I don’t know about you, but if we’re going to offer a job to Dan, I think it should be as a partner,” Trixie said.

“Absolutely, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with Dan as just an employee. We’ll probably have our hands full trying to convince him that he should join us. It’s a good thing we’ve already interviewed a few people for the job before we knew how bad he hated his, or he’d think we thought he was a charity case,” Honey replied. “I’ll start doing some research on partnership contracts and draft one.”

Trixie could barely contain her excitement. “That would be great. Unless Dan starts talking about really getting his resume out there, I don’t think we should say anything quite yet. We need to keep this between the two of us. If word gets out that we’re going to ask Dan to join our firm that may put him in an uncomfortable situation.”

The two went back to work. Before they knew it, Hillary was walking in the door ready to help out where needed. Jim followed behind her. Hillary was wearing a heavy hand knit cap that covered her fuzz-covered head. As she pulled it off, Honey and Trixie were both surprised to see how quickly her hair had begun to grow back. Hillary hung up her coat and then began to speak to Honey about what she would be doing today. Jim walked over to Trixie and gave her a loving embrace accompanied by a quick kiss to Trixie’s forehead.

“I thought I’d take my special girl out to lunch today,” he said.

Despite being excited about working on a challenging case, Trixie looked disappointed as she said, “I’m sorry, Jim. Honey and I are having lunch with a client.”

“Well, as much as I’m disappointed that you can’t go, I’m glad you have an exciting case to work on.” Ever the concerned husband, he said, “Just don’t work too hard.”

“I’ll be heading home after lunch. Hopefully it won’t last too long and I can get a nap in before the kids get home from school. Honey will bring Jenny home before she drops Hillary off at the school.”

Jim gave Trixie another hug before he headed out the door. “Call me when you get home.”

Trixie grabbed her coat and followed Jim to the car, which was parked a couple doors down from the office. When they got to the car, Trixie pulled him into a tight embrace and then gave him the kiss she had wanted to give him since he walked into the door. “Much better,” she said.

“You’ll get no complaints from me,” he said. The February air was crisp and Jim could feel the chill through his coat. “You’d better get inside. The last thing you need is to catch a cold and have to delay your next round of chemo.” He gave Trixie one last hug to warm her up before she headed back to the office.

When Trixie came into the office, she had that dreamy look in her eyes that Honey had witnessed countless times since the first day they had met.

Honey had put her camel-colored pea coat on. Today, Trixie was wearing her pink-ribboned ‘Cancer Sucks’ hat. They both grabbed their cell phones and left instructions to Hillary that she should call if she had any questions.

The brisk air and slight breeze had brought some color to Trixie’s pale cheeks. She had been very careful to make sure she was dressed warmly enough. She was just as concerned as Jim about getting sick.

When the two of them entered the police department, they were warmly greeted by Patty Morris. “What brings you two over here?” she asked.

Honey replied, “We’re just having lunch with our favorite detective, Dan Mangan.” Trixie didn’t trust her not voice to give her away so she didn’t say anything and just nodded.

Patty called back to the detective room. When she hung up, she directed them back to the detectives’ office.

As they walked back to Dan’s office, they passed Officer McDaniels. Neither Trixie nor Honey had ever met him personally, but they had seen him on the street issuing speeding tickets. McDaniels walked with a cocky swagger. If he pulled over an attractive female, he never wrote them a ticket, but always made some sort of offensive remark that was just innocent enough to not get him into trouble for harassment. He had the attitude that because he was sworn to uphold the law, he was above the law. It was quite obvious from the looks of his fellow officers that McDaniels was not popular among them either.

Both Trixie and Honey had removed their hats and gloves when they entered the building. As McDaniels walked past the two, he leered at Honey and then snickered under his breath at Trixie. Trixie saw what he had done and chose to overlook such ignorant behavior.

When they reached Dan’s desk he was just finishing up a report on the investigating he had done earlier. He stood up and gave each of his friends a hug. Dan didn’t want to stick around his desk any longer than he had to so the left immediately. As they made their way out of the building, they ran into Captain Molinson.

“Trixie,” he said. “It’s good to see you. I heard through the grapevine you were having some health issues.” Captain Molinson was concerned about Trixie’s health, but the state of her hair, or lack of it, did not faze him.

