Bitter Sweets

the twin bed with its Little Mermaid spread, spilling onto the floor. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small dresser. The drawers were gaping open and appeared to be empty.

    Pink tights and a spangled crown lay crumpled on the floor. No fairy princess would have left such a prize like that. Not willingly. “Oh ...Christy,” Savannah whispered to the silent room.

    Across the hall, Lisa’s bed was equally disheveled, the spread lying in a heap on the ancient, gold shag carpeting.

    The top sheet was gone-another fact which Savannah noted with alarm. Lisa Mallock had been a nurse. It was probably just a silly stereotype, hospital corners and all that, but Savannah couldn’t imagine a nurse sleeping without a top and bottom sheet.

    The lower, fitted sheet that remained had been pulled loose and the right side was ripped. At the foot of the bed lay a pillow with a crimson darkness staining the linen. Savannah didn’t need to turn on the light to see what it was. She could smell the distinctive, coppery odor of blood.

    “What’s going on here?”

    She whirled around, gun in hand, to find Brian O’Donnell staring at her with a stricken face. He looked past her to the bed, and she heard him draw a ragged, strangling gasp.

    Returning the pistol to its holster, she placed one hand on his chest and gently coaxed him backward. Maybe he hadn’t seen the ripped sheet or the bloody pillow. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But it doesn’t look good.”

    “Do you think her ex-husband did something to her?”

    “I don’t know. We’ll have to call the police and-”

    At that moment they heard a loud noise; someone had thrown open the front door. Heavy footsteps. Male voices.

    “Stay here,” she whispered to Brian as she pulled her gun again. Pushing him aside, she crept along the wall and took a peek around the corner into the living room.

    By the light of the open doorway, she saw three silhouettes, a trio of men, standing in the center of the room. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she recognized the one nearest her.

    “Dirk?” she asked.

    He whirled around, obviously as shocked to see her as she had been to identify him. “Van?”

    “It’s me. And who are...?”

    Even as she uttered the words, she realized that the fellow by the door was Colonel Forrest Neilson, and the third was one of her least-favorite people.

    “Why, Captain Bloss,” she muttered with saccharine sweet’ ness, “what a pure dee-light to set eyes upon you again.”

    “Yeah, right,” he replied with that grating nasal voice and perpetual liquid sniff that had always made her hate him...along with a few other hundred reasons that came immediately to mind. As her superior, Bloss had forced her out of the San Carmelita Police Department for grossly unfair reasons. That was her foremost reason for wanting to see him roasting on a spit at a country barbecue, and she knew at least a couple dozen individuals who would eagerly stand in line for the chance to turn him.

    “Why are you in my daughter’s house?” Colonel Neilson took a step toward her and she fought the urge to back away from him. In spite of his age and disabilities, he was still an intimidating figure.

    “I had an appointment with Mrs. Mallock,” she replied evenly, stretching the truth only a bit. Lisa hadn’t exactly been expecting her, but she had promised to be in touch soon.

    Close enough.

    “At what time?” Bloss said.

    “Five minutes ago.”

    “You saw Lisa five minutes ago?” Dirk asked.

    “No,” Savannah had to admit. “She doesn’t appear to be at home.”

    “Of course she isn’t home,” the colonel interjected, his bass voice booming through the eerie silence of the house. “Why do you think we’re here?”

    “Why are you here?” Savannah addressed the question to Dirk, who was looking unusually miserable, even for him.

    “Because Colonel Neilson believes his daughter is missing,” he said quietly.

    “She is missing.” Neilson took another step toward Savannah, his arthritic hands curled into impotent fists. “That no-good son of a bitch has her...and my granddaughter, too, thanks to you, Miss Reid.”

    “Do you know that for a fact, sir?” she asked, deliberately keeping her voice even, despite her rising pulse rate.

    “Don’t you get smart with me, young lady. Everything was fine until you came along and-”

    “Excuse me....” A soft voice interrupted and Brian O’Donnell