Page 6 of The Great Reindeer Caper

Almost straight. She kept to the side enough to allow Jackson—who hadn’t taken his eyes off the man—or the point of his Glock—since they’d left the room.

“Here!” She declared. “Here is what you’re after, although how you managed to get involved with a human being who committed such horrid murders is beyond me, unless you’re another like him and—”

Zing!

She had done it just right; the man at the door had given her his attention, reaching out with his free hand to take the flute.

And Jackson was a crack shot.

Truly, a crack shot.

The gun went flying from the man’s hand as Jackson’s bullet exploded against his wrist.

Screaming in pain, he still tried to reach for the flute.

Angela hit the release for the blade, stabbing him through the offending hand.

And then, of course, everything happened at once.

EMTs arrived with NYPD right behind them. The injured man tried to babble something out about them attacking him, but the police noted the mask he was wearing; and, of course, Angela and Jackson quickly had pulled out their credentials. One of the officers almost punched the man in the mask.

The best thing, of course, was that no one had been killed. And they had the murder weapon which would be turned over to the police immediately, tested for fingerprints and DNA, and used when a killer attempted to escape his sentence.

And the bad . . .

The mass confusion and chaos, Mr. Austin trying to deny the fact that he really needed to be checked out at a hospital, the masked man trying to claim that he was the one being attacked, and both Benedict and Terence shouting their own version of everything that had happened.

And somehow, thankfully, there were no serious injuries in the great pile-up. As one of the officers told Angela and Jackson, the good thing about massive traffic that moved at about a mile a minute was that wrecks didn’t tend to be deadly.

“So!” the ghost said to Angela as they stood, waiting for the EMTs to take the masked man with mangled hand away, “Thank you, thank you! Thank you for my son!”

“I’m so very sorry for what happened to you!” Angela whispered to her.

“What was that?” one of the officers asked her.

“Oh, I was just being grateful that . . .”

“That the great reindeer caper ended with no fatalities!” an EMT called out.

And looking at the officer, Angela shrugged. “Right!” she said softly.

“You know the rest of you need to come to the station—”

“Of course we know,” Jackson said. “Statements. So, let’s do it.”

It took most of the night, but Mr. Austin was quickly released from the hospital, and he was true to his word. He didn’t want to cause any further pain to Benedict; and as it happened, he wanted a young clerk to help him out. Benedict had been looking for work, and a true friendship was born. As far as anyone knew, the danger had come from the masked man; and the NYPD were glad that agents had been in the store—just browsing, of course. What else could one do in the middle of a reindeer caper at Christmas?

The “masked” man turned out to be a cousin of the murderer, someone who had been coerced into believing a lie. He’d go to jail himself—but not for nearly as long as he might have gone had he carried out his determination to secure the flute to a point where he had shot someone. He swore he would never really shoot anyone, Of course, for the pain he had received for holding a loaded gun on others, he was going to have a long, long healing process.

Thankfully, Mary Tiger was in the city with them. She took the kids to see Santa Claus. And even though Corby wasa teenager who no longer believed in Santa Claus, he always pretended to for his little sister. And again, thankfully, they gave statements, careful that they told the truth. But, of course, the truth in this situation could be seen in various ways. It was natural that Benedict might have been in the shop having recently learned that Mr. Austin had acquired such a treasure.

It wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that they left the police precinct.

And it was there that the ghost of Benedict’s mother met them. Angela realized that she had been waiting for them all the time that they’d been there.

She’d been able to see that Benedict and Terrance had both been released. Angela hadn’t been sure at first how Terrance had managed to go free when the police must have discovered the gun on him, but it had turned out to be a realistic toy gun. And possibly because it was Christmas time, he’d gotten a severe warning on how not to own or carry such a “toy.”

Both of them had left for home. And they were about to receive a ride out to their home-away-from-home.