A Lawman for Christmas

Chapter Four

The closer they came, the further Kelsey felt her heart sink. Although the back of her mother’s car was untouched, the front was bruised, scratched and badly dented. If human, it would have easily been deemed the loser in a fight. She could just imagine what it was like under the hood.

Her mother’s car held a very special place in her heart. She’d learned how to drive in it.

Kelsey could remember her mother sitting beside her while she practiced early in the morning in a deserted parking lot. She’d felt as if she was flying when in reality she was only going eleven miles an hour.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” she cried, staring at the vehicle.

Waiting until the road was clear, Morgan made a U-turn and guided the squad car directly behind the badly battered sedan. Kate’s car had spun out before crashing into the bushes that ran along the perimeter of the college’s athletic field.

By the time he opened his door, Kelsey had already left his squad car and was examining the damage to her mother’s vehicle.

“To be honest, I didn’t focus on the vehicle,” he told her. “I was focused on making sure your mother was all right.”

He had his priorities straight. And she was being waspish, Kelsey upbraided herself. Contrite, she nodded at him.

“Sorry. You’re right. My mother definitely matters more than a mashed-up grill,” she murmured, then circled around again to the front. The hood was pushed in, proving that the bushes were tougher than they looked. It was a miracle that her mother didn’t sustain any bad cuts or bruises.

The driver’s-side door creaked and groaned like an arthritic eighty-year-old man when she opened it. The door made even louder noises when she attempted to shut it again. It resisted complete closure.

Morgan nodded at the door. “Doesn’t sound promising,” he commented.

Sitting behind the wheel, Kelsey put her mother’s key into the ignition and turned. The engine wheezed, then coughed and sputtered before finally giving up the ghost. With an exasperated sigh, Kelsey tried again. This time, the engine remained silent. There wasn’t even a weak sputter. The third attempt was no better. Kelsey got out again.

“I’m going to have to call a tow truck,” she sighed, resigned. She looked at him. “You have any recommendations?”

“Pop the hood.”

He caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Pop the hood.” He nodded toward the driver’s side. “There should be a release right under—”

“I know where the release is,” she told him. His assumption of her ignorance annoyed her. She wasn’t one of those women whose entire knowledge about cars stopped at putting the key into the ignition.

Reaching into the car, Kelsey pulled the lever. The hood made a strange noise in response. It took Morgan a couple of minutes to free it from its latch.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Morgan didn’t answer her right away. He was busy assessing the damage and testing various connections, estimating what might be wrong with the car from the noises it had made—and some it conspicuously hadn’t—when Kelsey had turned the key.

“Checking out the engine,” he finally said just before she repeated her question. He dropped the hood back into place. “I know someone who’s pretty much of a wizard when it comes to working on cars. I can get the car towed to his place.”

“How much does this Mr.Wizard charge?” she asked.

Reaching inside the car, he removed the keys and handed them back to Kelsey. “He’s reasonable.”

“One man’s reasonable is another man’s steep,” she pointed out, moving in front of him and getting into his face.

His eyes met hers. “Trust me, your mother will be all right with it.”

Kelsey paused for a long moment, debating. Ordinarily, she would have given her mother the details and asked her what she wanted to do. But the woman had enough to deal with right now. And she supposed that a mechanic with a recommendation was better than trusting the fate of her mother’s car’s to the luck of the draw.

“Okay, give Mr. Wizard a call and ask him if he can come down to take a look at this.”

There was just the smallest hint of a smile on the patrolman’s lips. “Not necessary.”

“What, you communicate with him by telepathy?” When he didn’t answer, it suddenly hit her. “It’s you?” she asked in surprise.

“My father ran a garage. I used to help out after school,” he told her. “Turns out I had a knack for fixing things.”

“So why did you become a policeman?”

Telling her that he didn’t want to be like his father was far too intimate a revelation. Morgan merely looked at her for a long moment, then said, “Not all things that need fixing are cars.”

From the way he said it, she had a feeling that Donnelly wasn’t going to elaborate on the enigmatic statement even if she asked him to.

Her curiosity was instantly aroused.

Kelsey hated not knowing things, like the answer to a question, the end of a story or the proper response to a riddle. She really needed to know. Once she found out the answer, the almost rabid desire to obtain a response vanished.

