Death Glitch (13 page)

Door open, Izzy moved into the dark garage, easing it closed after herself. She was surprised at how well she could see. Almost as if the room were being lit by a hurricane lamp. What was happening to her eyes? All of a sudden she could see in the dark and what she saw was a four door Ford sedan like the police drove. No extra antennas though, so it wasn’t an unmarked cop car.

The trunk was open.

Izzy approached, saw Amy inside, hands tied behind her back.

They’d found her. She didn’t know who they were, but there was only one reason she could think of for Amy to be bound and in that trunk. Somebody—who knew about what had happened to her, about her sudden youth—wanted the secret and they’d come here, hoping to capture her alive, but instead they’d gotten Amy.

She heard someone moving around upstairs. She took a breath, held it, listened and instinctively knew the sounds were coming from Alicia’s bedroom. How could she know that?

Seeing in the dark, enhanced hearing, what next?

Gun in hand, she started up the stairs, moved down the hall toward Alicia’s bedroom. Holding the forty-five out in front of herself, she moved past the bathroom, stopped at the door to Alicia’s master suite, peeked in the door, saw Alicia in the middle of the bed, hands bound behind her back with some kind of plastic cable tie.

“
Ouch.” Something stung her. She ran a hand to her rear, pulled out a dart. Turned and saw Lila Booth holding a strange looking gun. Izzy pointed the forty-five at her, but Lila ducked into the bathroom.

Why? She had that gun, it didn’t make sense. Izzy was thinking at the speed of light. It was a dart gun, like rangers used on bears. It only had one shot. Soon she’d be as out of it as Amy and Alicia. She couldn’t wait for that. She had to act. She had to do something. Now!

She tossed the forty-five on the bed, charged down the hall, reached the bathroom door as Lila Booth emerged, dart gun reloaded.

Lila pulled the trigger. The dart hit her square in the chest, just below her breasts. Izzy ignored it, grabbed the dart gun by the barrel, ripped it from Lila’s hand, tossed it behind her, heard it hit the wall as she shoved Lila into the bathroom.

But Lila was turning to the side as Izzy shoved on past. Izzy hit the toilet with her shins, fell, head hitting the towel rack.

Lila grabbed her by the hair, jerked Izzy to her feet, wrapped an arm around her neck, chocking her.

Air! She was suffocating. She needed air. She stomped on Lila’s foot.

Lila grunted, but held on.

Izzy slammed an elbow into Lila’s stomach, felt the whoosh of air flee the woman’s lungs, hot on the back of her neck, but still Lila held on.

Izzy hit her with the elbow again, then again and then she realized she wasn’t breathing. Lila had choked off her air, but instead of making one last desperate struggle, a sort of calm descended over Izzy. It was as if she were someone watching from afar, almost like she was outside her body, seeing the struggle from above, however she wasn’t, but somehow she knew exactly what to do.

She reached a hand over her shoulder, grabbed Lila by her long hair and with a strength she had no business having, she bent into a crouch and pulled Lila over her shoulder and finally Lila let go, her body landing on the toilet bowl.

Izzy, with her hand still fisted in Lila’s hair, backed out of the bathroom, dragging the stunned Lila Booth after her. She’d intended on dragging the woman into the bedroom and somehow binding her so she could question her. She was thinking at light speed again. She was in the present. She was in the future. She was in her body. She was out of it.

All of a sudden she felt dizzy, nauseous, her stomach muscles clenched, she gagged, then vomited all over her captive as she doubled over, letting go of Lila’s hair.

And Lila reacted like a scalded cat, cat quick and cat smart. Despite the fact that she was covered in vomit, she grabbed Izzy’s left foot, jerked and Izzy felt as if the ground was being jerked out from under her as she fell onto her back.

Lila jumped on top of Izzy, vomit from her hair dripping onto Izzy’s face. She grabbed onto Izzy’s wrists, tried to pin her, but Izzy bucked, driving her pelvis upward, knocking Lila aside.

