Ken Douglas - Death Glitch

Izzy braced herself as the sound of a single gunshot ricocheted throughout the room. But instead of Lila collapsing to the floor, Manny Wayne jerked backwards, like he’d been swatted with a sledge. His gun flew from his hand when he hit the floor, body quivering in it’s death throws.

“ I really didn’t like that son of a bitch.” A man’s voice from behind said as Manny Wayne’s body went still.

Lowering their hands, the women turned as a lanky man came down the stairs, with Amy and Alicia following. He had a pistol in his right hand and it was trained on Lila.

“ Dr. Eisenhower, we meet again.” He nodded toward Izzy, but kept his eyes on Lila. Then to her, “Sorry I didn’t keep my word. I tried, but sometimes shit happens.”

“ You got here awful fast, Detective Mouledoux,” Lila said, “considering how we left you.”

“ Yeah, I guess I did,” Mouledoux said.

“ Are you one of Manny’s tame cops, like Peeps?”

“ No, not like Peeps.” He was at the bottom of the stairs now, in the living room, but a respectable distance away from Izzy and Lila. The girls flanked him, Amy on his left, Alicia on his right.

“ He’s a good guy, Miss Booth,” Alicia said.

“ You know me?” Lila said.

“ I heard him talking about you?” Alicia pointed to the dead Manny Wayne.

“ He didn’t want to admit it,” Amy said, “but he was afraid of you.”

“ And well he should have been,” Lila said. She turned toward Mouledoux. “There is no police business here. You can put your weapon away.”

“ I think not just yet.” He kept his gun on Lila, but Amy grabbed the barrel, snatched it from his hand.

“ What-” But before Mouledoux had a chance to react, Lila whipped the forty-five from her leg holster, trained it on the cop. She was fast, like any of the quickdraw cowboys Izzy had read about when she was a little girl.

“ Now I feel a bit more comfortable,” Lila said.

“ Don’t shoot him, Miss Booth,” Alicia said.

“ Yeah,” Amy said. “He was rescuing us.”

“ Really?” Izzy was surprised.

“ It’s true, Nana.”

And to Izzy it did look true. The man could have done the cowardly thing and grabbed one of the girls to use as a shield, but he didn’t. And neither did the girls run from him once he’d been disarmed.

“ We can’t kill this one,” Izzy said.

“ I know,” Lila said, “but it would be so much tidier if we could.”

“ I understand that,” the policeman said. “You need to keep Dr. Eisenhower’s secret safe.” He spread his hands, palms forward, in front of himself. “I’ve already forgotten it.”

“ You gave me your word once before and you broke it,” Lila said. “How can I trust you now?”

“ I didn’t have any choice,” Mouledoux said. “I could have stayed out of it, like I promised, but I’m a cop, these girls were in trouble.”

“ You’re not here because of Izzy’s secret?” Lila said. “You’re not after the Fountain of Youth?”

“ If I was, that would be you dead over there, instead of Mansfield Wayne.”

“ Good point,” Izzy said. “You can put your gun away, Lila.”

“ Not just yet.” She kept it pointed at the policeman. “Izzy and I and these girls are going to have to leave this place before it’s crawling with cops. Then I’m going to disappear, maybe Izzy’s going to vanish too, I don’t know, but I am and so I need a favor.”

“ Ask,” Mouledoux said.

“ There’s an old man named Harvey Weinstein.” She told Mouledoux where he lived. “He wants a big dog. Out back there are two who are needing a new home.”

“ What are their names?” Mouledoux said.

“ They’ll be needing new ones,” Lila said.

“ I’ll see he gets them. Anything else?”

“ You forget all about us.”

“ That goes without saying.”

“ Isadora Eisenhower, are you in there?” A woman from outside shouted. A woman with a strange accent.

“ I know that voice,” Izzy said. “It’s Marlan. She’s why I’m like I am.” Izzy turned to Lila, “What should I do?”

“ Beats me.”

“ I think you should answer her,” Mouledoux said.

“ Yes, I’m here,” Izzy shouted back.

“ Are they all dead? Is it safe to enter?”

“ You,” Izzy said to Mouledoux. “Get out of sight.” She pointed to a sofa backed up against the wall on the opposite side of the room. “Think you can move that out a bit and squeeze behind it?”

“ Don’t need to tell me twice.” Mouledoux darted over to the sofa, pulled it a couple feet from the wall, squeezed in behind it.

“ Amy,” Izzy said, “you and Alicia push it back.”

“ Okay,” Amy said and she and Alicia pushed it back toward the wall, sandwiching Mouledoux in.

“ I think you should put your gun away,” Izzy said.

“ Yeah.” Lila did. “What about the girls?”

“ My instinct tells me they’re safe, you too,” Izzy said. “But not him.”

“ Why?”

“ I think she knows we came to rescue the girls.”

“ How can you know that?”

“ I don’t, but I think it’s true.”

“ I hope you’re right.”

“ Dr. Eisenhower,” Marlan shouted out again. “Did you hear me? Is it safe for me?”

“ It’s safe, you can come in,” Izzy called out.

The front door opened and Marlan came in, looking slender and fit, not anything like a woman who had just given birth. She went straight to Izzy, looked her in the eyes, touched her cheek. Then she went to Lila, looked her in the eyes as well, touched her cheek as well.

“ She’s like us,” Marlan said. It wasn’t a question. To Izzy, “You did this?”

“ Yes.”

“ But not them.” Marlan pointed to Alicia and Amy.

“ No, not them,” Izzy said.

“ Other than the four of you,” Marlan said, “everybody who knows about what happened to you, they’re all dead, yes?”

“ Yes,” Izzy lied. She hoped Marlan didn’t discover Mouledoux hiding behind the sofa. And then there was Black back in Oregon. She didn’t know what was going to become of her, but instinctively she knew if Marlan knew about her, it wouldn’t be good. And she was starting to worry about the girls and Lila. What did Marlan have planned for them? Maybe she should have had the girls hide as well.

“ You and you,” Marlan touched both Izzy and Lila on the left shoulder, “have to come with me. You have no choice.”

“ What about us?” Amy said.

“ You have a choice. You can come or not.”

“ You’re not worried we might tell?” Alicia said.

“ And who would believe you?” Marlan said.

“ Yeah, you’re right about that,” Alicia said. “People would think we were crazy.”

“ If we go with you, it’s for good, isn’t it?” Amy said.

“ I’m sorry, but yes,” Marlan said. “You can never come back.”

“ Go where?” Lila said.

“ Jeez,” Alicia said, “I’ve figured that out.”

“ Then tell her,” Marlan said.

“ The stars,” Alicia said. “Where else?” Then, “And I’m going.”

“ I’m in,” Amy said.

“ Maybe you should think about this.” Izzy didn’t know what the future held for her and Lila, but more then ever she wanted Amy to grow up safe, to have a life.

“ Maybe she’s right,” Lila said to Amy, then to Marlan. “So how does this all work? You mix up their blood with yours, like Izzy did me?”

“ Not exactly,” Marlan said. “We have more sophisticated methods and safer.”

“ What do you mean, safer?” Izzy said.

“ Sometimes, if blood is mixed, more than just getting young happens.”

“ Like what?” Izzy said, but she already knew what, she just wanted to hear Marlan say it.