I watched yesterday, starting around 3:15 until about 6:30 as a new reader picked up the story and read each chapter and reviewed each. He/she/it/they methodically read and send me a short message. I just wanted to say thank you for each review, mjels, I appreciate them.
At the end of this chapter there is a table of contents for the whole story so far. I went looking for a piece of information and couldn't remember where I put it so I am adding a table of contents for Chapters 1-36 at the end of this chapter.
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There was only so much daytime TV she could watch. Women sitting on couches listening to others' problems, oddities, and dramas were not her thing. There were only so many times she could do the laundry. She'd washed Danny's smell out of everything and had fluffed the towels three times already. And only so many times that she could clean the kitchen. If she scrubbed the counter one more time, a hole would form. There was only so much school work for her to do.
The joy of Christmas was over. The decorations were down. The twinkle lights no longer twinkled and the carols no long sang. The apartment no longer was thick with the smell of cookies or pine. The walls were back to normal.
The pristine white snow that fell after Christmas was no longer white. It was dirty and slushy. The exhaust from the cars in the street had turned it gray and dingy. The crisp clear days in late December had given way to blah brisk days of early January.
If was official, Lindsay was coming down with the winter blahs. She was restless and wanted school to start again. She spent most of her time at home alone wandering aimlessly. It was too yucky to go anywhere and Danny was working long hours.
The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So she sat in the house, all the cold, cold, wet days. First she was channeling the Grinch and now the Cat in the hat. She had to do something.
**
A big pot of chili was simmering on the stove. Lindsay worked all afternoon browning the meat, chopping the onion, stirring and keeping an eye on things. On the counter there was cheese, crackers, and Fritos. In the oven were French fries and potatoes. Danny called to announce that he was coming home and she told him to grab as many people as he could on the way. There was plenty of food waiting.
**
Her spirits were somewhat lifted when everyone left.
"What got into you today?" The worked as one to clean up the kitchen.
"I was bored. I had to find something to do today. Cooking usually helps. Tomorrow I'll stick the leftovers in the break room fridge."
He froze. "Why would you stick them in the break room?"
"I'm going to work with you. If I have to sit around this apartment one more day, I'll go nuts."
Danny still looked at her oddly. "Plus I want to talk to Mac about my case." Danny eased a bit. "Didn't you know it was take your girlfriend to work day?" She patted the side of his cheek and finished working on dishes.
**
If felt odd having Lindsay at work at the beginning of his shift. She'd come and go throughout the day or she'd hang around at the end, but never had he stepped off the elevator, kissed her goodbye and then headed off to the office. It was just weird.
"Bringing the wifey to work, that's a new one for me." Flack stood at the door of the office and gave his friend the hardest time he could.
"You wait. Just you wait. Some girl is going to have you wrapped around her finger, while she's wrapped around your…" His eyes went south. "Then you'll see."
"Yeah, but it will never spill over into work."
"Whatever."
**
"Hey Mac." Lindsay bounced into his office with her ever glow of sunshine.
"Lindsay, have a seat." She was all of sudden nervous. "Your sketch and the analysis of the DNA from the envelope were sent out to the Bozeman PD. There were no hits in any database on the DNA. The sketch circulated on the news and was featured in the newspapers. A lot of leads have come in and they are following them. One name kept coming up and they are trying to find whoever that is. If…when they find this guy you will be needed to pick him out of a line up, photo or in person. Then you will be needed for trial. Start wrapping your head around the idea that this could come to an end sometime soon."
She plopped down in Danny chair and started a list of things to do: 1) Talk to Mr. Dozier. 2) Talk to prosecutor at home. 3) Get lesson plans together. 4) Call Mom and Dad. 5) Tell everyone.
School would be starting again after the weekend. She could sit down with Mr. Dozier, her principal, then. She would have to tell him everything and secure time off and ensure that her job would be there when she got back. She imagined his face as the details were told to him; shock that his teacher was a survivor of this horrific thing and that she was going to need time off to go back and relive it.
A phone call to the prosecutor at home to update phone numbers, addresses, and other pertinent information would be good. When something happened, she wanted to know about it.
Her lesson plans were done almost until Spring Break. She just needed to pull everything together for a substitute: worksheets, videos, books from the library. She also needed to inform her kids that there was a possibility that she might be going away for a while.
Her list of phone calls grew when she came to the next item on her list. Her parents needed to know what all was happening and given a heads up about her coming home soon for the trial, if they ever got that far. It was time to let her parents know how close they were to catching someone and making him answer.
The last thing on her list she hated. No one other than Danny and Mac knew all the details. Stella knew that something had happened in her past, but not the whole story. If she just up and left town for the trial, everyone would want to know what was going on and it wasn't fair to Danny to leave him to answer all the questions. Questions would need to be answered and she could use all the friends she could get at this point.
**
It was the first day back to school and Lindsay was so excited to see all her kids. It was something to fill her time and thoughts. Her sit down with Mr. Dozier was after her last class.
She couldn't get those kids to settle down. They were all too busy talking about the holiday and their gifts. Lindsay gave up on her lesson and started letting the kids take turns telling about their holiday break. She was zoning out and not really paying attention until Bryce stood in front of the class.
He held something up in front of him and in the most proud and boastful voice he stated, "I got arrested."
She dropped her pen. "Bryce, what did you just say?"
"I got arrested."
Lindsay came around her lab table that doubled as her desk and looked to see what he was holding. It was a blown up copy of a mug shot.
"Bryce, tell me what happened."
"That guy who came to the Giants game, he locked me up."
