“ I was just the human guinea pig. You know, since I was dying of cancer and all. Nothing to lose and everything to gain, but frankly, after I’d seen the pain it put the monkeys through, I expected the drug to kill me.”
“ So there’s a lab, with scientists?” Shaffer looked doubtful. She hadn’t sold him yet.
“ Of course, you didn’t really think I concocted this up in my kitchen? I’m a doctor, not a scientist.”
“ So where’s the lab?”
“ In El Segundo, but it doesn’t exist anymore. There was an accident. Actually not really an accident, but there was a fire. It was on the news.”
“ I don’t remember that.”
“ The one the PETA people started, because of the animal experiments.”
“ I remember something about that,” Ackerman said. Izzy didn’t know how, because she was making the whole thing up. Power of suggestion maybe.
“ The two principles, Doctors Johnson and Swift were killed. That’s a little tidbit they kept off the news.”
“ Yeah, I didn’t hear about that,” Ackerman said.
“ And you know this how?” Shaffer said.
“ Think about it,” Izzy said.
“ I’m at a loss,” Shaffer said.
“ You were there!” Ackerman said.
“ Maybe you’re not as stupid as you seem,” Izzy said, thinking the direct opposite.
“ You’re crusin’ for another brusin’,” Ackerman said.
“ So with Johnson and Swift dead,” Izzy said, ignoring him. “I’m the only one who can recreate the drug.”
“ How did you get out?” Shaffer said.
“ The fire started in the front, I went out the back.” She sighed. “Then I took off.”
“ Why did you run?” Shaffer said.
“ Because, I’d just taken the drug and I knew word would get out if it worked and I’d be in the same fix I’m in now. You want to lock me away, take my blood, do tests, figure out how to make the Fountain of Youth drug.” She shook her head, feeling her long hair as it swished about her shoulders.
“ So the research is destroyed?” Shaffer said.
“ Not all of it.” She smiled, looked Shaffer straight in the eyes. “I have the formula. It’s complicated and I can’t make heads or tails out of it, but someone could.”
“ And for it you want?”
“ Let me go. That’s all I want. You can have it, but I walk out of here, go far away and you never come looking and you never tell anyone.”
“ Deal.” He said it so fast his lying eyes almost didn’t have the time go give him away.
“ And you’ll keep your word?”
“ I’ll keep my word.”
“ You guys are witnesses,” she said to Ackerman and Lundgren, trying to broadcast sincerity. Trying to sound like a trusting airhead.
“ Where is the formula?”
“ In my wallet.” She reached her hand to her hip pocket as Shaffer leaned forward. She hoped that Ackerman behind her was as eager as Shaffer, because if he wasn’t, if he had the Glock trained on her, she was going to wind up dead.
“ Get it!” Shaffer said. “Let me see it!” Anxiety oozed out of his mouth.
“ Alright.” She arched her head back, locked eyes with Ackerman, standing behind and above her as she reached her left hand into her hip pocket, index finger finding the hole in the center of the wallet holster. She loosely wrapped it around the trigger and eased the holstered gun out of her pocket. Eyes still glued to Ackerman’s she brought the gun up fast. Shot him under the chin.
“ What!” Lundgren shouted, his voice almost as loud as the gunshot.
Shaffer lunged for her, but she was out of the chair in a flash, charging toward the small laundry room which opened to the garage. The garage had been converted to a library, with several rows of bookshelves. She ran through fiction A to E, found the electric meter, opened it and pulled down on the main breaker, shutting off the electricity to the house, turning everything dark.
“ Eric!” she heard Lundgren cry. “She killed him!” He was wailing like a man tormented. Somehow, she’d never thought of them being in love.
She also had never dreamed she’d be able to kill a man. She’d done it without thinking. She’d done it with eyes wide open. She’d seen the back of his head explode, seen the blood shoot toward the ceiling. It had happened in the blink of an eye. Then she moved, still without thinking, fearing the falling blood. She ran toward her books, instinctively shutting off the power to the house.
It had been a stupid move, because now she was trapped. She was as blind as her pursuers. She couldn’t even escape through the side door, because it was deadbolted shut. True, she had the keys, but how could she find the door, much less the lock, in this pitch black.
“ I’m coming for you!” Lundgren shouted. “I’ve got the gun.”
The Glock.
Shit.
She had to get out of here, but the only way out was that side door and even if she could find it now, Lundgren wouldn’t give her the time to open it. He’d do to her what she’d done to his lover and who’s to say she didn’t deserve it. She didn’t have to kill him.
Yes, she did. They were going to lock her away. There had been no other way.
Still, she’d killed him. Made him dead. He’d wanted to be young forever and now he was dead forever. She shivered. A gun made you a god. She didn’t like it, but she’d had no choice. Them or her. They’d made the rules, she was just playing the hand they’d dealt.
She heard the front door open, then close. Somebody had left, who? And more importantly, why? Had they gone for reinforcements? No. More than likely they were afraid the gunshot was going to draw the police. They’d left her with a body and the gun that had killed him. Young again only to spend her life behind bars. Somebody had gone out that door, both of them or only Shaffer?
As if to answer her question, she heard breathing.
It seemed to be coming from all around her. Someone was in here with her. Lundgren, had to be. Shaffer had cut and run, like the coward she knew him to be, but Lundgren had stayed to avenge Ackerman. In a way she couldn’t blame him. From what she’d known of them, neither Lundgren nor Ackerman had been too bright. Couldn’t even make the cops after all these years. Shaffer probably promised them eternal youth, riches, more. Now Ackerman was dead. Lundgren had lost not only his dreams, but his lover as well.
He wasn’t leaving, cops coming or no. He was going to see this through.
And he’d gotten in here without her hearing him. Maybe he wasn’t too bright, but he was stealthy. Plus, he had fourteen rounds to her seven. She had good bullets, but his were better. She had to end this quickly or she was going to be joining Ackerman in the hereafter.
“ Hey, bitch.” Lundgren was whispering and his voice seemed to be everywhere, like his breath. How come she couldn’t get a fix on it?
The bookcases were made out of solid oak. The were beautiful to behold and she was pretty sure they’d stop the Glock’s forty caliber slugs and she knew for certain they’d stop the little Rugar’s rounds.
She picked up a book. A thick one and tossed it toward the side wall, toward where she imagined her computer desk would be. It landed with a crash, followed by three quick gunshots which roared through the garage like a jet engine. If she hadn’t killed her iMac with that lucky throw, Lundgren just did.
Her eyes, bathed in pitch black, were light sensitive and she saw a red glow with each shot, but not the muzzle flash, because she’d been behind a bookcase. She grabbed another book, moved to another row. Tossed it.
He fired twice, lighting himself up with the muzzle flash.
She fired once, but not before the black reigned again. She dropped to the floor as a shot flew over her head, going through the garage door. She could just imagine it slamming into the house across the street.
He’d fired six rounds, leaving him eight. She’d fired once, leaving her six. She scooted back toward the breaker box, hugging the floor. He fired twice more, both shots missing by inches, both going through the garage door, shooting off into the night. The people across the street were not her favorite neighbors, but she didn’t want them hurt.