Ken Douglas - Death Glitch

She’d jumped into a pair of Levi’s. Pulled on a Wolf Pack sweatshirt, put on her own Nikes, glad to be shed of the too tight shoes. Dressed now, she stuffed some clothes in an overnight bag, went to the kitchen and wolfed down some enchilada leftovers. She’d been famished.

Then she grabbed her iPhone and called Amy.

“ Nana,” Amy answered on the first ring. “I think I’m in trouble.”

“ Not as much as I am.”

“ No, I’m in worse,” Amy said.

“ Listen, Amy, this is important. Don’t talk, just listen. Can you do that?”

“ Yeah.”

“ Remember that special place I used to take you when you were little, your favorite place in all the world?”

“ Yeah.”

“ I need you to go there now. Don’t ask why, just trust me. I’ll pick you up in half an hour. That’ll be 5:00 dead on the money.” Izzy figured she couldn’t run back to the Silver Legacy, get her car, then get to the meeting place any sooner than that. “Can you be there in thirty minutes?”

“ Yeah, sure.”

“ And Amy, one more thing and this is very important. Destroy your phone right now. Don’t just leave it, destroy it, make sure the GPS chip inside is toast. Use a hammer if you can get one.”

“ Nana?”

“ Can you trust me on this?”

“ You’re scaring me.”

“ I’ll explain when I see you. Just trust me.”

“ Okay, smash the phone, meet you at our special place. Got it.”

“ Good girl.” Izzy ended the call, took her iPhone out to the garage, got a hammer from her tool kit and gave it five whacks. Back in the living room, she opened the front blinds and turned on the TV as she always did, to fool a would be thief. That done, she locked the door, then took off toward the Silver Legacy at a dead run.

“ So how come you didn’t hold her,” Peeps said. “You coulda called security and restrained her till we got here.” He looked at his watch, “Shit, It’s only been twenty minutes since Dr. Romero called me and said you had a homicide here. Woman shot through the heart, he’d said.”

“ Yeah,” Mouledoux said, “he’s right. The woman was already dead, we coulda had a cup of coffee, some donuts, taken our time, because you acted like there was no hurry. And we still made it here in less than half an hour. If you’d’ve said it was important, maybe we coulda got here in time to make a difference.”

“ I wasn’t able to call right away.”

“ Why not?”

“ Because she had me close and because,” his voice dropped, “she asked me to keep her secret. She didn’t have to say what secret; it was pretty obvious.”

“ And you told her you would?” Peeps said.

“ Of course, we’re friends. We’re close. I used to be in love with her.”

“ Yet you called us right after you finished the operation,” Mouledoux said.

“ I think she knew I would, because as soon as she was sure the patient was out of danger, she stepped away from her and told me to close. Then she left the OR.” He sighed that troubled man’s sigh again. “There was nothing I could do and she knew it. I sent one of the nurses for a resident, who could take over, but that took twenty minutes or so. Then I had Dr. Romero call you.”

“ So she’s got an hour on us,” Peeps said. “Give or take a few.”

“ She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Shaffer said. “She knows what what will happen to her.”

“ Whatdaya mean?” Peeps said.

“ He means that her life’s over,” Mouledoux said. “They, we, are going to hunt her down. Then they’ll lock her up like a lab rat and they’ll do every test they can think of till they find out how she got young again. And even if they find out, they’ll never let her go, because once they have the secret, they’ll want to keep it secret.”

“ I don’t understand,” Peeps said.

“ Think about it, Joe,” Mouledoux said. “Just imagine for an instant that you could make a concoction from this woman’s blood. One shot of this stuff and you’re young again, maybe immortal. You think people are gonna want this?”

“ Well, yeah!”

“ Everybody’s gonna want it. They’d kill for it.”

“ I can see that,” Peeps said.

“ And nobody would ever die.”

“ So?”

“ I’m afraid,” Shaffer said, “that Detective Mouledoux is right. A secret like this has to be locked away.”

“ Because?” Peeps said.

“ Because,” Mouledoux said, “if nobody ever died, we’d run out of food pretty quick. The world wouldn’t be able to keep up. There wouldn’t be enough houses, cars, schools or anything else you can think of; the world would run out.”

“ So they’d lock her up?” Peeps said. “And nobody would get it?”

“ Oh people would get it,” Mouledoux said. “If your last name was Clinton or Kennedy or Bush or Obama, you’d get it. Or if you had a billion bucks, you’d get it. Or if you maybe knew or blew the right people, you’d get it. But us ordinary folks, we wouldn’t get it. Do I have that about right, Dr. Shaffer?”

“ That’s not for me to say.”

“ But you want it for yourself, right?”

“ That thought hadn’t entered my mind.”

“ Then why’d you call us?” Mouledoux said.

“ We had a gunshot wound,” Shaffer said. “It’s the law.”

“ No, you had Dr. Romero call my partner, because you thought we’d cooperate, that we’d hop to and pick up Dr. Eisenhower, who apparently has committed no crime, done nothing wrong.”

“ For her own protection,” Shaffer said.

“ And what did you want us to do after we picked her up? Take her to the cop house, book her? Or did you want us to swing by here and drop her off?”

“ I’m not sure I appreciate your tone,” Drake the lawyer said.

“ And I don’t understand why you’re even here, because for the life of me I can’t see how the hospital can suffer any liability over this.”

“ We pronounced her dead,” Dr. Jordan said. “We we’re going to send her off to the county morgue.”

“ She could sue,” Drake said.

“ Alright, you’re only interest in Dr. Eisenhower is her safety and the hospital’s liability. I get it,” Mouledoux said. “I don’t believe it, but were going to go along with you anyway, because this is too big to get out. She can’t have gotten far, we’ll pick her up and we’ll bring her back. It stinks, but we’ll do it.”

“ We’re going to go along with them?” Peeps was getting it now.

“ Yeah, Joe. It’s best.”

“ I’m glad you understand,” Shaffer said.

“ So, who you gonna call after we bring her in?”

“ Nobody, we just need to contain this.”

“ And those tests I was talking about?”

“ Only if she wants them,” Shaffer said. “This is a hospital, not a prison.”

Mouledoux didn’t believe anything coming out Shaffer’s mouth. The doctor was exuding anticipation. The man had the pasty white skin of those painted vampires he’d seen on the street last night and like Dracula, the man wanted her blood. He wanted to be young again. Who wouldn’t?

The lawyer too. He wanted the woman’s blood as badly as Shaffer. Mouledoux could see it in his eyes. Romero wanted it as well. That’s why he’d called Peeps. They were hoping Joe would round the woman up, bring her back and keep his mouth shut for old time’s sake. Peeps probably owed Romero some favors and Shaffer knew it, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought him in. Dr. Jordan, she seemed sincere, but they couldn’t keep her out of it, because she’d treated Eisenhower.

Maybe he could trust her, but the others, not a chance.

He tapped Peeps on the arm, got up. Peeps got out of his chair too.