THE PHOTO TRAVELER (THE PHOTO TRAVELER SERIES - BOOK 1)

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

 

Then I hear, “Get the hell away from my grandson!”

      My eyes spring open. Estelle—in her nightgown—is calmly walking down the staircase with Bud’s gun pointed straight at Naima, who slowly raises her hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Axel still splayed out on the floor clutching his shoulder as it oozes blood.

      “Estelle! Thank God!”

      She didn’t shoot her but the vase on the end table next to her, enough to cause Naima to hurl herself to the floor.

      “Get her gun,” Estelle tells me.

      I grab my gun, spring up and rush over to Naima. I focus the barrel on her and take hers.         Estelle has me tie them up with duct tape while she keeps her gun on them. Then she has me watch them while she fetches a dish towel from the kitchen and tucks it against Axel’s shoulder wound to stop the bleeding.

      “What do you want with us? Why do you keep following me?” I demand.

      Neither of them even looks up, much less saying anything. I know this is not going to go smoothly, but I hate to think of what it may take to make them talk. I glance at Estelle. She seems to read my mind and nods back at me. All I can think of is Bud and my promise to him and my parents to protect her. “I’m not playing around anymore! I want answers!”

      Without warning, I slam the steel grip of my pistol into Axel’s forehead. He rocks back and almost topples over but doesn’t say a word. Naima looks at him, then sneers at me. Estelle and I exchange looks again and she moves toward Axel herself and raises her gun, ready to take a swing at him.

      “No!” Axel whimpers, rubbing his forehead against the floor as if it’ll take away the pain. “Don’t! I’ll talk!”

      I position the barrel of my gun against Naima’s forehead. “I’m not very patient,” I tell him. “So I suggest you start talking.”

      I can see from her furious glare that she’d kick him into silence if she could, but for once she’s helpless. Axel, obviously terrified, starts blathering about Norrek and the Peace Hunters and how he and his cult were determined to go back in time and change moments that had resulted in war and other catastrophes.

      “We already know all this!” I snap. “What I want to know right now is, why did you kill Bud?”

      Naima and Axel both gape at me. “We didn’t!” they shout at once.

      “Then who did?” I yell.

      “Gavin!” Estelle cries. “You don’t think Bud was murdered? Do you?” She looks horrified. I hadn’t ever mentioned this possibility to her yet, and apparently she’d never considered it. “No! My Buddy was not murdered. He couldn’t have been!”

      Now it’s Naima who finally looks terrified. “We don’t kill just to kill!” Her voice is shaking. “We’re not cold-blooded murderers. We believe in peace. It’s what we stand for. Death is a last resort. We had no reason to kill your grandfather.”

      “Are you even listening to yourself right now?” I shout. “You say you believe in peace?”

      “That’s right! Ask your dear grandmother!” she sneers. “She knows better than anyone!” She turns a hate-filled glance on Estelle. “After all, you were there when Norrek saved our world from the nuclear catastrophe that Bower would have created!”