Babs BookMark Issue 4 Volume 1 | Page 14

I couldn't. Not then. Within the hour, however, one of our customers did it for me . . .
I was sipping an espresso on a much-needed break when-
BANG!
The sound of a single gunshot tore through our upstairs lounge.
Looking back, I shouldn't have been so shocked. A new mate with every swipe meant
the old one was tossed away. When it happens enough times, anyone's candy-store
excitement could turn sour, even bitter. Binary code could connect continents, but it
couldn't reprogram people, delete our fears and frailties. Or erase our potential for
violence . . .
At the sound of that bang upstairs, everyone on the main floor quieted, the sea of faces
going blanker than a dead smartphone screen.
Was that really a gun?
BANG! BANG! BANG!
With three more shots, chaos ensued. Freaked-out bodies stampeded the exit in
unstoppable waves, and I bobbed amid the panic like a cork in the Atlantic.
"Clare!" Matt shouted, leaping over the counter. "Where are you?"
"I'm here!" I jumped up to show him and, on the next bounce, screamed a gentle
suggestion to-
"Call the police!"
Excerpted from Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle. Copyright © 2018 by Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. All rights
reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.