A Christmas to Die For_Mrs. A 1 Read online

Bryan looked up from the security desk. “Second floor is clear. That’s the lab floor,” he added for Mrs. Arbuthnot’s benefit. “It doesn’t have as many people as the third and fourth floors.”

  Jeffers said, “It looks like your auditing team is here.” He turned and walked over to the big glass doors. He unlocked the door as Mrs. A joined him.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said to the tall, white haired man. “I’m Ruth Arbuthnot.”

  “Daryl Price.” He stepped away from the door and a gaggle of men and women walked into the foyer. “These are my techs. After talking to you, I rethought my strategy. Since this is a computer facility, I thought I should have my techs do a thorough search of all the computers. I think that there may be booby-traps in the computers that could damage or destroy the data we need. They’ll make sure everything is clean and safe before the accountants begin their work.”

  Bryan walked over from the security station. “Mrs. A., Andrew Paradise is threatening to sue if we don’t let him go.”

  “Do we have grounds to hold him?” She asked.

  Bryan nodded. “We’re investigating corporate espionage. Since you have government defense contracts, we can hold them on possible terrorist connections using the Homeland Security Act.”

  “Let’s do it. It seems to me that he must have something to hide or he wouldn’t be throwing a fit and threatening to sue.” Ruth said. “I could never see why Edward thought so much of him. He always felt a little slimy to me.”

  Price shrugged. “It could be that he’s so used to having his own way that he’d throw a fit over anything, but in my experience, it does look suspicious.” He turned and followed his team to the elevators. Bryan motioned for a couple of his men to go with them.”

  Bryan looked at Mrs. A. “It would probably make things go more smoothly, if you requested that each person give the computer techs their passwords.”

  “Good idea and if they won’t we’ll know they have something to hide.” He followed her toward the elevators where Mr. Price was holding open the doors.

  Mrs. Arbuthnot sighed as she headed for the corporate conference room. All of the ‘big wigs’, as she thought of them, were waiting for her including Andrew Paradise.

  Martin stopped her at the door. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked her. The last meeting with the managers had gotten ugly. He had had to call down for more security before she could finish with them.

  “I don’t know. I think we’ve learned a lot from my talking to them. I’m just not sure if the ones who have been so abusive are guilty or insulted.”

  “I would think that it didn’t matter. I’d be for getting rid of the abusive ones whether they were guilty or not. They may not be guilty, but I wouldn’t want them contaminating the new hires. I’m sure you will have to hire a bunch of new people.”

  She nodded. “I would think that we could tell a lot from the passwords. If they don’t work, there’s a really good chance that they are guilty.”

  He put his hand on the door knob. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” she looked up at him. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Jeffers pulled open the door and allowed Mrs. A to precede him. She walked to the foot of the conference table. Andrew Paradise was seated at the head.

  “I’m sorry to put you to all this trouble,” she said politely, watching the sneer deepen on Andrew’s face. “However, I have received a number of complaints about this company. Since we have government contracts I must take those complaints seriously. I would appreciate it if you would write your name, your password and your computer station on the sticky notes that Martin is passing out to you. As soon as your computer is checked, Price and Associates will begin their audit.

  “Corporate espionage is serious business especially with the government contracts we handle. If anyone has something that they want to say, they can talk with Abraham Bryan my security chief.”

  Andrew Paradise sprang to his feet. “Who do you think you are? You have no right to come in here and throw your weight around. You haven’t done anything with this business since your husband died so how would you know anything about anything.” His voice thickened and his fair, boyish skin reddened.

  Before he could say anything else, Ruth held up her hand, “I own this business which gives me every right to come in and throw my weight around. I know what is going on with all my businesses. Because you haven’t made a profit since my husband died nine months ago, I had decided to shut the business down as soon as the last government contract was completed.” She looked at their shocked faces.

