It went flying through the air and hit the floor with a loud noise.It wasn’t until I heard an electric sizzle, and then a crack before everything went silent, that I realized the gun had gone off on impact and shot the big screen TV.
The bullet must have passed within a few inches of the top of my head.
Not that I had much time to think about it.Like me earlier, Mendoza had launched himself across the coffee table, and had landed on top of Araminta.Unlike me earlier, she didn’t seem to enjoy the proximity.She was shrieking like a banshee, and beating at him with her fists.And he was handicapped by the fact that while he had her by ten inches and probably seventy pounds, she was a little old lady with fragile bones, and if he broke any, she’d probably holler about police brutality.
He got her turned around, though, and her screams muffled in the Persian rug, so he could fit handcuffs around her skinny wrists.They had to be adjusted to their smallest circumference, or she’d be able to just slip her hands right out through them.
He hauled her upright and onto the sofa while she was still wailing.“You have the right to remain silent…”
“So now what?”I asked when he had gone through the appropriate motions.
He glanced at me.“I’ll call the Williamson County sheriff and have her picked up.We’re in his jurisdiction.Then we’ll have her transferred to Nashville, since most of her crimes were committed there.”
“I’m more concerned about me and you,” I said.“And dying from ingesting Griselda’s heart medicine.”
“I feel fine,” Mendoza told me, “but the bathroom’s down the hall, if you want to go stick a finger down your throat.”
I felt fine, too, now that it was over.But I thought maybe I’d make a short trip to the bathroom anyway.If nothing else, I could make sure I hadn’t accidentally wet myself when the gun went off.And maybe I could find a Band-Aid for Mendoza, while I was at it.“I’ll be right back.”
He nodded and reached for his phone.“I’ll be here.”
Twenty
”So that’s what happened,”I told Diana that evening.We were all sitting around the kitchen table in the house in Hillwood.And by ‘all,’ I mean Diana, Rachel, Zachary, and I, with Edwina curled up on the rug in front of the sink.“Araminta killed Griselda and tried to put the blame on Anastasia.She also tried to shake you down for money.And she’s charged with attempted murder of me and Mendoza, even though the pills she ground up and put in the scones expired several years ago.I guess she didn’t notice.”
“So no ill effects from the experience?”Diana sipped from her glass of wine.
The rest of us were all strictly alcohol-free this evening.Zachary and Rachel because they were taking pain pills—and Zachary was technically too young to drink, anyway—and I because the doctor who had examined me had said I probably didn’t have anything to worry about, but it might be a good idea if I were a little extra careful about what I put in my mouth for the next couple of days.
“My stomach’s a little upset,” I admitted.“And I tend to jump at loud noises.But apart from that, no.I’m glad to be alive, though.That bullet practically parted my hair before it killed the TV.”
Diana nodded.“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault.It was all Araminta.”
“I gave you this job,” Diana reminded me.
“Yes, but all you wanted to know, was what Steven was up to.You didn’t ask me to get involved in murder, and human trafficking, and kidnapping.I did all that on my own.”
She smiled.“And I’m grateful you did.”
“So you and Steven are going to be all right?”
She sounded surprised that I asked.“Of course.”
Good to know.“What about Anastasia?”
“Steven’s talking to the people at ICE,” Diana said.“To see if she’ll be allowed to stay while we figure things out.”
“So you think she might be his daughter?”
“He thinks so,” Diana said.“I figure he ought to know.”
Probably so.“And how is it going?”
“If necessarily, we’ll hire a lawyer,” Diana said.“One who specializes in immigration cases.But Steven’s making a good case.She’s here legally, on some sort of tourist visa.There’s nothing for her in Russia.Her mother’s dead, and so are her grandparents.She has nothing to go back to.And she came all the way here to find him.This girl allowed herself to be trafficked so she could look for her father.So I’m fairly confident that things will work out, even without the lawyer.”
It sounded like it might.
