The groaning sound of swiftly moving louvers at every window echoed through the entire Ecosphere. I watched Wesley quickly jerk away from the window, throwing off his balance. He rotated his arms to try and regain some control, but he was standing at the edge of the ramp and there was nowhere for him to go but down.
Rafe pushed him the rest of the way down the ramp and grabbed the rifle.
Hallie screamed and jumped out of the way.
Sketch covered his head with both arms. “Are we going to die?”
I came rushing out from behind the tree and jumped over the plants to the walkway, then raced over and yanked Wesley’s hands behind his back. He squealed in pain, much to my delight. I pulled the roll of duct tape from my tool belt and wrapped his wrists together.
“What are you doing here?” Hallie cried.
“Saving your butts,” I said, giving Wesley a quick look. I ran up the ramp and wrapped my arms around Rafe. “Are you all right?”
“Couldn’t be better,” he said with a grin. “Thanks for saving our butts.”
“You were doing pretty well on your own.” I turned to the rest of them. “Hallie, help Sketch up and get the two of you out of here. But don’t go too far. The police are on their way and they’re going to want to talk to you.”
Sketch managed to get on his feet. His shoulders were pulled in close. The man was scared of his own shadow at this point.
“Hey, Sketch,” I called. “Don’t even think about sneaking off to avoid the police. They’re going to want to talk to you, too.”
“I had no intention of sneaking anywhere, young lady. I am looking forward to telling my story to law enforcement.”
“Young lady? Really? I just saved your life. Can you get any more patronizing?”
He looked befuddled. “I thought I was being nice.”
“You thought wrong. Ask your wife.”
“I don’t have to stand here and be insulted.”
“No, you can probably stand anywhere and be insulted.”
He actually looked hurt. I heard Rafe laughing behind me.
I rolled my eyes. “Just go.”
Wesley moaned and tried to push himself up from the ground. It was an almost impossible job with both hands tied behind his back.
Rafe pointed the rifle at Wesley and said quietly, “You’re not going anywhere. Don’t even think about moving.”
He moaned again and I nudged his leg with the toe of my boot. “Hey, Wesley. Are you nuts?”
“What?”
I realized that we had just caught a murderer, but I still had a few bones to pick with him. “Seriously, I went to all the trouble to introduce you to Mac Sullivan, and you go and accuse him of stealing a story idea. What’s wrong with you?”
“I . . . I had an android in my short story.”
I just stared at him for a second. “You wrote a story? I thought you were an inventor.”
He sniffed. “I’m multifaceted.”
“Well, whoop-dee-do. You must be really special because nobody ever thought of putting an android in a story before.” Sarcasm dripped off every syllable. “Welcome to the wonderful world of science fiction, Wes. There’s only a few bazillion authors writing about androids.”
“But I’m the only—”
“Really. How dare you?” I said, and then laughed out loud at my own words. “How dare you accuse Mac Sullivan of stealing from you? He doesn’t even know you. Mac has been writing these books for years. What have you been doing?”
“I’m important,” he shrilled. “An influencer.”
“No, you’re not.” As comebacks went, it wasn’t one of my finest. But I was irate and upset on Mac’s behalf.
“One more thing,” I said. “Did you poison the mushrooms the night of the slow food event?”
“Certainly not!” Even though he was down on the ground, he managed to look down his nose at me. “I would never stoop that low.”
“Really?”
He sniffed. “I made Sherman do it.”
I shook my head. “You’re a real piece of work.”
And then I heard the tiny shrieks and squeaks and cackles.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked, clearly worried.
I knew what it was and I couldn’t breathe. The chills started at my feet and worked their way up to my neck and shoulders.
They came out of the greenery, skittering across the walkways and down the ramps like an army of tiny fuzzy white soldiers.
“Smart mice!” I shouted, and started hopping up and down to keep them from jumping on my boots and running up my legs and biting my face and chewing on my eyeballs. Oh, my dear sweet lord. This was not going to be pretty.
“You okay, Shannon?” Rafe asked.
“Not really.” My legs were shaking and I needed to get out of there before I completely humiliated myself.
Mac chose that moment to storm through the doorway, followed by Eric, Tommy, and four other officers. They all had their guns drawn.
And here I was, hopping and squealing like a moron instead of hanging tough like the warrior queen of my imagination. Breathing heavily, I managed to point out the bad guy. “Wesley. He’s the one who shot at Rafe. He killed Dillon and Sherman. He shot Sketch, er, Marv, in the leg and he was going to kill Hallie and Rafe.”
“Shannon pretty much saved the day here,” Rafe said.
Smiling with relief, I said, “You guys kept him talking.”
Tommy reached for Wesley’s arm, but pulled back when he saw that the killer was incapacitated. “Did you duct tape his wrists, Shannon?”
“Sure did. You know it’s good for everything.”
Mac moved right up to me. He wasn’t smiling.
“M-m-mice,” I whispered. I was trying not to hop like a fool but I was still jerking my feet up every time I saw movement. “Mac.”
“I’ll get you out of here,” Mac said, and picked me up and held me in his arms.
