The Christmas Clue Read Online Free PDF

think this through, we may be able to skip anything illegal. For starters, I know the head groundskeeper at the estate. He’s a semifriend, and he can hire us as part of the crew who’ll be decorating the estate for Christmas. That way we wouldn’t technically be breaking and entering.”
    “No. We’d only be stealing. Last time I checked that was still a crime even for former debutantes.”
    She hated that label and hated even more that it bugged her. And he knew it bugged her.
    “You have a right to your daughter,” she reminded him. “And Dominic obviously isn’t planning on just handing her over, or he would have already done it. If he didn’t know beforehand, he certainly suspects now that the adoption was illegal. It was all over the news, and the lawyer who handled Molly’s adoption was arrested.”
    “All of that could mean nothing.” But his body language told her that Matt knew she was right.
    Cass pushed a little harder. “Here’s my suggestion. You ask for some vacation time. If your boss wants to know why, you can say it’s some sort of family emergency. Which it is. Then, you borrow the jamming equipment, and we can leave immediately. If all goes well, you could be back as soon as the day after tomorrow—with your little girl.”
    “No,” he said, buttoning his shirt.
    Stunned, Cass replayed that one word, hoping she’d heard him wrong. “No? To what part of the plan?”
    “To all of it.”
    She replayed that, as well, and it didn’t sound any better the fifth time around. “But what about Molly?”
    He shrugged. “That’s what official channels are for.”
    Cass could have pointed out all the pitfalls associated with official channels, especially since Dominic was now part of those channels. However, Matt Christensen knew what was at stake here. He knew that Dominic could hide the child so that no one could get to her—ever. He knew what could go wrong, and yet he was obviously willing to risk doing this the official way.
    “Okay,” Cass mumbled. She took a deep breath and pushed her hair away from her forehead. “So, I guess this is goodbye. No hard feelings, I hope.”
    With that, she started for the door.
    She didn’t get far.
    He snagged her by the arm. “You think you’re leaving?”
    Since that sounded like a challenge, her chin came up. “I am leaving.” She tried not to sound hesitant.
    But she was. Heaven help her, she was.
    Special Agent Matt Christensen had been her best shot at clearing her name. Without him, she didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of doing that.
    “It’d be suicide for you to try to break into Dominic’s estate alone,” he pointed out.
    “I have insider help, remember?”
    “Yeah, and if that were enough, you wouldn’t have come here in the first place.”
    Touché.
    Yes, she had an insider, Hollis Becker, Dominic’s head groundskeeper and the man in charge of external security for the estate. Because she was paying him well, he was good at eavesdropping, keeping track of Dominic and taking the occasional picture for her. But Hollis wouldn’t be able to get her past the internal security system there. No, the best he could do was get her a fake job as a seasonal helper, give her a temporary place to stay and tidbits of information as to Dominic’s immediate whereabouts. That would give her, perhaps, an opportunity to sneak inside the basement of Dominic’s estate.
    Cass tried to move out of his grip, but he held on, latching on to her other arm as well. She really hated the idea of kneeing him in the groin, but if it came down to it, she would. If she stayed, she’d end up in jail and therefore, dead.
    “Once I’m inside the estate, I’ll do everything within my power to get your daughter out of there,” she explained, even though it was hard to deliver a calm explanation with her emotions doing a foot race inside her.
    He blinked. “You’d actually try to get the baby out?”
    “Of course.” Cass watched the surprise