Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) (16 page)

“Safe? Who wasn’t safe?” Bur wanted to
know.

“Long story. You’ll hear all about it
tomorrow,” Larry promised, desperately trying to take it back, but
it was too late. Bur’s bad behavior had already rubbed off on me,
so I jumped in with both feet.

“Don’t go. There will probably be
reporters hanging around your condo, knocking on the door all night
long. It’s going to be in the papers,” I reminded her. “Stay here.
Stay with us.”

“I demand to know what’s going on,” Big
Larry said. “What are you not telling us?”

Larry looked at both her parents, took
a deep breath, and stumbled over the words. “Del Robbins showed up
on my doorstep, to finish what he started.”

“Oh dear Lord!” Edna’s fingers flew up
to her mouth as a gasp escaped. “I thought he was still in
prison!”

“He was supposed to be. He forged
papers and got himself illegally released,” Max
announced.

“How in God’s name did that happen?”
The baseball coach was appalled. As he slapped the table in
frustration, I realized just what a chip off the old block Larry
was.

“Where there’s a will, apparently
there’s a way,” sighed the retired state trooper. “His timing was
impeccable, wasn’t it?”

“The anniversary of that nightmare all
those years ago,” Larry remarked woodenly. That haunted look
returned to her face, the one I had seen in the living room, when
she was forced to sit next to her captor on the sofa.

“Who’s Del Robbins?” her daughter
wondered.

“Del Robbins kidnapped and murdered
your mom’s college roommate.” Big Larry glowered. “He’s a very,
very bad man. Did he hurt you, baby?”

She paused, taking a big
gulp of air, hungry to breathe. As I watched, I could imagine her
as a terrified college student.
The horror
never really leaves you. It’s permanently etched on your
soul.

“No, Daddy, we got him. He’s not going
to get out for a very, very long time.”

A moment later, Larry was sharing the
story of how she became a state police trooper, a career move that
occurred because of a vicious killer, a man who lured Larry and two
roommates into a chamber of horrors up at Lake Warrington during
their Christmas break. “He turned his back on me for just a moment,
and that’s when I grabbed the fireplace poker and beat him with
it.”

“I taught her how to handle a bat,” Big
Larry said proudly. “She’s a powerful slugger. Men don’t expect
that.”

“My other roommate had a nervous
breakdown. Lucy was never the same after the attack. I had to
testify at Del Robbins’ trial. He was found guilty on all counts
and sentenced to thirty years. At the hearing, he vowed that he’d
come after me someday and make me pay for putting him behind
bars.”

“I’ve always said this cop job was
dangerous,” her father informed her. “You should quit, get a
sensible position with reasonable hours.”

“Actually,” Kenny pointed out, “the
only reason Larry was in danger was because she was the victim of a
crime while in college. She survived today because she’s a great
cop.”

“Here, here!” We all raised our glasses
in tribute.

“And because she has some friends who
really love her,” Max added. “What Miz Scarlet did in the living
room with that cheese platter was remarkable. And let’s not forget
Captain Peacock in the library with the remote wireless camera.
That was quick thinking.”

“You’re not exactly chopped liver, Max.
Del never suspected you had a gun under that lap blanket,” I
said.

“Well done,” Bur concurred, with a nod
to his competition.

“I’m just glad we didn’t have a ‘shoot
‘em up’ scene in the living room,” said the retired state cop. We
were lucky no one got hurt.”

“
That’s because it’s
Christmas,” said the teenager, her arm draped over Larry’s
shoulder. “Santa knows I need my mom.”

“I’m not sure it was Santa’s doing,”
Edna suggested, as she raised her eyes to the ceiling. “I think
there were far more powerful forces at work.”

“Amen to that.” Big Larry bowed his
head. “We have been blessed, haven’t we? My daughter bested a
menacing killer, I got my Edna Rae to admit she loves me, and we’re
staying at the Four Acorns Inn for the holiday. What more can a man
ask for?”

“How about asking for a
son-in-law who’s crazy about our daughter?” Edna glanced at
Larry.
Time again for a distraction, Miz
Scarlet.
I reached into my pocket and
pulled out Max’s credit card.

“Here you go. We never did get around
to giving it to Larry, did we?” I slid the plastic rectangle across
the table to him. Scooping it up in his hand, Max tapped it twice
on the table and then inserted it into a slot in his wallet, which
he then put into his jacket pocket.

“Good thing,” she laughed. “Del would
have realized the jig was up when he saw the name on the card. No
wonder you didn’t hand it over, Scarlet.”

“Why did it have to be a Bank of
America credit card,” I asked the retired homicide investigator,
“why not TD Bank or Citibank?”

“Larry Bear and I had a running
conversation at work during the mortgage scandal. She swore she’d
never have an account with Bank of America until they changed their
business practices. It was just my way of letting her know I was
here at the inn and I had her back.”

“You have no idea how good it sounded
to hear Scarlet say those words. I thought I was a goner,” my
friend admitted. She had been through a lot in one day. I was glad
she was staying for another night. “Your acting performance, Max,
was worthy of an Oscar.”

“I had an uncle who suffered a stroke.
I used to help my aunt take care of him,” he told us. “But don’t
get used to me hobbling around. I’m due to get kneed replacement
surgery in January. I hope you’ll visit me in the hospital, Larry
Bear.”

“You should come to the Four Acorns Inn
to recuperate,” Laurel suggested, her expression brightening at the
thought. Was it because Larry lived nearby? I could see the
excitement in the eyes of the Googins girls. They were already
plotting their campaign to bring the lovebirds together. “Scarlet
can arrange for you to have your therapy on the sun porch and
she’ll pamper the heck out of you.”

