The sights and sounds of Christmastime seemed to surround Officer Noelle Orton on all sides as she stepped inside the busy Brooklyn shopping mall with her K-9 partner, Liberty, by her side. Glittering decorations draped from the ceiling above her. Happy couples wandered hand in hand from one dazzling storefront to the next. The voices of excited families mingled with the carols being piped through the sound system. Christmas was only two days away and last-minute shoppers were out in full force. Noelle took a deep breath to quell the worry in her heart and tightened her grip on the yellow Labrador’s leash, as she spotted Officer Raymond Morrow striding toward her with his springer spaniel K-9 partner, Abby. The slight frown on her fellow officer’s face told her everything she needed to know in a glance.
The smuggled drugs still hadn’t been found.
K-9 teams specializing in narcotic detection had fanned out at malls, stores and warehouses across New York after an investigation into a murdered dockworker at Red Hook Container Terminal led to the detection of trace amounts of the psychoactive drug MDMA—commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly—on an empty ship that had contained several containers of toys.
The mere thought that dangerous drugs might’ve gotten mixed up in some child’s Christmas presents filled her core with urgency. Liberty whimpered softly, as if sensing Noelle’s tension. Noelle ran her hand over the dog’s head and scratched gently behind Liberty’s left ear with its distinctive black smudge. Then she exchanged hellos with Raymond as the K-9s greeted each other, their tails wagging.
“Looks like someone is happy,” Raymond said, glancing at Liberty. “How does it feel to be back on active cases?”
“Wonderful,” Noelle admitted. Noelle and Liberty had been forced to stop taking high-visibility cases for more than six months, after a vengeful gunrunner had placed a ten-thousand-dollar bounty on the exceptional dog’s head. Now thankfully the gunrunner was behind bars. But as a rookie officer and former K-9 trainer, she also felt the pressure to prove to Sergeant “Sarge” Gavin Sutherland and the rest of the Brooklyn K-9 Unit team that she and Liberty hadn’t gotten rusty. “You should’ve seen how excited Liberty was when I clipped her leash on this morning and told her it was time to go to work. She’d have dragged me to the vehicle if I’d let her. I’m guessing no fresh leads on the case?”
“Not yet.” Raymond shook his head and worry darkened her fellow officer’s eyes. “Last I heard, Sarge is looking for people willing to pull in extra shifts over the holidays to work this one.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Noelle said. She wanted as much overtime as she could get. The yellow Lab glanced up at her under furry blond eyebrows, as if to say she agreed. “Liberty and I had nothing planned but a quiet Christmas alone, just the two of us, and we’re both eager to work since we were cooped up until a couple months ago. What are you going to do?”
“I talked it over with Karenna and she’s game as long as we make it to Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with her dad,” Raymond said. He and his fiancée, Karenna, had reunited during a dangerous drug case. “Especially since Sarge has already signed off on some time off for wedding planning. Karenna’s dad wants to invite business contacts from around the world and make it swanky, while my mom wants an intimate Italian feast.” He chuckled. “Karenna’s siding with Mom, but I think it’s just because my sister told her it’s tradition the groom serenades the bride at the window the night before the wedding.”
She chuckled along with him. As an only child of two very driven, workaholic parents who now lived on the other side of the country, Noelle couldn’t remember the last time she’d had anything close to a family-focused Christmas.
“We should split up to cover more ground,” Raymond said. “Abby and I will take the big toy store at this end. Can you head to the center courtyard? There’s some kind of large charity toy giveaway. Huge tree, big crowd. You can’t miss it.”
“We’re on it,” Noelle said. She said goodbye to Raymond and Abby, and silently prayed that next time they touched base it would be with good news. Noelle followed her partner as she sniffed her way through the busy mall. When they turned a corner, Liberty gave a slight tug on the leash followed by a soft woof. Hope leaped afresh in Noelle’s chest. Liberty had detected something. “Show me.”
