December 2024
Louanne was just finishing the dinner dishes when her two chihuahuas, Trixie and Lars started barking like mad.
"Jimmy, is someone at the door?" She called out to her husband who was usually in the living room watching TV by this time.
When Jimmy didn't answer back, Louanne dried her hands on the holiday-themed dishtowel and went to investigate for herself.
She peeked through the doorbell camera but couldn't see anyone or anything. Still, Trixie and Lars were carrying on as if they had just seen an axe murderer.
Right then, Jimmy emerged from the bathroom with the newspaper tucked under his arm.
"What in the world is going on out here? If I hadn't already been on the pot, I'd sure have to go now!" Jimmy tossed the paper down and looked wild-eyed in the direction of the barking dogs.
"I don't know!" Louanne started. "I looked through the camera-thingy but I didn't see anything." She spoke above the dogs who were still going off like an alarm.
"Trixie! Lars! You two better hush or Mama is going to put you in your kennels!" Jimmy scolded. The "k" word seemed to get their attention, and they mostly quieted down aside from a lingering growl and a yip or three.
"Oh, Jim, don't scold them. They are clearly trying to tell us something." Louanne knelt down to give the two tiny dogs reassuring head pats.
"Did you open the door or did you just look through the thing?" Jimmy asked growing exasperated by the whole ordeal.
"I just looked through the thing! I'm not going to open the door in the dark, especially when you were nowhere to be found!" Louanne was equally frustrated.
"Dammit Mother, I'll do it myself," Jimmy stood. "I don't know what you're going to do when I die," Jimmy huffed as he grabbed the knob.
"That's enough, Jim," Louanne grumbled, scooting aside so Jimmy could more easily open the door.
"See? Nothing there!" Jimmy announced just before looking down. "Well, wait. There's something. It looks like one of those Santa things you and Janie are doing with the book club." He bent to pick up the Christmas-sy-looking envelope.
"Oh, give it here then," Louanne stood, feeling the slightest bit foolish now. "How funny. She even delivered it on the wrong day to throw me off!"
She and her daughter Janie had been doing Secret Santa with the book club they both attended. Louanne was pretty sure her Secret Santa was Janie herself, but the dogs wouldn't have alerted like that. They had known Janie their entire lives.
"I guess it's not Janie after all," Louanne muttered, opening the envelope.
Her smile changed quickly though, upon reading the contents, and she began to shake.
"Lou, what is it?" Jimmy noticed the change in his wife's demeanor. "Lou?!" He grabbed the letter from her.
"Oh my God, what in the hell is this?" Anger crept across his face as he pulled the front door open again.
"Who did this? Where are you? Come back here you heartless bastard!" He yelled into the night.
"Jimmy, please stop. Whoever it was is long gone," Louanne's voice was quiet and rife with sadness.
December was already hard enough for them, as this was the month their Sarah had disappeared so many years before.
The Secret Santa gifts were usually a nice distraction for them, but this, whatever it was, was anything but nice.
Just then, a police car pulled up in front of the house.
"Just great," Jimmy grumbled, still angry. "Now someone has called the cops on me and my yelling. They must think I'm some crazy old man." He cleared his throat and tried to compose himself for the imminent admonishing from law enforcement.
"Hello sir," an officer called out as he walked toward the already open door. "I need to speak to Jimmy and Louanne Christianson, is this their residence?" A second officer exited the vehicle and walked a little further behind.
"I'm Jimmy Christianson, and this is my wife Louanne. What is this regarding?" Jimmy was growing cautious again.
Louanne walked closer to Jimmy, holding on to the two dogs who were still growling.
"I have news about a Sarah Christianson, she is your daughter right?" The first officer asked. The second one had now reached the porch as well.
"Is this about the letter we got tonight?" Louanne, who was beginning to cry again, asked.
"Ma'am, we don't know anything about a letter, but we have news about Sarah's case. May we come in?" The officer asked kindly.
Louanne was just certain that they were going to tell them that her remains had finally been found. She was bracing herself for the onslaught of grief, but also feeling a little bit of relief at the thought of closure, once and for all.
Louanne and Jimmy sat on the couch as the officers stood in front of them ready to deliver their news.
"This morning, a woman was taken to St. David's by another woman who claimed to have just found her nearly catatonic on a remote mountain road," the officer began. "The woman from the road has so far been unable to speak, but other than that, she is in stable condition."
"And you think this mystery woman is Sarah?" Jimmy spoke with incredulity.
"Sir, the dental records confirmed it," the second officer spoke. "We need to do DNA testing still, but visual confirmation would be helpful as well."
"Visual confirmation?" Louanne asked, her dogs, licking away at her falling tears.
"Yes, we'd like for you to come to St. David's and see her for yourselves."
"That's absurd! We haven't seen Sarah in over thirty years! How would we know if it's her or not!" Jimmy's face had gone red.
"It's her," Louanne spoke softly. "I know it is. Oh, Jimmy, you'd recognize her! You know you would!" She stood. "I'll go. Just let me kennel the little ones."
Trixie and Lars's ears went back at the sound of their least favorite word.
"What was this about a letter?" The first officer asked.
Jimmy bent to pick the letter up off the floor.
"This came just a little while before you all did. We thought it was some shitty prank." Jimmy handed the letter to the police who looked it over thoroughly.
"We need to take this, Sir, can we?" The second officer asked.
"Of course," Jimmy agreed, much more reasonably now.
Louanne came back into the room sans the dogs.
"Let's go," she said.
"I'm coming too," Jimmy said quietly as he walked to the coat rack to grab his and Louanne's coats.
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