Free A Case of Christmas by Josh Lanyon

Once I
    knew everything was still there, had been sitting there all this time, I started thinking I
    shouldn’t have reminded you, that you might decide to clear everything out.”
    Shane shook his head. “No.” He laid Hupert’s screwdriver on the table.

    “What was that really about?” Linus asked quietly as they pushed through the small
    gate and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
    The blinds parted on Hupert’s front window as he stood in the darkness, watching
    them leave.
    “Who knows,” Shane said. “Reliving the past? Saying good-bye? Second chances?
    Or maybe he is still after sunken treasure.”
    “Are you going to let him sort through Lacey’s papers?”
    “Yes.” He glanced at Linus’s profile.
    “I didn’t take you for such a softie,” Linus said. He was smiling.
    “I’m not. It’s just a way of getting someone to sort through all that crap. I don’t have
    time or interest.”
    “Sure,” Linus said in a humoring tone. Yet Shane had the feeling Linus did not
    disapprove of his decision to let Hupert off the hook.
    “I know something you didn’t tell me the first time.”
    “What’s that?”
    “You were a cop before you became an insurance investigator,” Shane said as they
    retraced their footsteps down the windblown street.
    “I was. How’d you guess?”
    “The way you handle yourself—now that you are yourself.”
    Linus said lightly, “You can take a boy out of the force, but you can’t take the force
    out of a boy.”
    “Why’d you leave?”
    Linus gave a short laugh. “The truth? I burned out. I saw that nothing I did made a
    difference in the long run. The justice system is broken.”
    “It’s got a few weak links, but—”
    “We couldn’t touch the big fish. All we ever caught were the little fish, and half the
    time the punishment didn’t fit the crime. Meanwhile, the big fish sailed on their merry
    way, getting bigger and fishier.”
    That was an unexpectedly bleak view. Shane didn’t know what to say. In any case,
    they had reached his cottage, and Linus was changing the subject.
    “Too bad about dinner,” he said. “You’re welcome to come over to my place. I’m
    sure I can fix us something. It won’t be buffalo burgers, but it’s better than going to bed
    without supper.”
    Shane almost said yes. He wanted to say yes. But the bizarre encounter with Bradley
    Hupert had left him feeling off-kilter, almost sad. He had liked Norton a lot. Had maybe
    been falling in love with him, regardless of what Linus wanted to think. And all he really
    knew of Linus was that Linus was the kind of guy who could walk away and never look
    back. Spend every day—and every night—with you for two weeks and then never give
    you another thought. And if by some chance your paths did cross again, Linus would
    happily be willing to pick up where he’d left off because it didn’t mean anything anyway.
    Why he found that depressing, Shane wasn’t sure because he’d always kind of been
    the same way.
    He said, “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night. But thanks. I appreciate
    the offer.”
    There was a strangely naked pause. “Oh,” Linus said. “Right.” Then more briskly,
    “Another time.”
    “Sure,” Shane said. He wasn’t crazy after all, and he very likely would want to take
    Linus up on that implied offer one of these days.
    Linus started across the street and then turned back. “What about tomorrow?”
    “Tomorrow?”
    “Christmas Day. You want to come over for turkey? I’ve got a seventeen-pound
    Butterball. I can’t eat the whole thing by myself.” Linus was casual, even cheerful. In the
    dim light, Shane could see that he was smiling. And yet…maybe Shane was getting to
    know Linus because he knew that this was Linus braced for further disappointment.
    “Uh, sure.” After all, who wanted to spend Christmas alone—even if that had been
    the original plan. “What time?”
    The set of Linus’s shoulders relaxed. “Two? Three? Whenever