  “Don’t look so shocked. I’m not in business for my health. I see no reason to subsidize a business that is doing so poorly. However, it has come to my attention that certain people in this firm have been seen in close contact with a person that I know wants to purchase this business, so I decided on a security screen and an audit before I shut it down. I think that someone is trying to drive the business into the ground, so I’ll sell it. Some of you may be in on that plot. If so, you’ll be prosecuted to the full extent of the law under the Homeland Security Act. You should also know that under than act, you can be held as long as is warranted without the council of an attorney”

  Paradise strode down the length of the long mahogany table to stand toe to toe with Mrs. A. He said very softly, “I don’t know what you think you’ll find. None of us is doing anything illegal. You’re opening yourself up to a huge defamation lawsuit.”

  Ruth smiled coldly. “I have a feeling you think I’m stupid. It’s true that I have been grieving my beloved husband, but I do know about business. More than half of Arbuthnot Management was mine before we married. I started it and ran it at a profit for years. I did my homework before I organized this audit.”

  Paradise didn’t miss the mulish look on her face when she finished speaking.

  Without raising his voice, he hissed, “You don’t have the guts to do anything. You’re going to call off your security goons and your corporate paper pushers and let us get back to our jobs.”

  Shocked, her first inclination was to step back, but her anger stiffened her spine. “Mr. Paradise, you are fired. You will remain here until our investigation is completed. Once that is done, I expect to have you charged with either corporate espionage or violations of the Homeland Security Act.”

  One hand shot toward her neck, his other hand curled into a fist, but as he raised it to hit her, Jeffers grabbed his wrist and yanked it behind his back as Martin grabbed his hand from her neck. Jeffers pulled a pair of handcuffs from behind his back, slammed them on Paradise’s wrists, then he frog-marched him back to his chair. Slamming him in it, he said, “Stay there or I’ll make sure that you can’t leave.”

  Without a word, Mrs. Arbuthnot turned and walked out of the room, Martin following closely behind her. Jeffers pulled a radio from his belt. He explained the situation to the men who were standing outside the doors, saying, “Move inside. Keep your hands on your weapons. Call down if there’s a problem especially with Paradise. I’m calling for more security in here.”

  As the elevator opened, Jeffers hurried over to Bryan and began explaining what had happened in the fourth-floor conference room.

  Wearily, Mrs. A followed him. She sank down on to one of the leather upholstered chairs that looked out the window.

  Martin walked over. “Mrs. A., don’t forget you have the Welcome Back meeting in thirty minutes and it takes almost that long to get there.”

  She glanced at her watch. “I can’t believe we’ve been here for nearly an hour and a half.”

  As they walked toward the limousine, Martin said, “I think we’re going to find that Paradise is guilty of more than malfeasance. I hope Bryan tells his security men to prepare for the nasty traps that I’ll bet are set on the computers.”

  Mrs. A nodded, “I just hope they don’t go boom!”

  Chapter 3

  Downtown El Paso—same day

  As the limousine pulle
d up in front of City Hall, Martin said, “Mrs. A, are you sure you’re up to this meeting. You’ve had a long morning.”

  Heaving a deep sigh, she said, “I have to be up to it. You know Edith Southby is the chairwoman assigned to this celebration by the mayor. She can’t keep Alice Van Ostendorf from ruining everything without me there to back her. I am very grateful to the men of the 847 division for their service in Afghanistan and I won’t let her antiwar attitude ruin their return.”

  Martin smiled as he got out and helped her from the limo. He followed her up the stairs and opened the heavy main door. “Martin, I don’t need you to come with me. I will be all right.”

  Without a word, he walked through the small vestibule and opened the inner door. “After what went on today, I think you need someone to watch your back. I’m going to sit on that hard bench outside the door and read my book. Please do not argue with me. I may only be a butler, but your husband charged me with your safety before he died.”

  Ruth gave a barely heard gasp, looked at him and nodded. He must be worried or he wouldn’t have said anything about my husband.

  “All right, but it will look funny.”

  “You can tell them that I’m getting my driver’s license renewed, if anyone asks.” He said as he pulled open the door.

