Alex Harris 00 - Armed

until you get down to a teeny tiny one. I put a certificate inside saying ‘good for one week in Vermont.’ The kids worked on it last night. They designed the certificate with little skiers going down a mountain. Henry said it looked two-hundred percent.”
    “Two-hundred percent what?”
    “Who knows. He’s just happy if he can add a percent onto everything. Anyway, it’s really quite clever if you’ll allow me to brag about my children.”
    “My niece and nephew,” I beamed.
    “Okay, Millie, you go first,” I said a while later.
    Millie kept her eye on the large box all through lunch and wanted to be the first. She licked mayonnaise from her fingers and pulled the box closer.
    Millie was what my mother would call cute as a button, and a good person as well. Her father had died when she was a baby, and her mother and grandmother on her father’s side raised her. Efficient at her job Millie put everyone at ease the minute they walked in the door. She possessed a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone, especially Sam and me.
    “How did you ever get this box in here without my seeing it?” she asked of no one in particular.
    “I handed it to Alex through my office window when I went to get the sandwiches.”
    “Sneaky. You two are definitely sneaky.”
    “Well, open it!”
    Millie made a great, slow, ceremony of unwrapping each box until Sam could stand it no longer. “Millie Chapman, if you don’t get to it, I’m going to take it away from you.”
    Millie finally arrived at the last package. She opened it and unfolded the certificate inside. She didn’t say anything for so long I thought for sure we made a mistake in our choice of gift. When she finally looked up, she had misty eyes.
    “I don’t know what to say. I really wanted to go on the trip, but we’re so busy and…I don’t have any time left. This is the nicest thing.” She jumped up and hugged us; all three of us reached for a tissue.
    “Okay, Alex. Sam. Merry Christmas.” She handed Sam and me each a beautifully wrapped package.
    “Millie, did you make this?” I lifted the delicately crocheted tablecloth with little pineapple designs out of the box.
    “No. I asked my grandmother to make it for you. She’s been working on it for almost a year. I did the edging. Thank God your dining table isn’t very big. Old Granny’s eyes were starting to cross.”
    I fingered the delicate stitches. I loved to crochet but this tiny stitch defied my capabilities. “It’s lovely. Thank you.”
    Sam opened her package. “A desk blotter! Thanks.”
    “A desk just isn’t complete without one.” Millie had chosen a lovely one, with burgundy leather pockets along the edges.
    We finished our sandwiches and thanked each other again. We worked hard and continuously the rest of the afternoon.
    Finally, about six-thirty Sam looked at her watch. “I say we call it quits for today. It is Christmas eve eve eve eve after all.” Sam put all the wrappings in a big bag she would take to our mother the recycler. “But before we leave, can you guys help me take out all these things for Henry and Kendall? I’m tempted to leave everything in my van until Christmas morning far away from prying eyes and little fingers.”
    We hauled out the gifts hidden in Sam’s closet and the one in the hall since the first weeks of December.
    “That about does it. No, wait, I think I’m missing one. Now where the heck is that box?”
    “That’s it!” I shouted, scaring the daylights out of Millie and Sam.
    “What’s it?” Millie asked.
    “Jeez, Alex, you scared me half to death,” Sam chided.
    “The missing package! That’s what I’ve been trying to remember.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

    “When Sam lost one of her boxes, it all fell into place,” I gushed, feeling enormously pleased with myself though somewhat out of breath.
    John sat next to Sam. “Now tell me exactly what you told the dispatcher. She said you got pretty excited and she couldn’t understand you.”
    I took a deep breath, brought my voice down an octave and explained. “Something’s been nagging at my subconscious ever since Mr. Absher brought that box back to Poupée. Tonight, when Sam couldn’t find one of her gifts, it just all clicked.”
    “What about the box? Did Emmanuelle say something to you when you spoke with her?” Sam asked.
    “No. I went looking for Richard Sheridan one morning and just as I arrived at his office I heard his voice talking on the phone, so I