Page 18 of A Little Bit More

“Is that a stun gun?” Kirsty demanded, her voice heading further into dog whistle territory with each word. “You let my daughter play with a stun gun?” Her face was as red as her famous hair, and her eyes were ablaze. These signs did not bode well for Betty.

She waved a dismissive hand as she followed Lexie over to the mouse and the ice cream. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist. It’s no’ even charged. It’s been sitting in the storeroom for weeks. Look.” Betty took the stun gun from Lexie, switched it on, and pressed it to the mouse.

With a sizzle and a pop, the Mouse started to shake, a strange hiss coming from her mouth. For a split second, every muscle in her body seemed to tense, and then she fell forward onto the floor. Crushing the ice cream beneath her.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Betty said, studying the stun gun. “It’s working after all.”

Kirsty gaped at her, then at the woman on the floor. “Look what you’ve done!”

“Aye,” Betty said. “There’s no rescuing that ice cream now.”

“The woman’s unconscious,” Kirsty snapped as she crouched beside the mouse.

“It’s okay, Mummy,” Lexie said. “I can wake her up.”

And then she set off the air horn.

It was at this point Betty decided it was time to go home.

“Here.” She thrust the stun gun at Kirsty. “It’ll just be confiscated anyway.”

She stepped over the downed woman and grabbed her handbag—all too aware of the footsteps rushing down the stairs. “See you tomorrow, girls,” she called to the bairns before heading out the door.

By the time Lake set foot inside the shop, Betty was heading to the newsagent—to get herself a replacement ice cream cone—her two new Tasers tucked securely into her underwear. With a grin at the sparkling blue loch, she considered the day a success.