Movie Night Murder Read online

  "Sorry?" Savage roared. He ran up and cut us off. "Sorry? You question my ability to do my job, somehow trick the Senator into bringing you here, get us all worked up over nothing, and all you have to say is 'sorry'?"

  I shoved him aside and shouted over my shoulder as I rushed past him, "Yup."

  We kept moving, but once again, Savage blocked us.

  "No!" He shouted. "You owe me one hell of an apology! The CIA owes me one hell of an apology! And the Senator should investigate your Agency because of your profound incompetence!"

  Savage's face was an alarming shade of red. Riley got all up in his grille (I learned that phrase from my troop), and the two men began a testosterone-ish pheromonal exchange without words.

  I stepped up between them. "Like I said, sorry. You did your job. Yay. Good for you."

  "Hey!" Savage said as Riley and I started to lead Dad away. "Senator! Are you going to say something?"

  We kept moving. Savage yanked on my arm. "Honey—you're going to be out of a job!"

  Honey?

  He continued, "I'm going to make sure the Senator truly understands what's happening here, and when I'm done, you won't even be allowed to apply for a school crossing guard job."

  "Good luck," I said as I brought my fist down on his forearm hitting the sweet spot—a little trick I knew. His grip released instantly, and rather involuntarily too. "Because, Honey, Senator Czrygy is my father."

  We left a huffing secret service agent in our wake as we continued to Riley's SUV.

  "I thought you didn't want anyone to know about our connection," Dad said with amusement as he buckled his seat belt.

  "Yeah, well, incognito is overrated," I responded as Riley fired up the engine and we raced, hell bent for leather, for Who's There and our possible destruction…for the second time today.

  I filled Dad in on the way, and he finally looked concerned.

  Rex was waiting for us at the door of the station when we arrived. He led us to a conference room and sent Kevin to fetch us some coffee as I smoothed out the map on the table and told him what I thought was really happening.

  He didn't look happy.

  "You think this town was the original target," he said finally.

  I nodded. "I got so carried away with the fact that the president was going to be here, I didn't double-check. I should've double-checked. It was just stupidity that I didn't."

  Riley opened his mouth. It looked like he was about to give me crap about the recalled atlas, but then he changed his mind.

  "Don't feel too bad. With the president next-door, I would've thought the same," Rex said. "There's no real big target here. No major events, nothing."

  "I know. It sounds insane," I agreed. "But G 11 points to Who's There. Evelyn showed up in Who's There and inconveniently dropped dead here. And Red and Blue didn't leave town when they should have. They took up residence in the old Philips' place."

  "That old house outside of town?" Dad asked. "I always liked that place."

  "Which made me think, why stick around if they were really just here to get Evelyn? There isn't any reason to do this. They would've been free and clear to leave," I said, pausing to accept a cup of coffee from Kevin. I drank it before remembering that I don't drink coffee. I took another gulp.

  "And then there was Seamus Bailey. Why come back and kill him? They could've hit the road, never to be seen again. It was unlikely Seamus could describe them with any accuracy. Why come back to silence him?"

  Rex nodded. "Because they weren't leaving."

  "Because," Riley added. "They were afraid of him seeing them again. Because they were sticking around."

  "Exactly."

  We stood there, staring at each other.

  "This is the target, for some reason," I repeated. "And our two terrorists are still out there."

  "They're not at the Philips' place," Rex frowned. "I've had it under surveillance since that night."

  "So where are they?" Dad asked as Kevin handed him a donut. Where did Kevin get donuts? Is Kevin capable of sharing?

  I shook my head. "I don't know. They could be anywhere."

  "Well at least Evelyn's body is back in the morgue," Rex said. "Ted has beefed up security, so they'd have a fight on their hands if they show up."

  Riley stared off into space. "I still don't understand why they wanted her body. It's not like she'd have the puzzle box on her."

  "Puzzle box?" Dad asked as he wiped the powdered sugar from the donut off his chin. It's a good thing Mom wasn't here. She never let him eat crap like this.

