Murder on the Orient Espresso(80)

Frozen in fear, I felt something thick glide over and then around my leg. The monster would envelope me like the banyan tree did its ‘host,’ first strangling the life out and then enveloping me as if I’d never been there at all.

I pushed up on my elbows hoping to scrabble away, but the coils had continued to climb, reaching my waist. I wanted to scream, but couldn’t seem to get my breath, whether from fear or the creature’s evolving death hug.

Yanked back, I fell off my elbows, my face grinding into the ground. When I turned my head, the python’s head slid into view. A split-tongue lashed out, nearly touching my nose. I tried to evade it, but the rows of backward-pointing teeth drew—

An explosion. And then nothing.

No sound. No light. Nor could I feel the painful, suffocating clamp of the python any longer.

Was this how it felt to die?

If so … hey, not so bad.

Sure, I could use a little music or maybe a pearly gate or two. But I’d settle for a simple dazzling light to move toward. It was awfully da—

‘Maggy?’

I opened my eyes.

Missy was standing straddled over the python. The creature’s head had been blown apart.

Before I could open my mouth to thank her, the girl turned the gun in my direction. ‘I’m so sorry, Maggy.’ She seemed dazed.

‘It’s all right, Missy.’ I was holding up both hands as best I could. ‘I know you didn’t want to hurt anyone.’

But she was shaking her head, back-and-forth, back-and-forth. ‘That’s just it. I think in a way I did. After—’ She swiped at a string of snot hanging from her nose. ‘Afterwards I was glad Laurence was gone. Dropped into the Everglades to be dealt with by animals like him. It seemed … right.’

No muss, no fuss. I hoped I wasn’t her next recycling project.

‘But you—’ She gestured toward me with the gun. ‘You don’t deserve to die.’

I didn’t know what else to say but, ‘Thank you.’

‘You’ve been nothing but nice to me, Maggy. And I almost killed you. Or, at least, let the snake kill you.’

‘But you didn’t,’ I insisted, hoping it was a self-fulfilling prophesy.

‘Thing is, with you gone no one would ever need to know. They might not even find your body. It would be so … neat, so orderly. Life should be orderly.’ The gun was shaking.

‘Hello?’ Markus’s voice called from the direction of the train. ‘Who’s out there?’

Pushing myself up on my hands and knees, I lunged upward just as Melissa ‘Missy’ Hudson put the muzzle of the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.





THIRTY-SIX





The shots brought people running from the train at a gallop, Markus in the lead. ‘Oh, my God. What happened?’

I was sitting next to Missy’s body on the ground. She still held the gun in her hand, the back of her head horribly … just not there.

‘Missy killed herself and,’ I hesitated, ‘Potter.’

‘Are you sure?’ Zoe Scarlett had arrived, quickly followed by Prudence and Theodore B. Hertel, Jr. ‘I mean, you’re the one who’s alive and she’s not.’

‘The girl still has the gun in her hand,’ Markus pointed out before I could answer.

‘And why would Maggy kill Potter?’ Prudence demanded. ‘She didn’t even know him.’

‘Why would Missy kill him?’

A new voice. ‘Because she loved him and he was an asshole.’ The crowd parted, revealing Audra Edmonds. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t do it myself, years ago.’

‘Well, will you look at that snake in the grass.’ Engineer Hertel didn’t seem to take any notice of Audra or even Missy or me. He was ogling the python. ‘This here’s gotta be another of those rock pythons – look at how broad she is. And them eggs! They’re about to pop and I hear tell they come out striking.’

I got up and took two steps back. ‘We need to get Missy out of here,’ I said. ‘Markus, maybe you and,’ I saw the literary agent coming toward us, ‘Carson can carry her back to the train?’

The germaphobe in his white suit looked down at Missy, covered in swamp water and snake remnants, the back of her skull gone, but he nodded. ‘Of course.’

The two men picked up the pathetic little rag doll, all dressed up with literally no place to go. I followed after them as they conveyed Missy across the shallow water to the train. As I went, I stopped to retrieve first one glittery shoe and then the other.

When we got to the door, Markus climbed into the train. Carson handed the girl up to him and then the rest of us hoisted ourselves in.