Saved By The Glass Slipper

by Markee Anderson

  “Got it,” I said. “Should I take any clothes?”

  “No. We’ll be back in about two or three hours, I think.” He pulled me to my feet and kissed me. “I love you, by the way. Ignore Mom.”

  “Not a problem. I love you too.”

  We walked out the door and down the stairs. Mark went into the kitchen and Andrew walked out. We left the home and got into the SUV, with Andrew taking care of dealing with any guards along the way. A few minutes later, Mark, Bob, and Oscar got into the car, all laughing, while Andrew drove away from the home and headed toward Dulles International Airport.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “Oh, Mom,” Mark replied, wiping his eyes from laughter.

  “What happened?”

  “She thinks you hate her now. She’s going to drag you out shopping so she can make it up to you.”

  “I hate shopping!” I moaned. “I don’t hate her, either. What made her think that?”

  “Oh, something Mark said,” Bob replied.

  I nudged my darling husband beside me. “What did you say?”

  “That you hate her.”

  “I don’t hate her, though! Why would you lie to her like that?”

  “To protect our cover. You’re now pouting in your room, and she’s to stay away from you all night long. Dad and Oscar were coming upstairs to console you with me.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “Yep. Everyone bought it, too. I think your brothers were a little bit leery, but they didn’t say anything.”

  By the time we got to Dulles, the plane was waiting for us. We got onboard and flew to the tiny airport in Lancaster. When we landed at the airport, two FBI agents met us and we all got into an SUV and headed toward the house in Chester County, about a half hour from the airport. I didn’t know how Mark was going to pull this off, being back in three hours, because half the time was spent getting to the house.

  The house looked the same, except for the yellow police tape all around it.

  “Are you okay?” Mark asked.

  “It reminds me of when they found Mom and Dad. They had police tape around it then, too.”

  “It’s not your parents and you’re fine,” he said.

  “I know. I just want to see what’s in there.”

  “From what Jack told me, I can probably guess what it is,” Bob said. “Augustino was very crooked, and I bet there’s proof of it in that house.”

  As soon as Andrew pulled into the driveway and we got out of the car, we were met by two FBI agents. Mark and Oscar talked to them for a minute while Bob pulled me aside.

  “Doris didn’t mean anything by her comments,” he said. “She’s very lonely and bothers everyone.”

  “I kind of figured that,” I answered. “I’m a very private person and don’t talk to anyone like that.”

  “You know, if you just have a kid, she won’t be bothering you about yourself, but asking Mark about the baby instead. Her mother was the same way, which is why we had Mark right away. She stayed away from both families until Mark was born, then let them ask whatever they wanted about Mark. That poor kid was naked his first three months of life because the in-laws kept undressing him to make sure he was human.”

  I started to laugh, just thinking about it. I was really happy we lived far away from the in-laws.

  We walked into the house with Mark and Oscar, and the body had been removed. The four of us went to the basement, while the two FBI agents and Andrew secured the rest of the house. We walked down the long and narrow staircase, right into the main room of the basement.

  “This is really weird, having it empty like this,” I said. “All our toys used to be down here and this was our playroom.”

  “Where could something be hidden down here?” Mark asked.

  “I have no idea.” The basement was divided into four rooms, with one large room on half of it, then three smaller rooms on the other half. Two of the smaller rooms were offices and storage, and the third room was unfinished, housing the furnace and water heater.

  “We’re looking for a secret room or hiding place,” Mark said. “Amy, what did that paper say exactly?”

  I pulled it out of my pocket. “In the hidden room in the basement is the proof you need. Like toys in the night, it might disappear, so be careful.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “The only thing is the word ‘toy.’ This big room used to be our toy room. Mom and Dad used to put our toys away in a big toy box over in that corner every night, and we always thought some elf or fairy did it.” I pointed to the far southern corner.

  “Makes sense to me,” Mark said. He went over to the corner and started knocking on the wall. “The lighting’s not good over here, so I’d guess this is the place.”

