January 28th, 1994

At nine a.m. Robert and Ed arrived at the Crawfords'.

Ellen had explained to her husband that they had not reported to the police what he had done - yet. Therefore he was grateful, if a little suspicious. Would they still do it for what had happened to Danny? Now that he was sober, the police sounded like Dracula to him.

He knew Robert all right, and he had met Ed at the Christmas Eve Mass, but when he saw how thin he had become he was rather confused. "Don't tell me that YOU managed to subdue me!"

"He did!" confirmed Robert in a cool tone. "He could do it because of the alcohol you had in your system."

"All right, pal – try me now!" He put his elbow onto the table, looking challengingly at Ed.

Robert nodded at his friend. "Humor him."

Ed understood what Robert was up to, but he didn't like it at all. He knew how this arm-wrestling competition would end. Couldn't the Chief come up with a better idea?!

Reluctantly he sat down.

Bill only needed a few seconds to push his arm down onto the tabletop. But instead of triumphing he became very thoughtful.

"If the booze makes that much of a difference – if a hat rack like you was able to beat me when I was drunk... then I must really quit that stuff. Any suggestions about how I could to that?"

"Do you want to try the AA? There is also the possibility of medication, Antabus," offered Robert.

Surprisingly enough, Bill nodded his agreement. Robert seemed to impress him with his natural authority. Ellen looked as if it were Christmas and Valentine's Day at once.

"You will have to fix the shoulder of the path you have damaged, and it would be decent to help the Derringers with the stones in their vineyard."

"That's natural."

Absentmindedly Ed was rubbing his wrist. Oh Lord, help me forgive him! he thought. Eve was teaching him how to live as a Christian, and it was the way he wanted to go. But sometimes it was awful tough. "Why don't you buy a second dog – a bitch?"

Everybody looked at him flabbergasted. Actually it was the logical thing to suggest: If Bill was jealous, then he needed a dog of his own.

"Why not?" grinned Crawford. "But a real dog, not such a motorized sausage like Christmas. A German shepherd or a Husky. That would be MY dog then."

His wife hugged him, "Bill, if this works... for me that would the best thing since the invention of the washing machine!"

Bill laughed, then he patted Ed on the back so hard that he almost doubled over. "Listen, pal – you taught me a lesson today, now let me teach you one too: You are a great guy. Don't let it get to you if you feel rock bottom. I will quit the bottle and you will get back on your feet. Agreed?"

After lunch two unexpected visitors showed up: it was the sheriff of Healdsburg together with a sergeant. Ed was in the cellar putting up some shelves with Danny and John while Eve helped Kitty fix a tear in her dress; therefore only Robert was there when I invited them into our living room.

"We are here to thank you, Mr. Ironside. We had a self-indictment this morning: Mr. William Crawford admitted to being responsible for some damage to the shoulder of a private path in this area and to some minor damage to his neighbor's vineyard. Nobody reported that there were any problems here, therefore we didn't investigate them. Now Mr. Crawford told us that you found out about them. We want to thank you, sir, for solving this case."

"Chief Brown did as much to solve it as I did. In fact the physical part was his department alone."

The sheriff had heard about that, but he was rather embarrassed... after all he had turned the man down for physical reasons.

"You don't think that we could ask Chief Brown if he would apply as a volunteer now? Or maybe as a consultant?"

"He won't stay here with his family. They will move to the San Bernardino Mountains." Eve's parents had a vacation home there, and they had agreed that the Browns move in there permanently. They wanted to home-school Danny and try to live a peaceful life far from the agitation and pressure of a city.

"You could give him a letter of recommendation; your colleagues down there may be grateful for the help of a competent criminologist."

The sheriff looked relieved. Probably it was easier to write than to have to face someone he had wronged.

Finally Harry Granger's ex-wife came to get Kitty.

"No, I wanna stay here! I wanna marry Danny!" shouted the girl who felt the love-filled atmosphere in Ironside's estate and in the Brown family.

Danny tried to say something nice. "I don't have the time to wed now. But you can ask me again in…," he calculated quickly, "in fifteen years!"

While Danny went to wash the pink spot off his cheek Robert explained to John that nobody is holding him responsible for Ed's health problems*. John is just starting to learn how forgiveness works. Now he tries to be helpful to everybody... and he gets a new lease of life finding out how rewarding this is.

Our three proficient carpenters were hungry, and we sat together for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

The three of them were in a very cheerful mood. John's strong arms, Ed's knowledge and Danny's accuracy had worked well together. "You can store 100 table tennis balls on our shelves and not one will roll down!" boasted Danny.

"But Danny, Robert doesn't intend to store any table tennis balls there!" objected Eve.

Danny cocked his head the way he had seen his father do it – and it looked exactly the way Robert does it! "Well, maybe not now. But who ever knows what Chief Ironside will do next?!"

* See ff story "Christmas Carols"

Author's notes:

"Lemonpig" corrected this story. Thank you, dear friend!

You, dear readers and reviewers, needed a lot of patience with this long, unusual story. Thanks for staying with me! The next story will take us back to the sixties, promise.