A Christmas to Die For_Mrs. A 1

by Kristine Frost

  “Tell Aslim that Mosud was stupid. Are you going to be stupid?”

  The man kept his gun lowered, but he looked at her with hatred. “I will tell Aslim, but he will not be happy.”

  Alice pointed her gun at Ruth. “Tell me where the plans are?”

  Ruth frowned. “Which plans?”

  “Don’t play stupid. You’re not. I want the plans for the portable pulse generator and I want the prototype.”

  “You’ll have to ask Andrew. I don’t have them and as far as I know, they haven’t turned up in the security check.” Ruth said coldly.

  Alice raised her voice. “Markus, bring her precious granddaughter.” She looked back at Ruth. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll shoot her in front of you.”

  Ruth felt a flash of panic. What do I do? I don’t know what she’s talking about and she’s going to kill Antonia because of my stupidity.

  Chapter 31

  Cielo Dorado Estates—same night

  As Ann and Martin hurried the others toward the stairs, the door at the bottom of the stairs crashed open. They could hear feet thundering up the stairs. Ann pulled the pistol from her pants pocket. Quickly, she handed it to Martin. “I’m not too good at shooting people.” She apologized.

  “Get them out of the line of fire,” he snapped.

  Bob said, “Don’t shoot unless you have to.

  Nodding, Ann flung the door open grabbing the hand railings on both sides. She lifted off and swung her straight legs directly into the stomach of the first man coming up the stairs. She knocked him off his feet and he bowled into the man following him. Martin ducked under her and ran down the stairs. Reversing the gun, he brought the butt down on their heads hard.

  Bob got to his feet. “Good move.” He staggered a little but kept walking.

  Ann smiled. “I never thought that college gymnastics would come in handy in real life, but they sure do.”

  “Get some rope. Let’s tie them up. I don’t want to leave someone behind that might wake up.” Martin said.

  Ann ran up the stairs, swooped down and grabbed the chains and the padlocks. She hurried down the stairs, snapping the handcuffs on the first man and then chaining him to the stair rail. “I hope this will hold him.” She said as she stuffed a gag in his mouth. Martin made quick work of the other man.

  “Let’s go,” Ann said. “If you girls can’t walk, you can stay here.” She set a heavy door stop by Antonia. “If they wake up, thump them again.”

  Antonia pulled used the stair rail to pull herself to her feet. “I’m not staying behind. I have a score to settle with that bitch. Where do we get some weapons?”

  Bob reached down and picked up the AK-47 that the guards were carrying. He handed them to Martin, then he searched them bring out three pistols with the ammunition packs. “Can you use these?”

  When both girls nodded, he handed them the pistols. “Try to make every shot count. We’re outnumbered.”

  He took back the AK-47 and let Martin lead the way down the stairs and through the hall.

  Ann whispered. “The cavalry should be arriving soon.” When Antonia and Allison looked at her she said, “The FBI are on their way.”

  She led them to the kitchen stairway. “Ruth is--”

  There were the sounds of multiple guns firing at the same time. “Get down,” Bob said. He crawled into position under a window. The glass shattered above his head.

  He flipped the switch to single shot and began picking off the men he could see that were focused on the FBI and SWAT teams.

  Suddenly the firing stopped. “Put down your weapons, or I’ll kill her and the other hostages in the house.”

  “That’s Alice Van Ostendorf’s voice,” Bob said. “I’d know that voice anywhere.”

  Martin slid a kitchen knife from a knife block on the island, then he slipped from the kitchen and into the foyer. He balanced the blade in his hand, drew back his arm and let the knife fly.

  The handle struck her in the back of the head, dropping her like a rock. “Ruth, get down.” He shouted as the bullets began to fly. He crawled out the door and grabbed her feet, pulling her across the porch and into the foyer. She tried to protect her face with her hands but he pulled so hard that her cheek scraped against the rough wood.

  I’ll have to have plastic surgery to replace my face by the time I’m safe. She thought.

  He quickly cut the ropes that bound her hands and feet. When she was free, she pulled the gun from her waist band. Thank you, Freddy, for making me learn how to use this.

