December 23, 2004

Helen heard the mail carrier let the metal lid drop on the mailbox as she sat on the couch in the living room. Kevin and Luke were in the garage, supposedly working on the boat for a distraction, and Will was upstairs, supposedly getting some sleep. The other officers had sent him home late this morning because he was exhausted. Hell, they all were. When she opened the door to retrieve the mail, she noticed that a package had arrived as well. She carried it and the other mail into the kitchen and looked at the address to see who it was from. It was addressed to her, and the return address said simply: NORTH POLE. Thinking it may be a gift from a relative, maybe her crazy Aunt Olive, she thought she'd go ahead and open it up. She tore the paper away and opened the lid on the box.

"WILL!" Helen screamed as she looked in horror at the contents of the package. "OH MY GOD! NO! WILL!"

Will rushed down stairs to the kitchen. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Helen's hands shook as she held up the sweater that had been in the box. Blood covered the upper left of the front, one of the arms, and was spattered elsewhere on the garment. "This just came. In the mail."

"Is it…"

"It's Joan's. I remember her putting it on as she went out the door to work that day. She was saying how the bookstore is always so cold. Oh God, Will. What's happened to her?"

As Will pulled his wife into his arms, he did something he hadn't done in a very long time, and in fact had refused to do. He prayed.

Adam was sitting in his shed, but he wasn't working on his art. He was far too worried about Jane to think about anything else. He jumped when he heard the knock on the door and looked up as Grace entered. Neither one had been to the Girardi's yet today, partly due to Helen's outburst at Will the night before. Grace sat down next to Adam and picked up a random piece of metal. "How are you?" she asked her friend.

Adam sighed. "I'm scared for her. The more time that goes by…" He couldn't finish the sentence, but Grace nodded with understanding. After a moment she said, "I heard from Luke this morning. Graves never called last night. They haven't heard anything else either." Both Grace and Adam were silent for a while as they pondered what that might mean.

"It's been over 48 hours", Adam pointed out. "Isn't that supposed to be like the magic time frame if you're going to find someone that's missing? That's what the news people are saying, anyway."

"Don't think like that, dude. It'll make you nuts."

"I can't help it. Aren't you scared?"

"Yeah. But until we know different, we have to think she's ok. She has to be ok." Grace normally wasn't one to admit things like this, but even though she was a tough 16 year old kid, she was still a 16 year old kid.

The shed fell silent again for a time until the ringing of Grace's cell phone startled them both.

"It's Luke."

Adam tried to read her expression as she listened to whatever Luke was telling her.

"Ok. Adam and I will be over soon", she said as she hung up.

"Mrs. G got a package in the mail today. It had Joan's sweater in it, the one she was wearing the other night." Grace paused, not knowing how to tell him the rest, and not wanting to believe it herself. "It has blood on it."

Adam put his head down on his work table, unable to stop his tears. Grace put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and stood with tears streaming down her face as well.

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Joan had lost all track of time. Between the darkness of the closet and the sedative Graves injected her with every time he needed to leave the house, she had no idea how many days had passed. She was also lighted headed from lack of food and the combination of her empty stomach and the sedative was making her sick. She wondered if that was the plan – to starve her to death. She wondered if and when help would come. She wondered about God, too. Normally, she was happy when she didn't see him. Now when she wanted to see him, she couldn't. He had told her once that he was always there, whether she saw Him or not. She hoped that was true. She heard movement outside the room and then saw Graves as he entered. He turned on the light in the small chamber and walked over to Joan who had turned away from the sudden brightness.

"So, Daddy hasn't come for you, has he princess? That's too bad for you. And for him, too. See, I've got a little something planned for tomorrow night for you and me. I'm going to make sure your dear old dad has a Christmas he'll never forget. I just wish I could see his face when he sees your body and realizes that everything he was afraid would happen to you did."

