Death Glitch (35 page)

She turned her attention back to the small house. It looked almost like the house she’d grown up in with her parents. It faced to the northeast, had a large bay window dead center in the front of the house, a window to it’s right, which in the house she’d grown up in would have been her bedroom, who knew what use it was put to here. And also like the house she’d loved, there was a front porch on the left, no porch swing here. Izzy imagined a living room on the other side of the front door, but that’s as far as her imagination would take here. This wasn’t the cozy little house she’d loved. There wasn’t any love here. This was a cold place.

Looking at the two houses, Izzy wondered why neither was built facing the northwest, where they’d’ve had a view of downtown Reno and it’s colorful lights. She couldn’t imagine a better view than that. Instead the main house faced the massive front yard which, other than a couple large trees, had nothing spectacular about it, except for the ugly fence that surrounded the property. The view from the barracks took in those trees as well as the main house. It was almost as if Manny Wayne didn’t want to acknowledge the world outside his domain and almost as if he didn’t care about beauty. It was all so desolate and with the exception of those two trees, barren.

Attention back on the small house, Izzy saw that Lila was in motion. Like herself, Lila dropped to the ground. Then she belly crawled along the front of the house. She was snake fast as she slithered under the window on the right, then under the bay window. Once past the windows she pushed herself to her feet, a pistol still in each hand with the one in her left pointed at the front door, like she’d expected Tucker to come bursting out of it.

But Tucker wasn’t in there. How come she couldn’t she see that?

Lila stood to the side of the door, aimed at the doorknob. She was going to blast it apart, but before she could fire, a man stepped out from behind the tree closest to the house.

Izzy shot him through the back.

With the girls free it was all Mouledoux could do to keep them from charging out of the relative, but temporary, safety of the bedroom.

“
We don’t know what’s going on down there,” he said.

“
But we know we don’t want to stay here,” Amy Eisenhower said.

“
Yeah, we know that,” her friend Alicia seconded.

A rolling sound, almost like distant thunder, filled the room. Earthquake was Mouledoux’s first thought. However, as the sound continued, he knew it was something else.

But before he got a chance to wonder about it a burst of automatic fire cut through the resonating sound. For a minute or so he’d thought it might be all over and when the rumbling ceased and a single shot rang out, he knew it was.

Eisenhower and Booth had killed them all and he was next on the list. He pulled his weapon. “I’ll go and see what’s what. You two stay till I get back.”

“
No way,” Alicia said.

“
Yeah, no way,” Amy echoed.

“
I can’t go out there with the two of you,” Mouledoux said, but if he wanted to survive this night, that was exactly what he should do. However, in the oft chance he was wrong, that Manny Wayne and his men had prevailed, then going down there with them would be suicide.

It was a tough decision. If he went down without the girls and encountered Eisenhower or Booth, they’d shoot first and ask no questions. If he went down with them and Wayne and his men were the victors, same thing. He bet on the women.

“
Okay, we’re going down, but I want you two to stay behind me and do exactly as I say.”

“
Yes, sir?” Amy said.

* * *

Mansfield Wayne groaned as he came to. And though he was in kind of a sleep fog, he was racked in pain. His back felt like the skin had been ripped off. The back of his head hurt like there was no tomorrow. His heart was racing out of control. He couldn’t breathe out of his nose, which was radiating pain.

He felt like he was going to die.

But then again, he was dying, so with an effort most couldn’t muster, he blocked out the pain and tried to focus, which became a lot easier when he’d heard the gunfire from outside. That brought him instantly alert. Still on the carpet, he looked for his pistol, spied the magnum under his desk, crawled to it, grasped it and forced himself into a sitting position, when he’d heard a single gunshot.

Then silence.

* * *

“
I thought I told you to go to the main house to find the girls.” Lila stepped off the porch, came toward Izzy with a block wide grin as she holstered her weapons. Izzy thought she looked like an angel.

“
You’re not the boss of me.”

“
Apparently not.”

The fog was gone now and it was quiet, not even a breeze. It was as if the fog and the noise had come of their own accord and had come as allies. Job done and no longer needed, they’d gone.

“
Let’s go find your girls,” Lila said.

“
That’s got my vote.”

* * *

Mouledoux was at the bedroom door, about to step out into the hallway, when he got an idea. He turned to the girls.

“
Instead of going down there and maybe getting killed, I think we should move to the bedroom down the hall.”

“
Why?” Amy said.

“
We can wait there till we see who comes up after you. If it’s your grandmother, then all is good. If it’s the Waynes, I’ll be behind them, with this.” He held up his thirty-eight, waggled it. “I’ll have the drop on them.”

“
I don’t like that idea,” Alicia said.

“
Me neither,” Amy said. “I’d rather we just went on down there and if it’s the bad guys, you just shoot ’em.”

“
What?”

“
That way, if Nana is still out there and still alive, you can help.”

“
Yeah,” Alicia said. “She might need our help. So let’s go.”

“
Alright.” And with his weapon in front of him, Mouledoux stepped out into the hallway. He turned back to the girls, who were right on his tail and whispered. “Let’s be real quiet, okay?”

They nodded and he led them toward the stairs.

* * *

Manny Wayne was as alert as he’d ever been when he heard the front door open. Who was it, the women or Tucker and his men?

His office door, which led into the foyer, was wide open. Cat quick and cat quiet, he moved behind it, peering through the crack between the door and the wall as Lila Booth and Isadora Eisenhower came through the front door.

He held his breath, willed himself to be quiet, silent as the two women passed by. They were both wearing the dusters that Lila liked and their weapons were holstered. It was over, they’d finished it.

He had grossly underestimated Lila and the Eisenhower woman. How could he have made such a mistake? He tightened his grip on the magnum. They were all dead, Tucker too. Lila would have made sure of that. She must’ve come upon him and Peeps and mistakenly thought he was dead as well. That was her mistake and the last one she was ever going to make.

He moved out behind the women, magnum in hand. It was time for Lila Booth to die. He pointed the big gun at her back, but he couldn’t pull the trigger, couldn’t shoot her in the back, because even after all she’d done, how she’d betrayed him, he was Manny Wayne and back shooting wasn’t his style. Besides, he wanted her to know where it was coming from.

He wanted to see her eyes when he pulled the trigger.

He wanted to savor the moment.

“
Move and you’re dead!” he said and the women froze. “Hands on your heads or I punch a whole through Lila big enough for me to put my fist through.”

The women did as he instructed.

“
Turn around.”

The women did.

If he’d thought the cancer was bad, the pain radiating out from his back was ten times worse. Any other man would be on the floor, but Manny prided himself on the fact that he wasn’t any other man. He’d grown up thinking he was extraordinary, believing it, and the fact that his hand was steady, that the big gun was unwavering, proved it.

“
Did you wet your pants, Manny?” Lila had a sneer in her voice and a smile on her face. She wasn’t afraid. Neither was Eisenhower, but then she needn’t be, she knew he wouldn’t harm her. At least not until he’d learned her secret.

“
Tucker?” Manny had to know for sure.

“
Dead,” Lila said.

“
As so shall you be.”

* * *

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?”