Heller's Punishment Read Online Free Page B

her away !”
    “Get them off
me!” I jigged around in front of everyone, swiping at myself and
spitting onto the carpet, undignified and frankly, slightly
insane.
    Elton took
control with confidence and composure. Mabel had, in the meantime,
trotted out to see what the commotion was, her antenna finely tuned
to any disasters on her precious opening day. She was aghast at the
scene that confronted her.
    “Take Tilly for
a shower. Now,” Elton ordered her. He turned to two museum staff
who’d navigated the down escalator to reach the top. “You two, call
the costume shop. Get someone over here now. Then direct people
traffic. Turn that down escalator into an up escalator and make
sure the lift is only used for departures. One way in each
direction. I’ll be back soon to take over and make sure everything
is returned to normal.”
    Then he placed
his arm around my shoulders and rushed me to where Mabel was
urgently directing, soothing me all the while, “You’ll be okay,
Tilly. You’ll be all right.”
    He was so
masterful that now I saw why Heller had employed him and why Clive
and his colleagues appreciated him so much. Because while they had
warned me about him, there was much respect in their bantering that
I’d failed to notice on first pass. And I bet there hadn’t been
even a quarter as much respect in their warnings to him about
me.
    But right then
I didn’t care about gender politics in the workplace – I just
needed a shower.
    Mabel took us
down the corridor, past the dino display, to a ‘staff only’ room
where she ushered me towards a bathroom. I stripped off my undies
almost before Elton had closed the door on his big eyes, and jumped
under a streaming jet of hot water to flush all those arachnids
from my body. I rinsed everything three times, including my hair,
sure there were still some stubborn survivors ready to invade my
brain when I was asleep tonight.
    Mabel found a
spare towel for me and had kindly shaken my undies free of any
stray spiders. But even then, I inspected them closely before I
donned them and gladly put on my Heller’s uniform again,
feeling more professional already.
    When I emerged,
Elton was there, Alice peering around him, annoyed by the lack of
attention for her.
    “Are you okay,
now?” That was kind of him to care. “Because I don’t want Heller
becoming angry with me for not looking after you.” Yeah, sure he
was kind. Kind of annoying.
    “I’m fine,” I
assured. “The baby spiders are washed away.”
    Alice giggled.
“Like Incy Wincy Spider.” Nobody laughed with her, especially me.
She retreated behind Elton.
    Elton looked
down at me. “Actually Tilly, they’re called spiderlings, not baby
spiders. And I don’t know for sure of course, but I’m deducing that
a spider egg sac hatched inside the costume while you were in it.
They can release hundreds of spiderlings at a time. Possibly
brought on by your body heat and movement. But who will ever really
know?”
    I spoke up.
“Not me! And you know what? I really don’t give a flying f–”
    One of the
attendants poked his head into the open door. “We need help
managing the crowd. Now!” Elton and I sprang into action. Well, he
did. I was a lot slower and more reluctant, still recovering from
my arachno-trauma.
    Under Elton’s
authoritative guidance, people traffic moved with admirable
efficiency and the remainder of the day passed peacefully. And I
didn’t even have to torture myself listening to his monologues,
because I spent the whole time on the bottom floor, directing
traffic up the down escalator. As I did, technicians from the
costume studio gently tried to extract the dino costume from the
other escalator, cursing and threatening the idiot who’d trapped it
there.
    I wasn’t about
to admit it had been me.
    And finally,
when the costume had been freed and a thankful Mabel was advised
that there was no major damage to it, the museum closed for the
day. Elton and I piled into the black