Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective

Chapter 46

The gunshot is louder than Zandra expects. Not that she's never heard a gunshot before. But in the tight confines of the cabin, there's a special banshee quality to it that she can feel all the way down to her bad ankle.

Abby looks surprised, as if she didn't expect the pistol to actually fire. Seth shares the expression, running his hands over his body in search of an injury. His fingers come back clean, but a dirty panic remains in his eyes. Abby hasn't lowered the pistol yet. It's still aimed at him.

"A miss. Thank heavens," Zandra says. Her words ring genuine. She needs them alive, at least until she can find Elle. She'd settle for mostly alive after that. "Why don't you put the gun down, Abby?"

Abby swings the pistol around to Zandra, the barrel planted even with the psychic's eyes. It's not a steady aim. Zandra shouldn't feel too nervous given the accuracy of the previous shot, but she does anyway. Abby's finger dances against the trigger in rhythm with her panicked breathing.

Zandra falls back to her original plan. "Look, it's obvious you two are having some difficulties working together. How about letting me take the lead from here?" she says.

Abby seems unsure. She holds the pistol in place until it slowly descends back into its holster and her eyes swell up.

"I'm sorry, baby," Abby says to Seth before planting herself in his lap, arms wrapped around his neck. They share a wooden kiss. "I'm so sorry."

Zandra doesn't let them think over her offer. "I need you to tell me where you're keeping Elle," she says.

Seth looks up from his embrace. "I honestly don't know. That's part of why this is so hard now," he says.

"What do you mean you don't know? You took her, didn't you?" Zandra says.

"That was the fail-safe, the beauty of our original plan. We handed Elle off to this other person. That way if we didn't get our ransom and we got caught, it would look like we were just fucking with Gene. We could even pass a lie detector test to prove it," Seth says, sporting a self-satisfied grin.

"Who is this other person?"

"That's not important," Abby says between nuzzling Seth's neck.

"Actually, I think it's the most important," Zandra says.

"Why should we tell you? So you can rat us out to the cops?"

"No, you should tell me so we can get moving instead of arguing like idiots."

Abby straightens from the nest she burrowed into Seth. "You know something? Maybe we ought to get rid of you. I'm not feeling you anymore," she says.

The pistol is back out and pointed at Zandra. Seth runs his hand down Abby's arm so they're both holding the gun. Couples therapy for the deranged.

"Yeah. Things made more sense when she wasn't sticking her nose into our business," Seth says.

Bright ones, these.

"Aren't you the ones who brought me in the first place hoping I'd get involved?" Zandra says. She hopes two shooters on one pistol doubles the chances of a miss. With the way their fingers intertwine around the grip, the odds look to be in her favor.

"Plans change," Seth says and locks lips with Abby. They break their airlock after a few deep seconds.

"Love you," Abby says into Seth's ear with a nibble. "Now kill her."

Zandra spots her opening in those few seconds. She takes a step toward the pistol, simultaneously drawing the lawnmower knife from her sleeve. Using the flat side of the blade, she slaps the gun to the floor, then sticks the point of the knife to Seth's throat.

"Tell me where Elle is, you stupid shit," Zandra says. She teases the knife against Seth's skin.

Her brief moment of control slips away as Abby scurries off of Seth, lunging for the pistol. Zandra's not quick enough to react. Abby rolls to the gun and pulls the trigger from an awkward position on the floor.

It all happens so fast, Zandra's not sure she even hears the shot. She certainly sees it, though. Seth's shirt turns an ever darkening red. The swatch is so large it's hard to tell where he's hit.

"No!" Abby says from the floor. She's frozen in place, save for her face. It twists into contorting ribbons of shock.

Zandra's pulse races as her sight collapses in on itself. Tunnel vision, fueled by adrenaline. Easy to get and hard to control. She takes a step backward and nearly trips over herself, fumbling with the knife in the process. She almost drops it onto her foot, but manages to catch it in time. Seth's vacant eyes watch her stuff the blade back up her sleeve. He tries to say something, but the words escape him like the stew sprinting from his wound onto the floor.

"I...I...," Zandra starts to say. Not even sure why she's talking. Something to fill the space while her brain processes the man dying in front of her.

Abby and Zandra remain idle and watch Seth expire. It's an odd thing, both of them staring into his chest like it's a TV. The movies always made gunshot deaths so dramatic. But now it seems to happen outside of the cabin, with as little fanfare as the wind. No pomp. No circumstance. Nothing exceptional to announce the latest dismissal from the planet.

So perhaps it isn't too surprising at how nonchalantly Abby turns the pistol on herself. Raises the barrel to her temple as if guided by a gentle, invisible hand. Zandra turns to watch Abby's last moment. The hollow desperation in her eyes is all the explanation needed.

Zandra remains planted in position, digesting the sudden crescendo of silence. A smell she can't quite place reaches her nose, yanking her focus back to attention.

Leave. Now. Go.

She knows she should. Her feet won't obey until she hears the sound of a vehicle approaching outside. It must be Gene and the officers. They're right outside the door. And there's only one way in or out of the cabin.