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Notes Chapter eight of our story; Angell's gift, and a story from Sid to Mac and Stella… Please review, we love to hear from you! Thank for all reviews, alerts and favourites :D Please continue! Thank you to Forest Angel for discussion.
We're very sorry we've been delayed in posting the last two chapters, real life has been busy!
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five gold rings
Four colly birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Milk Maids
As they left the crime scene and walked towards their vehicles, something that sat and sparkled on the dashboard of Angell's car caught Stella's eye.
"Is that what I think it is?" She pointed at it, and grinned at the flush that appeared in the other detective's face, "I'm guessing you didn't buy that yourself?"
"I did not. It's bad enough having a name that's always met with either an expression of disbelief or outright laughter whenever I tell it to people, so I'm hardly going to be buying something like that, am I?" She finished with her hands on her hips, glaring at Stella; who could not prevent the grin stretching across her face as she pointed at the little doll with a white dress, wings, and a look of smug saintliness on its face.
"A Christmas angel. Cute. Don get you that?"
"Don has better taste when it comes to giving gifts." Angell answered smartly, "This was Danny's doing."
"Ah." Stella nodded, "Say no more." She caught Mac's eye, "Looks like our not so mysterious present giver strikes again. I don't know what's gotten into him this year, it isn't as it he's ever been conscientious about Christmas gifts before. Most years he's handed round an opened box of candy, after Christmas day, and that's been his contribution to the holiday spirit."
"Perhaps impending fatherhood has revealed a side of Danny none of us has ever seen before. But don't complain. I'm all for it. Even if I could question his taste, at least he's made an effort."
Stella laughed, "Well I know what to get you next year Mac, something to keep your seizing Polar bear company.
Angell chuckled in turn as she opened the car door, "Nice. Let me know if you want to do a swap, my Christmas fairy…"
"Christmas angel, it's most definitely an angel, Angell." Stella interrupted with a smirk as she pointed through the windscreen, "You've not noticed the little gold halo she's got? It stands out beautifully against her dark hair. Danny's obviously put real thought into this…"
"Thank you so much for pointing that out to me."
"I think it's kind of sweet." Tilting her head on one side, Stella considered the doll, "It does have a look of you…"
"Say nothing more, Stella." Angell held a hand up, "Unless you want to find out what Angells are really capable of."
"I'll take your word for it…"
"And we'll head back to the lab to process what we've got." A certain tone crept into Mac's voice, and Stella gave a final grin to Angell.
"Hope Flack got you something nice then. We'll be in touch, soon as we get any results."
"Thanks."
Walking quickly, partly to catch up to Mac, and mostly to warm herself after standing still too long at the mercy of ice-tongued winds, Stella had almost reached him when Angell called to her.
"Oh, Stella?"
"Yeah?"
She spun round, immediately suspicious at the friendly innocence in her voice.
"Done any more impersonations of a penguin? Only I heard you'd had a close encounter of the icy kind yesterday…"
"Funny. Very funny." The sarcasm and the grimace she sent Angell, were an attempt to hide the embarrassment she felt at her actions being known by anyone other than those involved. "Don tell you that?"
"He did. Seriously, Stella, he was impressed with what you did, and so was I. You risked your life to save that little girl. Good job. But I hope you've thawed out now of course, we couldn't have you being a penguin for real!" Slipping into her car with a wide grin, Angell slammed the door and drove off speedily, waving over her shoulder as she pulled out onto the street.
"Don's a dead man." Stella muttered as she marched to the truck and pulled the door open.
Mac raised his eyebrows at her before starting the engine, "Problem?"
"A small problem with a big mouth; nothing I can't handle, given a little while to plan how best to hide the evidence."
It was Mac's turn to smirk, "Would that be a problem by the name of Don Flack?"
Stella glowered, "Mac, I did not want what happened yesterday being known by the whole of the NYPD. It was no big deal…"
"I doubt the whole of the NYPD, as you put it, knows. Angell may know, but it's not likely to go any further from her."
"It's not Angell I'm worried about. If Flack's told Danny…"
"I see your point."
There was silence for a few minutes whilst Mac kept his eyes on the slush covered roads, populated by drivers who seemed to believe it was a good idea to use cell phones, eat bagels and gesture at other drivers whilst failing to keep control of their own vehicles.
Missing by inches an enormous red pick up truck with a tiny old lady at the wheel, Mac swerved and swore, and it caused Stella to squeak at the narrow margin they had avoided collision by.
"That was close! What is it with snow and drivers in the city? You'd think some people had a death wish!"
Mac flicked his eyes towards her before returning to the road, "It was close. As was yesterday…" He interrupted before she could get a word out, "No, I don't think you shouldn't have done what you did, but it was a close call, Stella. And whatever you might think, what you did was brave, so naturally people are going to find out and talk about it. You're going to have to put up with that."
"Fine." Stella huffed, "I just don't want a fuss."
"You won't get a fuss."
"Or any more smart comments about penguins."
"That I can't guarantee."
"You're a real comfort, Mac." She grumbled.
"Thank you, Stella."
She would almost swear to seeing a twinkle in Mac's eye.
……………………………….
A few hours later and Stella stood with Mac in Sid's presence, over the body from their earlier crime scene.
"You got a COD for us?" Mac asked without preamble.
"Being fond of alliteration, I'd like to tell you that you had a murder in a milking parlour." Sid peered over his glasses, "As I believe your vic was a milk maid?"
"A dairy operative, Sid. That's the modern term. The parlour employs both male and female operatives, two men and eight women." Mac explained patiently.