“I must admit that’s a tempting idea,
especially if I have visitors to cheer me up.”

“I’ll come see you,” Mickey promised.
Max smiled at that.

“I hope you’re not the only one,” said
the smitten man. He glanced up at Larry in time to see her
blush.

“You’d better not be,” Edna told her
granddaughter, even as she frowned at her daughter. And then she
muttered something under her breath that had the Googins girls
giggling. “It never fails to amaze me how smart people can be so
dumb....A man like that stands by you all those years and you can’t
even tell him how you feel? It’s a crime.”

“There’s the pot calling the kettle
black,” Big Larry said out of the corner of his mouth, in his
daughter’s direction. “The woman divorced me because she thought I
knew she wanted to marry me!”

“Hush!” Larry shushed her parents. “We
have a truce!”

“Hey, Max, does this mean you’re
finally going to open that bar down in Florida?” I
wondered.

“It’s a shame to waste new knees
pounding the pavement for a defense attorney like Darwin Pellman,”
Larry added.

“Well, actually, I’ve already taken a
new position with a security firm in the area.” Max sat back in his
chair with a rather smug expression on his face.

“You did?” We were all surprised, no
one more than Max’s old partner. But as I gazed around the faces at
the table, there was one person who didn’t seem shocked in the
least bit. Kenny. He gave me a wink.

“I bet I know who you’re working for,”
I announced gleefully. “Mercer Security!”

“I am. I start in January, right after
my surgery.”

We all congratulated him. I took it as
a good sign. Max was serious about Larry. Larry, on the other hand,
was a little slow on the uptake.

“Hey, I thought you offered me that
job,” Larry cried, shaking a fist at Kenny. It was true. He had
tried to recruit her a few months ago, but she turned him down
flat. “You rat!”

“You said you weren’t in the market,”
he reminded her. “And that got me to thinking. Why should I wait
around for you to be ready to retire from the Connecticut State
Police, when there’s a perfect candidate who’s wasting his life
down in New Haven?”

“Wait a minute!” Larry sat up. “You’ve
had this in the works for some time, haven’t you, Captain
Peacock?”

“Have I?” the former assistant head of
the Princeton University public safety division replied, shrugging.
“What makes you say that?”

“Max asked me two months ago why I
wouldn’t date him, and I told him I couldn’t work for a guy who dug
up the dirt for a slime ball like Pellman. And then he asked me if
I’d go out with him if he changed jobs. But,” she said, turning to
her former partner, “I didn’t think you’d really do it.”

“A deal’s a deal, Larry Bear. Where are
we going on our first date?”

Bur groaned, shaking his head in
disappointment. “This is what happens when I try to impress a girl
by picking up her dad in New Jersey and her mother in New York? I
left the playing field wide open for the competition.
Unbelievable!”

“You snooze, you lose, my friend,” Max
informed Bur. “She’s worth fighting for and I intend to give it my
best shot.”

“Does anyone care about what I think?”
Larry wanted to know.

“No!” Edna shouted.

“Absolutely not,” Lacey
agreed.

“When it comes to matters of the heart,
it’s what you feel that counts, dear.” Laurel pointed out. “You’re
a lot like my daughter. You think too much. Love isn’t meant to be
logical and safe. It doesn’t come with guarantees. Sometimes you
just have to take a chance. This is one of those times.”

“Indeed,” said Big Larry.

“Darling, don’t make my mistake. When I
think of all the years I wasted, just because I was stubborn....”
Edna hugged her daughter.

“Live while you can, love while you
can,” my mother added, patting Max’s knee, “for tomorrow, it may be
gone.”

“Ah, you should listen to these people,
Larry Bear. They are wise, even if they didn’t cross a desert to
get here,” he told her.

“No, this is much
more
Christmas Carol
than
Gift of the
Magi
,” Larry decided, “right down to the
creep of Christmas Past. I never really thought Del would ever come
after me, any more than I thought I could stop him a second time.
But to have him come now, at this time of year, it’s just too
much.”

“It’s a miracle you survived all that.”
Bur smiled at her wistfully. He knew he had lost her to another
man, but when all was said and done, my brother did want the best
for her. “Don’t waste it. Find your happiness. You deserve it,
Larry.”

“I agree,” I nodded, raising my glass
once again. “Here’s to the future. To joy and a life filled with
family and friends.”

“What did Bob Cratchit
say?
‘A Merry Christmas to us all, my
dears. God bless us!’
This is going to be a
great holiday. We have so much to celebrate” Lacey laughed. “I’m so
glad to be here, sharing it with all of you.

“I agree,” the other Googins
girl piped in. “What did that good-hearted little kid with the
crutch say?
’God bless us, every
one!’
Amen to that!”

“It sure beats
‘Bah! Humbug!’
any day!”
Bur declared. “Merry Christmas!”

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Other books by Sara M.
Barton:

Henry Hartman’s Holiday
Crisis: An Off-the-Books Mystery #1

Henry Hartman's Boondoggle
Crisis: An Off-the-Books Mystery #2

Henry Hartman’s Fall Guy
Crisis: An Off-the-Books Mystery #3

Miz Scarlet and the Imposing
Imposter: A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #1

Miz Scarlet and the
Vanishing Visitor: A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #2

Snow White and the Hunter: A
Gabby Grimm Fairy Tale Mystery #1