Sneezing and coughing, Sara walked into the precinct that morning feeling like a train wreck. Sleep had barely come to her the night before as she tossed and turned, her throat on fire. Having no real medicine to treat it, she tried the salt water thing, but that only left a bad taste in her mouth, so the rest of the night was pretty much a bust. She could only hope that nobody would get in her way, otherwise the consequences would be dreadful.

Jake and Danny were already in the office, reading over a file from the previous morning when Sara walked in, coughing. They both looked up at her, that questioning look in their eyes as she sat down at her desk and grabbed a tissue, which she sneezed into then blew her nose before throwing it in the trash and grabbing another one.

“You look like hell,” Jake said when he saw the dark circles around her eyes.

“Really? I thought I looked just peachy this morning,” Sara shot back.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist so quickly. You got another package this morning,” Danny pointed to the small, oblong box on her desk with another card beneath it. This time, she opened the card first before opening the gift just to brace herself against what it might be. Again, when she opened the envelope, she found that delicate card that read “On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” On the inside was “Dinner for two at a nice restaurant.”

The possibility intrigued Sara as she grabbed the box and ripped it open to find a pair of five hundred dollar gift certificates to one of the finest restaurants in New York. “Oh, my God!” she gasped. Danny and Jake leaned over to see what had gotten that kind of reaction out of her. “Okay, this is seriously getting on my nerves. I have to know who is sending me all these gifts.” She had a pretty good idea of who it might be, and since he hadn’t shown his face in the last couple of days, her suspicions only seemed to grow. She told herself that the next day she’d come in early to see if she could catch him in the act, because if her other hunch was right, there were at least ten more of these days left.

Chapter 3: Wednesday, December 10th: The Third Day Of Christmas