Lila scrambled backward, back toward the bathroom, pulled a gun. She must have had a holster in the small of her back.

“
Don’t move!” She had the gun pointed at Izzy’s chest. Both women were sitting on the floor, facing each other. “How come you didn’t shoot me when you had the chance?” Lila Booth said.

“
I don’t know, maybe I should’ve.”

“
Tables are turned now.”

“
You’re not gonna shoot the golden goose.” All of a sudden Izzy couldn’t take in enough air. She started panting. Her body seemed to be demanding oxygen now and she was having a hard time getting enough. She felt a pain in her chest, right about where Lila had her pistol aimed. She still had the dart in her. She pulled it out, started breathing normally. “Not very effective.”

“
That would take down a bear.” Lila Booth was out of breath, too. “It put your friends right out.” She wiped vomit from her forehead with the back of her hand. “But it didn’t affect you and that makes me curious.”

“
Yeah.” Again thinking faster than any human should be able to, Izzy put it together. Lila was the one who’d shot her. She didn’t die and somehow her masters had learned of it. They needed her alive. “You shoot me in the heart and I not only survive, but I walk out of the hospital over half a century younger than I went in and you’re wondering why your tranquilizer dart doesn’t knock me out.” Izzy smirked. “Well, I’m wondering, too.”

“
You’re Isadora Eisenhower?”

“
Oops.” Lila hadn’t known.

“
Dr. Isadora Eisenhower, the seventy-seven year old heart surgeon?”

“
Call me Izzy.”

“
This is a shock.” Lila looked lost in thought for a second, but her gun never wavered. She sighed. “And I find it hard to believe.” Then, “You assumed I knew.”

“
You didn’t?”

“
I’m still not believing it. But at least it explains why Mansfield wanted me to drug you and the other one. He didn’t want me talking to you. He didn’t trust me.”

“
Mansfield Wayne?”

“
Yeah. The old bastard himself.”

“
Guess he thought you’d want the secret for yourself.”

“
He has cancer, so I can see how this would intrigue him.” Lila scooted back against the wall, got to her feet. “I’ll trade you cars.” She reached into the front pocket of her jeans, withdrew a set of keys, tossed them to Izzy. “Your friends are going to be out for a while. If I was you, I’d get the one in the bedroom back there, toss her in the trunk and get outta town.” She smiled, but it didn’t look friendly. “I’ll take the BMW, tell them not to report it stolen and I’ll forget to tell to Mansfield you’re driving my Crown Vic.”

“
Why?”

“
I don’t like being lied to.” Lila crossed the room, picked up the dart gun.

“
But aren’t you his stepdaughter?”

“
Not really, though he did kind of raise me, but I still don’t like being lied to,” Lila said. “Besides, he’s not really like a father figure, never has been. He’s a user, but then I guess I am too. I suppose we use each other.”

“
That’s kinda sad.”

“
It is what it is.” This time her smile did look friendly. “And something more, maybe I’m walking away because the girl back there has a Grand Palais. I’d like to meet her someday, maybe share a few recipes.” Lila Booth nodded her head, went for the stairs. “I’m out of this now. You’ve got nothing to fear from me.” Then she took the stairs to the living room, threw back the bolt on the front door, went through it and was gone.

Izzy pushed herself to her feet, heard the Beemer turn over, then roar away. She shook her head, muttered, “What in the world is a Grand Palais?”

“
A Grand Palais.” Lila Booth shook her head as she piloted the Beemer around the corner onto College. “I let them go because of a stove?” She laughed. She’d never walked away from a job before. Never cared for anybody before, so how come she’d let them go because of a little lesbian who had good taste?

And now she was headed over to Isadora Eisenhower’s, because even though she’d let the women go, she couldn’t tell Mansfield that. Theirs was a strained relationship. She pushed him, but never too far. He pushed back. But she wouldn’t kid herself. The last person she wanted on her bad side was Mansfield Wayne. So she had to go through the motions. Fortunately, she hadn’t told him about the GPS in Amy’s car, so going to Eisenhower’s house would be a natural thing to do.

