Array: Byte shorts and other stories

by Cat Connor

  “This is Mitch Iverson —that was his driveway you came down.”

  They shook Mitch’s hand.

  “The body is over there,” Mitch said pointing down the beach past the trees. “If you don’t mind I’ll wait here.”

  They nodded.

  I led the way.

  “The body is an American citizen, have you been briefed?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Curnow said. “FBI are expected to take charge sometime today.”

  “If you can take it from here… I’m on vacation,” I said.

  “Go right ahead, agent. Just as soon as you’ve given me a complete statement.” He pulled his notebook from his pocket.

  The other officer followed suit and went back to Mitch. Made sense.

  Ten minutes later I was signing the statement in his notebook and ready to leave.

  Back at the house I asked Mitch if I could use the computer in the living room and uploaded the photos from his camera.

  I scanned through them quickly, then paused on one, and scrolled back to the previous two. All three photos showed more bush than the others.

  “Mitch!”

  He appeared next to me. “Yep?”

  “Look at this picture, what do you see?” I zoomed in on an area in the bush, the foliage was thick but there was something else there.

  “A hand?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I replied.

  “There was or possibly is someone else down there?” Mitch did not look pleased. “Dead or alive?”

  “Alive maybe? We have to warn those cops.”

  I emailed the photos to Caine and asked that he forward them to whoever had the case in Wellington then looked at Mitch. “Don’t suppose you have a rifle?”

  He nodded. “For rabbits.”

  “Can you get it please?”

  He disappeared then returned empty handed. “It’s gone.”

  “What?”

  “The gun safe is empty.”

  Not good.

  “Ammunition?”

  “Two boxes, last I checked. They’re gone.”

  “Where were they stored?”

  “Gun safe is in the bottom garage. Ammunition in a cabinet in the garage up top.”

  “Someone knew? Doesn’t sound random?”

  “Must’ve, nothing else is moved or gone.”

  Potentially there was an armed Unsub on the property and I wasn’t.

  Vacation?

  I should just give up all notions of ever having a vacation. Yeah I was going to make it all about me. I thought for a few minutes. I had to go warn the police officers, that was a given, what about Mitch?

  “Okay, we’re going down to the beach. We cannot leave those officers alone knowing someone was in the bush and that a gun is missing.” And I didn’t want to leave Mitch alone either.

  He nodded.

  We locked the house, just in case it made a difference to the Unsub and hurried down the steep stony driveway. Near the bottom I announced my presence. Sneaking up on police wasn’t smart.

  Mitch’s hand sought mine.

  “Stay together,” he whispered.

  Okay by me.

  One of the officers met us by the driftwood pile. I spoke to him quietly, telling him about the photos, showing him the pictures on Mitch’s phone and then about the missing rifle.

  “Not good news,” he said. “I’ll call it in.”

  He walked toward the jetty, far enough away from the bush clad area near the body that no one could over hear him.

  Minutes passed.

  He beckoned for us to join him. Walking toward him I saw him talk into the radio on his shoulder. “Jack is coming over to join us,” he said. “FBI have landed at Woodbourne airport and are on the way out here. I’ve asked for AOS support.”

  “AOS?” I asked.

  “Armed Offenders Squad… our SWAT.”

  I nodded. “There is no real cover down here. If that person is still in the bush and our Unsub, potentially they’re armed.”

  The cop looked around. “The boat shed?”

  “It’ll have to do, we’ll sit it out over there.”

  I heard movement. The three of us looked up at the same time. Constable Jack Baron was walking toward us. Two shadows fell on the ground. He stepped sideways just enough for us to see a woman behind him and a rifle barrel.

  “Ellie?” Mitch whispered.

  “I see her,” I replied. “This isn’t ideal.”

  “No kidding,” Mitch whispered. “Now what?”

  “Well, it’s tricky but not impossible.”

  I leaned toward Curnow. “That a Glock 17 on your hip and is there a round in the chamber?”