The dog took off trotting, moving as quickly as Noelle would allow, following posters leading to The Jolly Family Charity Christmas Toy Giveaway. Judging by the flow of foot traffic, it seemed half the mall was heading that way too. She glanced at the poster. Well, the name was definitely a mouthful. And judging by the picture of the strong man in fatigues on the poster, Mr. Jolly was a corporal, tall, dark-haired and most definitely handsome. But did he have anything to do with the smuggled drugs?
Either way, it seemed Liberty was pulling her that way. She checked her watch. It was quarter after four now. The toy giveaway was scheduled to start at five o’clock, and already she could see families beginning to line up in the long roped-off rows that zigzagged back and forth in front of a small decorated stage. Liberty led her past the crowd and up toward the stage, where a gray-haired couple in blue jeans and festive sweaters were setting up a Christmas tree. No toys in sight though.
For a moment it looked like Liberty was leading her somewhere behind the stage. Then the dog doubled back to sniff a small pair of bright blue superhero boots attached to a pair of skinny little legs, which poked out from under a curtain near the back of the stage. Liberty continued to sniff the boots. They kicked and wriggled in response. Then a small boy, of around five years old, crawled out from under the curtain and looked down at Liberty.
“Hello, Mr. Officer Dog!” he said. “Why are you sniffing me?”
Noelle blinked. Good question. The kid had an unruly mop of black curls tucked into an oversize red jester’s hat that had bells on it. His bright blue eyes looked up at Noelle keenly.
“May I pet your dog, Officer?” he asked. “Or is he on duty?”
“She’s a girl,” Noelle said. “Her name is Liberty, and she’s on duty.”
The little boy nodded. The bells jangled and a couple more curls escaped from his hat. “So no petting.”
“No petting,” Noelle confirmed. “But thank you for asking. That was a very smart question.”
But who are you? And what do you have to do with this? A slight tug on the leash told her that whatever had made Liberty decide to give the boy a second look had passed and her partner was now ready to move on. After all, she’d been trained to dismiss trace scents. But Liberty had also definitely sensed something around the stage. Was it a false positive? Or had this little boy actually come in contact with something containing MDMA in the past?
The edge of the curtain pulled back and the gray-haired man in an equally festive Christmas hat crouched down to the child’s level. “Who’s your friend, Matty?”
“A police dog named Liberty,” Matty replied cheerfully. “She’s on duty so you can’t pet her.”
The man’s eyebrows rose and faint worry flickered in his eyes. He ran both hands down his jeans and stuck out his right one. She took his hand and shook it.
“Hi, I’m Matty’s grandfather, Fred Jolly,” he said. He nodded to a smiling woman with long white braids who he’d been setting up the stage with. “That’s my wife, Irene.”
“Nice to meet you,” Noelle said. “I’m Officer Noelle Orton and this is my partner, Liberty.”
“Are you two looking for something?” he asked.
“We are,” Noelle confirmed, hoping the couple would respect it if she left it at that. So far the NYPD had chosen not to go to the public with news about the trace drugs found at the dock, as details were still scarce and they didn’t want to start a panic. “You guys are handing out toys at five?”
“Hopefully,” Fred said. “We had a bigger turn out than expected at a previous event this morning and had to send someone to get more toys from our warehouse.”
“Where was that event?” she asked. Could that have been where little Matty came into contact with whatever scent Liberty had picked up on?
“A fire hall in Queens,” Irene called, as she walked over to join them. “You should talk to our son, Adam. He runs our family charity and he’s down at the loading dock, waiting for the van.”
She gestured toward an unmarked double door behind the stage. Yeah, judging by the tug on the leash, Liberty thought she should go that way too.
“Thanks,” Noelle said. “Will do.”