  Riley filled Dad in on Evelyn giving Lauren the puzzle box and how we found the photo there.

  "So Evelyn had proof, and they wanted to silence her?" Dad asked.

  "Yes," Rex said. "But they'd have to know the body would've been stripped."

  I shook my head. "It's a photo. She could've hidden it anywhere."

  "Like inside of her?" Kevin squeaked.

  We all turned to face him. It was like a plant or two-by-four talking for the first time.

  "Cuz that would be gross!" Kevin added.

  "Officer Dooley," Rex said with the patience of Job. "Please go and get us some bottles of water."

  Kevin fled. Maybe speaking out loud even freaked him out. I hadn't heard him say anything even remotely helpful since the sixth grade.

  "The coroner would've found the photo if it had been anywhere on or in the body," Rex said.

  "So, why did they need the corpse?" Riley asked. "We already knew who she was. We didn't need her remains for that."

  "There's a reason we aren't thinking of," I said. "Which could mean they'll be back for it."

  The room cleared out before Kevin could return. As we drove to the hospital, me with Rex and Dad with Riley, I pictured him walking in with water bottles, seeing us gone, and hanging his head.

  "You think there are explosives in the body?" Rex said as we raced across town.

  "It's a possibility. The autopsy was done. There'd be no need to examine it again."

  "That's pretty horrible." Rex's jaw was tight.

  "Terrorists do it in the Persian Gulf," I said.

  "Wouldn't Soo Jin notice any new scars?" Rex asked.

  I shrugged. "Not if they used the ones she made during the autopsy."

  "How much can you insert into a human body?"

  I shook my head. "It depends on what types of explosives are used. This isn't my area of expertise at all. Too bad we don't have a bomb squad in town."

  "So what's the next step?" Rex asked. "Do we cut her open in an attempt to disarm her—or do we just take her out into the middle of a cornfield and set her off?"

  "I don't know." My mind was reeling. I wondered if Evelyn had ever thought it would come to this.

  "So, who are they?" Rex asked. "Who's the couple, and what do they want?"

  I didn't want to say I don't know again. It was a crappy option for someone in my field. But I didn't have a clue. Whoever Red and Blue really were didn't matter as much as disarming the bomb.

  Rex didn't wait for me to answer. "So the hospital was the target?"

  I shrugged again. "It just might be."

  "Why the hospital? Why not the fertilizer plant where they'd kill more people?"

  "It's most likely a sleeper cell. They don't like to change plans. And they usually end contact with their handlers once the orders are given. My best guess—the thing with the president was a very recent addition. Red and Blue decided to stick with the original plan."

  "They must be very stupid," Rex said. "Thank God for that."

  I nodded as we pulled up to the hospital. "Terrorists, domestic or foreign, usually have a very narrow view of things. They think they are soldiers to their cause and are one hundred percent focused on the job. They have blinders on that block out any peripheral vision. All they know is that they are doing this for a reason, and that they have to succeed. Intelligence is nice but not mandatory."

  Rex parked alongside Riley and we all piled ou
t and started running for the door. Ted Dooley met us, and we all headed to the morgue.

  "I evacuated as many as I could," Ted said. "I sent for ambulances from Des Moines, but they won't be here for twenty minutes."

  He looked worried. His white hair was plastered to his head, and he was sweating. Poor guy. He probably thought nothing like this would ever happen here. I still couldn't figure out how this guy was Kevin's father. Maybe the good genes skip a generation in that family.

  Dr. Body was waiting and led us into a cold room with Evelyn's body on a table. The doctor had covered up what she could out of modesty, but her abdomen was on full display, with a zipper-like scar right down the middle.

  "These stitches—" she pointed to a section in the center, about ten inches long "—are new. They aren't mine. My guess is that's where the explosives would be."

  I studied Soo Jin. She was calm and collected. If she was terrified about blowing up, she didn't show it. I liked that. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. Maybe she'd be a good owner of Moneypenny and Bond. I cringed a little—thinking of losing those two kitties still bothered me.

