Nick had not forgotten Saint Valentine’s Day.  (It was hard to see how anyone could, given the attention paid to the holiday in the popular press.)  Yet somehow, over the previous weekend when Stonetree had insisted he take a few days of his vacation time, the actual day of the week slipped his mind.  He went into work on the 14th with a clear conscience, only to find his partner proudly showing everyone a hand-drawn card with a lop-sided heart.  Jenny had drawn it at school.
Schanke gave him a knowing look.  “You didn’t get her anything, did you?” he said.  “Slip out fast before the Captain sees you.  The Eaton Centre is open for another fifteen minutes—and the way you drive….”  He winked.  “Try Birks.  Anything with diamonds is bound to be welcome.”
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.  Chronically behind the times though he was, Nick had heard the slogan.
Stonetree’s door opened.
“Oops, foiled again,” Schanke whispered, low enough that the Captain must not have heard, for he simply beckoned the two detectives inside so that Schanke could report on the previous day’s lack of progress and Knight be brought up to date.
Uncharacteristically, the office was adorned with a vase of flowers.  Not red, red roses:  it was only a bunch of scarlet carnations with a little baby’s breath.  But there was a card with a fancy scripted “Valentine’s”.  Being who he was, Schanke drifted round the desk as he talked, his broad gestures unsuspected until he suddenly stretched his arm to pick up the card up.
“Got a lady friend, Cap?” he breezed, as he flipped it open.
Almost before he could glance down at the signature, Stonetree had whisked the card away.  “Can we keep to the topic?” he said, in a tone that made it quite clear that questions would go unanswered.
Nick stifled a smile.  Why on earth had Stonetree brought the card to the precinct?  He could only think that he’d received it over an early dinner and not had time to take it home.
“Pat,” said Schanke later, as they headed out to the Caddy.  “Patricia, that’ll be for sure.  Who’d have thought Stonetree had it in him?  A secret girlfriend!”  He blew on his fingers.  “Hot news.”
“Leave the poor guy alone,” Nick advised.
Schanke winked.  “I bet Myra’d want me to find out.”
“Don’t blame her!” Nick said as he unlocked the car door.  “She doesn’t know anything about it—and she won’t if you don’t tell her.”
“What, me keep secrets from my wife?”  Schanke put his hand over his heart in feigned shock.  “I’d never survive, you know that—not if she found out.  You single guys don’t know what it’s like for us old married types.”
“Then sic Myra on ’im,” was Nick’s advice.  “She’ll figure it all out before you get home tonight; and she’ll tell you all the juicy bits!”
Schanke laughed.
Nick drove west on Carlton, heading for Yonge Street.  The late night clubs and bookstores were still open; but many stores were shut already, grills across the plate glass and lights turned off.
“You missed your chance to get Natalie a fancy present,” Schanke observed.  “But you can still pull in at an all-night store and pick up some flowers and chocolate.”
Nick thought of Nat’s response to that debacle with the stripper at Jilly’s.  Stonetree hadn’t been too thrilled, either; but he’d had other reasons.  Natalie had, perversely, been more upset by his apology than she had by his deception—or, at least, that was what she had said.
Diamonds … wasn’t that what Schanke’d suggested he give?  After the way Natalie’d reacted to a little perfume and a rose, Nick knew he didn’t even dare get a box of After Eights.