  “Yes to both questions.”

  “How good are you with that?”

  “Proficient,” he replied.

  Yeah but I’m probably better. It’s how it is.

  “Ever fired at a person?”

  “No.”

  “Give it to me.”

  He started to shake his head. The woman called out. Kiwi accent. “I’ll shoot him if you don’t let me leave.”

  I whispered to Curnow, “Would she expect you to be armed?”

  “No.”

  “Give me the gun.”

  Mitch moved in front of me. Curnow reluctantly handed me the Glock. I shoved it in the back of my jeans.

  Then stepped away from Mitch and Curnow. I smiled at Jack, using my left-hand I tapped my head and pointed to the ground then held two fingers up. Hoping like hell he’d understand. I needed him to drop and cover on two. I still held two fingers up. Jack watched my hand.

  “No one is stopping you,” Curnow told the woman. “Let my constable walk over here and you go on up the driveway. We’ll stay here.”

  I didn’t want to speak and give away my nationality.

  “I’m taking him with me,” she said. She was calm. Calm is good, less chance of accidental gunfire.

  Even so, I couldn’t let her take Jack up the driveway.

  “You don’t need Jack, let him stay here,” Curnow said.

  I reached behind me and grasped the grip of the Glock.

  As I pulled the gun free of my waistband, I closed my fist.

  Jack dropped. I fired as soon as he moved. My bullet hit her in the shoulder. My preference was head but this wasn’t my country.

  No second chances.

  The woman’s face registered surprise for a moment, the rifle fell from her hands as she sank to the ground. Jack scrambled to his feet, taking the rifle with him and ran over to us.

  “Okay?” I asked him, my eyes focused on the woman, the gun now aimed at her head.

  “Yes,” Jack replied. He didn’t sound it.

  “Curnow, you got cuffs? Now would be a good time to use them,” I said. “Just don’t cross in front of me, go around.”

  He did. He cuffed the woman, inspected her wound, and called for an ambulance. I lowered the gun and handed it to Jack. Mitch grabbed the first aid kit and gave it to Curnow. He dressed the wound.

  A conversation ensued between me and the woman.

  Her name was Rachel Bridgeman; she was a New Zealander and studying at Caltech.

  “All right Rachel, let’s talk, shall we?”

  She shook her head. Then changed her mind. Wise.

  “You shot me.”

  “That was unfortunate. You are ruining my vacation. Tell me what happened here.”

  “She was my best friend,” Rachel said making an attempt at sorrow. I wasn’t buying.

  “Usually people don’t shoot their best friends. Waiting for an explanation here,” I rocked on my heels. “And getting bored. You don’t want that to happen.”

  “He asked her to marry him!”

  “Who asked her?”

  “My ex-boyfriend,” she said. “This hurts.”

  “Yeah. It does hurt when you get shot. Moving on. Paramedics will be here eventually.” The police officers watched as I continued. “Why was Nancy Medina here?”


  “We were holidaying together.”

  A horrible feeling swam up my spine and entered my brain. It sloshed about, whipping itself into a frenzy before falling off my tongue as words.

  “Your ex-boyfriend is here isn’t he?”

  Her eyes widened.

  I glanced at the senior officer. “Do we have another victim?” he asked.

  A sick little smirk tweaked the edges of Rachel’s mouth. She didn’t say anything.

  “How did you get the gun, Rachel?”

  “My parents look after Mitch’s holiday home for him. I know where everything is.”

  Nice.

  “Where are your parents?”

  I hoped the killing spree stopped with the boyfriend and best friend.

  All the colour ran out of her face. She waivered. Her body swayed. I reached down and pinched her arm.

  “Ouch,” she squawked.

  “Focus. You don’t get to pass out before I’m done talking with you,” I said with a growl. “Where are your parents?”

  “Nelson. They won’t be home for a few days.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be thrilled when police find them and tell them what their delightful daughter has done.”

