Ken Douglas - Death Glitch

“ Swell.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Next you’re going to tell me it’s a malamute.”

“ No. He’s a husky.”

“ Almost the same.” He released her wrist. “My name’s Black, Let’s get your dog and get gone.”

She got up from the floor without pain, something she wouldn’t have been able to do a few days ago. She saw him wince, thought about running, but she needed to get Hunter and her purse.

She decided to trust this old man and held out a hand. He grabbed it in a Viking grip and she pulled him to his feet.

“ Thanks.”

“ This way.” She headed back to her room, with the old man right behind. At the door, she remembered the way Hunter had attacked Shaffer. “Sometimes the dog isn’t very friendly.”

“ It’ll be okay, dogs like me.” And Hunter did like him, rubbing up against the big man like they were long lost friends. Scratching between the dog’s ears, Black said, “We’ll go out the back way.”

Izzy didn’t know why she trusted this man, but she did and it felt good, letting somebody else take charge. She sighed, “Right behind you.” She grabbed her things, “Come on, Hunter.”

Lila was at the garden entrance to the Fred Meyer’s store, she went in through the outside gate, passed a cashier, made her way into the store, found her way to the deli, then stopped herself.

“ What the F.” she said aloud. Without a weapon for only a few minutes and she felt naked, exposed and she didn’t like the feeling.

“ Can I help you?” a pleasant looking, freckle faced youth, who was working the deli said. His hair was almost tan, somewhere between brown and blond, like the color of the paper bags on the counter behind him.

“ Can I have one of those?” Lila pointed to the bags.

“ Sure.” The kid cashier handed one over.

“ Thanks, Ted,” Lila said, reading his name off his nametag.

“ No problem.”

“ Be back in a bit.” She took the bag, headed out the way she’d come. She started across the parking lot, to the garden store and the trashcan in front of the hardware store beyond. As she took the casual walk through the lot, stopping for a classic Ford Mustang, she looked around, saw no black FBI SUVs. A little part of her knew she was being stupid, going back, but a bigger part screamed at herself, “Get the gun!”

When the Mustang passed, she continued on, crossed the lot, passed the garden store, was at the trash can, pulled off the lid.

“ Hey, lady, what’cha doin’?” It was a girl, maybe eight, maybe nine.

“ Minding my own business, honey,” Lila said.

“ Leave the woman alone, Jane,” a young woman said, her mother probably.

Lila reached into the can, pulled out the coat and her holstered Glock.

“ Is that a gun?” Mom said.

“ Not a real one.” What a stupid thing to say. Of course she knew it was real.

“ What are you going to do with it?” The woman grabbed her child by the arm, pulled the girl close.

“ Ma’am, you should forget about this. It’s police business.” Lila stuffed the gun and duster into the paper bag, realizing she’d just contradicted herself, by saying something equally as stupid.

“ Whatever you say.” The woman, holding her child by the hand now, turned and left. Damn, if she had a cell, and who didn’t, she was going to be calling the cops, sure as shit. She needed to get back to the Fred Meyer store, needed to meet up with Black and hopefully Isadora Eisenhower and then they needed to get out of this town.

“ Keys.” Black held out his hand as they approached Lila Booth’s Ford. She handed them over and he unlocked the passenger door. She opened it and Hunter bounded into the car, jumped the seat and settled in the back. She got in as Black was opening the driver’s door.

“ Ready?” He started the car.

“ Yeah, where are we going?”

“ Not far, don’t know for sure after that.” He backed up like a man who was confident behind the wheel, shifted into drive and in about a minute pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot, pulled into a parking space and shut off the engine.

“ We’re going shopping?” Izzy said.

“ No, I gotta go in and pick up Lila. I shoulda told her to wait near the front, but I didn’t. She’s at the deli.” He started to get out of the car.

“ I’m going with you.”

“ Not a good idea.”

“ I’m not waiting here.”

“ What about the dog?”

“ He’ll be fine.” She turned to the back, “Be good.”

The dog met her with his odd colored eyes, answered with a low growl.

“ See, he’s good with it. Let’s go.” Izzy pulled the door handle, stopped herself. “Start the car, I’ve got to lower the window some.” He did as she asked and Izzy lowered the window all the way.

“ You’re sure you want it like that?”

“ This dog doesn’t get locked up. If he wants to be here when we get back, he’ll be here.” She got out of the car, started for the front entrance with Black following. She’d eaten at that deli more times than she could count, liked the fried burritos she could get for a buck. All of a sudden she realized how hungry she was.

“ Slow down, we don’t want to attract attention,” Black said.

“ Right,” she said, as if a seven foot black man who looked like King Kong wouldn’t attract attention, even if he was moving at a snail’s pace.

“ Damn,” he said when they got to the deli section. “She’s not here.”

Izzy went straight to the glass counter, counted eleven beef and bean burritos. Two for her, nine for Hunter.

“ I’ll take those,” she told a kid whose name badge called him Ted.

“ All of ’em?”

“ Yeah, I got a hungry dog in the car.”

“ Got’cha.”

“ We’re in a hurry here,” Black said.

“ To do what?” Izzy said. “Besides, I thought we were waiting for Lila Booth.” Though exactly why she’d want to be seeing Lila wasn’t exactly clear. Still, this guy seemed to be on her side and so far he seemed to be the only one out there who was.

“ Yeah, that’s a problem.” Black looked around, seemed to be thinking. “We’ll give her a couple minutes, then we go.” He seemed pained.

“ But you don’t want to go without her, do you?”

“ No.”

“ Then you’re in luck, because there she is.” Izzy nodded toward the south side of the store, turned back to the counter and handed the kid a twenty.

“ You were supposed to be waiting here,” Black said when Lila approached with a shopping back tucked under her arm.

“ Yeah, well I got hung up.” The words said attitude, but the tone did not. “Dr. Eisenhower,” Lila smiled at Izzy, “we meet again.” To Black, “We gotta go, where’s the car?”

“ Just out front.”

“ Good.” Lila turned toward the kid cashier, “Told you I’d be back.” She favored him with a smile. The kid blushed and Izzy decided maybe Lila wasn’t so bad, after all.

“ FBI,” someone shouted.

Izzy turned to the sound of the voice as Lila pulled a gun from her shopping bag.

“ Whoa!” Izzy said as Lila started shooting.

Mississippi Bob Mouledoux dove to his right as the young FBI agent in front of him took several rounds. The fed, a kid right out of Quantico named Girard, had been running full force, gun in the air as he shouted out, identifying himself. The woman he’d seen from the backseat of the SUV, who’d obviously misdirected them, shot without hesitation, her gunshots ringing throughout the store. If he’d’ve been a flash of a second slower diving into an aisle of garden supplies, Mississippi Bob would’ve suffered the same fate as the dead fed.

“ You okay, Peeps?” Mouledoux shouted. Hoping his partner hadn’t been hit.