Page 49 of A Colby Christmas Rescue

“Well, there are mitigating circumstances that prevented me from telling you these things.”

Jamie held up her hand. “Start from the beginning and tell me those things now. Right now.”

“Shall we retire to the living room where it isn’t quite so stuffy and humid?”

Jamie sidled past him. She had not been this furious in recent history. These two men were people she trusted. Well, Poe more so than Abi, but she trusted them both on some level. And one or both were yanking her chain in a very dangerous game.

If not for needing to stay in complete control for her brother’s sake, she could definitely use a drink right now. This was beyond nuts. When she reached the great room, she couldn’t sit down. Instead, she leaned against the bar and waited. Poe took a position next to her. Abi sat on the sofa with an I-see-how-it-is face.

“Dr. Case has an identical twin brother who was used as his body double when the need arose. And, for a while, it did appear that he was choosing patients who paid a bonus for his services. But then, about two months ago he learned that his twin brother was scamming his patients. He was pretending to be the surgeon and, in a way, filtering the patients. Only those who were prepared to pay a huge extra fee under the table were put on the surgeon’s schedule. When he found out, Dr. Case chose not to press charges since the man was his brother. Instead, he warned that if his brother ever showed his face around him again, he would see that he paid for what he had done.”

Jamie could see where this was going. “So the scam was discovered and remediated before your employer was in need of surgery. Since Dr. Case never chose patients in this way, he would cut off his hands before agreeing to such a thing.”

“Exactly. Which leaves us with the plan as I’ve lain out to you already.”

Jamie turned to Poe. “Sound plausible to you?”

Abi rolled his eyes. “Really?”

“I can see that scenario happening,” Poe said, ignoring Abi. “Nothing the Colby Agency found opposes the possibility of that scenario.”

“Knowing all that, what do we do now?” Jamie asked. “My brother is still caught in all this.”

“While we were at the party,” Abi explained, “I left a couple of bugs in the house. Popped a couple of tracking devices on cars. We’re just waiting to hear there’s movement.”

“Is the Case’s vacation still on?” Jamie asked. How long were they going to be in a waiting stance? She needed to find her brother and get him out of this mess.

“The vacation is still on. At some point this morning, the family is supposed to prepare to leave. The time is being withheld for reasons that are obvious.”

“If the family loads up to go on vacation,” Poe said, “there will be all manner of security involved. Are we going to end up in a shootout?”

“We are not. We will step in before they get into the family limo to make their escape,” Abi explained.

“Have you spoken with your employer since the emergency fiasco? Any update on who this fake nurse was?” That still bugged Jamie.

“We have reason to believe someone else has decided to make an attempt on the doctor.”

Having one desperate individual ready to cross so many lines to make something happen was one thing but to have two—at least—competing to achieve the same goal was more than a little disturbing.

“How do we know there won’t be additional attempts?” Jamie started to pace. She couldn’t help herself. The situation was not contained at all. There were far too many variables.

“We have no control over what others do,” Abi argued. “We can only move forward with our own plan until some sort of roadblock pops up in our path and then we go around it.” He looked directly at Jamie. “That’s why I told my employer we needed the best.”

This conversation was feeling repetitive. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but this is far too risky for comfort.”

Poe added, “My gut says that we should move on our own count and not based on the movements of others.”

“Waiting could be a mistake,” Jamie agreed. She turned to Abi. “It gives the other team more opportunity to try a second strike.”

“We are not moving prematurely,” Abi argued. “There is nothing to be gained by jumping the gun, so to speak.”

“Let’s talk about this,” Jamie pushed back. “We just spent six hours at the hospital because someone posing as a nurse called in a fake emergency. Now, we’re tired—the security supporting Dr. Case are no doubt tired as well. And we’re standing around here as if we have all the time in the world and no one else is even thinking about this sort of thing.”

“All right.” Abi pushed to his feet. “I will call my employer and see if he will agree to our moving forward now.”

He walked outside and closed the glass doors behind him.

Poe turned to Jamie. “We need to be prepared. Luke is depending on us to ensure this goes down right and, frankly, I’m losing any and all confidence in what he’s doing.”

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