Ruth tugged Nana in a vicious Heimlich maneuver. Nana’s muffled gasp tore at my heart. She slumped, unconscious.
“Nana!” I cried, starting toward her.
“Get back!” Ruth said. “Damn.” Tightening her hold around my grandmother, she pulled her hands close enough to start unscrewing the vial. “Get me out now, or I swear…”
“Okay.” My fear made it almost impossible to breathe. “Keep the bottle closed. Please.”
She looked both directions. “Which way out?” she asked. Then, as I started to move toward her, she yelled at me to stop again. “I don’t trust you.”
At that moment the trees behind Ruth parted and a giant purple bunny emerged. But this one was headless. The second Guzy brother held one finger on his lips as the other reached into the side of his costume. I prayed he was going for his gun.
“You can trust me,” I said, talking quickly. “You can. There is a way to get you out. I know how to do it.”
Ruth shook her head. When she let Nana’s body go, it dropped almost soundlessly to the ground. My heart dropped with her.
“No,” she said. “You won’t do it. You’re one of those bleeding-heart patriots.” Her words came fast. “But…” She glanced at the vial, then at Nana’s prone form. “I can make sure you won’t follow me.” She bent, intending to pour the liquid onto Nana’s face.
I rushed her, just as the Guzy behind Ruth shouted, “Stop!”
Her head jerked up.
The split-second delay was all I needed. I hit Ruth in a full-body tackle, grabbing her bony wrist, dragging it away from Nana as far as I could. Ruth and I twisted together as we fell to the ground. She gurgled her surprise, but recovered quickly and began fighting me, hard.
Her face contorted with effort, she yanked her arm. I felt her wrist slipping out of my grasp but the bottle flew from her hand. Time seemed to move in slow motion as the vial somersaulted about six inches above her face, about six inches below mine. I clenched my mouth and eyes shut until I heard the dull thud of the glass hitting bone. It had bounced off her cheek, spilling its contents all over her face-some in her eyes-with the bulk running down her cheek and into her open mouth. I immediately let go and jumped away from her, feeling my own face for any vestige of the deadly liquid on me. Dry. Thank God. Ruth sat up and spit, crying out for help as she clawed at her eyes.
I whirled to grab my grandmother by her shoulders. “Nana?”
She blinked up at me. “Are we safe now?”
None of the liquid had landed anywhere near my grandmother. I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“Are we safe?” Nana asked again.
“Yes,” I said. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“Help me up,” she said.
“Maybe we should wait for the paramedics. You shouldn’t move around so fast.”
She boosted herself on one arm. “Help me up,” she said again, this time forcefully. “You think I didn’t do that on purpose?”
“You faked passing out?”
“Dead weight is always harder to work with,” she said as she got to her feet. “Figured you needed some assistance on this one, honey. Glad your old nana was here to help.”
We gave Ruth and Guzy wide berth as he came behind her, pulling out his handcuffs from within his fuzzy costume. “Careful,” I warned. I pointed to the vial and to Ruth, who was sobbing into the soft grass. “Tetrodotoxin.”
The headless rabbit spoke into his microphone as he knelt next to her.
The emergency staff quickly surrounded us. Joel broke through. “Mom?” He scanned the crowd before kneeling at his mother’s side. “What happened? Who did this?”
Ruth had begun to hyperventilate, screaming about a conspiracy, but I noticed her gasping for air. I couldn’t watch. And I didn’t want Nana to see any of it either. I walked her away from the crowd. “Let’s get you inside,” I said. Secret Service agents swarmed the area, and we made a slow trek toward the White House. Within seconds, Mom joined us.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you later. Where’s Kap?”
She pointed back in the direction we’d come. “He’s checking on Mr. Cooper. Ollie, what just happened?”
Nana held my mom’s hand. “Corinne, we figured it out. Me and Ollie. We figured out who killed that Minkus fellow.” She looked up at me. “I don’t understand why, though. Do you know?”
I shook my head. Even if I had suspicions, I wasn’t ready to share them aloud.
“See, Corinne,” Nana continued, “it’s just like I always say. She takes after me.” Reaching up to pat my cheek, she said, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh?”
CHAPTER 25
CRAIG SANDERSON CIRCLED MY CHAIR FOR the third time.
This small office in the East Wing-the same one where I’d waited to be interrogated by Secret Service assistant deputy Jack Brewster last week-was cold. I kept my hands together between my knees for warmth, but shivered involuntarily. Craig smiled at my discomfort, and tried to share the enjoyment with the only other person in the room, Agent Snyabar.
Snyabar stared straight ahead. Totally impassive.
Craig started in on me again. “You told the medic on the scene that Agent Cooper had ingested tetrodotoxin.”
It wasn’t exactly a question, so I didn’t answer.
He rubbed his chin, feigning thoughtfulness as he continued to pace around me. “I have to wonder how you knew which toxin killed Carl Minkus.”
Still not a direct question. I bit the insides of my mouth.
“Not that we aren’t grateful, mind you. Agent Cooper is in intensive care, but is expected to make a full recovery.” He stopped and looked down at me. “I’m sure he’s very appreciative of your intervention. And your prescience. How did you know what he’d been poisoned with? Oh wait! I forgot just who we’re dealing with here-the White House chef who feeds the First Family and saves the world in her spare time.” A frown contorted his face as he glared down at me. “Like a special agent in disguise. Talk about delusions.”
Silence hung in the air between us. I stared at the walls.
Craig cleared his throat. “Ms. Paras, you made a special effort to inform me that you and Agent MacKenzie were no longer… in your words, ‘in a relationship.’ ”
I looked up at him.
His eyebrows arched upward. “Why?”
“I told you why. So that you could no longer hold him responsible for my actions.”
He made a sound like, “Tsk.”
“What?” I asked.
He exhaled loudly. “This is an unfortunate turn of events. However, the ends do not justify the means.”
“What are you talking about?”
Craig’s smile was just nasty as his frown. I wanted to slap it off his face. “While I’m sure Agent Cooper is indebted to you for saving his life, it is clear to me that you could not have known about the toxin unless Agent MacKenzie breached security by telling you.”
I jumped in my chair. “He didn’t tell me.”
“Oh, I suppose you guessed?”
“Yeah, kind of. I figured it out.”
Craig seemed to find that funny. He looked up at Snyabar again. The other agent kept his eyes forward. “And how- exactly-were you able to figure out something so incredibly obscure?”
I bit my lip. I couldn’t mention Kap. Late yesterday, I had been debriefed to the extent deemed necessary. Kap was, indeed, not the man he appeared to be. A covert CIA agent, he and Cooper had uncovered Carl Minkus’s deep secret. It was Minkus who had been selling intelligence to China for years. Cooper and Kap were on the verge of being able to prove his treason-but then Minkus died. In the White House.
“I hear things, and I can put two and two together.” Sitting up a little straighter, I added, “That’s a talent that comes in handy, don’t you think?”
“Two plus two,” he said. “In addition to being a culinary genius, the chef is a math whiz.” His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. “You will be interested to know that I have taken steps to dismiss Agent MacKenzie from the PPD.”