"Detective Messer…Danny did this?" Lindsay was appalled that he would have done this. What was he thinking, he knew all her kids, and he would have recognized Bryce if he dealt with him.
"No, not your boyfriend, the other guy, the tall one."
**
Her mind was more on getting her hands on Detective Don Flack and finding out what really happened as she sat in front of her principal and explained what might be coming in her future if someone was arrested and she was needed in Montana.
He did not have many questions; he just wanted to know that she was okay and that he and the school staff would be there for whatever she needed.
Feeling a little lighter and ready to focus on her evening, she sent a text to Danny. "Bring Flack home for dinner. Stella too." She knew that they were all on the same shift. Stella might be needed if Lindsay did not like the answers that Flack gave her about Bryce. Danny and the other two would make it back to the apartment before she did with dinner, that's how she wanted it.
**
Lindsay purposefully made dinner conversation light and away from any topics dealing with police work. They dined over Chinese from their favorite restaurant. Her discussion that she would have with Flack kept rolling over and over in her brain.
Danny noticed Lindsay playing with her wine glass and tapering off her participation in the conversation. Her focus was on the level of liquid and how it moved when she shook her glass.
"Lindsay, you alright?"
"My kids wouldn't calm down today," she spoke clearly so that each word could be understood, "so I had them each share what they did over Christmas Break." Lindsay hadn't told Danny any of this so he was listening closely. "They told me what they got for Christmas, about vacations they took and then Bryce got up in front of everyone. In front of him he held a copy of his mug shot and he very proudly told everyone that he got arrested during his holiday."
Stella barely stopped herself from spitting her wine across the table.
"Who?" Was Danny's question.
"Bryce." Flack's color drained as he listened. "He had a blown up black and white copy of his mug shot and everything." Lindsay finished staring at Don Flack.
"What was he arrested for?" Stella asked after recovering from her almost spitting incident.
"Murder." The way she said it brought all breathing in the room to a stop. Flack sat silent still.
"Okay," Stella started. "Nothing must have come from it; I mean he was back in class today."
Lindsay did not speak. She sat stock still and looked at icily stared at Flack causing the eyes of Danny to land on his best friend and then Stella's followed.
"Flack, why are we all staring at you?" Stella asked.
"Stella." Flack made the first sound in ten minutes. "You remember that dead guy in the apartment."
She tried to sort out the details. "Yeah, kidnapping of a woman that wasn't really a kidnapping, boyfriend killed her lover. A strange love triangle."
"Yeah, you remember who found the body?" Her curls shook along with her head. "I told you a couple of kids came into the three-five claiming that their friend's football may have killed a man."
"I remember, you then said that you locked them up for fun." She looked at Lindsay wide-eyed. "That was one of your students?"
Her head dipped dramatically.
"Linds, I had no idea. I am so sorry."
"Why are you sorry, you made his holiday. He knew it was you. He remembered you from the game."
"He didn't say anything?" Danny piped in.
"Obviously not." Stella answered.
"And Flack what did we learn from this?" Danny asked.
Don Flack formulated his response and thought long and hard. "Before locking up any kids again, ask if their teacher is Ms. Monroe." He smiled his smirk smile. She threw a napkin at him.
"No, how about don't lock up kids for fun anymore." Lindsay told him.
"Come on Linds, I got to have my fun somehow."
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Please review. Please please please please.
Table of contents.
Ch 01 - Danny Visits Lindsay's Classroom
Ch 02 - A Day in her class/He asks her out.
Ch 03 - Zoo York 203 mentioned/Pool game
Ch 04 - Corporate Wars 204/Dances with the Fishes 205/Young Blood 206 mentioned
Ch 05 - Basketball Date
Ch 06 - Godzilla and Dinner - Manhattan Manhunt 207/Bad Beat 208 mentioned
Ch 07 - Motorcycle Ride
Ch 08 - Thanksgiving - City of the Dolls 209 mentioned
Ch 09 - Giants Game - Trapped 211 mentioned
Ch 10 - Christmas/Airport
Ch 11 - Stuck on You 214 mentioned
Ch 12 - Valentine's Day
Ch 13 - Fare Game 215/Cool Hunter 216 mentioned
Ch 14 - Saturday at his place
Ch 15 - Lindsay's Parent's Visit
Ch 16 - Massege
Ch 17 - Live or Let Die 218/Supermen 219 Mentioned
Ch 18 - Run Silent, Run Deep 220 Mentioned
Ch 19 - All Access 221 Mentioned
Ch 20 - Stealing Home 222/Heroes 223 Mentioned
Ch 21 - Charge of this Post 224 Mentioned
Ch 22 - Lindsay visits hospital/Zoo Trip
Ch 23 - Last day of School/Pool game #2
Ch 24 - Move in Together/Danny vacation
Ch 25 - Graduation
Ch 26 - SEASON 3 - People with Money 301 mentioned- Lindsay drops her file off with Mac
Ch 27 - Not what it looks like 302 mentioned
Ch 28 - Love Run Cold 303/Hung out to Dry 304 mentioned
Ch 29 - Lindsay tells Danny about her past
Ch 30 - Oedipus Hex 305/Nurder Sings the Blues307 Mentioned
Ch 31 - Lindsay's Fall Walk - Consequences 308/And Here's to You, Mrs. Azreal 309 mentioned
Ch 32 - Thanksgiving - Raising Shane 311 mentioned
Ch 33 - Nightmares - Silent Night 312 mentioned
Ch 34 - Giants game/Snow fun/Christmas decorations
Ch 35 - Christmas
Ch 36 - Obsession 313 mentioned