“Oh, thank you,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his neck. “You are my hero. The ultimate savior of my dreams. The man of my—”
“They’re just mice, Shannon.”
“No. They’re smart mice.”
“True.” He buried his face in my hair and just held on for a few seconds. “Babe, you sound out of breath.”
“Did you see all of them?” I glanced around uneasily. They could still climb up Mac and get to me. “There’s thousands of them. They were running in a herd. And they’re smart, remember. They came right for me.”
He turned to look away from me and I felt him shaking. Was he laughing at me? I didn’t care. “Could you, like, get me out of here?”
“Shannon, you just stopped a violent homicidal maniac from killing three more people and now you’re scared by a few tiny rodents.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense,” I grumbled.
“Right.” He kissed my head. “Absolutely right. Let’s get you out of here.”
“Best idea yet.”
He stared at me, then whispered, “God, you scared me.”
“I’m sorry.”
But when we got close to the doorway, I changed my mind. “You can put me down now. I want to see what’s going on.”
Eric and Tommy had pulled Wesley up to his feet and were dragging him out of the Ecosphere. Rafe handed the rifle to one of the officers, who used a clean white cloth to take hold of it.
“Hold it right there!”
I turned and saw Julian Reedy standing at the doorway and holding out his arm like a traffic cop. He glared at Wesley Mycroft and pointed an accusing finger at him. “Are you the psychotic animal who tried to kill Stephanie?”
Wesley cringed. “Who’s Stephanie?”
“I’ll kill you myself.” And Julian charge
d forward, hands extended in hopes of strangling Wesley in Stephanie’s honor. He was angry enough to take Wesley down right then and there, but Rafe stepped in and grabbed the ethnobotanist in a fierce hug. Julian tried to wrestle him, but Rafe was clearly more powerful and was able to subdue his plant-loving pal.
“Easy there,” Rafe said when Julian stopping fighting him. “They’re taking him into custody. He’ll be in jail for the rest of his life.”
Julian swallowed uneasily, then turned to stare at Wesley. “Look at me, Mycroft.”
Wesley lifted his head and sneered at Julian.
“I hope you spend every single day in a dirty, stinking prison cell, thinking about what you did to that innocent creature.”
Wesley, expressionless now, just shrugged, and the two officers walked him out of the Ecosphere.
“Julian?” I said.
He glanced up at me.
“Wesley will be charged with two counts of murder, at least three counts of attempted murder, and a few counts of destruction of private property. He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. He’s going to pay for hurting Stephanie.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Rafe insisted. “Don’t worry.”
Julian stared at Rafe for a long moment. “It’s still not good enough, but okay. Thank you.”
Rafe walked him outside.
I stared into Mac’s eyes. “What took you so long to get here?”
“It’s only been a few minutes since I talked to you,” he said. “I raced like a madman to get here.”
“It felt like hours,” I admitted. “And the gun wasn’t even pointed at me. Well, except for once when I thought Wesley might shoot up the ficus tree.” I told him about my hiding place and the cool trick with the louvers.
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “If he had seen you behind that tree, he would’ve killed you.”
“Yeah, probably.” I shivered at his words. “You know, I never could picture him killing anyone. I thought he was too wimpy. But then I heard him confess to killing Dillon and Sherman and shooting at Rafe. And causing all those people to be poisoned. He shot Sketch in the leg. And all the time his voice was completely dry and emotionless.”
“He’s psycho.”
“You’re right.” I leaned against him. “He wrote a short story with an android, so naturally he wanted to blame you for stealing it. He blames everyone for stealing all of his ideas.”
“Well, turns out he was right about Sketch and Dillon. Dillon actually did steal Wesley’s ideas, and Sketch talked about the Scoop-Monster as though it were his own.”
Mac gazed at me. “The Scoop-Monster idea is so ridiculous, for a minute I believed it was Sketch’s.”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
He shook his head and absently kissed my temple.
Someone else dashed by. “Where are my babies?”
I leaned over and caught a glimpse of Dr. Larsson and his flapping lab coat entering the Ecosphere.
“Your mice are in there, Doctor,” I said helpfully. “Hope you find them all.”
He stopped and gazed around the space. “I’m just happy they found such a pleasant habitat. Unlike the woods, there are no natural enemies in here.”
“Except for that psycho with the rifle,” Mac muttered.
“I wonder if Wesley’s the one who released the mice?” I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes. “I could kill him for that alone.”
He was shaking again. Laughing? Probably. “You look a little tired.”
“I guess I am.”
“Rounding up murderers and escaping smart mice makes for a hell of a day.”
“I’d rather not do any of that again.”
“If you want to go home, I’ll take you.”
“Okay. If you want to go.”
He stared at me and slowly shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I heard a different tone in his voice so I looked up into his eyes and saw the intensity he’d put behind those words. I touched his cheek and he turned to plant a soft kiss on the palm of my hand.
Despite facing off with a liar, a killer, and a knucklehead only minutes ago, I couldn’t help but smile brightly.
“I think I’ll stick around, too,” I said. “Things are getting interesting.”