  I turned on the light for the office, across the room from the area where we were looking, and it lit the corner as well.

  “Good thinking.” He knocked on the wall a bit, then finally, we heard a hollow sound. “Pay dirt,” he said, smiling.

  Bob and Oscar bent down and began lifting paneling. Suddenly, a whole piece of it lifted up like a sliding door, revealing a whole room through the opening that was about five feet by five feet. Mark went in first and found a light switch on the wall, flipped it on, and there, in front of us was an old desk.

  “So you finally found it, huh?”

  We all spun around to see a man standing in the basement behind us who was almost the spitting image of the dead man from my apartment.

  “Jack Niles?” Bob asked.

  The supposed dead man was alive and well, and pulled a gun from his pocket. Sometimes, it’s just as well for the dead to stay that way—dead.

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 10

  “Freeze!” yelled the FBI agents standing behind Jack.

  “I thought you four came here alone!” Jack said, dropping the gun and putting his hands into the air.

  “Guess again,” Oscar said. “Stupid move, if you ask me.”

  “Who are you?” he asked while the FBI guys frisked him and pulled his hands back to cuff him.

  “The name’s Oscar. I’m ex-CIA and if you ask me for my last name, I’ll have to shoot you.” He didn’t even crack a smile, but I saw Jack swallow hard.

  “What are you doing here?” Bob asked Jack.

  “I want everything in that room. It’s my meal ticket.”

  “What?” Mark asked. “How could this stuff be your meal ticket?”

  “Gerald and I were blackmailing Ron Augustino with that stuff and I haven’t worked since I got out of the army. If Ron knows where it is, he won’t pay me off any more, and I’ll have to work.”

  “Dad was blackmailing someone?” I asked.

  “Yeah, and he put you through college with some of the money, no doubt,” Jack answered.

  “Did you kill the man in the kitchen of this house or Ned Putnam?” Oscar asked.

  “No, I didn’t, but I wish I knew who did. Ned was my buddy and I’d like to find the guy who did him in.”

  “How did you hear that he died?” I asked.

  “His sister called me. He was blackmailing Ron, too. I fell badly for Thayer, but I didn’t kill him.”

  This wasn’t right. “Wait. If you’re Jack Niles, who was killed in my apartment?”

  “That was my stupid brother Bart. He thought you had this stuff, and has been robbing you for years, just trying to get a piece of the action.”

  “But I didn’t even know him. How did he know where I was?”

  “He knew your chip code. We all did. For being so smart, you’re really stupid, know that?”

  “Hey! Watch it buster,” Mark barked. “No one talks about Amy like that.”

  “Or the fact that you two were naked in bed at that hotel room?”

  “You were the one in our hotel room on our wedding night?” I asked.

  “Sure. You know, you really should put covers over yourselves.”

  “It was dark in that room,” I said.
/>
  “Infrared,” Jack grinned, then gave me the once over. “Nice body, by the way.”

  “Take him out of here,” Bob said. “Throw him away for a long time.”

  The two FBI agents took him out of the room and Bob put his arm on my shoulders. “Ignore whatever he said. He’s an idiot.”

  “Thanks, Bob,” I said with a grin. “I like you. You’re okay.”

  “I think Mark did a great job in picking a wife.”

  “I agree,” Mark said. “Now, what’s in here?”

  We walked further into the room and Mark opened the desk. All our mouths opened in surprise as we stared at a glass box full of diamonds and six big bars of pure gold.

  “Is it legal to have gold?” I whispered.

  “It wasn’t at one point in time, but it is now,” Oscar said. He picked up a bunch of papers. “Stocks too…and good ones.”

  Bob opened one of the drawers and removed a folder then started leafing through it. “Holy smokes! This is the mother lode!”

  “What is it?” Oscar asked.