He approached her with the syringe, and she tried to knock it away. All her effort got her was another blow to the face, making her woozy. Graves looked at her and noticed she wasn't looking too good. He decided to give her a smaller dose of the sedative than normal. After all, he didn't want her to go and die on him before he could carry out his plans. He turned out the light and left her alone.

"God, please, please let someone find me soon" Joan murmured before darkness crowded in once again. She wondered if she'd imagined the soft touchon cheek that she felt as she slipped into oblivion.

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By late afternoon, officers were looking at surveillance tape from the Arcadia Post Office on the previous day and speaking with a couple of the employees. It was hard for them to remember who had come in to mail packages, since it was holiday time and the post office was so busy. The tape showed a customer walk in, dressed as Santa, with a package about the size of the one they were looking for.

"That's it," said one of the clerks. "I remember him. He said it was a special delivery. It was kinda creepy the way he said it too."

"Great", said one of the officers. "Now we're looking for Santa Claus. Do you have any idea how many people are out there dressed as Santa right now? Who's going to have any idea where this particular one went?"

Toni walked into Will's office and saw him sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. He looked up slightly as she sat down on his desk. "How's Helen doing?" she asked.

"I called Fran to come stay with her. I need to be here and I thought maybe she'd need someone to talk to. The boys are home, but still." Will sighed deeply. "This is all my fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"He's doing this to get back at me. My little girl is going through an absolute nightmare because of me."

"It's not your fault, Will. You couldn't have known that this would happen."

Will continued as if she hadn't spoken. "My God, I've been a cop for 25 years, and I can't even protect my own child. How am I supposed to face my family knowing that? Especially if…"

"Will, stop. Don't do this to yourself."

"I HAVE to find her."

"We will. We won't give up."

"I know what they're saying out there, Toni. It's been almost three days, we haven't heard from Graves again, and now that we've gotten that sweater, they're thinking we're just looking for a body."

"We don't know that. He's probably just trying to mess with your head. We're not going to stop looking for her or assuming that she's alive."

"We've got to get to her soon. I can't stand the thought of what she might be going through, or what she's already gone through, and I don't think we have much time." Will stood and went back into the bullpen to get back to work.

Toni followed slowly. She knew he was right. For one thing, Joan had obviously been injured and would need medical attention. She also doubted Graves would deviate too much from his usual m.o. Time was definitely running out.

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Graves turned off the tv after the newscast. He laughed to himself at the police department's attempt to sound like they were close to finding him and Joan. Right. And here he was wandering around right in front of them. They were idiots. Getting that Santa suit to wear as a disguise had been a stroke of genius. There were Santas everywhere on the streets and in stores, so he could move around pretty freely. He'd had to run some errands today to prepare for tomorrow night. He'd been going to wait until Christmas to kill the kid, but tomorrow was better. Gift-wrapping the body for discovery on Christmas morning would be a nice touch, too. Girardi would be getting a package he'd definitely never forget. Speaking of Girardi, Graves thought he really should give him a call tonight. Just to keep in touch.

He walked into the back bedroom, opened the closet door, and felt for the false wall panel and opened it. He turned the light on and checked to make sure Joan was still unconscious. She was, and he decided against giving her another injection. After all, he wanted her to be wide awake tomorrow. He put the Santa suit back on, and headed out to pick up a couple of things for tomorrow night and then call Will.

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Will returned had returned home late in the evening, exhausted since he still hadn't gotten any sleep. Seeing that all was quiet on the main floor, Will headed upstairs in search of his wife when he noticed the light on in Joan's room. He opened the door and looked in. "Helen?" She was sitting on Joan's bed, hugging one of her stuffed animals. Will went to sit next to her, and she looked up at him. "I wish I could tell you something good" he began.

"I know. Will, I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

"It's alright. I understand."

"No, it's not alright. The last thing we need right now is for us to be fighting. I know you are doing everything you can to find her."

"I really wish we had more information."

"Did you find out anything about the package?"