“Yeah, it’s been a rough few months but I’m over halfway through my chemo. Hopefully, in a month or so, I’ll be sporting some fuzz on the top of this billiard ball.”

Captain Molinson chuckled. “My sister-in-law just finished up breast cancer treatment. She had a great remedy for her upset stomach. I’ll get if from her and drop it off at your office.”

Trixie was always a little surprised that Captain Molinson had gone from thinking Trixie was a nuisance, to respecting her as an investigator and treating her like a friend. She was a little standoffish because of how he had been avoiding the problems with McDaniels.

“That would be great,” she replied. “I’m sure Jim would appreciate it as well, but you don’t have to drop it off. Just send it to me by e-mail.”

Captain Molinson looked a little uncomfortable and rushed on. “That’s okay. It’s not out of my way and I can always use the exercise.”

Trixie and Honey were both a little surprised at Molinson’s reaction, but didn’t say anything. They figured he was getting as much pressure from the mayor for not solving this rash of burglaries as Dan was.

The three friends headed to Wimpy’s, where they proceeded to have lunch. To those around them, they thought it was just three friends enjoying each other’s company but in reality, they were discussing the case they were working on.

Dan didn’t have much more to add, although he had been able to find out some more about McDaniels’ work schedule. Dan also had learned that two days ago McDaniels had volunteered to switch his Saturday day shift for the night shift when one officer wanted off to celebrate his anniversary. Officially, Dan was off that evening but he was planning to do some investigating that night anyway.

Trixie reported that she had spent the day doing some basic investigating and bringing herself up to speed on the case.

Honey had been able to track down an officer from the police department where McDaniels had previously worked. The officer did not hesitate to tell Honey how incompetent he was. He had bungled several critical investigations before it was strongly suggested that McDaniels resign his badge before he was fired.

During their entire conversation, Trixie couldn’t help but admire the way Dan had been handling all of his investigations. He had operated very methodically, but wasn’t afraid to think outside of the box. He also had been careful to investigate any lead and not just those that pointed to McDaniels. Trixie was excited about offering Dan a partnership in their agency.

After lunch was over, Dan headed back to the Police Department and Honey and Trixie headed back to the office.

When they got back to the office, both ladies were surprised to see Chief Molinson waiting for them. “Chief, you didn’t have to rush over with that information,” Trixie said. “I won’t be having my next round of chemo for two weeks.”

Chief Molinson looked a little uncomfortable. “Well, I got in touch with my sister-in-law and figured I’d better get this to you before I lost the information,” he said. He literally shoved an envelope into Trixie’s hands and rushed out the door.

Trixie looked at Honey and Hillary in bewilderment. “What was that all about?” she asked.

Hillary looked up from the work she had been doing and said, “He’s been here for the last fifteen minutes. I told him that he could leave the information with me and I’d make sure that you got it. Is he afraid I’m totally incompetent and can’t handle delivering a simple message?” It was clear that Hillary’s feelings had been put out a little.

Honey went over to Hillary and gave her a hug of support. “I don’t think it’s that at all, sweetie. I think he’s just really under a lot of pressure right now.”

Trixie was about to put the envelope on her desk to read later when something told her to open it immediately. She was shocked at what she read.

In Chief Molinson’s neat handwriting it said:

Trixie couldn’t believe her eyes. Her first reaction was relief. While she trusted Dan’s explanation of what had been going on with the investigation, she had had a hard time accepting that Chief Molinson would not do more to uphold the law, no matter who was involved. She looked up from her reading and saw Honey staring at her.

“That must be some kind of remedy to have you so engrossed in it,” Honey said.

Trixie stood up from her desk and walked over to Honey’s. “Well, it’s an interesting one. I’m not sure if the remedy isn’t worse than the chemo. I don’t think I can even explain it to you. Why don’t you just read it?” she replied. Honey looked confused as Trixie handed her the note. Tixie glanced at her watch and realized what time it was. “I’ve gotta get going if I want to get a nap in before the kids get home. You can tell me what you think of it when you drop Jenny off later.” Trixie stifled a yawn as she headed out the door.

It was after two thirty when Trixie got home. She quickly shed her coat and shoes and padded into the den to lie down for a few minutes. She gave Jim a call to let him know she was home. When he heard she had just gotten home, he volunteered to meet Matt and Lizzie at the bus stop and bring them back to the Academy until he had finished up for the day. That would give Trixie time to get a decent nap in.

