Retired from the Marine Corps and the California Department of Corrections Major Matt Rommel''s life has been one long exercise in applied violence. A docent at San Francisco''s Palace of the Legion of Honor he spends his days surrounded by art treasures and his nights in the Mission District at Vince''s bar.. The years have also changed the life of Carolyn Kast leaving her with a failed marriage to a man committed only to his forlorn hope of a technology company. Now Carolyn is a single mother in her middle forties with a fledgling ad agency and two partners who are always at each other''s throats. Worse it is becoming clear that someone is trying to kill her.. Six-year-old Aubrey knows what to do. Go to the museum to the man she has decided is an enforcer for Santa Claus: The Scary Man!