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 Thirty-one

Sunday, March 5, 2006

Brian took Stella and Matthew to church the next morning so Honey could sleep in. Stella’s fever never took hold. A more thorough look in her mouth showed tender gums, leading Honey and Brian to conclude that Stella must be getting her two-year molars.

Despite hoping she could sleep until noon, or at least until nine o’clock, Honey was up shortly after Brian and the kids left at eight. The phone woke her up. It was Dan.

“Honey,” he said over the phone. “I’ve got to go into the station this morning and do some follow-up paperwork. Do you want to get together with Trixie sometime today and bring her up-to-date on what happened last night?”

“I was just thinking about calling her and inviting the Fraynes to brunch. Will you be done by noon?” Honey answered. As she spoke, she went about making a pot of coffee and some toast for breakfast.

“I don’t think I can make it that early. I need to get search warrants issued for both McDaniels' apartment and Novarski’s hotel room. Then I need to carry them out. I want to do it before either one of them can post bail.”

“What about dinner? I know we just got together here on Friday night but could you handle dinner here again?” The coffee was done and Honey had poured her first cup. She let out a sigh of pleasure after the first sip. She could hear Dan chuckle over the phone. Honey’s obsession with coffee was well known among the Bob-Whites.

Dan could be heard whispering something on the other end of the phone. Then he replied. “You hosted Friday night, why doesn’t everyone come over here? We can do Build Your Own Pizza Night. Hallie found some really good frozen pizza dough.”

“That sounds good. What can we bring?” Honey replied.

“Could you chop up some veggies and maybe get some meat toppings?” Dan asked. “Hallie doesn’t always do well these days in the kitchen. She never knows what her stomach is going to do and I’m going to be tied up most of the day.”

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be easier to just have it here?” Honey asked again.

“It might be,” Dan replied. “But as soon as I asked Hallie about getting together she insisted everyone come here.” Dan’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “So let’s just humor her.”

Honey tried to repress a giggle as she asked, “Raging hormones?”

“I plead the fifth,” Dan said. “But really, it won’t be any trouble to have it here. The two of us got the cleaning done yesterday. We have the dough and pizza sauce as well as a good supply of drinks. I can throw together a salad when I get home and we should be good to go.”

The two friends discussed a few more things and then hung up. After taking a shower, Honey sat down at her laptop and began writing a summary of the previous night’s activities from her perspective. She had used a small voice recorder during the evening to keep track of what had happened.

After she finished the report, she called Trixie to discuss their meeting with Dan later.

“How’d it go?” Trixie asked after they exchanged greetings over the phone.

“I’d say it went pretty well. McDaniels and Slim Novarski are both sitting in jail. Dan is executing search warrants as we speak,” Honey replied. “We’re invited to the Mangans' for Build Your Own Pizza Night and to go over everything.”

Trixie hesitated and then said, “I don’t know, Honey. Lizzie’s been having a really rough time the last few weeks with all of the chemo. They were gone Friday night. I don’t know if I should be away from her again.”

“I felt the same way but Dan invited Brian, Jim and the kids as well. We should only need a half an hour or so.”

Trixie paused again before she replied, “Well, it’s a school night, so we can’t stay late but it will be fun.”

Honey started to open up her browser and log on to the Lucy Radcliffe message board while she finished up her conversation. “Are we going to ask Dan to join the agency tonight?”

“I think it will be the perfect time. Have you got the contract ready, along with our offer?”

Honey replied, “It’s done. I finished up yesterday morning. I just hope he will accept the partnership and not make a big stink about it.” The two spoke for a few more minutes and then hung up.

Honey then directed her attention to her computer. She had been participating in the Lucy Radcliffe message boards for a little over a year. She loved the friends she had made as well as the great stories they had that picked up where the series had left off. She had stumbled on it while she was trying to complete her set of deluxe edition books. Trixie was quick to join the online community. They had even gone to Lucy Camp in Tennessee the previous summer.