She followed Liberty across the floor, through the door, and out into a dingy back hallway as she radioed Raymond and filled him in. Raymond reported back that he and Abby hadn’t found anything at the toy store. She thanked God another store’s inventory had checked out clean. Liberty’s pace quickened until she was practically running down the hall. They pushed through another door and out into the cold. The sky was gray with thick clouds that blocked out any glimmer of the setting sun. Flakes pelted down from above. The loading dock was empty except for a white van with Jolly Family Charity on the side. Liberty pulled her toward it. Then the dog stopped outside the van’s back door and barked. Could this be the lead they’d been waiting for?
“Morrow,” Noelle spoke into her radio. “Liberty’s reacted to the Jolly Family Charity van.”
“Gotcha,” Raymond’s voice came back. “Stay with the van. I’ll speak to the Jollys and get their permission to search it.”
“Understood,” Noelle said.
Liberty whimpered loudly. Noelle ran her hand over the back of her partner’s head to reassure her.
“I hear you,” Noelle said. “There’s something important in that van. But we can’t just open the door and check it out without permission or a warrant, unless we hear someone in imminent danger inside.”
A motor rumbled and the van lurched forward, as if someone behind the wheel had just mashed their foot on the accelerator. Liberty barked furiously as if to say, it’s getting away!
“The van’s pulling out!” she shouted to Raymond and reeled off the license plate as the van sped away. Help me, Lord! Even with traffic, there was no way she’d catch up to it on foot.
A black four-door pickup tore around the side of the building. She ran toward it and raised her badge. It screeched to a halt.
“Stop!” Noelle called. “NYPD! I need to commandeer your vehicle!”
The passenger door swung open and she looked up into the sharp blue eyes of the man in military fatigues from the poster.
Was this Adam Jolly?
“To chase my stolen van?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Get in,” he said. “I’m driving.”
Adam’s right hand tightened on the steering wheel, letting his injured left hand with its three missing fingers stay down by his side. His van had just left the lot with his wounded and kidnapped employee, Quentin Stacy, trapped in the back. As long as Quentin’s phone stayed on and was sending out a signal, Adam’s phone would be able to track his GPS. But pausing to wait to pick up a passenger hadn’t been part of the plan and he didn’t have a moment to waste.
“I drove tactical convoys in Afghanistan,” he said, “I was a corporal in the United States Army. I’ve got a man inside the van and a way to track it. Now come on.”
She quickly checked in with someone named Morrow on the other end of her radio, then glanced at her dog. “Liberty, back seat.”
The Labrador leaped in the passenger door and climbed in the back, pushing its furry body through the gap between the seats. Half a second later and the cop was in with her seat belt buckled and the door closed.
“You sure you want to bring a dog on a high-speed chase?” he asked.
“She’s my K-9 partner,” the cop said, “and considering New York traffic, I’ll be impressed if you actually manage to speed.”
He chuckled. Okay, so the cop was decisive and seemed to have a sense of humor. He cast her a quick side glance as he put the truck into Drive. She was beautiful too, Adam thought. Unusually so, with high cheekbones and long dark hair tied tight in a bun by the nape of her neck.
“Noelle Orton,” she said, as if sensing his glance. “Brooklyn K-9 Unit.”
“Adam Jolly,” he said. His eyes cut to the windshield. “Nice to meet you.”
He peeled out of the lot, glancing from the road ahead to the blue dot on the map on his cell phone mounted to the dashboard.
“Nice to meet you too,” Noelle said. “What do you mean, you have a man inside the van?”
He pulled his truck out onto the street. Traffic surrounded them almost immediately, and the van was nowhere in sight. But the tiny blue dot showed the van had turned left. He followed.
“I got a call from my employee, Quentin Stacy,” he added. The light ahead turned yellow and a car coming the opposite way was trying to push a left turn. He gritted his teeth, pressed the gas and steered around it. The car honked loudly, but he’d safely made the light. “He was in the back of the van about to unload toys when a masked man caught him by surprise and stabbed him. Thankfully, he managed to call me.”
“So it’s a kidnapping?” Noelle pressed. “Or the masked man panicked and left with him in the back?”