  Riley stepped forward. "Clear out. I'll do it." He picked up a scalpel and waited for us to leave.

  We didn't.

  "You don't have a lot of experience in defusing bombs, Riley," I said evenly.

  He looked at me. "And you do? I've defused two bombs, which I'd guess is two more than anyone else in here."

  I looked around. Nobody argued with him.

  "I'm not leaving," I said, folding my arms over my chest. "We're in this together. Might as well blow ourselves up together."

  Rex's cell rang, and we all jumped. He took the call out to the hallway.

  "You," Riley pointed the scalpel at me, "and everyone else are leaving. I'm not making one cut until you go."

  Rex burst through the door. "Des Moines can't send anyone to help. They've got their own problems."

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "Red and Blue were found at the airport."

  "So they have them?" Dad asked.

  Rex shook his head. "Not really. They've taken hostages and shut down the airport."

  "Can't SWAT take them out?" Ted asked. "I might be wrong, but can't they just shoot them?"

  "No. They're both wearing suicide vests. One shot and Des Moines will need to build a new airport."

  "We're on our own," I said. Dammit.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  "In light of that intel, I'd say the odds of a bomb in this body are about one hundred percent," Riley said. "Which means you all have to go."

  I disagreed. I'm stubborn like that. "I'm staying. Everyone else should go though."

  Dad wore a grim face. "If Merry stays, I stay."

  I turned to him. "Dad—I'm not a baby, and this isn't the first time I've been in danger. You need to go. Mom doesn't need to lose both of us."

  Rex said, "Senator, you need to go." He nodded to Ted. "Please take him out to the car in the parking lot."

  Ted agreed. "I'll take him out, but I'm coming back in. I'll do all I can to get the other patients to safety."

  "Merry," Dad protested.

  I put up a hand to stop him. "Go!"

  My father sighed, then followed the director of security out the door.

  I turned to Dr. Body, "You should go too, Soo Jin."

  "I think I should stay," she said a little hesitantly. "You need an expert here. What if the explosives are hidden beneath organs or muscle tissue?"

  "I don't think we need to handle Evelyn with kid gloves anymore, do you?" Riley said. "If I have to tear her apart, I'll do so. Wrath is right. You need to go."

  The medical examiner started to protest, but Rex cut her off. "You should go help evacuate the rest of the patients. They'll need all the doctors they can get."

  Dr. Body looked carefully at each and every one of us, her eyes finally settling on Rex. Oh for crying out loud! Was she going to flirt with him right in front of me? If I didn't explode in the next few minutes, I might rethink giving her the kittens.

  She finally gave a little nod and fled the room a little too quickly. I guess she wasn't as calm as I thought. As for me, my heart was beating a merengue that was giving me a migraine. I looked at Rex.

  He shook his head. "I'm not leaving, Merry."

  I started to protest. I was going to say something about him staying alive long enough to take care of my cats, but to be perfectly honest—I was glad he was here. Then when I vomited from watching Riley desecrate the corpse, he could step up and help Riley.

  "Fine," Riley said.

  He pulled an overhead light closer to Evelyn and placed the scalpel on the sutures. After a moment's hesitation, he started cutting through the black threads. Rex and I stepped closer. It was so quiet we could hear the blade cutting through the thread. I was pretty sure we were all holding our breath too.

  I'd decided that it was in our best interest not to talk at all. First of all, because I didn't want to distract Riley, and secondly, because I've never disarmed anything more difficult than cutting the fuse on dynamite. And even if I did know a thing or two, I was rusty.

  I was staying for support. At least, I'd like to think my presence was helping. And for some very weird reason, I was staying for Evelyn. Somebody should be on her side, right? Even though she was a traitor and bad guy—she had gone on the trip with us, and she tried to warn us by giving Lauren the puzzle box. Which is all pretty weird because she could've just stopped by my house.

  Of course, it didn't undo all the horrible things she'd done—even though I didn't know exactly what they were. But it was something, and the woman deserved to have someone by her side as Riley sliced through her remains.