It had taken awhile for Brian and Jim to understand the entire concept and many times they couldn’t understand what the two girls got so excited about. Finally, they just accepted it. Of course, that was after they had lurked on the message boards themselves to make sure that there weren’t a bunch of axe murders among the bunch of them. Hallie and Diana also participated but not at the level that Trixie and Honey did.

Honey was so engrossed in the fanfic she was reading that she hadn’t heard the car pull into the driveway. She jumped when Brian came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and teased, “So has Lucy decided on honorable Rafe, or bad boy Jude this time?”

Honey’s faced turned as red as the red-star rating the story she had been reading. “Neither,” she replied. “This story was about her sister, Debbie and her delectable boyfriend Chance.” She quickly closed the story and turned around into his arms.

“And what makes Chance so delectable?” Brian teased.

“Well, it could be that he’s a world-renowned cardiac surgeon who goes to third world countries to help needy children,” Honey said as she reached up and put her arms around his neck. “Or it could be his six pack abs.” She moved her hands down Brian’s chest to caress the abs in front of her. “But then, it could be his dark wavy hair.” Her hands moved up to his head and she ran her fingers through hair that in her mind was exactly like Chance’s. Right before she pulled Brian into a steamy kiss, she finished by saying, “But I think what I like the most is that he is Mr. Honorable.”

After a minute or so Brian broke off the kiss and pretended to be indignant, “Wait a minute. I thought I was Mr. Honorable.”

Honey’s hands had found their way back to Brian’s hair, she pulled his head back down to steal a few kisses before she replied, “No, you are Doctor Honorable.” They would have continued their “discussion” for several more minutes but they were interrupted by Stella coming into the den.

“Miss Stella,” Honey said as she reluctantly broke away from Brian and stooped to pick up her daughter. “Were you a good girl in church?” she asked before she placed a kiss on the top of her head.

Stella answered in one of the few words she knew. “No,” she said.

Honey laughed as she looked at Brian to confirm her daughter’s behavior. “Well, was she?”

“Define good,” Brian replied. “She stayed in the pew and jabbered to her doll for most of the service. Unfortunately, in the most solemn part of it she decided that she needed to sing at the top of her lungs and the song she decided to sing was “I’m a Little Teapot”, complete with actions. I decided that despite the fact that I hate the cry room maybe that was the best place to be for that part. We returned to our pew and she was an angel the rest of the time.”

Honey gave Stella another hug and then said, “I hope you don’t mind, but we’re invited to the Mangans’ for dinner tonight. Dan and I need to bring Trixie up to date on last night’s events.”

“Honey, I don’t mean to interfere with your business but you’ve been gone the last two nights. I’m afraid Stella is not going to be happy with you being gone again tonight,” Brian said.

By now Stella was getting restless. Honey set her on the ground and she ran off to find her big brother. “That’s the great thing. We’re all invited. It’s going to be Build Your Own Pizza Night. Trixie, Dan and I will need to have about thirty minutes to ourselves.”

It was three o’clock and Dan felt like it should be midnight. He hadn’t stopped since he had left the house at eight thirty that morning. He had stopped by the station to pick up the search warrants that had been issued. It had taken several hours to go through both McDaniels’ apartment and Novarski’s hotel room. The search was not in vain. They found stolen property at both locations. There was enough evidence to put both McDaniels and Novarski away for quite a few years.

After Dan had returned to the station, he had to finish his report on the case. He had just put the finishing touches on it when Captain Molinson stopped by his desk.

“That was excellent work you did, Detective,” the captain said.

“Thanks,” Dan replied. “I’m just glad that we finally were able to catch the two of them. I know the citizens were getting frustrated with how long it was taking to crack this case.”

Molinson pulled up a chair across from Dan. He looked a little uncomfortable as he said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t so supportive of you at the beginning. Believe it or not, I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want you to sacrifice your career in what appeared to be a no-win situation.”

Dan leaned back in his chair. “Well, I have to say I was surprised at how you seemed to be bending to the mayor's desires. There were a few days that I’m sure your ears were burning.”

