The Christmas Clue (15 page)

Matt did. He called Sheriff Mike Medina, in the little town of Rim Rock, and gave the man a brief recap of what’d happened. Then he requested an ambulance for the injured guard. He also suggested that Medina bring any and all backup with him, just in case.

“He’s on the way,” Matt relayed to Cass. “He says because of the snow, it’ll take him about twenty minutes to get here.”

“Not much time,” she mumbled under her breath.

Matt looked into the coat-blanket and saw that Molly had fallen back asleep. Obviously, this ordeal hadn’t bothered her. Thank God. However, he couldn’t say the same for Cass.

And that gave him an idea.

“We have twenty minutes,” Matt reiterated. “We could wait here for the sheriff, or we could look in Dominic’s office and see if those disks are there.”

Her eyes widened. “You think they might be?”

“We’ll never know unless we look.”

She glanced at the guard and Annette. “What about them? You think it’s okay to leave them alone?”

“Under normal circumstances, I’d say no. But we’re no safer here than we would be in Dominic’s office.”

And there was another reason to go to the office: Matt was concerned that some evidence might be suppressed or even destroyed if someone in the department tried to cover up the deals that’d been made with Dominic.

“What about other guards?” Cass asked. “What if they see us?”

Matt shrugged. “We’ll tell them that Annette killed Dominic, and that the sheriff is on the way. That should cause them to hightail it out of here, since I figure most if not all have criminal records. Also, if something goes wrong, we can always use Dominic’s panic room and wait there until the sheriff arrives.”

Cass still gave it some thought. So did Matt. It wasn’t risk proof, but it probably wasn’t any riskier than waiting around in a glass-walled garden room with Annette and a guard.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll search while you keep an eye out so that no one sneaks up on us. I’ve had enough confrontations and shootouts to last me a lifetime.”

So had he.

Matt took the infrared monitor from the equipment bag and led the way to Dominic’s office. As they neared the center of the house, he could hear sounds from the party. Music, laughter, conversation. Apparently, no one knew yet that their host was lying dead in the yard. But they soon would. Matt only hoped there was enough time to find those disks.

He opened the office door. The room was dark, and he kept it that way until Cass and he stepped inside. Then he shut and locked the door behind them before he turned on the light.

“Don’t move.”

Matt turned to his right, and found himself looking down the barrel of a gun.

Cass forced herself not to reach for her gun. Not that she could have. The way she was holding Molly, both hands were occupied. And that wasn’t good.

Because Libby was holding them at gunpoint.

“Matt,” Libby said on a rise of breath. She quickly lowered her gun. “God, you two gave me a scare.”

“I could say the same. What are you doing in here?”

“Looking for evidence to convict Dominic. I don’t agree with the departmental policy of offering deals to men like him. I decided to befriend Dominic so I could wrangle an invitation to this party and search his office.”

Cass glanced around the room and spotted the large, black, woman’s leather purse on Dominic’s desk. It wasn’t an accessory that went with Libby’s dark-amber silk party dress, and Cass could see some surveillance disks stuffed inside it.

“Dominic’s dead,” Matt informed Libby.

Her eyes widened. “You killed him?”

“No. His sister did.”

Libby nodded, swallowed hard, and nodded again. “Well, I guess my trip was wasted.” She went to the desk and began to zip the leather bag.

Matt reached out and snagged her wrist. “What are those?”

Libby made a sound of dismissal and eased out of his grip. “Surveillance disks that Gideon asked me to get. I’m taking them to him.”

Cass shifted Molly in her arms so she could have a better look. “The disks are dated the same day and time that Dominic murdered his partner.”

“Yes,” Libby readily admitted.

“Except for these,” Matt pointed out, running his finger over the bottom two disks. “These are from a week ago.”

“Gideon didn’t tell me why he wanted them.” Libby looked at her. “Maybe so he can destroy any evidence that would exonerate you.”

Libby held Cass’s stare a moment before she resumed zipping her purse.

“How do you know me?” Cass asked. “We’ve never met.”

Another sound of dismissal. “You look exactly like the photo circulating through various agencies in the Justice Department. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go. Gideon wouldn’t want me to be caught up in a murder investigation. You’ve called the sheriff, I suppose?”

“Of course. He’ll be here soon,” Matt explained. “And I think it’s a good idea if he sees those disks first. Including the ones from a week ago. In fact, maybe I could have a look at those now.”

Libby held on tightly to the purse. “Gideon wouldn’t approve. Nor would I. You’re on suspension, Matt. Best if you stay out of this so you don’t taint any evidence.”

“My goal isn’t to taint anything. I just want the truth.” He took out the infrared monitor and held it up for her to see. “Notice something odd?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “You didn’t show up on the monitor.”