  “Proof of Augustino’s…indiscretions. There are pictures of him and a prostitute…” Bob turned the picture in different directions as he studied it. “They’re definitely doing…something. It’s Augustino for sure, too.” He put that picture at the bottom of the pile. “Here’s the same woman dead, and there’s a time and date stamp on the back of them.”

  “So he hired a prostitute then killed her?” Oscar asked.

  Bob handed me a small book. “Looks like your dad’s journal.”

  I leafed through it. “He’s made a ton of entries, all about Augustino. Dates, times, the whole thing.” I stopped on a page that simply said ‘Suzette’ at the top that had a picture wedged in the middle, then read it aloud. “That woman was named Suzette and Ron had some of his men hire her for him. They were in France, and the men got the woman to Ron’s apartment, then rigged a camera to take pictures. Afterward, they got shots of him shooting the woman.” I picked up the picture. Ron was pointing the gun and the cameraman had taken the picture right when the shot hit the woman, because she was bent at the stomach.

  Mark took the picture. “Looks like the smoking gun, literally.”

  I went through the whole diary. “He also killed a shop keeper for not opening the shop for him at night for cigarettes and he threatened Dad for knowing any of this stuff, even after he got back to the States.” I looked over at Mark. “That’s why he told us never to trust the government.”

  Oscar took some of the papers from Bob. “I’ve suspected some of this for years.” He studied a few of the papers. “Oh, will you look at this! It’s a thank you note from the Chinese government to Ron for handing over CIA secrets.”

  “Why would they give him a thank you note, and why would Dad have it?” I asked.

  “I have no idea,” Oscar said. “Unless he did it while in the Army. Thayer would’ve had information that Ron could’ve used to get something from the Chinese.”

  “What would he want from the Chinese?” I asked.

  “Backing for a Senate or Presidential seat, maybe?” Mark replied. “It would all fit.”

  “So who would kill Thayer?”

  “Someone who didn’t want him to get this stuff,” Bob said. “He must have known it was here. He could’ve gotten anything he wanted if he blackmailed Ron.”

  “So you think Ron killed Thayer—his own brother-in-law?” I whispered.

  “I wouldn’t put it past him. Thayer may have been killed while looking for the goods, knowing it was all here. Or it could be the Chinese.”

  “The Chinese?” I asked. “Why would they kill Thayer and put a note on the body threatening me?”

  “Maybe they did the actual murder, but Ron was behind it,” Oscar said. “I’m thinking Ron and the Chinese are in this together.”

  It still didn’t make sense. “How do I fit into this, though? Why would they come after me?”

  “I don’t know, Amy,” Mark said. “But we’ll figure it all out and I promise you’ll be safe.”

  Andrew entered the basement. “Everything’s clear. Is there anything else I should do?”

  “No,” Mark said. “I think we’re done here. We need to take everything out of here and keep it with us.” All of the men grabbed the gold and diamonds, while I took the folder, the pictures and the stocks. I went through the rest of the drawers, but they were empty.

  “We’ll get the furniture out of the house and sell the place, if that’s okay with the three of you,” Mark said.

  “Fine with me,” I said. We turned off the light but left the room opened so the movers could find the desk.

  We all went back to the car, filling the back with all the items in our hands. I kept Dad’s diary and the folder of pictures with me, just in case. We all got inside and started down the road toward the plane.

  “What do we do with everything we’ve found?” Mark asked.

  “I’ll take it to the big director of the FBI and some of my friends in Congress,” Bob said. “It’s not a problem. He’ll fry for what he’s done. The money from the gold and diamonds will go to the three kids. It’s only fair.”

  “Be careful who your friends are,” I said, reading Dad’s diary. “There are two men listed here who became Congressmen, and they’re friends of Augustino’s from the Army days.”

  “Who?” he asked.

  “Lee Donalds and Ray Lewiston. I think they’re Senators for Maryland and West Virginia.”

  “I know them, and Ray was one I was thinking of going to,” Bob said. “I wonder how many people Ron has in his pocket? I wouldn’t be surprised if he had control of some people high up in the FBI or CIA.”

