“So what are you doing today?”  Callie asked, lying on her bed and twirling the phone cord around her finger.  She had a cordless phone, but whenever she spoke with Frank, she loved to talk on the regular phone.

“I’m going to meet Chet at the mall.  We both have some last minute shopping to do and then I’ve got to drop off some stuff at the Red Cross and the shelter for my Mom,” Frank said.  His parents always sent gifts and a hamper to help out the needy.

“Oh that’s nice,” Callie said without much enthusiasm.  Chet Morton was Frank’s best friend but Callie wasn’t too fond of him.  As far as she was concerned, Frank spent way too much time with Chet…time that could be better spent with her! 

“I think so too.  Hey do you want to go with me to the Mortons’ after I finish shopping?  Mr. Morton said we can hitch a couple of the horses up to that old sleigh and go ‘jingle belling’.”  Every year Frank went over the Morton’s for Christmas Eve dinner and then afterwards they would go out in the sleigh.  It had started when Frank was a kid.

He and Chet had met in Grade 2 and become fast friends when he had stood up to a bully that was picking on the chubbier child. 

An only child, Chet was overjoyed with his new friend, and within weeks sleepovers became the routine between the boys.  One week was at the Morton farm and the next weekend was at the Hardy house.  The Mortons thought of Frank as their second child.

Callie gave it a thought.  It would be nice to snuggle up to Frank on the sleigh ride – romantic even.  But then remembering that Chet would also be there….  “No, I think I’ll just stay here and get things ready for our evening”.

A few minutes later, Frank said goodbye to Callie and then hurried downstairs to meet Chet at the mall.  The morning was already passing way too quickly.

* * *

“Hey Chief,” Officer Con Riley greeted his boss as Fenton came into the precinct and took off his heavy coat.  It was cold outside.

“Riley,” Chief Hardy greeted, “Anything of interest going on?”

Seeing Con lower his eyes, Fenton sighed and ushered him into his office and then waited.  Con shifted uncomfortably in front of him and then he handed him a copy of the report he had just finished writing.

Fenton read the report as he sat down.  And then he stared at Con for a few moments before shaking his head sadly. “Thanks, Con.” 

After Con Riley left, Fenton Hardy sat in his chair for a long time.  And then getting up, he opened the door and walked downstairs.

“Morning Chief,” the officers greeted him, and he nodded in response as he went to stand by the cell door and looked in at the lone occupant.  The door was unlocked, and Fenton went in and sat down beside the sleeping man.

As he stared at the sleeper, he felt a tremendous loss.  This man deserved better then this…he was a good man.

Reaching over, he gently shook the sleeping drunk. “Come on.  It’s time for you to go home.”

The man rolled onto his back and squinted at the police chief through red-rimmed eyes. “Chief Hardy?” he said, his speech now slow and slurred from the hangover instead of the booze.

“Yes, Ezra, come on, I’ll get Riley to give you a ride home.”  Helping the man struggle to his feet, Fenton Hardy followed him back upstairs to the office.

Ezra Collig was a fallen man.

He had met Chief Ezra Collig and his wife Rachel once before Rachel died of breast cancer.  It had been at a dinner party that Fenton’s own NYPD police Chief Rodney McGill had thrown.  McGill had invited Collig, who had only recently replaced the retiring Bayport Police Chief.  Chief Bragg.

Fenton remembered Rachel Collig as the type of person who could put you at ease with her easy manner and take-charge attitude.  It had been obvious to him right then who was the boss in that household – and it wasn’t Ezra. 

But then Rachel died and Ezra never recovered.  His alcoholism forced him into an early retirement, and Police Detective Fenton Hardy was offered the job.

And now a couple of times a week, Con Riley would drive Ezra home after the ex-police Chief spent a night sobering up in a jail cell.

Fenton watched the man leaving with the younger officer, leaning heavily on his arm as he couldn’t trust his feet. 

Shaking his head, he went back to his desk to finish the paperwork.  He had never realized how much paper pushing was required of a police chief. 

Sighing, he got up and poured himself a black coffee and wondered when his old friend Sam Radley would get a chance to call him. 

They had met while Fenton was still a NYPD officer and had hit it off immediately.  Sam was doing some gumshoeing for a top defense attorney, and they met when he was researching a case that Fenton had been the arresting officer on. 

An intuitive investigator, Sam wasn’t overly ambitious and was satisfied with the biweekly paycheck that working for a law firm afforded him…until he started hanging out with Fenton, that was.

Fenton was aching to branch out on his own and become a private investigator.  He had even gone as far as to talk Sam into considering working with him.  But then everything changed when Laura got accepted in a pre-med program. 

Fenton knew that with a wife in school and an infant at home, it was not a good time for him to quit the police force.

But by this time, Sam had gotten enthused about working on his own and went ahead and started his own investigation firm. 

And now, while Police Chief Fenton Hardy stared at the stack of reports in front of him, world-renowned private investigator Sam Radley was working somewhere undercover.

Fenton hadn’t heard from Sam in over a week, and hoped that he managed to tie up his case in time to join them for Christmas.  Sam had never married, and spent a lot of time in Bayport, although he officially worked out of New York City.

Frowning, Fenton turned his thoughts back to the work ahead of him….It was no use pining over the things that couldn’t be.

* * *

The little boy with blue eyes watched the man at his desk.  He could feel the sadness inside his heart, and it made him sad.  The man loved his family but there was a part of him that mourned for the man he could have been.  It was so hard to stand back and watch while others got to touch.…

“It’ll be okay,” the older man assured the child.  The little boy didn’t look convinced but turned back to watch the man again anyway.