October 8, 2018
Galveston, Texas
Dressed in her usual all-black, Marnie looked across Louise’s deck at Chris. Hard to believe that twenty-four hours ago they had sat down to speak with Savannah. Since then, the kids had been attacked and they had met with Detective Sudhan about their investigation into Gen’s death. A fog was beginning to build across the sunset.
This day has been its own rollercoaster of a ride. After her walk with Louise, she managed to get Ellie Jean on the phone. The year abroad was going well. After a few pleasantries, Marnie told Ellie Jean about the situation in Galveston.
Ellie Jean had been furious with her. She couldn’t believe that her mom was risking her life playing detective. Marnie thought that Ellie Jean was being dramatic but had to admit the whole week sounded crazy as she told her the story.
Towards the end of their conversation, Ellie Jean had said, “Let me make this clear, Mother. If you get yourself hurt or killed, I will never ever forgive you. You may have survived being orphaned at twenty, but your parents hadn’t courted danger. You get your priorities straight and let the police take it from here.”
She’d inwardly laughed at Ellie Jean’s firm tone. That’s a reversal in roles. At the end of the call, they had been able to say they loved each other. Neither of them wanted their last words to be angry.
The bright side of the conversation was that Ellie Jean had been so focused on the events of the week that Marnie didn’t need to tell her much about Chris. Which was just as well, since she didn’t know how she felt about him or what to say.
With kids and Chico safely ensconced with Nancy for the evening, Marnie and Chris were waiting for Didier and Louise to change clothes and join them for drinks and dinner. They had picked up Thai food and were planning to sit down and share what they knew. Maybe try to figure out what they didn’t know.
As Louise walked gracefully onto the veranda, Marnie again admired her for her ability to command an ER like a general. Personally, Marnie had been more comfortable with a calm office practice and was glad she had rarely been called on to start a resuscitation. The last one had been on an infant who was brought in for paleness and turned out to be in cardiac shock from undiagnosed hemolytic anemia. She was glad her training had kicked in enough to do the basics of CPR and that the ambulance had arrived in five minutes. That was enough emergency medicine to last her for the next ten years.
Didier came out soon after Louise. After taking a group of bird watchers on a tour, the only difference in his clothes from this morning, cargo pants and a long-sleeved tee shirt, were that these were clean.
They sat on the veranda to watch the sunset and have their cocktails of choice. Beer for Marnie, bourbon for Chris, and wine for Louise and Didier. The day’s last light was casting a red glow over the bayous that coursed through the wetlands.
Louise spoke first. “Marnie, I followed up on your phone call with Anne. She said she was putting her team together to look at irregularities in the lab’s finances and see if there’s a questionable money trail. We need to get all our ducks in a row.”
“My day at the newspaper was very interesting,” Chris said. “I spoke to Dr. Springer, one of the surveyors on site at the lab. He reiterated that he thought there were some irregularities going on there. His partner in the survey has disappeared, along with his report. Mr. Williams was inappropriate about the situation when Springer spoke to him.”
Marnie added, “I spoke to Iliana today. She confirmed that her John Doe was the missing surveyor.”
“And here’s the biggest lead. Savannah uncovered information about Roy Williams’s finances—they don’t add up. He also has some creepy and expensive hobbies. He has good reason to be on the take,” Chris said. “I think we can assume that Williams is up to his ass in alligators.”
Louise added to the conversation. “Sudhan told me that she might have a lead on the jailbird as the murderer. But that alone doesn’t explain who put him up to it. Maybe this information sheds light on the why. Sudhan said she’d keep us posted on the investigation.”
Didier said, “I’m very concerned about the safety of us all. If it is Williams who threatened the children, he may be getting desperate.”
Marnie continued to stare at the spot where the sky met the sea, thinking about her call with Ellie Jean and her own thoughts of mass murderers. They were rarely pegged by their neighbors or their families as “people who would do such things.” On the other hand, Williams gave her the creeps. He was someone who would think about committing a crime only if he had an escape plan. Did that make him more or less likely to be a killer?
Just then she heard a click. Without thinking, she shouted, “On the floor!”
Everyone looked at her in astonishment.
Reflexively, she grabbed Louise’s arm and pulled her down.
Chris and Didier followed suit just as an array of bullets splattered the veranda at waist height.
Didier started to combat crawl into the house, yelling at people to follow him. As they got inside, staying low, they each pulled out their cell phones and started dialing 9-1-1.
Another spray of bullets blasted through the windows.
They slithered in a tight group towards a small interior hallway bathroom, leaving four phones dialing 9-1-1. With the house on stilts, there was no basement. They felt silly huddled in a bathroom waiting for what felt like inevitable slaughter. Ellie Jean’s words echoed in Marnie’s head.
Didier said, “I think we need to spread out and see if we can get the drop on this guy or at least not let him take us out in one fell swoop.”
“I’m so glad the kids aren’t here,” whispered Louise. Everyone was shaking and terrified.
“I’m going to leave the bathroom and go right,” Didier said.
Chris replied, “I’ll go left towards the living room.”
Knowing that the current advice in an active shooter situation was to take a role in their own defense, Marnie gave a tight smile at Louise and said, “Let’s follow our men.”
At the count of three, they ran out of the bathroom in crouched positions in two different directions. Marnie stopped to listen and decided that the bullets were coming from the rear of the house. She pointed to the front of the house, indicating that they should head out that way.
There was an open front yard for about twenty yards and then the cover of some scrub and dunes. Louise and Didier had headed out the east side of the house, away from the setting sun. It seemed strangely quiet after the rain of bullets.
Had the shooter fled?
As they reached the front door a blast sent them back into the house. Chris flipped over a large chair and Marnie and he huddled behind it.