She’d go there, break in, snoop a bit, report to Mansfield and tell him the woman had flown the coup. But when she turned onto Putnam, she knew it wasn’t going to be so easy. The street was packed with cops. Seven Reno PD vehicles, a crowd of gawkers and a body on Isadora Eisenhower’s front porch.

What happened here?

She parked, took her phone from her backpack, called Mansfield.

“
Good news, Lila?” He’d answered on the first ring.

“
I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m parked across the street from Dr. Eisenhower’s. The street is full of cops and there appears to be a dead body on the doorstep.”

“
What?”

“
Gotta go, I’ve attracted the interest of local law enforcement. A cop’s motioning for me to roll down my window. Later.” She ended the call.

* * *

By the time Izzy caught her breath, Lila Booth was gone, leaving her in a quandary. A few actually. What to do with Alicia? Bring her or leave her behind? And should she flee with her Raider or take Lila Booth’s big car? And was she safe here or should she be on the road ASAP? And if she took to the road, where could she go?

Action, she told herself. She had to move.

She got up off the floor, went to the bedroom, having decided to bring Alicia along to wherever she was going. She hoped Mansfield Wayne, or anybody else who was after her for the secret, wouldn’t want to be bothered with the girls, once they knew she was well and truly gone, but she couldn’t count on it.

In the bedroom, Izzy scooped her arms under Alicia and was surprised to find out how light the girl was. She had no problem lifting her and carrying her down the stairs and out into the garage, where she laid her in the trunk next to Amy. Riding back there in their condition wouldn’t do them any harm and Izzy reasoned it was better than having them passed out in the car for others to see and maybe wonder about.

She loved her Raider, but she was going to have to leave it. She hoped Lila Booth was being truthful, because taking her big Ford was the only sensible thing to do. She closed the trunk, pushed the button to raise the garage door, got in the car, pulled out onto the driveway, was about to hit the gas when her lights caught Hunter’s odd eyes. She reached over, pushed open the passenger door.

“
Get in.”

The dog did and they drove off into the night; to where, she didn’t know.

* * *

Lila rolled down the window, looked up at a cop, who looked too young to grow facial hair.

“
I’m Officer Marshall. Can I help you, ma’am?” the kid cop said.

“
I hate it when people call me ma’am,” Lila said. “It sounds so old.”

“
Do you have a reason for being here? Do you live around here?”

“
No. I do a blog,” Lila lied. “I saw all the police and thought there might be a story.”

“
I’m not sure you should be here,” the cop said.

“
Is that a body?” Lila pointed toward the porch.

“
Yeah.” Marshall puffed up.

“
Do they know who he is?”

“
I don’t think so.”

“
Jeez, was he murdered?” Lila was trying for wide eyed and impressionable.

“
Don’t know, but the others were.”

“
Others?”

“
You didn’t hear it from me.”

“
No.” She ran her thumb and forefinger across her lips, as if she were sealing them.

“
There’s two others in the house. Both shot up.”

“
Really?” He was bursting with the urge to tell and Lila knew there was no stopping him now. This was probably the most exciting thing to happen to him since he’d become a policeman and from the sound of it, the most exciting of his whole life. “Bullets were flying all over the place in there.”

“
A shoot out?” Lila said, but she needn’t have prodded him, because he was itching to tell her.

“
Major, a major gun battle, like you wouldn’t believe. It’s like something out of a movie and you know what really makes it seem like a movie?”

“
What?”

“
There’s a girl involved. Young and beautiful according to the woman next door. She took off with a big dog, went into the park. And that’s not all.”

“
There’s more?”

“
There’s two cops missing.”

“
Where’d they go?”

“
They’re gone, nobody knows.”

“
What are you doing, Marshall?” An older black cop said.

“
Nothing, Harper.”