But for the moment, her curiosity had to take a backseat to getting her mother’s car repaired. The sooner she finished up here, the sooner she could get back to the house. Her mother needed her. Needed moral support before breaking this news to the rest of the family.

Kelsey eyed the dormant vehicle. Did he intend to call a tow truck or attempt to levitate it? “So where do we go from here?”

Morgan thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an idea.”

It was starting to feel like she had to drag everything out of him. “Which is?”

Instead of answering her he sat down behind the steering wheel and felt around on the left side of the steering column for the hood release. Pulling it, he got out and opened the hood again. This time, it sagged immediately, refusing to remain up long enough for him to test his theory.

“I need you,” he said to Kelsey.

“Why, Officer Donnelly, we hardly know each other,” Kelsey quipped, deliberately batting her eyelashes at him.

“Cute,” he commented. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Come here.”

Man’s interpersonal skills left something to be desired, Kelsey thought. “Do I goose-step over,” she asked, “or just shuffle?”

“Point taken.” He hadn’t meant to sound as if he was ordering her around. “Come here, please. I need you to hold up the hood while I try to get your mother’s car going long enough to drive it over to my place.”

Joining him, she put her hands under the hood and held it up for him. “Assuming that you can accomplish this mystifying feat, where will I be while you’re driving the car?”

“You’ll be the one who’s driving the car,” he corrected. “I’ll follow in the squad car.”

From where she stood, that didn’t sound too promising. Kelsey stared down at the engine. “Is it safe?”

“To follow you?” he guessed, his expression unreadable. “I don’t know yet.”

“I was referring to driving the car.”

“Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?” he quipped. And then he laughed at her surprised expression. “Don’t worry, Kelsey. I won’t put you in a car that’s about to blow up.” He went back to adjusting wires. “Too much paperwork to fill out if that happens.”

She wasn’t sure if he was pulling her leg or not. His expression certainly didn’t enlighten her any. “Nice to know you have your priorities straight.”

“I’ll do just about anything to get out of doing paperwork,” he told her absently as he experimented with another connection. Whatever he did seemed to please him. “Okay,” he said, putting his hand up next to hers beneath the hood. “Put the key into the ignition again. See if it starts now.”

Kelsey had grave doubts, but she did as he told her. Turning the key, she began tapping on the accelerator, giving the car gas. The newer models were supposed to start up without that, but her mother’s car had always been a bit temperamental.

On the third tap, the engine responded with a rumble that increased in strength.

“It’s alive,” she pronounced, imitating Dr. Frankenstein in the classic horror movie.

Instead of letting the hood fall the way he had last time, Morgan eased it down gently. “Whatever you do, don’t turn it off. I want you to drive it over to my house,” he reminded her.

“Not until you give me the address,” she answered.

He’d forgotten about that. Morgan rattled off the address. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Kelsey hesitated. “Got a better idea. You lead the way, I’ll follow. If the car dies, I’ll honk the horn to let you know.”

It made no difference to him which way they did it. He just thought she’d prefer to be out front, but her way would still allow him to call in without fear of losing sight of her. He needed to let dispatch know why he was going to be late getting the squad car back to the precinct.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Give me a second.”

Crossing back to the squad car, Morgan started the vehicle and then swung it around in front of her. It was time for her to play follow the leader, he thought, a smile curving his mouth.

“Where were you?” Kate asked when her daughter finally walked into the house.

“Busy playing musical cars with Officer Donnelly,” Kelsey quipped. “First he took me to your car—it doesn’t look happy,” she confided. “Then I followed him to his house—”

“His house?” Kate did her best not to look pleased. Nothing put Kelsey off faster than when she believed she was being manipulated. Still, Kelsey could do a lot worse than the young officer.

Kelsey tossed down her purse and straddled the arm of the sofa. “Turns out he’s a closet mechanic and will fix the car for you. He almost insisted on it. You created quite an impression on him, Mom,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, then he brought me back here.” Kelsey shrugged. “Not much of a story really.” Her voice grew more serious as she appraised her mother. “How are you feeling?”

Kate ran her hand along her extremely flat stomach, trying to smooth down the unsettling churning.

“Like I’m going to throw up.” She pressed her lips together, trying to think of other things.

