Chapter 1
Det. Alex Eames breezed into the squad room pushing a cart filled with goody bags, tins of homemade cookies and a jack-o-lantern. Of all the holidays, she liked Halloween best. She spends hours carving pumpkins, baking scary looking cookies, and stuffing decorative bags with goodies. She stopped at each desk and handed the occupant one of the bags. "We'll have the cookies later." She laughed and rolled the cart up to her desk. She handed her partner, Det. Bobby Goren, one of the bags.
He refused. "You know I don't eat candy. Thanks anyway."
Alex tossed it on his desk. "I stayed up half the night making these. You're going to take it and enjoy it."
Det. Mike Logan came in bearing two huge plastic pumpkins filled with candy. "You tell him Eames."
Mike's partner, Det. Megan Wheeler, walked over from her desk.
Mike looked at Alex as he nodded towards Megan, "After you get him straight, can you work on my partner?"
Megan rolled her eyes at him. "I just don't think we should glorify death."
"We're not glorifying death." Alex tossed her a bag. "We're just providing some fun for the children and ourselves."
Megan was offended. "I deal with death everyday, Alex, just like you. I wouldn't call it fun."
"Whatever," Alex mumbled. She lifted the carved pumpkin and put in on her desk, right in front of Bobby.
"Lighten up, Wheeler," Mike told his partner. "Stop taking everything so seriously."
"Do you take anything seriously?" Bobby asked him.
Logan chuckled and plopped one of the plastic pumpkins on top of Bobby's book. "Have a little something to sweeten that sour disposition.
Bobby sighed and moved the pumpkin to the side and checked the spine of his book. "Halloween didn't begin as a fun event."
"You're going to give us a history lesson now?" Logan asked, chewing on a tootsie roll. "How typical."
Alex turned the face of the pumpkin towards Bobby. "Well, there's no reason we can't make it fun."
Logan rifled around in his goody bag for another tootsie roll. "At the haunted house, I'm going to be the hanging man. Wheeler, you and Goren can dress up as Doom and Gloom."
Alex laughed and handed him a tin of cookies.
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After Alex made sure her sister knew what time to drop off her children at the haunted house, she told her goodbye and hung up the phone. She looked across the desk at Bobby. "You are coming to the haunted house, aren't you? "
Bobby looked up from his book. "Have I ever come?"
No, he never had. Bobby would rather stay at his desk reading one of his books or mucking through old case files. "It's time you did. It's for charity. The first round will only be for the cops' families. Later it will be open to the public."
Bobby reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty and tossed it on her desk.
"It's only four dollars to enter."
"For the other times I didn't go." He continued reading and she knew he didn't want to be disturbed further.
Sometimes, well, very rarely, Bobby could be warm and open. She hated it when he clammed up and kept her at arm's length. He made her feel foolish for going on and on about the holidays. If he had small children in his family then he would understand. She guessed that Megan, too, didn't have a niece or a nephew. Not like her and Mike.
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"You're going to be sick, eating all that candy," Megan told Logan.
"Thanks, mom, but I can handle it." Mike reached over and grabbed her goody bag and stuffed it in his drawer for later. "You coming to the haunted house?"
"No."
"You gotta come. I'm going to be the hanging man."
"I know, you said that already."
"Oh, Wheeler, stop being a stick in the mud. Loosen up. Have some fun."
Megan thought what she planned to do would be fun. Rather than being around somebody else's squealing children she would rather stay at her desk and watch Bobby. "Halloween is a stupid holiday. As far as I'm concerned, all holidays are stupid. Since my dad disappeared, I haven't celebrated any of them."
Logan felt bad for her. "I'm sorry about that, Wheeler."
"Why? It's not your fault."
"I know it's not my fault but I'm sorry that you continue to let that define your life. You're too young to be so gloomy all the time."
Megan sat back in her chair and crossed her arms in defiance. "I would appreciate if you would stop calling me that."
"I would appreciate if you would stop being that way." He arched his eyebrows, knowing he has hit a nerve in the usually unflappable Megan Wheeler.
"I can only be who I am."
"Okaaay," Mike said, holding his hands up in surrender. He stood up. "I gotta go get ready. See ya later, Wheeler."
"Have fun," she told him and glanced towards Bobby at his desk.
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