from a darkened corner of the room a fist lashed out, catching me squarely in the chest. I coughed and stumbled, my light dancing around the room but catching Tiny Parmalee’s brutal face in its beam. He struck me again, backhanding me hard, shoving me through the ajar door that led into the inner room. I landed on my back, skidding in the darkness into a piece of furniture. My arm throbbed and my chin felt numb. Hearing Lorna scream, I yanked my arm from the sling, trying to get enough breath to get to my feet. I’d made it halfway when a light snapped on and Nina Hernandez stood with a gun pointed at my head from the opposite side of the narrow room. A shrieking Lorna was thrown down on top of me. I pulled free of her and stood in a crouch, trying to absorb what I was seeing. This inner room was larger than the outer room, and it held far more interesting secrets. Nina with a handgun, not looking like she cared a great deal about the Mirabeau ecosystem at this moment. Tiny smiling down at me, hate in his eyes. Miss Twyla sitting in a chair next to where Nina stood, her mouth, chin, and nose bloodied, her hair hanging in her face, her eyes angry. And along the wall, shelving that held boxes of wires, pliers, a canister marked KCIO 3, (POTASSIUM CHLORATE), sacks of sugar, batteries, watches and egg-timers, a dusting of finely powdered aluminum, and a stack of metal pipes. Oh, my God. I steadied Lorna, who had stopped screaming and was fearfully watching Nina’s gun. Nina held that gun rock-steady and the small dark bore locked on my head. “Miss Twyla, are you all right?” I managed to cough out.
“Yes, Jordy, thank you for asking. At least one of my former students is behaving like a gentleman.” She shot a daggered look at Tiny, who seemed inordinately pleased with himself, smiling like a badly carved jacko’-lantern. “Obviously, you don’t want to make any sudden moves,”
Nina said to me. “I’ll shoot you before you get across the room. And even if I miss you, I shoot Miss Twyla. You don’t want that, do you, Jordy?” “You wouldn’t really, really hurt Miss Twyla, would you, sugar pie?” Tiny rubbed his lip with the back of his hand. “I mean, you didn’t really want to slap her like you did.” Nina favored Tiny with a look the painted angels on the Sistine Chapel might give to devout worshipers. “Of course not, Tiny dear. But let’s not forget that we’re dealing with dangerous criminals.” “What?” I asked stupidly. Lorna leaned hard against my back, hiding behind me. “Don’t try to fool Tiny, Jordy, he’s far too smart for you. He understands how Miss Twyla’s gone crazy, bombing places around town, and how Lorna’s the same kind of con artist that Greg was.” It took a couple of seconds to register. How could she know? Oh, God. “You-you’re Doreen Miller?” I heard myself say. She didn’t give me a direct answer. Instead she smiled at Tiny, who stood near the doorway. She fired twice, in rapid succession. One bullet exploded into Tiny’s left shoulder, founting blood, and the second hit him in the right side, vanishing into his big frame. The double roar was deafening in the enclosed space. Lorna didn’t scream, but she seized my shoulders in a death grip. Tiny collapsed against the wall, a look of bewilderment on his face, and tumbled to the floor. I couldn’t tell if he was still breathing. Miss Twyla stood, her fists clenched, and Nina motioned for her to resume her seat, the smoking end of the gun waving gently. Miss Twyla sat, but her anger was a physical presence in the room. “Why, Nina? Why?”
“He’s the most dangerous person here, Miss Twyla. I mean, after you.”
She laughed mirthlessly. “And Tiny’s done his part for me.” Lorna had gone and knelt beside Tiny’s slowly stirring form. “He’s still alive,” she moaned. “He’ll die soon enough, bitch,” Nina snapped. “You’ll be past worrying about him.” I took a long breath. “Let me guess. As Doreen Miller, you planted those files that made Lorna look as if she knew about Greg’s land fraud. She’s your fall guy.” “Unfortunately now, she has to be a dead fall guy.” “You betrayed me.” Miss Twyla’s voice was low, the voice that only outraged old Southern ladies can muster. It could frighten a tyrant. “I brought you into my home to fight for a cause I believed in, and you lied to me. You stole from me and then used me to kill another human being.” “Miss Twyla,” I said, watching the gun that still aimed in my direction. “I think I know the story now. Nina’s real name is Doreen Miller-or at least, that’s the name that Greg knew her as. The land resale to the chemical waste company is just a fraud, a cover. Greg and Nina are scam artists. They come to a town, they create a crisis. Greg threatens development that could ruin the river; Nina heads up the opposition, rallying folks and their finances against what Greg proposes. They specifically target towns where both development is needed and environmental concerns could run high; that’s what Greg had Lorna looking for when he hired her. After they’ve squeezed money out of both sides, they vanish, taking the money with them. Then they set up office somewhere else and start again. Maybe they set up a fall guy to take the blame; that’s what happened here.” I pointed at Nina. “You faked the files on Greg’s laptop that said