A Plague of Grackles by Dharma Kelleher

Author:Dharma Kelleher [Kelleher, Dharma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Pariah Press

CHAPTER 28

HOME

Forty-five minutes later, Roz pulled into our apartment complex after dropping off my prescriptions at the pharmacy. She promised to pick them up after I got settled in the apartment.

The grueling walk from the parking lot to our front door seemed a thousand miles long. The aluminum crutch from the hospital helped, but only a little. My pain rose steadily with each step.

“Keep going. You’ve got this,” Roz said when I started losing steam thirty feet from our door. I put my good arm over her shoulder, and she helped me through the last stretch and into the apartment. “Where to? Living room or bedroom?”

“Living room,” I said between heaving breaths. “Closer.”

“You gonna be okay while I pick up your prescriptions?” She eased me into my recliner.

I gave her a reassuring smile. “I think I’ll survive.”

I shouldn’t have been so smug. Even sitting in my chair, the burning in my groin was uncomfortable. To distract myself from the pain, I started scrolling my news feed, but every other post was about the shooting.

My name now appeared in many of the stories as the woman who disarmed one of the shooters. That explained the surge in anonymous callers. Fortunately, my phone still only rang for callers on my contact list.

One article reported that Wylie and I were siblings and speculated whether the shooting was a hate crime or a domestic dispute. Worse, loudmouthed blowhards like Sergeant Rivers dominated the feed with their transphobic rants. And rather than refute the obvious lies, the mainstream media used the quotes as clickbait headlines to generate more ad revenue. But the bottom line was that cops still hadn’t identified the other two shooters, and Zoë was still missing.

I called Marilyn, hoping for good news.

“Avery?” Her voice was weak and lifeless. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Thanks for the flowers. Any word on Zoë?”

“Detective Hausman has talked to her teachers, friends, and classmates as well as David and my parents. No one has seen or heard from her.”

“Has there been a ransom?”

“No, not really. Detective Hausman followed up on a few online posts claiming to have her, but they turned out to be false.” Her voice grew shakier. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Avery, if… if… I… I just can’t imagine not seeing her again. This is my worst nightmare.”

Hearing her sob hurt more than the pain in my thigh. “If the police can’t find her, I will. Somehow.”

“Oh, Avery, I appreciate your assurances, but there’s nothing you could do that the police aren’t already doing. Especially in your condition.”

“I can’t just lie around while she’s still missing. We will find her. I promise you.”

“You just focus on getting better, Avery. Easton, from the Phoenix Gender Alliance, stopped by. They told me what you did at the Trans March—how you disarmed that shooter. You’re a hero to the community.”

“I’ll feel more like a hero once Zoë is home safe with you and those other shooters are rotting in jail.”

“Avery, you’ve done enough. You need to rest and recover.

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