  Lying flat, she took aim and put a bullet into a thug that was shooting at a downed SWAT member. She didn’t see the man from the Middle East aim his gun at her back.

  “Mrs. A, look out,” Martin yelled. He picked up a pistol that was lying near one of Van Ostendorf’s men, aimed and pulled the trigger.

  When Alice’s men realized that they were caught in a cross fire, they dropped their guns and raised their hands.

  After Martin had helped her to her feet, Ruth looked around for Alice. “Martin, do you see Alice?”

  Martin looked around. “No. I don’t.”

  Chapter 32

  Cielo Dorado Estates—same night

  Ruth said, “Maybe the FBI has her.” Suddenly her head began to spin. “I’ve got to sit down. I’m feeling a bit woozy.”

  Martin put his arm around her and was guiding her toward a chair in the foyer when Antonia limped down the stairs. “Grandma.”

  As Antonia rushed toward her for a hug, Ruth said. “Darling.” A big smile spread over her damaged face. “Are you okay? Did that witch hurt you?”

  Looking over Antonia’s shoulder, Ruth watched Martin hurry to help Allison down the stairs. “Alli, are you alright?”

  She nodded, her eyes filled with tears. “I was hoping my mom would be here.”

  “Inspector Lepley has been trying to notify her. He said your parents were in Mongolia.”

  “Not anymore,” Judith Lathrop ran up the stairs. She grabbed her daughter in a hug, gently stroking her hair. “It’s alright, baby. I’m here and no one will hurt you again.”

  She turned to glare at Ruth. “You didn’t take very good care of my baby.” She looked at Ruth’s cheek. “Good heavens. You didn’t take very good care of yourself, either. It’s a good thing I’m here.”

  Judith turned to see the sun coming up. “Heavens, it’s morning.” She watched the FBI and the SWAT team herding their captives into vans. Then several ambulances pulled up followed by several paramedic teams.

  “Martin, if you’ll get the paramedics to look at this sorry group, I’ll go find something for breakfast. I think we’re going to be here awhile.

  “Breakfast,” Ruth said. “That sounds good. Please feel free to use anything of Alice’s that you want to.”

  Judith looked at Ruth. “Where’s Mary Clark?”

  “Hospital,” Martin said, as Ruth suddenly sat down and put her head between her legs. “She should be out as soon as its safe. She’s been better, but the doctor wanted to keep her in the hospital until she was safe and totally healed.”

  One of the paramedics walked up the steps. “Whose first?” He asked cheerfully.

  “Check out the girls and Bob, first,” Ruth said from between her knees. “They’ve been through more than I have.”

  He dropped to his knees by her chair. He gently lifted her head, looked at her cheek and then at her eyes. “I think I’ll take you first.”

  “No. I’m alright.”

  “Darling grandma, you are not all right. Neither Allison nor I are injured. We’re just hungry.”

  Judith said, “Ruth, don’t be a ninny. Go with the nice man. I’ll make sure the girls are taken care of.” She looked at Bob, who had blood running down his arm. “Maybe, they’d better take you before Ruth. She’s not bleeding.”

  The paramedic looked up. He said something into a radio clipped to his shirt. Another paramedic grabbed a gurney and jogged to the porch. He looked at Bob who said, �
��It’s just a graze.”

  “It may be, but we don’t want it to get infected. Let’s get you checked out.”

  Ann hurried down the stairs, followed by Inspector Lepley. She looked at Martin. “The men in the attic have been taken care of.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  Ruth looked at Bob who was being helped on to the gurney. “Mr. Black, I want you to know that your secretary is a gem and deserves a raise.”

  The paramedic gently pushed him down flat. As he began wheeling the gurney to the ambulance, Ann hurried to Bob’s side. He smiled and took her hand.

  An hour later, everyone was seated around Alice Van Ostendorf’s huge kitchen table. Judith had covered the table with a bright yellow tablecloth that was shot through with gold threads. She’d set the table with white square plates, real silverware and mugs.