Trixie suddenly realized how tired she really was and was grateful that Jim had thought of picking the kids up. Matt and Lizzie could be noisy when they got home from school. The kids hadn’t spent much time up at the school since Pizza and Game Night and had been begging to visit their friends all last week.

Trixie pulled out a pillow and a blanket from the den closet, turned on the gas fireplace and snuggled into the sofa in front of it. She would have had more room going up and sleeping on her bed but when it came to napping she felt more comfort in the den. She turned on some light jazz music to help her relax.

At first Trixie thought it would be difficult to fall asleep. She was so excited about this case they were working on for Dan and now it would appear to be Captain Molinson as well. She started to go over the details, but within a matter of minutes she was sound asleep.

Trixie didn’t wake up until Honey brought Jenny home. Jim and the other kids apparently were still up at the school. That gave Trixie and Honey time to discuss Captain Molinson’s note.

“That was some remedy Captain Molinson gave you,” Honey said as she removed Jenny’s jacket.

Trixie walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “It sure wasn’t what I expected although I was relieved to see he wasn’t ignoring the problem like Dan thinks he is.”

“So, now what do we do? Client confidentiality says we can’t reveal who our clients are, but we’ve been asked to do the same work by two people.” Honey said as she began to remove Jenny’s snowsuit and boots. When she had finished she placed Jenny on the floor where she took off toward the den.

“I’ve been thinking of that, too. I think we let Dan know that Molinson contacted us. I think it’s best that he explain it to the captain. In the long run it would be better for Dan as well. If he chooses, no one else will ever have to know he approached us about working for him.” Trixie looked down the hall to see where Jenny had gone. When she realized that Jenny was playing with her cardboard blocks, she turned her attention back to Honey.

“I think that should work. I hope Molinson doesn’t get upset that we told one more person. When he hears who it is, and why, he shouldn’t. Especially when I think we should continue to do this work pro bono,” Honey suggested.

Both women heard Jim, Matt and Lizzie tramping up the steps. “I think you’re right. We can discuss it in the morning. If I get a good night’s sleep, I’m going to try to make it into the office by nine o’clock tomorrow.”

As Honey reached for the door, it began to open. She quickly gave Jim a kiss and a hug as she left the house. “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said as she left.

As Jim and the kids removed their boots and coats, Trixie went to the refrigerator and pulled out the casserole that she had started to defrost the night before. By the time it was in the oven, Jim was behind her pulling her into an embrace. She turned into his arms to enjoy the warmth of his kisses.

“Ew,” Matt and Lizzie said in unison. While they were used to their parents’ displays of affections, they liked to tease them anytime they could.

Trixie tried to look over Jim’s shoulder, but realized once again she would never be tall enough to do that, so she peeked around it. “Don’t you two have some homework to do or something?”

“Mom,” said Lizzie. “Mine is all done. Jane Scott helped me with it and I didn’t complain once.”

Trixie looked at Jim for confirmation. He just nodded slightly in agreement.

“I got mine done in school. Stevie and I played Battleship.”

Jim continued to hold Trixie in an embrace. “Why don’t the two of you go entertain Jenny?” he suggested. “Your mother and I will set the table tonight.”

As soon as the kids had left the room, Jim pulled Trixie into a steamy embrace. “Much better,” she said. It was quite a few minutes before they pulled apart to finish getting dinner on the table. Jim set it while Trixie made a salad and took out some fresh vegetables and dip to complement the casserole.

Later that evening Jim and Jenny teamed up to play Apples to Apples with the rest of the family. Everyone was surprised, including Lizzie, that she won the game and didn’t need to have anyone help her read the cards.

Throughout the evening, Trixie kept playing footsie with Jim under the table. Several times he had to discreetly remove her foot from his lap with a frustrated look to her. As soon as the kids were in bed and asleep, Jim took Trixie up on her unspoken invitation. He carried her up to their bedroom where they spent the next hour making love.

 

 

This website is © 2005-2025 Mal. All rights reserved. All graphics created by Mal and may not be used without permission. Original ribbon provided by Pink Ribbons by Carol Sutton. Buttons using image and background created by Mal and may not be used without permission.