Page 16 of Come Fly With Me

“Can we worry about her knickers later?” Betty said, her eyes on Lexie. “I want two of the smaller Tasers.” They were easier to hide about her person. “And my old yellow stun gun. It’s big and has my name written on it in black felt-tip pen. Is it up there?”

Lexie moved some things around. “Is this it?” She held up the stun gun that had taken Grunt-the-Giant down at Betty’s wake.

“That’s the one. It has sentimental value. Now come on down from there before we’re caught.”

Lexie hesitated. “Can I have a Taser too?”

Betty considered it. On the one hand, it would do the girl good to be armed. On the other, she’d probably use it on her sister. “No, but you can have this instead.” She grabbed an air horn from the shelf behind her. “It’s pink. You can put your stickers on it.”

“Is it a gun?” Lexie said eagerly.

“No, but it makes a loud noise.”

“Loud enough to scare off bad people?”

“And make their ears bleed.”

“Wow,” Lexie said with reverence.

“Can I have one too?” Grace said.

“Aye.” Betty handed her a purple one. “But don’t use it in here. It’ll just make your father come down to see what’s happening.” And she didn’t want that!

Betty watched Lexie carefully as she climbed back down, standing close in case she fell. She wouldn’t be able to catch the girl, but she could probably break her fall—and her own hips while she did it. But when it came to her granddaughter, she was willing to make the sacrifice.

“Here.” Lexie handed over the Tasers.

Betty took the two smaller ones. “You hold on to the big one for a minute while I stash these.” She shoved one down her cleavage, then hiked up the back of her tartan dress and wedged the other one into the back of her knickers. It wasn’t comfortable, but she’d manage until she got home. “Right, let’s go.”

She locked up and led the way back into the shop, in a hurry to get the key back before it was missed. But, of course, she’d taken too long.

“Ice cream!” Grace shouted as she ran for the mouse, who’d just stepped into the shop—through the door that the girls’ mother held open for her.

“Oh, hell,” Betty muttered.

The smiles on the faces of the two women froze when the scene in front of them registered. Betty was holding the storeroom keys. Lexie had a Taser and an air horn in her hands, and Grace…well, Grace had dumped her air horn and was reaching for her ice cream.

“Yay!” Grace skipped over to the corner of her room with her cone and dug right in, the world dead to her now.

“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.