  “I have no idea,” I said. “I think it would be better to take everything to a few reporters up on Capitol Hill. I bet they’d have a field day with all of this.”

  “Good idea,” Oscar said. “I’ll take care of it. Augustino was going to debate Paul Garrett this Thursday at the University of Maryland.”

  “The presidential candidate from Massachusetts?” Mark asked. “I thought they were friends and their platforms were almost identical?”

  “Yep. That’s why they felt it necessary to debate, to show that they’re not the same. If we present the information at that debate, all the cameras will be there and we’ll be able to broadcast it to the world.”

  I opened the folder in my hand and looked at the pictures in front of me. The ones that struck me the most were the ones with Augustino having sex with the prostitute and the one of the woman being shot with a clear shot of Augustino holding the smoking gun. I wanted them to be with me for some reason. I didn’t trust them going to the Senate, so I ignored the rest of the conversation around me and slipped them under the insole, inside my shoe. If anything happened on the way to Maryland, I wanted those pictures intact.

  “What are you going to do about my mother?” Mark whispered into my ear.

  “Nothing.” I faced him. “What would you like me to do?”

  “Debate her in public and get it out in the open. That’s the only way she’ll back down.”

  “No way. That’s not my style, and I’m not bringing her nastiness out in the open for all to see.”

  Mark crossed his arms. “She’s not nasty, she’s my mother.”

  “Sure.”

  “No, not sure. She has to be put in her place and you’re the one who has to do it.”

  I couldn’t believe it. The other men in the car were suddenly quiet and stared at us. “I’ll discuss this with you later. Right now, I have to figure out how to get these pictures in front of the media. I don’t think just confronting Augustino is going to do it.” I looked down at the folder in my hand.

  “No, you’re not going to get involved with this,” Mark said. “It’s not your job. Let Oscar take care of it. He has contacts—”

  “And Augustino’s going to know where it came from. No. I have to do this to avenge my parents and everything for my family.”

/>   “Amy, your life’s in danger. Don’t you get it? The more you do things like this, the more danger you’re going to be in. Not only will the other countries be after you, but followers of Augustino will hunt you down. No. My wife’s not going to risk her life over someone as sleazy as Augustino. You’re coming with me, and we’ll let Oscar and his operatives take care of it.”

  Oscar turned from the front seat. “I’m also going to investigate your parent’s deaths. I’m wondering now if Augustino had something to do with their murders.”

  I shook my head. “The police ruled it a robbery gone bad. They didn’t find who did it, but some money was missing, along with my parent’s credit cards. But whoever took them didn’t use the credit cards.”

  “Precisely,” Oscar said. “Sounds fishy to me.”

  We drove back toward the airport, pulling up close to the private plane.

  “We’ll meet you guys in a minute,” Mark said, taking my hand. “We have something to discuss then we’ll be there.”

  The other men nodded, and Mark waved them on as soon as we got out of the car. He pulled me to the side and faced me. “My family is your family now. So, if you have issues with Mom, get it out now, or it’ll fester and you’ll hate my whole family for it.”

  “No. I won’t start a family fight over your mother’s comments. I like your dad and if we just stay away—”

  “No. We’re not going to stay away from my family. Our kids need to know their grandparents.”

  “Kids? Who said we’re having kids?”

  “Did you change your mind?” he asked. “You told me you wanted kids. That’s why we didn’t use protection on our wedding night. Remember?”

  I crossed my arms. “Yeah, I do, but not until your mother isn’t an issue. I’m not pregnant yet, and I won’t tolerate her insensitivity.”

  His voice rose considerably. “You want to wait until Mom dies?”

  I crossed my arms. “If she won’t be an issue until then, that’s fine with me.”

  Mark’s mouth dropped and he shook his head. “Maybe we should never have gotten married? I had no idea that my family would get in the way. Do you even love me?”

  Before I could get a word out of my mouth, a shot rang out and hit Mark in the back. He fell, while I watched in horror.