Bitter Sweets

always wondered exactly what that was.”

    “I don’t know what it is officially,” Savannah admitted. “But Dirk usually just flips you the bird.”

    They watched closely as Dirk approached the shed, all the time keeping a sharp eye for any other movement in the surrounding area. But only the trees swayed from time to time, the dry oak leaves rustling like a starched Southern petticoat in the breeze.

    Nearby a dove cooed, and they could hear the burbling sound of the stream. It was a natural, peaceful sound that seemed out of context, considering their mission.

    Savannah held her own gun tightly in her sweat-slick palm, waiting for anything as Dirk plastered his back to the shed and slowly made his way around to the window.

    The casement held four panels. Three of the glass panes were filthy and obscure, but the lower left corner one was broken, with only jagged edges. Dirk squatted below it, bobbed up for a quick look, then back down.

    He repeated the move, then again, pausing a bit longer each time.

    Finally, he stood and stared through the window for a long, tense moment. Ryan and Savannah held their breaths. Without turning toward them, Dirk beckoned with one hand, the movement slow and wooden.

    They left their hiding spots and hurried toward the shed.

    Dirk walked away from the window and made his -way slowly toward the door. When they reached him, Savannah whispered, “What is it? Is anyone inside?”

    He didn’t reply. Instead, he pushed the door open ancj stepped into the semidarkness.

    “Shit,” he said softly. He moved aside to make room in the tiny shed for the other two to join him.

    By the sound of his tone and the horrible, distinctive odor that filled the structure, Savannah braced herself, knowing that she wasn’t going to like what she was going to see. But she still wasn’t prepared.

    “No,” she said, her mind rebelling at the sight of yet an, other body sprawled on the floor. It felt like an instant replay of Lisa’s murder scene.

    In the darkness she couldn’t see details, and the corpse was already beginning to distort from the natural process of decomposition. The stench was overpowering, and Savannah tasted her stomach juices rising.

    The victim lay in a fetal position, and at first glance it ap, peared the wrists and ankles were bound with wire. The person appeared to have died from a gunshot to the head...just Iike Lisa Mallock.

    This time the room hadn’t been closed; the open winciow had allowed the flies access. The larvae were busy, doing what they did best.

    Ryan was the last to squeeze into the crowded space. “A body,” he said, identifying the smell even before he saw the corpse.

    “Yeah,” Dirk said. “Another dead one. I guess we were too late again.”

    “Not the little girl?” Ryan stared over Savannah’s shoulder, as all three allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

    “No, thank God,” Savannah said. “I think it’s Earl Mallock.”

    “Yeah ...” Dirk shook his head in bewilderment. “... go figure.”

    CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    Savannah sat beneath the shade of the one oak tree and watched despondently as Deputy Coroner Jennifer Liu and her team processed the murder scene. Dirk had called out on his cell phone and delivered the bad news once again. The forensic gang had cheated-as far as Savannah was concernedand had ridden a helicopter into the area, landing in a fairly smooth field of prairie grasses several hundred feet from the ranch house.

    Back in the olden days, when Savannah had carried a gold detective’s shield on a chain around her neck, she would have been in the thick of things at the scene, helping, asking a hundred questions, supplying answers when she had them.

    But now she was a civilian...and not a particularly popular one at that.

    She and Ryan had just finished an exhaustive search of the surrounding region, looking for any sign of the missing child. But, other than several items of clothing inside the shed and the tee shirt outside, there had been nothing. Savannah didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more worried than before. She supposed she was both.

    “Now I don’t know what to think,” she told Ryan. He offered her a sip of water from his canteen, but she declined. Intending to hitch a ride back on the chopper, she had decided just to wait until she reached civilization and Sparkletts.

    “I know what you mean,” he agreed. “Seems like we’re back to square one.”

    They watched