Good question.
“I don’t know,” Adam admitted. All he knew was that he was not about to let him die. He’d lost more people than he liked to count, from those he’d served with to Matty’s mother. The last convoy Adam had driven overseas might’ve ended in an IED explosion that had cost him a few fingers and prematurely ended his military career. But others in his armored vehicle had lost their lives.
By the look of things, the blue dot was heading toward the parkway. If he was right, maybe he could cut them off, or at least catch up. An alley loomed ahead on his right. It hadn’t been plowed, but there was only a couple feet of snow on the ground. He shifted into four-wheel drive and prayed his hunch was right.
“And you’re tracking him on GPS?” she asked.
“Yup.” He swerved down the alley. The ground was slick with slush beneath his tires. His wipers beat hard and fast against the falling snow like a metronome. Noelle turned to her shoulder radio and filled Morrow in on the pursuit, reeling off details about his van, their route, and the likely route of the vehicle they were after with a precision and sharpness that impressed him. He left the alley, merged with traffic, glanced at the rearview mirror and caught sight of a blond furry face. It looked like Liberty was smiling at him.
“Oh, so you think this is fun, do you?” he asked.
Noelle turned to him and he realized she’d ended the call. “Are you talking to my dog?”
“Maybe.” He realized he was grinning. Not that there was anything really to smile about, but Noelle had that same quality of lightening the tension while still keeping focus that some of the best soldiers he’d served with had. “You’ve called for backup.”
“Police and paramedics,” she said. “They’ll try to cut him off.”
The Belt Parkway on-ramp loomed ahead. He took it and a sudden prayer of thanksgiving filled his lungs—the shortcut had worked and he could see his van just a few vehicles ahead. It was also speeding and driving recklessly by the looks of it. But he had eyes on it and it sounded like help was on the way.
Thank you, Lord. Please, help the paramedics get to Quentin in time.
Okay, now it was just a matter of keeping eyes on the van. Traffic was heavy enough that people would probably complain, but light enough some people were still trying to speed. He watched as the van dodged left and right, swerving between vehicles without signaling. He gritted his teeth, set his jaw and followed.
And now that he was no longer watching both the dot and the road, he realized there was something he hadn’t even asked. “If you didn’t know about Quentin, why did you even want to chase my van?”
She prayed under her breath and decided to trust him.
“We have reason to believe illegal drugs might’ve been smuggled into the country via the port in a shipment of toys,” she said. “We were doing a search of the mall and your family pointed me in the direction of the loading bay. Thankfully, the toys in the mall store seemed to be clean, but Liberty smelled something in the van. But before I could investigate further, the van took off.”
She’d met his family? He wasn’t sure why that thought struck his mind as hard as it did, but he didn’t have time to figure it out. Because the van cut a hard left, coming too close in front of a slow-moving truck. The truck swerved, hitting its brakes. But it was too late. As he watched, the truck jackknifed, smashing into the van as it did so and taking out another car in its wake. The car right ahead of Adam braked hard and swerved, fishtailing out of control. He heard the sound of horns blaring and the screech of another vehicle smashing into the guardrail to his left.
A multi-vehicle accident was happening and they were caught right in the middle.
“Hang on!” Adam shouted. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, he fixed his eyes on the road ahead and prayed. “Lord, keep us and everyone else on this road safe!”
Then it was like time slowed, as it always had when he’d found himself maneuvering under fire in a danger zone. He set his sights on the safest route he could find and drove, blocking out the noise and steering around the crashing cars and chaos as it spiraled out around them. A small blue car spun out in front of him. Noelle gasped sharply. He weaved between the accidents and heard his own taillight crack as a car skidded into them from behind, knocking them forward.
But he slid his pickup past the jackknifed truck, pulled to the verge and braked. Only then did he let himself breathe and take in the wider scene around him. The accident was behind him now and clear road lay ahead. He looked up at the sky and thanked God, half expecting to see the hot searing blue of the Middle East horizon instead of the dark gray of twilight in New York.