Kelsey wondered if she should bring over a pail or the wastepaper basket from the kitchen. “I thought that only happened with first babies.”

Kate took in a long, cleansing breath. She longed for some tea to settle her stomach. “Seeing as how it’s been twenty-six years between pregnancies, this is practically like having a first baby.”

“For the second time around,” Kelsey commented. This whole thing was crazy, as if the world was somehow out of whack. And yet, there was this small, solid starburst of joy smack in the center of her being.

There was no denying it. She loved children almost as much as her mother did.

“But that’s not why I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Kate confided in a lowered voice, despite the fact that only the two of them were in the house.

“Oh?” And then Kelsey guessed what caused her mother’s unease. “You’re afraid of what Dad’s going to say.”

“Not say so much as feel,” Kate admitted. She twisted her fingers together. “This is a lot to spring on him.”

Kelsey had always been honest with her mother. She saw no reason to change now, even if this wasn’t the easiest of subjects for a daughter to discuss with her mother.

“This is a lot to spring on all of us, Mom.” Her mother looked a bit distressed. Kelsey quickly continued. “I mean, I know you guys love each other and all that, but I guess at this point in your married lives, I thought that your expressions of love were more or less restricted to holding hands and occasionally indulging in deep, soulful kisses.”

Shaking her head in amusement, Kate ran her hands through the girl’s hair. “Someday, my darling daughter, when your skin isn’t quite as flawless as it is today, you’ll come to realize the true meaning in that poem.”

That had come completely out of left field. “What poem?”

“‘Come grow old along with me, the best is yet to be,’” Kate said, reciting her favorite line out of a poem by Robert Browning. And then she patted Kelsey’s hand. “Shouldn’t you be getting back to school? I don’t need a babysitter, honey.”

“I’m not babysitting,” she protested a bit too quickly. “I told them at the school I didn’t know if I was going to be back today.” And then she backtracked a little. “At least I think I did. Everything after talking to you on the phone is still a little hazy. Besides,” she staked out a place on the sofa, “I thought I’d hang around here today, see if you need anything, need someone to catch you in case you faint again, things like that.”

Kate took her daughter’s hand and drew her up to her feet. “I’m fine, really. Go back to work.”

Well, she had left them in a bad way. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me, Mom.”

Kate grinned. She was gently guiding her daughter to the front door. “I am. I’ve changed my mind. I can handle this. Thank you for coming as quickly as you did—now go.”

Kelsey paused in the doorway. She didn’t want her mother to think she was hovering, but she didn’t feel good about just leaving her. “You sure you don’t need anything?”

Kate smiled. When she spoke, her accent was particularly strong. “Oh, a shot of my da’s liquid courage, maybe.” She reconsidered her words and gave Kelsey a rueful expression. “But then, I can’t have that for the next nine months.”

“Speaking of ‘da,’ when are you going to tell Dad?” Kelsey asked.

“Today,” Kate answered. She’d already made up her mind. But suddenly weary, she took a deep breath. “I just have to find the right words.”

“How about ‘Hi, honey, I’ve got a new tax deduction for you’?”

Kate shook her head. “Very funny, Kelsey.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Kelsey told her mother. “I was trying to temper the shock with a positive piece of information.”

“He’s not going to be in shock,” Kate protested. But then her words echoed back to her. “He’s going to be in shock, isn’t he?”

“Can’t really blame him, Mom. You were in shock when you found out,” Kelsey reminded.

But that was different. “It was for just a few seconds.”

“With luck,” Kelsey deadpanned, “Dad’ll come out of his shock just before he has to rush you into the delivery room.” Kelsey leaned over and pressed a kiss to her mother’s temple. “Just kidding, Mom. After he realizes you haven’t just developed a weird sense of humor, he’ll be thrilled.”

Thrilled was a rather powerful word. “I don’t know if I’d go that far…”

Kelsey gave her a vague little shrug. “Might as well keep a positive attitude about this.” Reaching for the doorknob, she paused as a thought hit her. “Just make me a promise.”

Raising five children had taught Kate never to make a promise until she heard all the details. “Yes?”

“Don’t tell the guys without me there. I want to see their reaction. You can tell Dad,” she realized they needed their privacy for this, “but not Mike and the others unless I’m there. Please,” she added in case her mother didn’t think she was serious.

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