Bitter Sweets

the sofa. She decided to do what Granny had done all those years ago.

    She turned up the light until it was eyeball-searing bright, took a seat directly across from them, and pasted a plastic smile on her kisser.

    “Hello, Grandmother, Colonel Neilson, and how are we this evening?”

    “ We are just fine, dear,” Gran replied. “And obviously, you are too, since you’re grinning like a goat eating briars.”

    “I have had a nice day, thank you.”
    "Does that mean you have some news about my granddaughter?” the colonel asked. When he turned to face her, Savannah saw that his eyes were swollen and red, his nose, too. In his hand he held a crumpled tissue. On the coffee table in front of them was the box.

    She felt like an idiot.

    He hadn’t been making a move on her precious grandmother; Gran had been comforting the poor man. The colonel didn’t strike her as a person who would let down his guard easily with a stranger. But Granny seemed to quickly earn the trust of everyone she met.

    “No, Colonel, not yet,” Savannah told him. “I’m so sorry. But I just spoke to Detective Coulter on the telephone, and we have several new leads now that may help a great deal. Believe me, we’re doing all we can.”

    “I’m sure you are, and I’m grateful. It’s just tltiat...”

    “I understand.” She settled back into her easy chair, and Diamante and Cleopatra appeared almost magically on her lap. “Since you’re here, there is something I’d like to ask you about...if you don’t mind.”

    He did seem to mind, but he said, “Go ahead.”

    “When I was looking through the boxes that I took from your house, I found pictures and letters that show Lisa and Vanessa Pearce had been friends for a long time.”

    The colonel wadded his tissue into a tight ball. “That’s true. Vanessa’s family lived across the street from us for years. She and Lisa were close.”

    “Until Earl came along?”

    “Yes. Until Earl.” From the look on his face, Savannah could see that it was an effort for the colonel to even speak the name, as though he found it distasteful.

    “I also understand from the letters, that Earl was involved with both women at one time...about eleven years ago.”

    “Yes.”

    “And that both Vanessa and Lisa found themselves pregnant by him at approximately the same time.”

    "Yes."

    “Lisa and Earl got married. Lisa had her child, and that was Christy, right?”

    “Yes.”

    Savannah wondered if she was destined to receive only one-syllable answers in this conversation. A bit of elaboration might be helpful, but he seemed suddenly quite tight-lipped.

    “Do you know what happened to Vanessa’s baby?”

    His breath came quick and hard, as though he had been running a race, rather than lounging on a sofa with a mug of tea in one hand. His coloring faded to an unhealthy gray. “Yes,” he said.

    “What happened to it?”

    His hand started shaking so badly that he had to set the mug quickly on the table. “She had an abortion.”

    “Are you sure, Colonel?”

    “Yes, dammit, I’m sure.” He turned to Gran and gave her a look of deep embarrassment and apology. “Forgive me, Mrs. Reid, but...” When he returned his attention to Savannah, his eyes were so full of pain that Savannah felt it, running hot and cold through her own soul.

    “I know she had an abortion,” he said, “and because of cornplications, she can never have children of her own. I know what a hell that is, because I went through it with my own wife before we adopted Lisa.”

    He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the sofa.

    “And I’m sure, Miss Reid, because I was there through the whole unfortunate, tragic business, doing what I believed I had to do to protect my own daughter. I know because I paid for Vanessa’s abortion. I paid, and I paid, and goddammit I’m still paying....”

    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

    Savannah entered her guest bedroom to find Gran sitting in bed, reading a romance novel which, judging from the amount of cleavage spilling over the woman’s bodice on the cover, was of the “hot and steamy” genre.

    “I decided it was your turn to be pampered,” Savannah said as she set a tray on the nightstand and poured herself and Gran a cup of jasmine tea.

    “Pampered, my hind end.” Gran gave her a knowing smirk. “You’re just feeling guilty about jumping to conclusions earlier this evening, and now you’re trying to kiss up.”

    Savannah’s mouth fell open. As