  A tear slipped down her face. Must’ve been hard to force one out. She didn’t look at all remorseful.

  “I told Nancy not to date him!”

  “You can sit here and bleed while Constable Barron watches you. Senior Constable Curnow and I are going to search the property. What’d you say your ex’s name was?”

  “I didn’t. You can’t leave me here,” she whispered.

  “Yeah I can. Who are we looking for?”

  “Jerry Ryan,” she replied.

  It took us fifteen minutes to locate the body of the fiancé in the potting shed by Mitch’s garage. It was cooler in the potting shed, his body smelled less, and thankfully there was less bug activity. Single gunshot wound to the head.

  Rachel provided us with a time line of events. She killed the fiancé first. Nancy tried to run away, that’s how she ended up on the beach.

  The double murders took place about eight hours before Mitch and I arrived in the Sounds. Rachel said she saw us arrive. We didn’t leave the house until morning and she followed to see what would happen next. Really? What did she think would happen?

  Guess she didn’t expect to get shot. Pretty sure no one expects to be shot at the end of the world.

  She stopped talking when my FBI back up arrived.

  Mitch and I finished writing additional statements for both the FBI and police, an hour after everyone arrived we grabbed our bags and drove away, intent on a vacation no matter what.

  The end.

  Edited by Darren Pulsford for Fox Spirit Books:

  Girl at the End of the World. 2014.

  6. One and Only/Ellie

  “You’re smiling,” Kurt said settling into an armchair in my living room. He’d said he wanted to chat and we really hadn’t found time to catch up since my impromptu vacation. “After the day we had, you’re smiling. What gives?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Of course,” Kurt replied leaning back in the chair and regarding me with interest. “What else would you say?”

  “Why such a fascination with my smile?” I asked resting my head against the back of the couch and closing my eyes for a moment.

  “It’s become a rare and wonderful thing,” he replied.

  “I’m enjoying the moment, that’s all. We had a day and now it’s over.”

  He shook his head. “This isn’t you, I’m not buying it.”

  “It’s not that hard to imagine.” I looked at him sideways. “Don’t shake your head like that. It really isn’t that hard to imagine.”

  Suspicion shot across his eyes. “You don’t usually let go that quick.”

  I shrugged. “Well today I am.”

  “All right, gimme?”

  “Gimme? What are you, two?” I asked with a smile as I checked my wrists for a hair tie. There wasn’t one so I twisted the length of my hair and pushed it behind my back.

  “Sometimes. Tell. Wow me with your observations,” Kurt said. “Tell me all about Mitch, I just bet he’s behind this smile.”

  I leaned on the arm of the chair.

  “I’m going to need coffee.”

  Kurt rocked forward and lurched from his seat. “Be right back.”

  I watched him go. My phone buzzed. I glanced at the screen. Butterflies danced in my stomach. False alarm, not Mitch. The butterflies stayed regardless. I replied to the work email and dropped my phone into my lap.

  Kurt came back carrying two mugs but I couldn’t smell coffee.

  He passed me a mug. I spied milky brown liquid. It wasn’t coffee. Milk in coffee is an abomination. Tea? I sniffed at the contents of the mug.

  “Tea, really? We still on that?”

  “It won’t hurt you. Now talk.”

  I set the mug on the coffee table. “See that?” I pointed at the table. “It’s a coffee table, not a tea table.”

  “Ellie …”

  So hard to keep a straight face.

  “Kurt …”

  “Last nerve Conway. Just tell me, where’d you meet him?”

  “The first time?”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t know. Shortly after he was born probably.”

  Kurt smiled and raised an eyebrow.

  “Skip ahead. Where’d you meet him more recently, when did this glow thing you’ve got going start.”

  Glow thing. I’m glowing now? Proof I’m an alien?

  “All right. Jeez.” Time to suck it up and talk. “I picked Sam up from the hospital. You’d finished up. Lee was in recovery or ICU.” I stopped talking to make sure that sequence was right. Was it? No. “I’m wrong. You were still in theater with Lee. I picked Sam up to help me rescue Tierney’s wife.”