"Yeah. According to the surveillance video, Santa sent it."

"Can you do anything with that?"

"Not much. Just hope he makes a mistake somewhere along the line. He might be getting cocky. That's usually when mistakes happen."

Helen looked around Joan's bedroom. "It's too quiet here."

"Yeah. No loud music, no teenage girl mood swings, no sibling fights."

"I miss her so much it hurts to breathe."

Will put his arms around Helen as they both began to cry.

Outside, a dark SUV drove slowly by the house. Officer Marks, who was taking his daily shift in the unmarked patrol car outside of the Girardi's house, thought it looked familiar. He was sure he'd seen it each night he'd been in the car. Figuring it was just someone who lived in the neighborhood, he only glanced over casually as the vehicle went by. Then he did a double take. Santa was driving the SUV. He quickly copied down the license number before the truck picked up speed and disappeared. He radioed the precinct, and they were able to trace the registration of the truck to a house on the other side of town.

Graves was so confident in his disguise that it never occurred to him that he'd been discovered. He never even noticed the unmarked police cruisers following him at a distance. As much as the officers wanted to pull this guy over now, they knew they couldn't. If Joan wasn't at the address from the registration of the SUV, they would have to keep tailing Graves and hope he led them to her. They stayed as far away as they dared when he stopped at a grocery store.

It didn't take long to get a search warrant and mobilize some officers to go check out the house. No one called the Girardi's – they wanted to wait and see what they found first. They knew Will would try to come along. All those involved liked and respected him, and they didn't want to have him see a potentially grisly crime scene or possibly be the one to find his daughter's body.

The house was quiet and appeared empty when officers arrived. They broke down the door, and a stream of officers stormed in. They roamed through the house, looking for any sign of Joan. One of them opened the closet door in the first floor bedroom and searched inside. Seeing nothing, she closed the door and moved on in her search. She never noticed the false wall. Officers began moving toward the front door, not able to find any sign that Joan was in the house.

"Wake up, JoJo"

"Judith?" Joan murmured. Everything was so fuzzy.

"C'mon. Rise and shine. It's time for you to go home."

Struggling against the sedative that threatened to pull her back under, she thought she heard voices in the house. She did hear voices, and people moving around.

"I'm in here!" She cried out. She found strength she didn't know she had left and pounded on the wall as best she could. "In here!" In moments officers were back near the wall. "Joan, it's Toni Williams. Are you in there", Toni called. "Yes!"

"Back away from the wall – we'll get you out"

She pressed herself back into the corner, and with a loud crash, an officer broke through the false wall. Lighted from the officer's flashlights flooded the small room and Joan flinched and turned away as it hit her eyes. She huddled into a ball as several officers entered, and drew further away when Toni touched her shoulder. "It's ok, Joan. It's just me. We're gonna get you out of here." She moved to the door and yelled, "Get the paramedics in here!"

Will and Helen both jumped when Will's cell phone rang.

"Will, it's Toni. We found her. She was in a house on the southwest side of town."

"Is she…"

"She's alive. They are taking her to Arcadia General. You can meet the ambulance there."

Helen was looking at Will expectantly as he hung up. Will relayed what Toni had told him, and she collapsed into his arms, crying with relief. Luke and Kevin, along with Grace and Adam, had all heard the phone ring and Helen start crying. They moved from Kevin's room to Joan's slowly, afraid of what they might be told.

"Get your coats on", Will told the four. We've got to get to the hospital. They've found Joan."

NOTE: This chapter is actually a rewrite of parts of two others that had taken a darker turn that I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to adequately resolve. Thanks for all the reviews so far. Please keep them coming! I'm happy to know people are enjoying the story, and since I'm new to this, I appreciate constructive criticism. I've never written anything where I keep switching scenes – does anyone have any advice on how to make this go smoother? I'll try to update again tomorrow, but since I'm headed out of town, I can't promise.