Bitter Sweets

with her granddaughter.

    “Yes, Granny, I’m sure you could settle everything for me,” she said. “But it’s your vacation, and I think I should take care of this.”

    Dirk brightened.

    Savannah knew she had to let him off the hook by going in and facing whatever music Bloss and Hillquist wanted to subject her to, even if it were the last thing on earth she wanted to do.

    “Will you feed the cats for me, Gran?”

    “Is that all?” She looked genuinely disappointed. Her cheeks were flushed pink with excitement and her eyes alight with mischief.

    “Yes, that’s all. And don’t wait up for me. I have a wonderful Black Forest cake in the refrigerator,” she said wistfully. “Feel free to dig in. The guest room has clean sheets. Make yourself at home.”

    She stood and lifted her purse from a nearby table. Dirk hurried to get her raincoat from the hall closet. The perfect gentleman, he held it as she slipped it on. Like most males, his manners were always at their best when he was overwhelmed with guilt.

    “When will you be back?” Granny asked her as she followed them to the door, her long caftan skirt swishing gracefully. Her steps were slower, but as always, the picture of Southern elegance.

    Savannah gave her a hug, inhaling the lovely scent of roses and basking in the momentary comfort of maternal love. She thought of the long night ahead and wished she could just ask Granny to “Go talk to the principal” for her. It would be so lovely to let another person be strong in her stead.

    There were definite disadvantages to growing up.

    “Not in time to go to Disneyland bright and early tomorrow morning,” she said. “I’m sorry, Gran.”

    “Awk, that’s all right. Mickey and Donald have been waiting for me all these years; I suppose they can hang on a bit longer.”

    CHAPTER TEN

    “How much did you tell them?” Savannah asked as she and Dirk walked down the hallway at the rear of the station which led to Hillquist’s office.

    “They asked me what happened. I told ‘em. No more, no less,” Dirk replied. He was staring down at the gray, industrialdull tiles as though expecting the floor to open and swallow them whole. Maybe he was hoping.

    “You know, you don’t have to beat yourself up about this,” Savannah said, lacing her arm companionably through his. “In spite of what my granny said, you aren’t really a good-fornothing, backstabbing, double-crossing tallywhacker. She just has a special way with words.”

    Dirk chuckled and his mood seemed to lighten a tad. “Appears to run in the family.”

    “Here we are.” She paused before the door to the chiefs office. “Tell me again, just how mad was Bloss?”

    “He waited here for you for three hours. How mad do you think he’d be? Whatever possessed you to do a thing like that...as if you weren’t in deep enough shit as it was.”

    She grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. Wish me luck.”

    “No way. I’m coming in with you.”

    “They won’t let you stay.”

    Dirk stuck out his lower lip and banged the door open. “They’ll let me stay.”

    If pecking order were signified by creature comforts and chair assignments, Savannah didn’t have to think long to figure out where she stood...or sat... at the moment.

    The chief lounged graciously behind his modern, blond oak desk in an executive, high-backed, leather chair. At his side,

    Bloss sprawled across an upholstered tweed, cushy affair, while she and Dirk were perched on folding, metal contraptions. Hers was rusty.

    “Unless you’re her lawyer, leave,” Bloss told Dirk, snuffing out his cigar in the chiefs ashtray and pulling another from his shirt pocket.

    “I’d like to stay,” Dirk replied as he stared at the scuffed tips of his loafers.

    “I’d like to have left five hours ago.” Bloss made a ceremony of consulting his wristwatch. “But we don’t always get what we want, thanks to certain individuals.” He gave Savannah a dirty look.

    The chief said nothing, but sat with his hands folded gracefully on the desk in front of him. At first glance, he seemed a more highly evolved specimen than the one sitting beside him. But his eyes reminded her of a few dead fish she had seen in the seafood section of her local supermarket. “Good-bye,” Bloss told Dirk.

    “With all due respect, sir...” Dirk slurred the “sir” and his facial expression was anything but respectful. “... I’m staying.”