Now what?
They waited again.
Chris grabbed a large lamp that had fallen by the chair. He stood up and heaved it far from them. A blast of bullets hit the area where the lamp had fallen. Marnie and he looked at each other.
“Let’s make noise and maybe Louise and Didier will get away,” Marnie whispered.
They started grabbing anything within reach and heaving it as far as they could away from them. After a blast, they would quietly move to a new spot and start launching stuff again.
Chris whispered, “I think the gun fire is getting closer.”
“I agree,” Marnie said. “Stay together or separate?”
“More targets are better.”
Chris bent over and gave Marnie a passionate kiss, which seemed both out of place and life affirming. Then, he bolted to the dining room.
His path was lit up by a spray of bullets.
Marnie sat, paralyzed with fear. How long has this been going on? It seemed like an eternity but had been only fifteen minutes by her watch. How much longer before their calls and the sound of gun fire would bring the police to their aid?
Motioning her to move to the west exit, Chris indicated that he wanted to throw stuff at her current location.
Well, that is motivating.
After Chris threw something toward the kitchen, Marnie made a break for the veranda and a possible exit.
She left the house and ran low to a pier underneath it. Feeling safer with a large strong beam to lean up against, she started looking at the layout. Chris was still pinned in the house, but she hoped Louise and Didier had made it to cover. She couldn’t spot them.
Inching her way towards the front of the house, she saw a flash of gunfire coming from the western edge of that area. Whoever was shooting at them was silhouetted against the last glow of the sunset but was shrouded off and on in fog.
She could barely hear the whir of approaching sirens. The shooter moved closer to the house. Different areas of the house would light up after a crash of some sort. The shooter was definitely advancing and pinning Chris in the kitchen. There was no way to stop the shooter without becoming a target herself.
Then, she spotted a dark shape emerge from the fog behind the shooter. At the last second, she saw the shooter whirl in that direction.
Marnie sprinted towards the back of the shooter and tackled him from his blind side as he got a round off. She heard Didier scream.
The shooter was down, but Marnie only had his legs. He started clubbing her with the rifle and then, as he wielded the barrel at her, she heard, “Police, drop the rifle.”
The shooter raised his AK-47 towards someone behind Marnie. A shot rang out. The shooter lay still.
Marnie rolled over and stared at Detective Sudhan who was in a three-point stance with her Glock 22 trained on the shooter.
“Are you okay?” Sudhan asked.
Marnie took stock of herself and realized that she was bruised where the rifle had hit her shoulders but no other place. “I’m okay.” She looked up to see Louise bent over Didier.
“Help me!” Louise screamed.
Marnie ran to her side. “What do you need me to do?”
“Give me your shirt and put pressure here.” Louise pointed to Didier’s left side above his spleen where she had placed her jacket to soak up blood.
Glad she still had her sports bra, Marnie removed her shirt, handed it to Louise, and did as she was told.
Louise quickly took Marnie’s shirt, rolled it into a bandana and wrapped it around Didier’s thigh above his femoral artery. Creating a tourniquet, she slowed the blood shooting from an open wound in Didier’s leg.
Chris appeared with his own shirt wrapped around his arm. “How can I help?” he asked.
Louise reached up, expertly tied the shirt into a bandage, then pointed to an area on Didier’s pelvis and said to Chris, “Take your good hand and put pressure here.”
She moved to Didier’s head and took his carotid pulse. It was fast but steady. How long do we have?
“I love you,” she whispered, and Didier fluttered his eyes open. He seemed to blink a response and faded out again.
The front yard suddenly lit up with emergency vehicles.
“Search the area!” Sudhan yelled. Her officers fanned out.
Paramedic Brian leaped out of the vehicle and said, “We’re here now, Dr. Finnerty.”
They transferred Didier onto a gurney and lifted him into the ambulance with Marnie and Chris still keeping pressure on the wounds. A second EMT took over Louise’s tourniquet roll.
Brian started one IV in Didier’s left arm, then another on the right.
His colleague reported Didier’s vital signs, “BP 75 systolic, pulse 130.”
Brian squeezed one of the IV bags to speed up the infusion. Louise remained at Didier’s side holding pressure on his wounds. Turning their roles over to the paramedics, Marnie and Chris backed out of the ambulance.
Louise heard the EMT calling a report into the ER. In her mind, Louise pictured the staff preparing for a trauma resuscitation. They disappeared into the night, lights and sirens blazing.
The second ambulance attendants came up to Chris. “Let’s get you to the hospital also.”
“No, I’m fine. It’s just a deep scratch from some flying debris.”
An EMT handed Marnie a blanket.
Covered in Didier’s blood, Chris and Marnie turned to Sudhan.
“How did you get here so fast?” they asked in unison.
“I was on my way to bring you up to speed on the investigation when I heard the gunshots. I radioed for back up. I crept up the driveway, parking out of the way of the next wave of help. I got to the edge of the yard just as Didier jumped the shooter.”
Looking at Marnie, she continued. “You were stupid and brave to tackle him like that. I was right behind you and had no choice but to fire. Hard to believe that twenty years on the force and that was the first time I had to shoot. Are the children hiding here? The dogs?”
“No,” said Marnie. “Thankfully, the children and Chico are at Nancy’s for a sleepover and my dogs are safe at home.”
“You two need to go in the ambulance and get checked out—no argument. You can check on Didier and be there for Louise.”
Sudhan directed her gaze to the two EMTs hunched over the lifeless body in the yard. They were not performing CPR.
“The shooter is Roy Williams, and it appears he’s beyond emergency treatment. I’ll follow you to the hospital as soon as possible and let you know why his identity is no surprise.”