"Where is he?" Audrey murmured for the third time in as many minutes.
"Audrey, relax." Duke commanded snatching the pencil that she had been tapping incessantly on her desk from her fingers. "He's probably just being held up because of the weather. We did just have a major blizzard less than 12 hours ago."
Duke knew he must have said the wrong thing because Audrey took out her cell phone again and held it to her ear looking more and more worried as she received no answer. To be honest, Duke was starting to worry himself. Audrey had called him forever ago saying she needed a ride to the station to work on the Christmas trouble case. It had taken him an hour to get to the Gull and they'd been waiting for Nathan to arrive at the police station now for nearly 2.
"I'm going to call the hospital," Audrey declared aloud, wondering to herself when she had become so preoccupied with Nathan's safety. Wasn't it just hours ago she'd been convinced he'd been in a terrible wreck? Clearly he was going to have to stay within arm's reach of her from now on if she was going to have any piece of mind.
"No need," came Nathan's voice from the doorframe.
"Nathan," Audrey exclaimed, forcefully subduing her impulse to enfold him in a hug. "Where have you been? It's been hours since we talked."
"Well I was warned under threat of punishment to stay put at the hospital till I was cleared for discharge," he grinned. "Just got the all clear a half hour ago". Nathan shot an odd glance at Duke who had stepped up to place a hand onto Nathan's shoulder, clearly having lost his battle to subdue a physical expression of his relief at seeing the other man alive and well.
"We were kind of worried sick, man," said Duke in explanation, stepping aside as Nathan made his way into the office to sit behind his old desk sitting kitty corner to Audrey's. "What took so long?"
Nathan looked reluctant to reply but Duke and Audrey both stood silently staring at him waiting for an answer. "Just had to get my body temperature up a bit. Not a big deal."
"You had hypothermia?" Audrey exclaimed. Forget 'arm's reach,' she was going to have to keep Nathan in her arms for both their sakes.
"A very mild case, yes." Nathan replied trying to emphasize to Audrey the very temperate nature of his condition. "And, I am 100% in the clear," Nathan vaguely gestured at himself with his hands, presumably to convey his exceptional health. "So what's the big breakthrough? How do we solve this whole '12 Days of Christmas' thing?" Nathan picked up the pencil Duke had snatched from Audrey earlier and looked up expectantly at her.
Audrey looked ready to launch into a further discussion of his health, but decided against it. "Okay," she began. "Remember how you deduced the Swann's would be targets of this thing when Frank gave you Mr. Swann's name? Well as I see it we only have 5 more troubles to get through and a half dozen or so names of potential troubled people or victims. If we can try to guess which days of the song go with which people, that might narrow down our suspect list. At the very least it will put us in position to help the victims if these things keep getting more dangerous."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Nathan smiled proudly at her. "I'll get on the database and see what kind of info I can pull up on our names. Duke, see if you can't come up with some possible scenarios that would fit the days of the song. So far, outside of your pear tree, they haven't been very traditional interpretations."
"And I'll work between the 2 of you, seeing if I can't pair some of these folks to our 5 remaining days," said Audrey.
"Anyone mind if I put on some Christmas music while we work?" asked Nathan.
Duke looked at Nathan like he'd sprouted another head and turned to share a look of concern with Audrey. But Audrey wasn't looking at him. She was beaming at Nathan like he'd hung the moon.
"Clearly the crazy is catching," he muttered to himself.
Several hours later their hard work was paying off. A quick call to Brady Kincaid, proud proprietor of Mighty Maids Inc. located in neighboring Derry, prepared the Kincaid family for the sudden and somewhat unwelcome arrival of 8 of Brady's employees in their kitchen. And a similarly simple phone call to the Piper Shore retirement center, run by one Anne Dugan who had happened to pop into Frank's the preceding day, prepared them for the streak of plumbing incidences that followed.
They hadn't been able to predict the outbreak of uncontrolled dancing that had taken place at the Good Shepard Church's annual Christmas Eve dance when Betty Snell involuntarily jitterbugged for the whole congregation while her cousin Steve looked on in terror as his own hands beat out a rhythm on the bongos against his will. Thankfully though the trouble had subsided on its own after a few minutes and they had had the good fortune to knock out 2 days and 2 of their suspects in one go.
"That just leaves 'lords a-leaping,' said Duke looking down at his notes.
"And Rich Bachman and Joey Stillson," added Nathan.
"Leaping," Duke said under his breath, racking his brain for any idea of what this trouble could manifest as. "leap frog, leap year, leaping lizards…Hey maybe its got to do with lizards? Nathan, anything on either of those 2 on lizards?"
"What?" asked Nathan. "I don't think so. Bachman is the basketball coach over at the high school and Joey's his star player. Maybe the kid's got one for a pet?"
"Well they're our last 2 suspects," Audrey reasoned. "If we stick to them, one of them should have something happen to them sooner rather than later."
"And then whoever's left is our guy," said Duke.
"Right," said Audrey, "so where are they now?"
Duke and Nathan shared a worried look and said in unison, "The Christmas Eve basketball game."
Just then Nathan's cell ran. "Wournos," he answered. He ran a weary hand through his hair as he listened to the caller. "We're on our way," he finished hanging up the phone.
"Situation at the high school," he told them. "Joey Stillson and the varsity boys basketball are on the roof threatening to jump."