by Jen Wright
As soon as I hung up, I received an incoming collect call from my dad. He was still on the cruise but had used the ship's internet service to check the Duluth news. He was horrified by what he had read but also relieved to learn that I was alive. The newspaper article was entitled, "Head of Juvenile Probation and Professor Foil Killer." He lectured me for ten minutes, vowed his fatherly love, then went back to lecturing for another five minutes. He wasn't much interested in what I had to say, so I just listened.
As soon as I hung up, I got a call from my Chief. He was setting up a critical incident debriefing and offered to involve Zoey. I told him that she was still sleeping, and I would get back to him. He had no intention of letting me get out of this. I finally accepted, but said it would have to be at my house. I needed to reclaim it. I also told him I needed a couple of weeks off.
I hung up the phone, unplugged it, and went back to bed with Zoey.
She had her teaching assistant cover her classes so that we could spend another day together just hanging out. At 10 A.M., Sam showed up, and I introduced her to Zoey. She was clearly impressed, and jokingly offered her a job. She also informed me that the profile had come back on Tre/Drift.
"Drift saw himself as a professional. He had totally adopted the image of hired killer with a definite set of rules he operated by. One of those rules was that if he missed a hit, he would keep coming back until he was successful. The reason he didn't kill Shilhon was that he never killed unnecessarily."
"A principled killer?"
"Exactly."
She also said that Shilhon was coming out of a massive concussion but would lose no functioning. Sam left with the promise of a lunch date soon, and she shook Zoey's hand and mine with respect.
By the time the weekend rolled around, we were sane enough to call Kathy and Donna for a game of hearts. This time, we held out for my house.
About the Author
Jen Wright lives and writes in Clover Valley, Minnesota.
She welcomes reader feedback about Killer Storm, her first novel. .
