Christmas

Anne Gray sat in the public gallery and reached over to DS carter who was sat next to her as the Forman of the jury declared their verdict.

"On the count of the Murder of Annie New, do you find the defendants guilty or not guilty," the Clark of the court asked

"Guilty," the reply came.

From beside her she could hear max breathe a sigh of relief.

Later that day
Max walked on to the DI's office and closed the door behind him.

"Guv' I wanted to thank you for your support over the trial. It means a lot to me. Anyway Ds moss sent me to tell you it's time to give out the secret Santa,"

Anne followed max out of her shared office in to the main CID office and to the small Hodge podge Christmas tree that had been erected in the office. What it was axe from she could not tell, but if she had to guess it would be a traffic cone covered in tinsel. While she was daydreaming a small Christmas bag was placed in front of her. Reaching inside said bag she pulled out a small box. Opening it she saw a ring glinting in the light.

"Whoever is my secret Santa, they broke all the rules. The is no way this cost under a £10,"

Looking around she saw max carter down on his knee.

"will you marry me Anne,"

Looking towards him Anne could only nod. Unbeknown to their team Anne and max had been secretly dating for six months.

Whist their friends were celebrating max sent a text to Annie's mother

Merry Christmas. Me and Anne have got engaged. We would love for you to come over for Christmas dinner. See you soon. Max