  The noise hit her hard, as she walked into the room. Edith Southby was trying desperately to bring the meeting to order, but she couldn’t be heard over the yelling. Alice Van Ostendorf, Abigail Seaman and Judith Hendricks had gathered in the middle of the room. They were so angry that none of them realized that Edith was talking.

  Edith sent her an imploring look. Ruth walked to Edith’s side. Nancy Appleby was standing next to Edith.

  “What happened?” Ruth asked, leaning close to Edith and Nancy so they could hear her.

  “They were at it when we arrived,” Nancy said.

  Edith added, “We’ve been trying to get their attention for five minutes. Nothing I do penetrates.”

  Ruth said, “Maybe we should adjourn to another room and have our meeting. Once they come up for air, we could tell them what we decided.”

  “Yeah, right.” Nancy said. “We’d all be bald by the time they got through with us.”

  Ruth laughed. “Too true. Pardon my noise,” she said as she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. Her cousin, Jeremy had taught her how to whistle when she was ten. It was loud, long and piercing.

  The women stopped in mid-tirade and turned to look at Ruth.

  “I didn’t know you could whistle like that,” Nancy said. “Can you teach me how?”

  “Later,” Ruth said quietly as Edith called the meeting to order.

  Ruth and Nancy quickly took their seats around the table, one on either side of Edith. With obvious reluctance, Alice, Abigail and Judith walked to the table. Judith sat next to Ruth and Abigail next to Nancy. Alice, a scowl on her face, sat at the end of the table. There were two seats separating her from the other women.

  Ruth admired Edith’s organization. Twenty minutes later, each woman had volunteered to chair the different committees that Edith had suggested. The only two committees that were left were cleanup and parking.

  After twenty minutes’ discussion, Alice snapped, “I’ll take the damned cleanup. You can give the parking to Ruth. She has three other committees she’s over, but I’m sure she can find one of her precious businesses to provide the parking valets for free.”

  Before anyone could say anything, she got up, shoved the door opened, stormed through and slammed it behind her. Evidently, she had run into someone because they could hear her yelling.

  When her voice had receded, Ruth said, “Obviously she isn’t happy with me, but I’ll be glad to take on the parking committee. I think Jeri Whatley might be interested in chairing that committee. Her husband runs El Paso East and they have valet parking. Since this is going to be a huge event, it might be good to get some licensed, bonded professionals to help park the cars.”

  Edith looked at the budget. “I can’t give you much money to hire professionals. For an event of this size, we don’t have much budget.”

  Nancy said, “Why don’t we list sponsors in the program. I’ll bet we can get more money and help by doing that.”

  “Good idea,” Judith said. “We could even ask the wives of those we need help from to be on the committees. Most of these women would jump at the chance. It’s the social even of the year.”

  “Do we need to vote on this?” Edith asked. “We do have a quorum without Alice.”

  “It looks like everyone is in favor so let’s just do it.” Ruth said. “I’ll ask Jeri if she’ll chair the parking committee and suggest she ask some of the other hotel or restaurant owner’s wives to be on the committee. Let these big outfits get a tax break and pay their people for their services.”

  They talked for a few more minutes, then Edith adjourned the meeting.

  Chapter 4

  Day Two--Carlsbad Caverns

  Ignoring her family, grey haired, octogenarian Edith Thornton headed for the Lower Cave Overlook. As she hobbled down the asphalted path, marveling at the huge columns that lined the path, she caught a bright silver glint out of the corner of her eye. Intrigued, she paused. Even though Carlsbad wasn’t a limestone cavern hollowed out by water like the caves at Monmouth, Kentucky, the park ranger in the visitor’s center had told them that occasionally large crystals had been found embedded in various stalactites and stalagmites. It was rare for a tourist to see one. Most of them were in off limit parts of the caverns.

  I wonder if that’s a crystal and I’m one of the few tourists to notice it.