Cass did not have a good feeling about this, and she began to back away so that she could put some distance between Molly and Libby.

“The monitor probably malfunctioned,” Libby answered.

“That’s one explanation. But not a good one. A better explanation is that you’re wearing a thermal armor device to block the infrared.”

“Why would I do that?” And she seemed surprised that he would even suggest such a thing.

Cass backed farther away, toward the wall. And her position also gave her a different angle to view the desk. Specifically, the chair.

And the small device sitting on it.

“Matt,” Cass managed to say through her suddenly clamped throat. “I think there’s a bomb in the chair.”

Matt looked, and judging from the stark expression that came over him, it was indeed a bomb. But that brief look was costly.

Libby pulled out something from her pocket. Not a gun. But some kind of small metal tube. She slammed it into Matt’s stomach and then pulled out her gun. She aimed it at them.

Matt staggered and caught onto the desk.

Cass couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her heart began to race out of control.

“What did you do to him?” Cass hurried to him and stopped him falling. Barely. But he was weak, as if he no longer had control of his muscles.

“I used a new kind of tranquilizer, but it doesn’t work as well through winter clothes so he’ll only be dazed for a couple of minutes,” Libby said, moving toward the door. “I really hate to do this, but I don’t have a choice. Self-preservation is a strong motivator.”

“You’re not going to survive if that bomb goes off,” Cass pointed out.

“Oh, it won’t detonate for another four minutes, and I intend to be gone by then. Timing is everything.”

Four minutes.

That wasn’t nearly enough.

Cass looked around for the nearest exit. There was the door. Or a trio of windows. Libby was blocking the door, and those windows were on the other side of the room. Libby would likely shoot her before she could reach them.

“What about Matt, Molly and me?” Cass asked. “What about the other guests? You’re willing to let us all die?”

“The guests will be fine. Probably. The bomb is only meant to destroy what’s in this room. I didn’t have time to sanitize the place, and I couldn’t risk the department or the locals finding something.”

“Something that would incriminate you,” Matt mumbled. He moved, grunting at the exertion and managed to sit up, though he was still unsteady.

“What can I say? I’m human. Dominic offered me a lot of money. A bribe to give him information about the department’s investigation. He badgered me until I accepted it. And then he tried to blackmail me.”

“I could have told you he was a snake,” Cass managed to say. And she hoped she could distract Libby enough so she could overpower her and take that gun.

But how?

She couldn’t do much with Molly in her arms.

“I don’t doubt that snake part, now,” Libby concurred. “The reason I have to blow up this room is because Dominic made sure that my DNA is somewhere on the floor, and I don’t have time to clean it up. There’s no reasonable explanation I can give to Gideon as to why I’d have sex with Dominic, someone I wasn’t supposed to have even met until yesterday.”

“You had sex with him?” Cass asked. “Here? Bad idea. He records everything.”

“Spare the lecture. I underestimated him, and I have to clean up my mess. That includes destroying the disks that could prove I was here. Now, here’s the deal I’m offering you,” Libby continued. “You have three minutes left, and I need a minute of that to get to a safe part of the estate. Give me the baby, and I’ll get her to safety. But you and Matt, well, I can’t allow you to live because you’re witnesses. Make your decision quick. There isn’t much time, and I wouldn’t want Molly to get hurt or worse with flying debris in the explosion.”

The threat, and it was a threat, caused the anger to spear through Cass. There was no way she’d trust this lying scheming witch with an innocent little baby. Turning to the side so that Molly would be shielded from Libby, Cass rammed her forearm across the objects on the desk. Pens, paperweights and files went flying.

Libby whirled around, aiming her gun, but Cass dropped to the wooden floor. Cradling Molly from the impact, she landed hard on her butt. So hard that it nearly knocked the breath from her. But it didn’t matter. The distraction had worked.

Matt managed to latch on to Libby’s leg, and with a fierce growl, he dragged her to the floor.

The two of them fell against the desk, shoving it across the floor and ramming it into the chair. Cass watched in horror as the chair tipped over.

And the bomb dropped.

Cass called out for Matt to get down, but he was in a fight for his life, and he barely had any strength. He probably didn’t even hear her. She instinctively rolled over so the baby would be protected. Molly woke up and began to cry.

There was a crash. More of a thud. And she realized Libby and Matt had crashed into the door.

The device hadn’t gone off.

The relief she felt only lasted a split-second because Cass saw the timer. Less than two minutes. Oh, God. Was that even enough time to get Molly to safety, especially with Libby and Matt blocking the door?

Cass couldn’t risk it.

Obviously Matt knew that, as well, because he said with slurred speech, “Save Molly.”

Cass intended to do just that, even though the thought of leaving Matt behind broke her heart. Still, she couldn’t risk Molly’s life.

