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?”
“ 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.
