From Secret Santa to Valentine

Author's note: I'm not forgetting I've another story going on but I needed to put this idea on the paper.

One month before Christmas

'A secret Santa?'

DI Thomas Lynley looked incredulously at the secretary of the division, Dorothea Harriman.

'Yes. You can see it as a team building event. You don't have to participate, of course, it's totally voluntary but the more people involved the better.'

'How does it work?'

'Simple, really. You write your name on a paper and you put the paper in an envelope. At the end of November, you'll pick a name in the envelope and you buy a little present to the person whose name's on the paper. There's a fix price range for the gifts: they should cost between £10 and £25.'

'£25? That's not much for a gift.'

'It's the thought that counts and that way everybody can participate.'

'And if I don't like the name on the paper I picked?' Lynley asked innocently.

'No cheating, inspector. The only reason you can put a paper back into the envelope is if your name's on it. However, I won't check if it really is your name on the paper,' she added with a knowing smile.

Lynley smiled back. That's what he liked in Dee: sometimes they understood each other without speaking, a bit like with Havers. Speaking of which…

'Have you a lot of participants already?'

'A fair amount, yes, I've more than thirty names for the moment, from the DI to the DC.'

Dee didn't say more. She knew what Lynley wanted to know but she took malicious pleasure in letting him stew.

'Not Ardery?'

'The Super said she'd join if I needed a name to get an even number.'

'Did she? Good. What about Philip ?'

'DI Hale is in.'

'Good, very good. Winston's in too, I suppose?'

'Sergeant Nkata was one of the first to enter his name.'

'True to form.'

Lynley was trying to act casually but he was a bit too absorbed in the contemplation of the bottom of his coffee cup. Dee pitied him and added, as if off the top of her head:

'Sergeant Havers entered her name too.'

Lynley's head jerked back. He stared at the blond secretary, then narrowed his eyes and asked:

'Dee, are you still collecting funds for the police orphans?'

'Yes,' she replied not committing herself. 'Why?'

'Because in this case, I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse.'