  As she hobbled closer to the overlook, the crystal faded from view. Maybe I can see it from the overlook. Maybe one of the rangers can tell me what kind of crystal it is. Her love of geology began to surface, overcoming her aching feet and back.

  When she finally reached the overlook, she plopped down on the stone wall to catch her breath. After a few minutes, she began scanning the Lower Cave, looking for her crystal. As she squinted through the gloom, she noticed a peculiar lump right by her crystal at the base of one the stalagmites. She shifted position and looked again. The lump was still there, but now it had a vaguely human form

  “What the heck?” She muttered to herself. “That’s the weirdest shaped rock, I’ve seen all day and I’ve seen a bunch of weird rocks,” she muttered as she thought back to the Bashful Baby Hippo, the Frozen Waterfall and the Veiled Statue and a dozen other rocks with names.

  She pulled the flashlight she always carried out of her purse. Quickly, she shined the light at the lump. She groaned in frustration. The flashlight was too small and too weak to reach the lump. All it did was lighten the gloom a fraction, but as she stared at the rock, details began to materialize and she saw the silver glint again.

  She tipped her head. Finally, she looked around for a ranger. There was a young man standing at the other side of the Overlook talking to her son and his wife. She stared at him until he looked over at her. Quickly, she beckoned to him.

  Excusing himself to her son, he walked over to her. “Can I help you, ma’am? He asked respectfully.

  “Do you have a flashlight?” She demanded.

  “Yes, ma’am. We all carry flashlights.”

  “Please don’t call me ma’am. I know you are being respectful, but it makes me feel like I’m four hundred and thirty-seven instead of eighty-two.”

  He grinned, making him look about seventeen. “Is it okay if I call you miss?”

  She smiled back. “That makes me feel like I’m sixteen. I like that.”

  “Okay, miss. How can I help you?”

  “Would you please shine your flashlight over at that lump? It looks a lot like a human body. I know that you have lots of rocks that look like human bodies, but I thought I saw a glint of metal and it worries me for some reason.”

  He glanced in the direction she was pointing. Rapidly, he pulled his high-powered LED flashlight from his belt
and flashed toward the lump of rock. He squinted at the shape.

  “Would you please hold this on the rock?” He asked as he handed her the flashlight.

  She reached for it with a shaky hand, but her son grabbed it away from her.

  “I can hold steadier,” he said. She glared at him, but didn’t say anything.

  The young ranger pulled a small pair of binoculars from his belt, focusing them on the rock. “That’s not a rock,” He announced. “It looks like a bundle of clothes.”

  She looked at him, “But why would anyone throw a bundle of old clothes into the Lower Cave? It’s not the Catholic Thrift store.”

  “I’m sure I don’t know ma’a—I mean miss.”

  She looked at his name plate that said, Simms. Edith held out her hand. “Mr. Simms, can I look at it through your binoculars?”

  Rather reluctantly, he handed them to her. She put them to her eyes and focused them. She looked closely, moved her son’s hand that was holding the flashlight to a different angle, then said, “I think you’d better look again. It looks like there’s a hand sticking out from under the coat.”

  He grabbed the binoculars from her, looking again. His face went white. “I think you’re right. Please stay here while I contact my superiors.”

  He walked away from them, toward a phone by the elevators. Quietly, he spoke into it. He listened for a minute, nodded, then turned back to the small group that now consisted of Mrs. Thornton, her son, daughter-in-law and her three-year-old grandson who was trying to fall over the wall into the Lower Cave.

  As he walked toward them, he saw the young mother try, ineffectually, to control the child, but just as he was about to fall, Mrs. Thornton grabbed him, sitting him hard on the stones, “Eric, you sit down and don’t you move or I’ll paddle your britches until you’ll have to stand up to eat.”

  “Mother,” Mary Jane said plaintively, “How do you make him mind you. He just ignores me.”

  Edith Thornton looked over at her. “To my way of thinking, you try too hard to be his friend. You aren’t his friend. You are his mother. Try acting like it. You can be his friend when he’s twenty-five, if he lives that long.”