Emily merged onto the bypass and followed the signs for West Rosewood. So what kind of person had she become now? Had she known, deep down, that her mom and Mrs. Meriwether were tracking her? Had she willingly led them right to the girls? She should have told Cassie and the others exactly what her mom was making her do. Even if it meant she wouldn’t have come along on the prank, even if it meant they wouldn’t have welcomed her into their clique, she would have extricated herself from the situation. But as it was, she just looked like a conspirator. A traitor. A narc.
The green sign for the exit for West Rosewood glowed in the distance. Emily hit the blinker and turned onto the off-ramp. Soon enough, she was pulling up to the West Rosewood police station, which she’d Google-mapped before she left home. It was in an old farmhouse. A bunch of squad cars sat in the parking lot, and a single light glowed in one of the ground-floor windows.
The elves were being held in the jail inside. If only there was something Emily could do, some way she could get them out. But how? Claim that she was the mastermind of the operation? Volunteer that she’d broken into the country club and stolen all that stuff herself? Her mother and Mrs. Meriwether had captured all of it on camera. The elves definitely looked guilty.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the picture of herself and the elves gathered around the barren Christmas tree inside the country club. Cassie had her arm slung around Emily’s like they were best friends. She clicked through the other photos she’d taken of the elves that week. Lola and Emily staging a sword fight with two long candy canes at Santa Land that afternoon. Cassie and Emily lounging in the gingerbread house on a break. There was a shot of the girls in the car after they’d spied on Stripper Santa. And then the photos of Stripper Santa himself, waving a T-shirt in the air, the housewives stuffing bills into his G-string.
All this time we thought you were a narc, Cassie had said that night. I guess we were wrong.
The door to the precinct opened, and Emily slid down in the driver’s seat. A uniformed cop strolled out of the station, lit a cigarette, and leaned against the brick wall. As he moved into profile, Emily realized it was Officer O’Neal. He shut his eyes as he took long drag after long drag, looking completely content, maybe even proud. It was probably a big win to capture the Merry Elves. Maybe he’d even get a bonus for this—maybe that was how he was going to pay for his daughter’s ever-growing Christmas list. How else was he going to buy all those toys on a cop’s salary?
A light flickered on in her head. She studied the smoking figure for a minute longer. There was something familiar about him, the shape of his broad shoulders, the jutting contours of his chin. Underneath his uniform, Emily was almost positive he had washboard abs and a broad, well-defined chest.
She fumbled for her phone again and called up the Stripper Santa photos. She looked at O’Neal once more, squinting hard. She looked from photo to cop until she was absolutely sure. “Oh my God,” she whispered, lowering the phone to her lap and starting to giggle.
Stripper Santa was . . . Officer O’Neal.
Chapter 15
A Christmas Miracle
Emily leapt out of the car and bounced toward Officer O’Neal. “I need to talk to you!”
O’Neal squinted at her. “Who’s there?”
Emily stopped next to him on the slate path. Snow spiraled around them. An ashtray filled with cigarette butts stood to their left, the burning ember from O’Neal’s cigarette right on top. “I’m Emily Fields,” she answered. “I was at the country club.”
“Oh, right!” O’Neal grinned. “You’re the girl who led us to them. Good job—they didn’t know what hit them.”
“Actually, I didn’t help bust them. In fact, I think you should let the elves go.”
O’Neal stared at her blankly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Let them walk. They’ve learned their lesson.”
He drew up to his full height and barked out a laugh. “That’s a good one, Miss Fields. But I’ve already started their paperwork. They’re of age, you know. They might be facing jail time. Or at least some pretty strict community service.”
“They weren’t doing anything wrong,” Emily said. “Well, okay. They shouldn’t have broken into the country club and messed with private property. But they were just trying to send a message. They weren’t looking to hurt anyone.”
O’Neal crossed his arms over his chest and studied her. A few flakes of snow fell on the tip of his nose, but he didn’t wipe them away. “I don’t know why you care. They stole your family’s property, too. They confessed to everything.”
Then he turned on his heel and headed back into the station. “Wait!” Emily cried, pulling out her phone. “There’s something you need to see.”
She pressed the phone into his hands. When he looked down at the picture, the color drained from his face. “Where the hell did you get this?”
“Does it matter?” Emily snatched the phone away from him before he could delete the image. “But I don’t think you want this getting around.”
O’Neal’s eyes grew very wide. He seemed to shrink back a little. “You wouldn’t.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to.” Emily stepped a little closer. By the frightened look in O’Neal’s eyes, she knew she had him.
“What do you want me to do?” O’Neal asked in a defeated voice.
“Strike the elves’ confession from the record,” Emily said, thinking quickly. “Give them a slap on the wrist for breaking into the country club, make them go back there and return everything to where it belongs, but say you have no evidence about the other pranks and can’t charge them. Let them go free.”