Final Breath

and a good artist. Your cartoons, they're--brilliant--'

His grip loosened on her hair. 'I don't want to hurt anybody,' he muttered.

'I know you don't,' Molly said. 'You're a good person, Warren. So, please, put the gun down...'

'You're only making things worse for yourself, Tunny!' Mr. Gunther called out from his corner. With his hands still raised, he glanced over his shoulder toward Warren. 'You're already in a heap of trouble, mister, and I can guarantee--'

'Why don't you just shut up?' Molly retorted. 'You're not helping!'

Someone in the classroom gasped at her remark. Erin glanced back at Warren for a moment. A smile flickered across his splotchy face, and he lowered the gun.

'Warren, don't listen to him,' Molly continued. 'Listen to your heart. You haven't hurt anyone yet, and I don't think you will. Everyone in this room--right now--realizes that you've gotten a raw deal. And I for one am very sorry. I hope you'll accept my apology...'

Warren said nothing. But Erin felt him let go of her hair. For a moment, no one said anything. Then Erin heard a click. Panicked, she swiveled around and saw it was merely Warren setting the gun down on Mr. Gunther's desk.

He started to cry.

At that same time, she heard the sirens shrieking in the distance. Warren must have noticed them, too. Tears streaming down his face, he turned toward the window.

All at once, someone in the front row yelled out: 'Grab him!'

It happened so quickly, Erin barely saw the two guys charging toward her and Warren. One of them shoved her out of the way, and she slammed into the teacher's desk. It knocked the wind out of her. Screams filled the classroom--competing with the sirens' wail outside. One guy savagely pummeled Warren, who cried out and fell to the floor. The other student started kicking him. It was utter chaos--with everyone suddenly jumping out of their seats and heading for the door. Desks and chairs were knocked over. All the while, Gunther kept screaming, 'Hold him down! Hold the son of a bitch down!' He sprung from his corner and grabbed the gun off his desk.

'Stop it!' Molly yelled. 'Stop! You're hurting him!' She ran up the aisle and tried to pull one of the guys off Warren, but he shoved her away. Molly's glasses flew off her face and she tumbled into the front row of desks. 'My glasses!' Molly cried, just as someone inadvertently stepped on them.

Dazed, and curled up on the floor by Gunther's desk, Erin tried to catch her breath. The sirens outside were getting louder and louder, almost deafening.

When it was all over, Warren Tunny had two cracked ribs, a fractured arm, a broken nose, a black eye, and several cuts and bruises. The police took him to Harborview Hospital. In the ambulance, Warren had insisted that he hadn't intended to kill anyone--just himself. He'd planned to shoot himself in front of his classmates. He'd figured, maybe then, they'd be sorry for treating him so badly.

Of course, no one believed him. By the end of the day, the same people who made fun of Warren were making jokes about what had almost happened, and they were still referring to him as Pubes.

Warren's two study hall classmates, after beating him so severely, had figured they would be portrayed as heroes of the day by the local press. But Molly and Erin garnered all the attention and accolades. They'd been the ones who had defused a potential bloodbath. They'd been the ones who had pleaded and reasoned with the gunman. They'd gotten him to surrender, and the media linked them together as heroes.

Maybe that was the only reason Molly had asked Erin to hang out with her after school the day before yesterday. While picking up those cool new glasses with the square tortoiseshell frames, they'd talked about Warren and the creeps who had been mean to him. Molly had wanted to visit Warren in the hospital, where doctors and police kept him under surveillance. She'd asked Erin to come along with her and show Warren she had no hard feelings. 'You don't have to say yes right now,' Molly had told her. 'Think about it, and tell me later. I just figure it would mean a lot to Warren if he knew you'd forgiven him, you know?'

Erin hadn't yet committed to making the hospital visit. The notion of seeing Warren Tunny again and being nice to him--so soon after he'd held a gun to her head--kind of freaked her out. At the same time, she didn't want Molly to think she was a jerk. They'd agreed to talk about it later. It had seemed as if they were becoming very good friends.

So Erin couldn't understand why Molly blew off their movie date tonight. Hell, Pride and Prejudice had been Molly's idea.

With a sigh, Erin frowned at her reflection in the washroom mirror again. The audience watching the Italian comedy upstairs let out another round of laughter.

Erin's cell phone rang once more--that same, stupid 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' tune. She quickly retrieved the phone from her purse and switched it on. 'Yes, hello?'

'Erin?' the woman said edgily. 'Is this Erin?' The voice wasn't familiar.

'Yes. Who's this?'

'Erin, I'm Hannah Gerrard, Molly's mother. Is Molly with you--by any chance? Have you heard from her?'

'No, she's not, Mrs. Gerrard,' Erin murmured. 'She was supposed to meet me and my friend here at the Harvard Exit for a movie about an hour ago, but she didn't show.'

An older woman with short-cropped silver hair stepped into the restroom. She frowned at Erin, then brushed past her and ducked into one of the two stalls. Erin ignored her.

'Listen, Erin,' Molly's mother said, a tremor in her voice. 'The police found Molly's car an hour ago--on that little road behind Lakeview Cemetery. The car had a flat. The driver's door was open, and the hazard lights were blinking. It--it just doesn't make sense. Molly's got a cell phone, for God's sake. Why didn't she call us for help? We're only five blocks away...'

Erin knew the road: a narrow strip of pavement that ran a few blocks alongside the sprawling cemetery's high chain-link fence. There was a park on the other side of the road--with a smaller, unfenced, old cemetery for Veterans of Foreign Wars. Only a block away, quaint, charming houses bordered the park, but there was still something remote and slightly foreboding about that little back road--especially at night. Surrounded by so many graves, it was an awfully scary spot to have car problems.

But Erin figured Molly had kept a cool head, the same way she had with Warren last week. Molly was a lot braver than her. Still, Mrs. Gerrard was right. It made no sense. Molly's car was found only five blocks from her home--and less than a mile from this very movie theater. Why hadn't she called anyone for help? What had happened to her?

'Young lady?'

Erin swiveled around and gaped at the woman with the close-cropped silver hair. She still had that same haughty look on her wrinkled face as she emerged from the stall. 'The use of cell phones is prohibited in public restrooms,' she announced.

Erin curled her lip at her. 'What?'

'You're not supposed to use cell phones in here!' the woman said loudly. 'Why are you an exception? There are cameras on cell phones. It's prohibited to be using--'

Erin started to wave her away.

'I don't appreciate having my privacy invaded!' the woman declared. 'I'd like to take a pee without having it broadcast coast to coast on your stupid cell phone! Why don't you go talk in the lobby, for God's sakes? Why do you have to talk in here?'

Erin held the phone against her breast for a moment as she ducked into the other stall. 'Christ, lady, get off my case!' She shut the stall door and locked it.

'Rude!' the woman exclaimed, over the sound of the water running in the sink. Then Erin heard the roar of the hand dryer.

'I'm sorry, Mrs. Gerrard,' she whispered. Standing in front of the toilet, Erin had her back pressed against the divider between the two stalls. 'There's this crazy woman here...'

'The police are combing the neighborhood right now,' Mrs. Gerrard explained. 'When she left, Molly told me she had to run an errand before the movie. That was at five o'clock, over three hours ago. I keep thinking--if Molly was meeting someone, maybe this person has an idea where she wandered off to. Does she have a new boyfriend she didn't tell me about?'

'I--I don't think so.'