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is a sofa or a cot also. Don’t let him out of your sight if he leaves.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    They know. Sure as I’m sitting here in my office, those guys know they have tails on them. “I know it, I know it, I know it!” Maggie muttered over and over to herself. She banged on her desktop, but all that produced was a pain in her hand that made her bite her tongue to keep from crying out. “Now what do I do?”

Chapter 5
    Ted Robinson looked at the beat-up car he would be driving to Middleburg. No GPS. Crank windows. He hoped the heater worked. He looked at Espinosa and shrugged. “Hey, it has wheels and will get us there. At least I hope so. It’s only forty-five miles or so to Middleburg. With luck, we should make it in about an hour. Punch it in on that supersmart phone of yours and just read me the directions. Keep an eye out to make sure we really did shake our tail.”
    Ted sailed up the ramp and roared out of the garage, stunned at the power under the hood of the car he was driving. As far as he could tell, no one was following him. He paid attention to traffic while he listened to Espinosa fire off directions for fifteen minutes before he settled down for the stretch of highway that would take him to the Sandford family farm.
    “What’s our plan, Ted? Do we even have a plan?”
    Ted grinned. “Sort of. More or less. Key in the local newspapers in Middleburg. I think it’s the Middleburg Life that caters to the Sandfords and their Christmas decorations. Mrs. Sandford wins every year. I’m thinking we can bluff our way through something there. We might have to convince Maggie to let us run some fluff pieces to make it legit. We might need to be extra charming, so work on that, Espinosa.”
    Espinosa grunted something that sounded like I’m always charming , to which Ted muttered something that sounded like, in your dreams.
    They rode in silence for a few moments, Ted’s eyes on the road and on his rearview mirror, Espinosa’s eyes on the screen of his smartphone.
    “Two weeks till Christmas! Hard to believe. Are you planning on buying Alexis a Christmas present?”
    Espinosa stopped what he was doing and looked over at Ted. “Is that a trick question? She dumped me. Why would I buy her a present? Are you buying Maggie one?” he asked snidely.
    “As a matter of fact, I am. I’m buying her a banana tree. What do you think of that ?”
    “I think you’re nuts is what I think. At this time last year, we were already invited out to Myra’s for Christmas. I didn’t get an invitation or a call, did you?”
    “Nope. I’m thinking it’s just going to be me, you, and Minnie and Mickey this year,” Ted said, referring to his two cats. “I’ll cook if you want to come over. I’m going to pick up my Christmas tree this weekend. Want to help me decorate it on Sunday?”
    “Sure. Okay, here we go, five miles as the crow flies, you make a right on Stallion Road, you follow that for two miles, then that should take us to a private road called Sandford Farm Lane, which will take us to the front door. I sure as hell hope this works, but I doubt that it will. I have not read one pleasant thing about that woman.”
    “The woman hasn’t been born yet who doesn’t or won’t react to flattery. I learned that from Maggie. We pour on the charm, tell her she’ll be on the front page of the Lifestyle section. That’s big time.”
    The duo had ridden in silence for another ten minutes when Espinosa said, “Slow down. See that prancing stallion on the side? Make a right. We’re almost there.”
    “Do you think they have any kind of security out here?” Ted asked.
    Espinosa shrugged. “The lieutenant governor travels with a carful, but I think I heard a while back or read somewhere that out here in the boonies, he’s just another farm owner, and there’s no need. That might have changed since I heard that.”
    “The only time you need security is when you’re doing something wrong. Don’t go jumping