Molinson leaned back in his chair as well. “It’s a fine line and I was looking out for the entire department. Unfortunately, the politics of the job often get in the way of actually doing our jobs. I had to be careful and make sure I was one hundred percent certain what was happening. The mayor rarely forgives and never forgets if you cross him.”

“Speaking of the mayor, has he been in today?” Dan asked.

Molinson rubbed his head as if to ward off a headache. “You didn’t hear the noise?” he asked. “He stopped down at noon but refused to post bail or get involved in any way. I think the mayor realized he hadn’t been doing anyone any favors by always bailing his nephew out. Officer McDaniels has been put on unpaid leave. From what I understand, he has not been able to get in contact with his lawyer. He’ll be arraigned in the morning.”

Dan shut down his computer and reached over to his printer to pick up a document. “Here’s a full report on this case. I’m having dinner with the Fraynes and the Brian Beldens tonight. I’ll have a summary of their work tomorrow.” He stood up and shook Molinson’s hand. “I’m glad everything worked out in the end.”

After Captain Molinson left, Dan got ready to leave. Despite all of his displeasure with the job, it would be hard to leave it. He knew, however, that staying was not the answer to his restlessness. He started to move to the door but turned to take one last look at his office. His eyes rested on the one photo he kept on his desk. It was one of Hallie that had been taken before he’d been deployed to Iraq. She was laughing at something and had a relaxed look on her face. One look at that photo and he knew he was making the right decision for him and his family. Slowly he turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

The night was winding down at the Mangan household. The adults were sitting around the kitchen table while the kids were off playing. Matt and Mickey were on the computer looking at different remote control cars. Lizzie was entertaining Stella and Jenny. All of the kids had been playing together and no one had come into the dining room to complain about someone else’s behavior.

When everyone had arrived earlier, Dan, Trixie and Honey had gone into the den to discuss the case while everyone else helped get the pizza made and into the oven. By the time the food was ready Dan and Honey had finished bringing Trixie up-to-date on the case. When they had entered the kitchen, Dan had a truly peaceful look on his face. Hallie was quick to notice it and shot him a questioning look. He shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

The adults were sitting around the table making small talk. Trixie stood up and said, “Honey, Dan and I have an important announcement to make.”

Their spouses had no idea what was going on. For once, both Trixie and Honey had been able to keep a secret from everyone.

Trixie walked over to stand behind Dan and Honey. “As you know, Honey and I have been looking to hire another investigator but so far we haven’t had much luck.” She paused to look at her husband who seemed to realize what Trixie might be going to say. She continued, “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before…”

Hallie couldn’t contain herself. She, too, knew what Trixie was going to say and she started to bounce in her chair in anticipation. “Oh, I hope it’s what I think it is,” she said.

Brian urged his sister. “Come on, Trix. Get on with it before Hallie climbs out of her skin.”

“Well, if people would quit interrupting me, I would be able to tell you that Honey and I have offered Dan a partnership in our firm and he’s accepted.”

“It’s about time,” Brian, Jim and Hallie said in unison. The six adults all broke out in laughter.

After a few moments, Honey poked Brian and said, “What was that all about?”

Brian stammered for a moment and then said, “Well, I’ve thought all along that Dan would be the perfect person for you guys to hire.”

Trixie looked over at Jim, who was nodding in agreement. “If you thought that way, why didn’t you say anything?” she asked.

Jim couldn’t help but blush a little bit. “I made a decision a long time ago that I wouldn’t interfere with the workings of the Frayne-Wheeler Detective Agency. If you ask for my opinion, I will give it but I’m not going to just volunteer it. You guys do a great job running the agency. You don’t need me to stick my nose in it.”

The friends discussed the partnership for a few more minutes. Dan would be handing in his two weeks’ notice in the morning. During the next week Trixie was going to concentrate on finding new office space for the agency. With another round of chemo in a week she wanted to get a few leads before then.

Shortly after, the Fraynes and Beldens headed home and Hallie and Dan went up to their bedroom for their own personal celebration.

 

 

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.