he was going to resell the land to the chemical waste company, and you faked the same files on the computers up in Boston to let Lorna take the blame. No matter how much that waste company denied that they’d ever heard of Intraglobal, folks wouldn’t believe them. So you sail free with all the money Miss Twyla and Eula Mae raised, vanishing off into the night, and Lorna looks like the fool and the criminal.” “She is a criminal.” Nina smiled. “There are more files up there she doesn’t even know about that will make her guilty of land fraud. Posthumously, of course.” “Why did you kill Greg?” Lorna demanded. Her fright had evaporated, at least on the surface, and in her face, I saw the anger of a cornered animal that is tired of being toyed with and wants the fight. “Profit margin, sweetie. Greg was getting greedy and I just didn’t want to share the pots anymore. Don’t feel bad about him-he was all for you being the patsy when we blew town. I took that nice little length of barbed wire I got from Dee Loudermilk’s property and ended my partnership with him.” “And left Lorna alive so you could have your blame fall squarely on her shoulders.” I said. “But what about Freddy?” “Freddy got nosy, and Freddy got greedy. Since he was already stupid, he got dead.” Nina said icily. “He made the mistake of overhearing a phone conversation between Greg and me and trying to get money out of me. He was too idiotic to see that if I’d killed Greg ‘cause I was tired of sharing, I wasn’t about to split the pot with him.” She shrugged. “I conned him. I told him he needed to plant more evidence in Lorna’s room, in a suitcase, that would make Lorna look like the solely guilty party and make it easier for him and me to take the money. All it took was a timer, and Freddy was history. I just borrowed one of Miss Twyla’s contraptions.” I shook my head, remembering Linda Hillard’s talk about Freddy getting rich. “Too many people now, Nina. You act like you intend on killing us all. This many people, there’ll be an awful lot of questions.” “I can handle that, Jordy. I’m used to vanishing. And for all the money I’m getting out of the Intraglobal accounts and that dingbat Eula Mae, trust me, your lives are worth it.” She straightened her shoulders as Tiny stirred and groaned. “We’ll have to make this look good for when the fire investigators get here. Obviously Tiny and Miss Twyla were unhinged; her little pranks just got more destructive, and you and Lorna bravely tried to stop them. Everyone knows what a nosy snot you are, so no one will be very surprised. I think maybe one bullet in you, Jordy, will be enough-” She wasn’t prepared, taunting me, for Miss Twyla to throw herself at her gun arm. One bullet smashed into the concrete flooring as the old woman tried to grab the pistol away from Nina. Lorna and I, from different corners of the room, launched ourselves at Nina. I saw Miss Twyla fly off, shoved hard against the shelving by the spitting con artist, and then the gun whirled toward me. There was a flash and I felt agony in my leg, far worse than any I felt before-like a sharp, hot stab with a needle that’d been sitting in fire, turning molten. I screamed and fell to the floor, holding my thigh. Blood seeped over my fingers. I heard shrieks and I managed to get my head up to look, half making my peace with God in case a bullet slammed into my head or detonated one of Miss Twyla’s playthings. Lorna and Nina fought for the gun, Lorna with an obvious height and size advantage. The gun spurted fire once, striking the ceiling. Lorna shoved hard and the gun broke from Nina’s grip, skidding toward Miss Twyla. I pulled myself painfully toward it.
I heard Lorna scream “Goddamn you!” and glanced back. My former ladylove belted Nina with a strong right hook, wincing as she did so.
“I’ll kill you for what you’ve done to us! You shot Jordan, you bitch!” Nina fell to her knees. “Lorna! Lorna!” Miss Twyla barked out.
I glanced over my shoulder. Miss Twyla had the gun in her hand, aimed steadily at Nina. I nearly collapsed with relief. “Move away from Nina now, dear,” Miss Twyla ordered. Lorna took a reluctant step back. I could see that her face was scratched and her hands flexed into fists.
Nina stared at Miss Twyla, hate in her eyes. “Don’t move, Nina. I will shoot you.” I breathed a huge sigh, wincing at the burning pain in my leg. This whole nightmare was over. “Y’all go on. Go ahead and get out.” Miss Twyla’s voice was preternaturally calm, after the echoing hell of gunshots in the enclosed space. “Lorna.” I found my voice. “Go call the cops. Get an ambulance for me and Tiny.” I tried to stand but fell into a crouch. Lorna was at my side instantly. “Both of you go,”
Miss Twyla ordered again. “Don’t wait for an ambulance. And take poor Tiny with you.” Through my haze of pain, even that request sounded odd. “I don’t think we should try to move Tiny, Miss Twyla.” And as I said it I looked up at her. She still had the gun leveled at Nina with one hand, but in the other she pulled two wires from a box, keeping the ends of the wires separated with two fingers. “You’ll have to, dear. Neither Nina nor I will be leaving.” Miss Twyla’s voice was firm, the same one she’d used on us in that long-ago chemistry class when we got