  Kurt stretched his legs then adjusted his position on the couch. I sensed his impatience and it amused me.

  “Okay, I know what happened to her.” He used his patient voice to good effect. “Where did you meet Mitch?”

  “We rescued the hostage and were on our way up the escalator at Rosslyn Metro. I stepped off the top and Mitch was there. Or nearby. I dunno. I was aware of the crowds and that we were escorting someone to safety but not much else.”

  “And?”

  “I heard someone say Gabrielle.”

  “He used the G word? And he’s still alive? Must be love.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Carry on …”

  “I’m not sure what to say now. He was there. Hadn’t seen him since Carla’s funeral and before that we hadn’t seen each other in a life-time.”

  “What was happening in your head?”

  I frowned. My phone buzzed. I checked the display. There was no stopping the smile.

  “Okay,” I said, looking from the screen to Kurt as I replied to the email. “What was happening in my head … I was stunned?

  I think that was it. Something clicked or snapped into place. I can’t explain it very well.”

  “Try harder. This guy has you all turned around and as much fun as it is to watch I want to know more.”

  “All turned around,” I whispered. “You got the wrong girl. That’s not me.”

  Kurt’s right eyebrow rose. “And now you see why this is so fascinating.” He grinned. “Yes it’s you. Keep talking.”

  Not about what was happening in my head. I needed to avoid that. Until I knew for sure what was happening in there.

  “I was dressed in a SWAT bullet proof vest and carrying an assault weapon and I couldn’t get one of my cards out of my shirt pocket. So, he slipped his card into my jean pocket.” My eyes met Kurt’s. “I really know how to make a great impression.”

  Kurt laughed. “Yeah you do.”

  “I carried on with the day, it was shit. I think you caught up on it the next day, yeah?”

  “Yes. Fissile material and a rouge agent turned terrorist. Big fu
n in D.C.”

  “Once I had all my ducks in a row, I called Mitch to see if he wanted to meet for coffee.”

  “And?”

  “He did. We did. He came over. He brought a chicken with him.”

  “I have to ask, an eating chicken or a laying chicken?”

  “Eating.”

  “The man is not stupid.”

  “We spent a few hours talking, cooking and eventually eating.”

  “You’re smiling again. I haven’t seen a smile like that since …” He stopped. I could see the cogs turning. “I’ve never seen you smile like that.”

  I ignored it.

  “Then he left.”

  “He left?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And?”

  I shrugged. My phone buzzed in my lap. I could see the email icon flashing. My finger touched the screen. Another email from Mitch waited for me. Just knowing it was there was enough. I chewed my lip, tried to hide the smile I couldn’t stop.

  “And … we talk every day. We see each other when we can.”

  Kurt watched me for a moment. I knew we weren’t done yet.

  “And you went away together to New Zealand on vacation?”

  “Yep.”

  “And?”

  I shrugged. “And nothing. We went away.”

  “We haven’t met him?”

  “No, you haven’t.” But Sam did briefly.

  “That’s not like you, what’s going on?”

  Oh, I see. This is about them not meeting him.

  “You drew the short straw then?”

  Kurt nodded. “Why haven’t we met this guy? He’s obviously important to you. You left the country with him.”

  “He’s important. He’s not like Mac or Rowan. He’s a regular guy.”

  “Or us presumably?”

  “Nope, not like us. Has a real job, you know, not a crazy one. No one shoots at him. People like him … He’s my safe place. Okay, there I said it.”

  “Your safe place?”

  “I have to explain that?” I asked.

  “Please …”

  “I can talk to him about anything and everything, and he’s okay with it.”

  Kurt grinned at me. “Trying to get my head around you talking …” He took another sip of his tea and waggled his finger between us. “… Because this is more like interviewing a hostile witness than talking.”

  “It happens. I talk, sometimes.”