Ken Douglas - Death Glitch

The sun would be up in an hour or so and she wanted miles behind her when it got light. She hoped they wouldn’t find out about Johnny till she’d been and gone. As far as anybody in Reno knew, Johnny wasn’t in the picture, because years ago, when Amy was only seven, the two of them decided it would be better to tell her school, and anybody else who asked, that Johnny, her son and Amy’s father, was dead. So they’d killed him off in the First Gulf war, right after Amy had been born. Sadly, he’d died without ever seeing his daughter. Her mother, they’d killed in childbirth.

In reality, Amy’s mother died with a needle in her arm with Johnny passed out in the next room. Junkies both of them. Johnny stayed addicted for years, wanting nothing to do with his daughter. Then he met a woman with a heart black as death, but she’d gotten him clean, married him and made three kids, who Izzy had never seen. Roxanne thought she had married into money. After all, Izzy was this famous heart surgeon, but when Izzy didn’t lavish gifts on the couple, they turned vicious, trying to get Amy in a custody battle.

But Izzy had money and lawyers and had raised the girl since infancy, so she’d won and in retaliation her son and daughter-in-law shut her and Amy out of their lives. Now Johnny was the warden of California’s High Desert State Prison outside of Susanville. Izzy didn’t know, nor did she care, about Roxanne. Any woman who would keep a grandmother from seeing her grandchildren, wasn’t worth thinking about.

Her plan: check into a motel, get the girls out of the trunk and into a bed and wait till they came to. Then she’d call Johnny and tell him it was time he stepped up to the plate. His daughter needed him now. He was going to have to take in the two girls and keep them safe. She hoped he’d do it, that he still had some feelings for Amy.

Maybe he’d changed. It was possible, she thought. If Lila Booth could change in a flash of a second, then perhaps the passage of so many years had softened her son. Izzy could only hope.

Lila Booth pulled over and lowered the top. What’s the point of a convertible if you can’t ride with the top down on such a clear night? It was chilly, but not too cold. She decided to pick up a sweatshirt at the Circus Circus gift shop, then take a long drive.

Back on the road again, she thought about Izzy Eisenhower. She had a new respect for the woman. She’d killed three people and was still functioning like a champ when they’d had their encounter. Not many people could do that.

She turned into the Circus Circus parking lot. From here she could see the Silver Legacy and the parking garage from which she’d shot Eisenhower. The woman hadn’t stayed dead. What kind of miracle was that? Plus, she’d shed half a century. That really was miraculous. This was a woman Lila didn’t want to hunt down, because the odds were better than even that the hunter could become the hunted and for the first time in her career, Lila wasn’t sure who would be the victor.

She was about to get out of the car, when she saw a late night couple leave the Circus Circus. They were coming toward the parking lot. Lila couldn’t help but smile. He was wearing a loud, red Hawaiian shirt and she was wearing a matching dress. Their last vacation must have been in Waikiki or maybe Maui. She hoped Maui. She liked it better.

She’d forgotten the car was bright red, the same color as the man’s shirt. She was sticking out like a black bear in the snow. For a second she chided herself, but then she let it go. So what if she was in a bright car on a clear night? She wasn’t on a job. In fact, she never would be again. She was going to retire. She’d just decided. She had enough money. It was time to enjoy it.

The vacationing couple strolled in front of the car, saw her and waved.

“ I just won two thousand dollars,” the man said.

“ Gotta love Reno,” the woman said. They looked like they were in their sixties, aging vacationers who’d hit it lucky. Now they’d go home and spread the news about how they’d struck it rich in Reno.

“ Coming back next year?” Lila said.

“ You bet, this is way better than Hawaii.”

“ Ah, Hawaii.” She’d been right about that. “Waikiki or Maui?”

“ Both,” the man said. “But this is better.”

“ Not if you lose,” Lila said.

“ You’re probably right about that.” The man waived. They got in a new Chevy Cruze, a rental, and drove off. Lucky people, she thought. And she was lucky, too. She’d been in a high risk job for a decade and she’d made it out alive. Now to get that sweatshirt, maybe drive to Virginia City, have a little fun, maybe even do a little gambling herself.

She raised the top, was about to get out of the car, when her cell rang. She checked the display.

“ Hello, Mansfield.”

“ I just got off the phone with one of the cops on the scene.” Mansfield sounded like a horny eighteen year old with a hard on trying to bust his zipper. “She killed three people. What are you going to do about it?”

“ Who killed three people? Amy, the kid who goes to UNR, or her mysterious brown-eyed cousin?” She sighed into the phone. “It doesn’t matter. This is too high profile for me. I’m out of it.”

“ We had a deal.”

“ You know, Mansfield, I’m getting the impression you’re keeping something from me.”

“ Lila-”

“ Think carefully, Mansfield. Because if you lie to me now, you’ll never see me again.” She smiled. “Oh heck, go ahead and lie, you’re never going to see me again anyway.”

“ You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Lila.”

“ Hanging up now.”

“ I’ll give you five million dollars.”

“ Whoa!” That was a shocker. “You’ve got my attention.”

“ Bring me the girl and the money’s yours.” No beating around the bush now. “I’ll transfer it to whatever bank you want.”

“ Just alive, not drugged?”

“ You know, don’t you?”

“ I do.”

“ It’s like a death glitch,” Mansfield said.

“ Say again.”

“ You know, like when your computer screws up, you call it a computer glitch. I’m calling this a death glitch, because it looks like Mr. Death screwed up with Dr. Eisenhower.”

“ Okay, I don’t need to know anymore.” She closed her eyes, fisted a hand on the wheel, gripped it tight. She was going back to work. That had to be the shortest retirement on record. “What about Amy?”

“ Forget about Amy. I could give a shit. Just get me Isadora Eisenhower. Can you find her?”

“ I think so.”

“ You wouldn’t double cross me, would you? That wouldn’t be good.”

“ Mansfield, I’m a behind the scenes girl, not the sell to the highest bidder kind. I’ll get you your girl, you have my word and you know once I give it, I don’t break it.”

“ I knew I could count on you.”

“ I’ll get back to you when I have her.” She clicked her phone closed and sighed, because it wasn’t exactly true what she’d told him about keeping her word. She’d given it to Isadora Eisenhower, promised her she’d leave her be and now she’d just broken that promise. She’d just sold the one bit of integrity she’d allowed herself, but she’d done it for a whole lot of money.

“ Sorry, Dr. Eisenhower.” She had to go home now and get her laptop, because the GPS tracker she’d put on Amy Eisenhower’s car wasn’t the only one she had. She kept one on both her cars, in case they got stolen. And that was unfortunate for Isadora Eisenhower.

Although the dead in the house, who had been identified as Eric Ackerman and Niles Lundgren, security guards at St. Catherine’s, had been shot to death, Dr. Shaffer didn’t have a mark on him. The whack job neighbor said a dog had attacked him and Shaffer’s coat had been ripped, but the dog hadn’t broken skin. Heart attack was what first came to mind.