Buried In Buttercream

what did stupid Maddy do? She made a beeline for his wife and told her all the sordid details. She thought that once Francie dumped Arlo, he’d come running back to her.”
    “Let me guess,” Savannah said, “that didn’t happen.”
    “Of course not. Madeline cost Arlo his marriage, his life. No way was he going to take her back. She’s lucky he didn’t kill her.”
    No sooner had the words left her mouth than she gave a little gasp and looked at Savannah, then Dirk ... who looked at each other.
    After a long, heavy silence, she said, “Or maybe he did.”
    “Maybe,” Savannah replied. “I reckon we’re just gonna have to make it our business to find out.”

    By the time Savannah and Dirk had finished with Odelle Peters, it was dinnertime, and Savannah had to admit, she was feeling pretty tired.
    “A mite tuckered out,” was the way she’d described it to Dirk when agreeing to let him drop her at her home for the evening.
    But if she’d been honest, she’d have said, “So pooped I have to take a deep breath to get the energy to breathe.”
    She hated being so fatigued all the time. And couldn’t help but think that her assailant had a lot to do with that.
    Before the attack, she’d been tired after a long day’s work. But now she even woke up tired in the morning after eight or nine hours of sleep. And that was something new and most unwelcome in her life.
    Worst of all, she was deeply afraid that she’d never get past it, never be her “old self” again. And that bothered her as much as the scars on her body ... wondering what damage had been done inside and whether it would ever heal.
    “You want to come in and have some supper?” she asked him when he pulled into her driveway. “The gang’s at Disneyland. We’ll have a quiet house all to ourselves.”
    He hesitated, and she could tell he was really torn. There were few things he loved more than free food, and especially if it was her cooking.
    “No, thanks,” he said at last. “I need to get back to the station. I’ve gotta get that nitwit new gal at the desk to run checks on Arlo Di Napoli and his old lady. I’m gonna run one on our girlfriend, Odelle, too. Looks like to me she’s got some major motive there, losing her house and all because of Madeline.”
    Savannah nodded. “It was hard to miss the hatred in her eyes when she talked about her.”
    He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “You go get some rest and enjoy your solitude. You can use a bit of peace and quiet.”
    “That’s for danged sure.”
    She got out of the car, waved good-bye to him, and went into her house, expecting to find only Diamante and Cleopatra.
    But instead, she saw her grandmother sitting in her big, comfy chair, reading her favorite tabloid newspaper.
    “Gran!” Savannah said as she tossed her purse and keys onto the entry hall table. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Disneyland with the rest of the hoodlums.”
    Granny folded her paper and got up from the chair. She walked over and sat on the sofa. “I wasn’t up to all that running all over God’s creation with that bunch,” she said.
    “But you love Disneyland! You’re a Mickey Mouse Club fan from way back!”
    “I do love the Mouse, it’s true. But I like going there with you. I know them brothers and sisters of yours and their younguns. There’s gonna be a whole lot of bellyachin’ about standing in lines and fightin’ up a storm over what ride they’re gonna go on next, and gripin’ if they don’t get exactly the food they want when they want it. Lord have mercy, it wears me out just thinking about it.”
    Savannah walked over to her grandmother and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Go park yourself back in that comfortable chair,” she told her with pseudo sternness.
    “But that’s your chair.”
    “Not when you’re here, it ain’t.”
    “I’m done settled here.”
    “Resettle over there. I need to lay down on the couch.”
    Reluctantly, Granny did as she was told. Once she was nestled back in the winged-back chair with its rose spangled chintz covering and Savannah was stretched out on the sofa, she said, “You know, you’d have to get up mighty early of a morning to fool me, girlie. I know that you’d be sitting here if you was home alone. Lay on the couch, my foot.”
    Savannah grinned at her as she tucked a cushion under her head. “Maybe. And you’d have to stay up all night long if you wanted to get one over on me . You didn’t