  As everyone sat down she put plate after plate on the table. Plates of bacon and sausage, eggs, hash browns, bowls of watermelon and grapes.

  Finally, Lepley said, “It’s probably against the rules, but I’m going to do a group interview. I’d like you to tell me what happened. Let’s start with Allison and Antonia and that day in Carlsbad Caverns.” He placed a tape recorder on the table.

  Allison said, “The first two days we were there, nothing happened. Everything went to pieces the morning of the third day.”

  “So none of you knew about Robert Smith’s murder?”

  “No, not then. That morning we got there early. We wanted to talk to Dave Evans again and then take some more pictures of the Kings Palace and the Big Room. That was when we ran into the man in the neon green coat. He and another man were walking down the zigzag. I don’t know why they were at the Caverns, but they didn’t look at the features. They just went right down the zigzag.”

  “I know,” Bob said as he and Ann walked into the kitchen.

  “Are you really okay?” Ruth asked.

  Ann said, “Bob was officially released by the paramedics. He has a slight concussion, but he talked them out of hospitalizing him.”

  Lepley stood up and put out his hand. “I don’t think you realize it, but it was your notes on your cases and Ann’s intelligence that helped us break a number of cases.”

  Martin pulled out an empty chair next to him, and Judith slid closer to Inspector Lepley so that Allison could slide over leaving two empty chairs together.”

  “So why were Mrs. Van Ostendorf and the other man at Carlsbad that day?”

  “Because of Steve Smith. Believe it or not, they were using Carlsbad Caverns to distribute heron.”

  “You’re kidding,” Lepley said. “That’s going to make Superintendent Connally happy.”

  Bob laughed. “Well, if he wasn’t such a pompous ass, I’d feel sorry for him. But back to my story. Steve and Robert were working for Mrs. O. Steve was supposed to exchange the heroin for cash when the right password was given. The drop worked really well until Steve and Robert got greedy. Robert delivered the drugs to Steve, then Steve gave Robert the money and Robert brought it back to Mrs. O.”

  Antonia said, “Maybe Bob knows who the man with Mrs. O was, because Allison and I sure don’t.”

  “Go ahead,” Bob said. “I’ll tell my story when you’re done.”

  Allison said, “We kept seeing the man in the neon coat. He was with different people each time we saw her, but we avoided her or him because we thought he was a man. Finally, we had everything we needed, pictures and info so we hurried to the parking lot. We were afraid that you’d worry because we were so late.” She looked at Ruth.

  “I was. Martin accused me of ruining the carpet with my pacing.”

  Antonia said, “Those men jumped us in the parking lot and threw us into a grey van. When we got into Whites City, we were transferred to a blue SUV. They brought us here using every back road in the county.”

  “We had an informant who told us he saw you being transferred. He said you were very docile which was why he didn’t think what he saw was important.” Martin said.

  “We had both been given something. I don’t know what it was. We felt just a little prick and it seemed like our will just drained out of us.” Allison continued. “Then they tied us up in one of the bedrooms until Bob was brought in, then they put all of us in the attic.”

  “So what’s your story,” Lepley said, looking at Bob.

  “I feel like such a fool. I had come to distrust Roger, but I didn’t have the proof to dissolve the partnership. Anyway, Mrs. Arbuthnot had hired me to dig into some irregularities in a couple of her companies. In one I was a truck driver, in another company I was a delivery man. I hadn’t had a chance to report when I went undercover as a maintenance man at Weldon Technologies.

  “I hadn’t hired you to look into Weldon, had I?”

  “No. It was a fluke. I was at a bar watching one of the men you were suspicious of, when he made contact with Andrew Paradise. He handed Paradise a small package and a large roll. Paradise handed him a wad of cash and then left.

  “That sent up red flags because important documents had gone missing in the department where the man I was watching worked so I followed Paradise. He delivered the package to a black SUV that didn’t have a license plate. I could make out a new car sticker in the back window. I followed the SUV to Mrs. O’s house. I was getting ready to report in, when the door was pulled open and I was dragged from the car. I put up a fight with the first man, but a second man hit me over the head. When I came to, I was chained to the wall next to Allison and Antonia.”