He set me down on the ground and slung his strong arm across my shoulders. I wrapped my arm around his waist. And together we walked out of the Ecosphere and into the sunlight.
Epilogue
An hour later we were ensconced in Rafe and Marigold’s comfortable living room. Marigold handed me a glass of iced tea and placed a platter of homemade cookies on the coffee table. I could’ve used a stiff drink, but it would have to wait. “I can’t believe you faced another killer, Shannon. You must have nine lives.”
“Rafe and the others were the ones who faced him. I just hid in the bushes and pushed a few buttons.” And squealed at a bunch of mice, I thought. But I would keep that to myself.
Rafe sat in the big leather chair across from me. “That was smart thinking, Shannon.” Rafe’s expression was stark and he shook his head, remembering. “He was going to kill us.”
“I believe that,” I said. “He was out of his mind.”
“I was about to rush him,” Rafe said. “I didn’t have any choice. And then those louvers started moving. He freaked out and fell.”
Marigold walked out of the kitchen, handed Mac a beer, and then sat on the arm of Rafe’s chair. She smiled softly. “You scared the life out of me with that phone call, Shannon.”
“I’m just glad you answered. I felt so much better after hearing your calm and clear voice.”
“She’s good in a crisis,” Rafe said with a fond smile for his fiancée.
“Unlike Hallie,” I said, “who kept arguing with the maniac holding the gun.”
“She gets a little overwrought sometimes,” Rafe said.
“She could’ve gotten you killed,” I muttered.
“Are you still planning to shut down the company completely?” Mac asked.
“Yes,” Rafe said. “Dillon caused too much damage to our reputation with all of the patents he stole.”
“It was his reputation that tanked, not yours,” I insisted.
Rafe nodded. “In any case, I’ll keep my employees on for another six months while we clean things up and work on restitution for everyone who suffered.”
“And you’ll give them all bonuses,” Marigold said, rubbing his arm. “And extra compensation and all the perks they need to keep them going until they all find jobs again.”
“It’s only fair,” he said, gazing up at her. “I left them alone to deal with a monster.”
* * *
* * *
It was the closing night of the conference. The massive air dome held one thousand seats and every one of them was taken. Latecomers were perfectly happy to stand against the walls to get a glimpse of the man of the hour. Rafe did not disappoint.
When he finally walked into the dome, the crowd began to chant his name, and as he approached the stage, he smiled and waved. He wore his now-trademark white linen shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows and tucked into lightly pressed khakis, and sturdy recycled plastic flip-flops on his feet. A man of the people. Especially these people.
As he walked toward the front stage, row after row of attendees stood as he passed by, cheering and applauding.
“He looks happy,” I said to Mac. “I wonder what he’s thinking.”
“He’s probably dreaming of going home and grilling a big fat steak right about now.”
“That is so not environmentally responsible,” I said with tongue in cheek. I refused to feel guilty for joking about the subject. After a week of dealing with people like crazy Wesley Mycroft and lying Sketch Horn, mice experts, and sandcastle worm women, I needed to blow
off a little steam. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t continue to run my business using the safest products and following the best practices possible, but we all needed to be able to crack a joke once in a while. Besides, I was not about to give up cheeseburgers. Or big fat steaks.
Glancing around, I noticed there were plenty of local people here tonight who had not registered for the conference, but who wanted to hear Rafe’s closing remarks and see whose names came up at the awards ceremony. Our local newspaper, the Lighthouse Standard, was represented, and I’d heard a rumor that there was even a reporter from one of the big Bay Area newspapers in attendance.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been impressed with what Rafe had accomplished. He had managed to turn this first-time conference into a major groundbreaking event for the entire technological industry and beyond. And he did all that despite having attendees who ran the gamut from earnest do-gooders to wing nut murdering whack-a-doodles.
And in spite of the aforementioned whack-a-doodles, I was truly thrilled to have participated. Yes, it was horrific that two people had been murdered in cold blood and Rafe and others had been violently threatened. Never mind that a legion of smart mice had escaped their cages, or that food poisoning had felled a quarter of the crowd, or that plants had been seriously injured, or that at least one marriage had been destroyed.
Never mind all that. The Future Global Survival Con had been a real E-ticket ride. Or to put it another way, absolute chaos had been achieved. And with that thought, I gave a mental tip of the hat to poor old weird Sherman.
But chaos or not, people were psyched to be here. Reporters, industry leaders, and technology experts would be talking about this conference for years to come. In fact, Rafe had confided earlier that next year’s conference was already booked to capacity. Rafe, more than anyone, had been blown away by the news.
I smiled at Marigold sitting behind me. She squeezed my shoulder and then sat back to enjoy Rafe’s speech.
He finally reached the podium and the crowd cheered all over again.
“I’d like to thank everyone who attended the first annual Future Global Survival Con,” Rafe began. “We had a few glitches, but otherwise, it was fantastic. So many people contributed to help bring this massive event together and I want to thank every one of them, including all of our speakers and special guests, our caterers, booksellers, event coordinators, and vendors. Without each one of you, we wouldn’t be here. So thank you.”
Shot Through the Hearth Page 24