“Thank you,” Noelle said. Her fingers brushed his right arm, which was still locked in a tight grip on the steering wheel. “That was incredible driving and you might’ve just saved my life.”
She shoved the door open, and cold air rushed in. He felt Liberty’s soft snout brush against his cheek and he couldn’t tell if it was the dog’s way of thanking him or making sure he was still breathing. A man in dark clothes and a ski mask bolted past them down the verge. Noelle jumped out, shouting for Liberty even as the dog leaped to her side. Cop and dog bolted after the man. For a second he could see Noelle yelling into her radio for backup, then they disappeared from view. But for a moment he just sat there, with one hand on the wheel, the other at his side, and his heart beating so hard it felt like it was trying to ricochet its way out of his chest. He prayed and thanked God. Then he pelted across the pavement in the opposite direction toward his van. The front door lay open, and the driver was gone. He ran to the back and yanked it open.
Bashed and dented toys littered the floor, their brightly colored wrapping paper ripped and tattered. For a moment he couldn’t see Quentin. Then he heard a groan and saw something move under a pile of boxes to his right.
“Quentin!” Adam dropped to his knees. “Don’t move. I’ll get you out.”
He pushed the gift-wrapped toys aside. There lay Quentin, a former military veteran himself almost two decades older than Adam. His face was pale. Blood seeped through the sleeve of his ski jacket. Instinctively, Adam pressed one gloved hand against the wound to staunch the bleeding. With the other he checked the man’s pulse. Thankfully, it was strong.
Quentin’s eyes fluttered open. “Adam?”
“I’m here,” he said. “Just hang on. Ambulances are on their way. Are you okay? What happened?”
Already he could hear the sirens coming.
“He offered me five hundred dollars.” Quentin’s voice was so quiet Adam could barely hear it. “All I had to do was let him take the truck and walk away... I said no.”
Adam’s chest tightened. When Quentin had left the military, he’d had a hard time adjusting back into civilian life. He’d served time for drug possession with intent to sell and was currently on parole. Adam couldn’t imagine the strength it had taken for him to turn down that kind of money.
Probably not even a fraction of the drugs’ worth, if the cop was right.
“Who was he?” Adam asked.
“Dunno,” Quentin said. “Big man, ski mask, heavy Eastern European accent that seemed fake.”
The door behind Adam flew open, then paramedics were asking him to step aside as they reached for Quentin, helped him carefully onto a stretcher, and carried him out and into the ambulance. Adam looked around at the wreckage of damaged gifts that he, Quentin and his family had so carefully and lovingly wrapped. His heart was so heavy he didn’t even know what to think. Then he felt the van shake as two more bodies leaped up into the back and a gentle hand brushed his shoulder.
“Adam?” Noelle’s voice was surprisingly tender. He turned and looked up into her deep green eyes, the color of fir trees and pine. Worry pooled in their depths. “Are you okay?”
He glanced down and realized his gloves were streaked with Quentin’s blood. He pulled them off.
“Yeah.” He stretched and stood. “According to Quentin, a masked man offered him five hundred dollars to walk away and let him steal the van.”
If Noelle was surprised by that, it didn’t show in her face.
“And you believe him?” she asked.
“Yes,” Adam said, “of course. I saw you chasing someone. Did you catch the guy?”
“No.” She frowned. “He got away. But police, paramedics and firefighters have arrived. It’ll be a little while before they clear all the vehicles and get us moving again. But, thankfully, despite some injuries, there seem to be no fatalities.” He thought she was about to say something more, but instead she stopped and looked down at the dog as if Liberty had just spoken in a frequency only Noelle could hear. “Search.”
The dog’s ears perked. Liberty pressed her body through the packages, furrowed out a large red box, dropped it at Noelle’s feet and barked.
She’d found something.