  Riley was locked in concentration. He had a focus I could only admire. I tended to get distracted easily these days. Riley had this gift of tuning out the whole world to focus on one thing. And if anything deserved his full attention, it was this.

  He wasn't taking any chances. Riley cut about four inches longer on each side of the new stitches. No point in having to backtrack if needed. After the last snip, he put on latex gloves and gently eased the body open.

  I wasn't too squeamish. When I'd said I'd probably vomit earlier, it was from the tension. Not seeing the body. I could feel my blood pressure spike as Rex stepped even closer and brought the light down closer to the body. I didn't move.

  Riley whistled. That wasn't good. I didn't ask. Like I said, I didn't want to break his concentration. But I did notice that vein in Rex's neck throbbing. This seemed bad. Really bad. Neither man spoke. Riley just bent closer to the cavity and moved his fingers around.

  There's no way around it. Bombs are scary. And now that they could be controlled by cell phone, they were even scarier. But with Blue and Red holding off a whole SWAT team in Des Moines, I doubted they were even thinking of the Evelyn Bomb. Still, it was just one more factor in the stress fog that seemed to fill the room.

  My thoughts drifted back to Evelyn again. By now, I was pretty sure she'd tagged along with my troop on the DC trip to hide out. It was a good cover, but she was taking the chance that someone would ID her. But why did she pick me? And why did she implicate me in that fax?

  It was possible the fax was sent by Red and Blue to cover their tracks. I guess we'd never really know what Evelyn had been thinking. All we knew was that she'd turned down this job and tried to warn us. That redeemed her a little in my eyes. I really didn't want to know what she'd done to betray her country. It didn't seem to matter now.

  We were no closer to figuring out who Red and Blue were. But if the Des Moines police managed to capture them alive, we'd find out. It wasn't as important as defusing this bomb and saving my town.

  Rex's phone started buzzing on his hip, but he ignored it. This was more important. This had precedence. There was some commotion in the hall. Probably something with the evacuation. Dooley could handle it. Ted Dooley that is. Kevin Dooley couldn't handle his own breathing without opening h
is mouth.

  After a few agonizing minutes, Riley stood up straight and put down the scalpel. A light sheen of perspiration had broken out across his forehead. That wasn't good. Rex turned to me and shook his head.

  "You can't do it…" I murmured.

  Riley shook his head. "I can't do it."

  "There's a bomb, then?" I asked even though it was a statement of fact now.

  "C-4. Lots of it. In plastic bags to keep it dry. And I don't understand the trigger mechanism. It's something I've never seen before."

  Great.

  "Is there a timer?" That would've been convenient so we knew how much time we had left.

  "We have five minutes to figure out what to do next," Rex said.

  Oh. So there really was a timer. At least we knew how long it would be before we turned into a red mist.

  "So how do we dispose of the body in that short amount of time?" I asked as I ran over to a rolling cot and started dragging it over.

  Riley shook his head and took off his gloves. "I'm afraid to even move it. That could set it off. And there are lots of wires. I have no idea which one to cut."

  "Isn't it always the red one?" I asked. It was always the red one in movies.

  "So, we run," Riley said as he ripped off the rubber gloves.

  "Let's go…" I said.

  The commotion in the hallway was getting closer and louder. Maybe the three of us could help somehow. The morgue was in the basement. It could bring down this entire wing. Hopefully we could save a few lives…

  The noise got louder. It sounded familiar. I saw movement outside the opaque door window.

  Oh no…

  Kelly burst through the door with the four Kaitlins, the two Hannahs, Lauren, and Betty. The girls were laughing.

  "Let's all thank Dr. Body for this spooky, late night morgue tour!" Kelly said brightly as she led the girls into the room.

  She stopped short when she saw us gaping at her. Then she saw the body.

  "What's going on?" she said as she raced to cover up the body.

  Then she saw the open cavity and looked inside. I can only imagine she saw the bomb inside. What were they doing here? How the hell had this happened? A late night morgue tour? Why wouldn't I know about that?