Bitter Sweets

open and was dancing a little jig on the porch.

    “You’re here, you’re here,” she said with giggles interspersed.

    “You’re a ditz, you’re a ditz,” Dirk muttered under his breath. But Savannah heard and gave him the usual jab in the ribs with her elbow. “If you don’t stop doing that, I’m going to start wearing a gougeproof vest.”

    “What’s up, sugar?” Savannah asked as she bounded up onto the steps.

    “Just come inside.”

    When Savannah entered the living room, she found Ryan and John sitting on the sofa, wearing smiles as broad as Tammy’s.

    “Good morning, Savannah,” John Gibson said as he rose to kiss her hand. “Detective Coulter.” He gave a curt nod in Dirk’s direction. Dirk responded with a grunt.

    “Apparently it is a good morning,” Savannah replied. “Does someone want to tell us why?”

    “Ryan and John just got here about half an hour ago, and I called you right away,” Tammy said breathlessly. “You see, I had a feeling the colonel might have been the one who murdered Earl. And after I talked to your grandmother early this moming-I called to talk to you, but she said you were already up and out-she and I were both sure it was the colonel and-”

    “Tell-a-Gran,” Savannah muttered. Gran was sweet, she thought, but discretion was not her most prominent virtue.

    “I beg your pardon?”

    “Never mind. Go on.”

    “So,” Tammy continued, “I kicked into high gear and did some serious research there at home with my computer and modern. When I found what I was looking for, I called Ryan and John and they took it from there.”

    She grabbed Savannah’s hand and led her through the living room, into the kitchen, and over to the back door. Dirk followed as quickly as he could without appearing to be overtly interested.

    “Look at what they brought for us.” Tammy pointed through the window in the back door.

    Savannah stared through the glass, blinked, and looked again. But it wasn’t easy to see, because the tears were already beginning to well.

    There, sitting at her small picnic table beneath the grape arbor was Granny Reid. Dressed in a caftan that was sprinkled with tiny daisies, a handmade wreath of daisies from Savannah’s country garden in her hair, she wore a happy, contented smile that made her look at least a generation younger.

    She was sharing a pitcher of lemonade with Christy Mallock, who wore a similar daisy ring around her red curls. One of Savannah’s J.C. Penney catalogs was open on the table before them, and each held a pair of scissors. They were “cutting out paper dolls,” an activity that brought back a flood of fond memories for Savannah.

    For a moment, Savannah couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even breathe. Then she whirled around and grabbed Tammy about the waist, lifting her off the ground.

    “Thank you, thank you,” she said between sobs.

    Then she turned to Dirk and did the same thing... except for the lifting part. She tried, but he was much larger and made of denser stuff than Tammy.

    Ryan and John had followed them into the kitchen. They were hugged and profusely thanked next.

    Even Dirk had moist eyes as he grabbed Ryan’s hand, then John’s and gave them hearty shakes.

    “Where the heck did you find her?” he asked, too relieved to care that he had been beaten to the punch.

    “An old army buddy of the colonel’s. A lieutenant colonel who feels he owes Neilson his life.”

    “How did you talk him into giving her to you?” Savannah asked.

    Ryan winked at her. “We quietly suggested that if he did, he might not get into trouble for hiding her all this time. With the colonel in the hospital, he felt it was the best thing to do.”

    “Another thing,” John added, “we promised we would deliver her safely into the arms of her Uncle Brian.”

    “Brian, oh, yes,” Savannah brightened at the thought. Good news to tell him, at last! “Someone needs to let him know what’s happened.”

    “He’s on his way over,” Tammy said proudly. “But we thought you should be the one to tell him.”

    Less than twenty minutes later, Savannah had the deeply satisfying pleasure of introducing Christy “The Snow Fairy Queen” Mallock to her Uncle Brian.

    If Brian O’Donnell had seemed the least bit remote or unemotional before, Savannah decided that it had all been an exercise in self-control as he folded his niece into his arms and kissed her cheek.

    For a child who had been