She remembered that Annette had said Dominic had a panic room. She hurried to the corner, located the tiny button. When she pressed it, the reinforced steel door slid open just as it’d done in the nursery.

Cass worked as fast as she could. She put the baby inside the panic room, and prayed the steel walls would protect her from the explosion. But she couldn’t rely on the walls alone. Plus, she had no intention of leaving Matt out there with that bomb.

She raced to the window, found the latch and shoved it open. Just touching the bomb turned her stomach, but she picked it up and tossed it out the window.

Still, it wouldn’t be enough.

The seconds were ticking off in her head.

They had less than a minute.

She went to help Matt, just as he slammed his fist into Libby’s jaw. He was obviously still weak from the tranquilizer, but that punch sent Libby crashing into the wall.

Cass didn’t bother to see if the woman was okay. She latched onto Matt’s arm and pulled him toward the panic room. “The bomb’s about to go off.”

That seemed to give him the jolt of energy he needed. Matt maneuvered her ahead of him, shoving her into the panic room. He reached for the button to close the door.

But Libby got to her feet.

And aimed her gun at them.

Matt stabbed the button and dragged Cass to the floor. But Libby fired. Before the doors could close. And the bullet crashed into the wall behind them. Thankfully, it was her only shot because the doors slammed shut.

Only then did Cass realize she’d left the disks behind. It was too late and far too risky to go back after them. Besides, every second counted.

“Go to the tunnel,” Matt ordered.

Because his arms were still affected by the tranquilizer, Cass scooped up Molly, and they ran as if their lives depended on it. Because it did.

Matt didn’t stop. He didn’t slow down. He hooked his arm around her waist, and they raced into the mouth of the steel-gray tunnel.

Behind him, the blast tore through the walls and the door.

M
ATT SHOVED OPEN
the tunnel door and pushed Molly and Cass into the open. Away from any debris that might shoot down through the tunnel.

He succeeded.

They got outside, into the freezing air. But the detonation hadn’t been quiet. Obviously, the guests had heard the noise, and there were frantic shouts and the sounds of vehicles speeding away from the estate.

“We made it,” Cass said through rough breaths. She threw Molly and herself into Matt’s arms.

Yes. But it might take a decade or so before Matt’s heartbeat could return to normal. He’d come close to losing them.

“Libby.” He cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe what she did.”

“You think she’s alive?” Cass asked.

“I doubt it.” Still, it was a chance he couldn’t take. After all, everything else had gone wrong tonight.

And then he heard a sound he actually wanted to hear. A police siren.

“Come on,” Matt said. “Let’s go back to the garden room and wait there for the sheriff.”

Since Cass was coatless and shivering, she quickly agreed. While Matt kept his gun ready, they made their way through the winter assault to the garden room.

The siren grew closer, but Matt saw something through the glass walls that was not welcome.

Ronald and Gideon were there, waiting.

Neither the guard nor Annette had moved. In fact, Annette was rocking, staring straight ahead as if seeing nothing. Someone, Ronald probably, had tended to the guard’s wounds. And both Ronald and Gideon were definitely standing guard.

Ronald opened the door for them. “Are you all okay?”

Matt didn’t answer. After what they’d been through tonight, all he could do was keep a close watch on Ronald and Gideon.

“Libby might be dead,” Matt informed them. He stepped inside, keeping himself in front of Cass and Molly. Molly, too, had apparently had enough of this because she started to fuss.

Gideon stepped toward him, but his attention soon landed on Cass. Judging from the way he bunched up his forehead, he wasn’t happy to see her.

“Libby
is
dead,” Gideon explained. “Her body is in the hall just outside what’s left of Dominic’s office. What happened?”

“She took a bribe from Dominic, and then he tried to blackmail her. She stole the surveillance disks that would have proved her guilt—and Cass’s innocence.”

“You personally saw what was on the disks?” Gideon asked.

Matt really hated to admit this. “No. But Libby admitted that she’d accepted money from Dominic, and then she tried to kill us.”

Gideon shoved his hands into the pockets of his tux pants. “So, Libby was the one who sent those assassins after you.”

“How would she have known to do that?” Matt wanted to know.

“Through the leak she’d established in communications. When you started asking questions about Molly and the adoption, Libby was probably concerned that you’d come to Dominic’s estate to get your child, and in doing so, you’d find out that she was on Dominic’s payroll.” Gideon shook his head. “I knew the person responsible for the leak and the havoc was someone close to me, but until tonight I didn’t know who.”

“Well, now you know,” Matt practically snarled. “Too bad you didn’t find out sooner. It would have saved Cass and me a lot of grief.”

“Yes.” Gideon paused. “I’m sorry about that. And I’m sorry about what I have to do next.”

Gideon walked closer, so that he could face Cass. “Cassandra Harrison, you’re under arrest.”