"Really? That's interesting, and good to see equality in such matters." He paused and his eyes became distant, "You know, I'm reminded somewhat of one of Thomas Hardy's famous novels, 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', Tess herself was of course a milk maid, who fell in love with tragic results…"
"Sid, much as I'm interested in classic English literature, you were about to tell us that we did not have a murder?"
Stella stifled a smile as Mac folded his arms and Sid nodded.
"Of course; the fact is, I cannot be alliterative, as this female dairy operative appears to have died from natural causes." He moved mercurially and beckoned them over to where the internal organs were laid out in stainless steel pans, "Take a look at her heart, tell me what you see." He held it out to them.
Stella scrutinised it before stepping back to allow Mac to do the same, "I'm not seeing anything, Sid. You're going to have elaborate."
Sid beamed, "With pleasure. Your female dairy operative's heart is in a very poor state indeed. See here and here, the muscle is diseased and weakened, possibly due to a virus. I'm concluding it simply gave out, causing her death. I can find no other marks on her and tox results came back negative for anything untoward."
It drew a sigh from Stella, "Poor girl, although I guess we ought to be grateful for an open and shut case."
"It may not be much consolation to her family, but she wouldn't have suffered, as I said, her heart simply gave out."
"We'll inform the family and let them know the body can be released to them."
They lingered for a few more minutes, as Sid covered the body of the young woman whose heart had stopped, and shut her away into the cold steel drawer. The morgue suddenly reminded Stella of the milking parlor; the chill that breathed off the stainless surfaces, the smell of cold air, and the predominant white and silver of milk and metal. Strange contrasts. The cold of the crime scene had permeated her clothes and her skin and had sent shudders creeping up her spine. Reminders of the previous day and the icy water, the colour of milk, that had felt it like it had frozen her heart.
But it had not. She was here and alive and warm.
"Thanks, Sid."
He unclipped his glasses and fixed her with a stare, "You're welcome, and I believe you had cause to be thanked yesterday? I heard something from Danny about you rescuing a little girl…"
"It was nothing like how Danny probably told it." Stella interrupted, with an 'I told you so' glare at Mac.
"I did take some of his story with the proverbial pinch of salt; the part where he described hundreds of swans launching a coordinated attack against you for instance."
"He said that, did he?" Stella's arms came together across her front and her eyebrows met in a glower as she faced Mac, "Maybe Danny and I need to have a little conversation about his powers of imagination, and exaggerating the truth…"
The smirk on Mac's face did nothing to appease her indignation, but before she could launch into a tirade against Danny, Sid was speaking again.
"Strange as it may seem, as he was telling me this, I was reminded of a former girlfriend."
"You were?"
"I was, and interestingly enough, it has a connection, tenuous I admit, to our current case." The M.E.'s glasses were replaced and he looked between his colleagues, "Before I first married, I dated a girl who worked in a Dairy Queen. I used to call her my little milk maid …" His smile and expression showed that he had disappeared momentarily from them into memories of youth. Glancing at Mac, Stella took a step backwards, preparing to depart quietly, until Sid's attention snapped back to them and they froze, "We used to go ice skating, you see, which is what reminded me. We were quite the couple out there on the ice - you might not think it, but I was able to pirouette and lutz with the best of them."
"I'm impressed Sid, I never had you down as an ice dancer." Mac cleared his throat.
Sid shook his head with a sigh, "Sadly, it was not for long; we were fated never to dance the bolero together, and truth be told, at that time, Torvill and Dean were yet to do the same; it's been many years since I was a teenager."
"Surely not that many, Sid?" The mournful note in his voice drew Stella's sympathy.
"That's sweet of you to say…"
"So what happened to your, uh, milk maid?" Mac asked, his face showing a mixture of bemused fascination and apprehension.
Sid shook his head, and his features drooped even more. Stella felt herself wincing as she dreaded to think what was coming next. The M.E. wore a look of tragedy to rival even a nineteenth century heroine of literature.
"Sadly, very sadly, she, well, she…"
"You don't have to tell us, Sid, if it's too painful."
"No, no, it's fine." He waved his hand, and pushed his glasses further up his nose, "Things get easier to tell with time…"
Stella risked a glance at Mac, "Only if you're sure."
"The truth is, one fateful afternoon out on the rink, I was not up to par with my moves and we argued, bitterly. It led to a rift between us that could not be repaired. She called our relationship off, and a few days later I discovered that she had begun dating a young man who worked alongside her at the Dairy Queen, and who was also a skater. One who was able to not only perform pirouettes, toe loops and single lutzs, but also a double lutz." Sid raised his head to look at them both, "Something I'd never been able to achieve. Her heart was captured, and mine was broken."
There was silence for a moment, and then Stella squeezed his hand.
"I'm sorry, Sid."
"So was I." His eyes brightened suddenly, "For a time, then I realised we were obviously not meant to be, and now I've been happily married for many years, I'm confirmed in that view. And now, in fact, my wife and I spend many Sunday afternoons in winter at the rink in Central Park."
Stella smiled, with no small amount of relief, "I'm so glad."
Sid caught Mac's eye and hastily picked up a file, "Well now I expect you both have many things to do, as do I."
"We'll catch up with you later." Mac led the way out of the morgue.
At the top of the steps, Stella paused for a moment and looked back; Sid was engrossed with the file spread open before him and the joy in his work was obvious once again in his face.
She smiled, and laid her hand on Mac's shoulder, "Who'd've thought it? Sid, a milk maid and romance on the ice."
"Stranger things, Stella." His own smile was warm and laid to rest the last shiver of memory from the day before, "Romance can happen in the strangest places, and at the strangest times… Even in winter, on an expanse of frozen water."
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