  “It was nice to have him there,” Allison said. “At first, they didn’t gag us, so we talked and talked. That made the time go faster. He kept telling us that we’d be found and that he was working out an escape plan, but you rescued it before he got that far.”

  Ann said, “While you were gone, I did my best to keep the office running. When Roger started asking about your cases, I got a bad feeling so I hid your mail and files in a friend’s storage shed. Then Mrs. A gave me a recorder so I could start recording telephone calls and stuff like that.”

  Lepley said, “Ann left the recorder in Roger’s office while she went to lunch. There was enough information on that recorder to put Roger and his partners away for life. When my boss listened to the recorder, he formed a special task force to clean up a lot of cases.”

  “But a recording like that wouldn’t hold up in court,” Bob said.

  “Most of these cases won’t go to court since they fall under the Homeland Security Act and a recording will work there. The other cases were on the recording were things like blackmail and extortion. Roger kept excellent records in his hidden closet along with counterfeit money. We were able to shut down that operation. Alice Van Ostendorf has a lot to answer for.”

  “But she got away,” Ruth said. “I was so busy trying to avoid being killed, that I didn’t stop her from leaving.”

  “We’ll get her. I’m sure she’ll resurface, but she won’t be able to come out in the open. I suspect she’ll set up shop in some country where we don’t have extradition agreements. I’m hoping we can clean up her operation so she’ll have to start from scratch.”

  Inspector Duncan walked in and laid a large roll covered in brown paper in front of Lepley. “We found this in a vault in the basement.”

  “That looks like the papers that Paradise got from Jon Hunter.” Bob said.

  Lepley slit the tape and pulled off the brown paper. “Looks like blue prints of some kind.”

  Two other men carried up a heavy box that they set on the island in the kitchen. “There’s tools in the bottom of that closet,” Judith said. “I found them when I was looking for some ingredients for breakfast.”

  Bob got up, walked to the closet and came out with several screwdrivers and a pry bar.

  “Thanks,” Duncan said as he took the screwdrivers. There were eight screws holding the top of the box to the bottom. When Duncan had removed the final screw, he and Bob carefully lifted the top.

  “That t
he missing device, Ruth said. “That should please General Thomas.”

  Ruth looked up when a number of military police walked through the door, followed by the General himself. “You’re right, Mrs. Arbuthnot. It does please me that we’ve gotten the pulse devise and the plans back.”

  Duncan said, “The original seals were on the box and the papers, so I don’t think that the bad guys got any information.”

  He motioned for the MP’s to take the papers and the crate. He looked down at Ruth. “Mrs. Arbuthnot, I’m glad for your sake that we got this stuff back. However, there will be a Congressional hearing and you’ll be required to testify to the part Andrew Paradise played in stealing National Security secrets.”

  “Well,” Judith said with satisfaction. “All’s well that ends well.”

  Ruth grumbled. “That’s easy for you to say. I have to testify before Congress and it’s just not fair.”

  Recipes:

  The base recipe that I used for this gluten free recipe came from a fun little cookbook called: When Life Gives You Christmas… You can purchase this cookbook from www.lemonpoppyincgentlypressed.com This cookbook has several recipes that work well with gluten free flour. Nastas is the brand I use.

  Peppermint Ice Cream Roll

  ½ cup gluten free flour

  2T. corn starch

  1/3 cup gluten free cocoa powder

  ¾ t. gluten free baking powder

  ¼ t. salt

  5 large eggs

  1 ½ t, vanilla extract

  1 t. peppermint extract

  Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan with nonstick foil. In a small bowl combine flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and peppermint extract. Add dry ingredients and mix again. Spread in prepared pan. Bake 12 minutes or until top springs back when gently pressed. Let cool 2 minutes on a wire rack. Dust a clean dish towel with powdered sugar, invert cake onto towel. Remove pan, carefully peel off foil. Starting from the short end, roll up cake in towel, place seam side down on wire rack. Cool completely.