Buried In Buttercream

days ago, and every cell in her body remembered it.
    But this was different. This time her weapon was in her hand. And she knew how to use it.
    “Put down the knife,” Dirk said. “If you don’t, we’re gonna shoot you. Do you wanna die today, Vadim? Is that what you want?”
    “Put it down,” she said. “Lay it on the counter. Don’t make things worse than they already are.”
    Finally, the fire of rage in his eyes subsided a bit, and a more sane, smoldering anger replaced it. With a deep sigh of resignation, as though he had been holding his breath for a long time, he laid the weapon on the counter.
    Quickly, Dirk snatched it up.
    But both he and Savannah kept their guns trained on him.
    “Okay,” Savannah said. “Now, you tell us the truth. How much did he pay you for this alibi?”
    In a calmer, less aggressive tone, Dirk said, “If you tell me right now, I’ll walk out of here, and we’ll forget everything that just happened. We just want to know what he said to you and how much he paid you. Tell us and we’ll leave you alone.”
    Vadim thought it over. Finally, he said, “Five hundred dollar.”
    “And what exactly did he tell you to say if anyone came asking?” Savannah wanted to know.
    “He just said, ‘Say I was here to see girl, that I like her a lot, so I come two days. Friday and Saturday, too.’”
    “Okay, now was that so hard?” Dirk lowered his weapon and reholstered it.
    But Savannah didn’t.
    With her Beretta pointed at his head, she said, “One more thing and then we’ll go. Take out your cell phone.”
    “Why?”
    “Vadim, it isn’t smart to ask ‘why’ when somebody has a gun pointed at the middle of your face. Take it out of your pocket! Slowly. Very slowly.”
    Reluctantly, Vadim did as he was told.
    “Now, call Charlene ... you call her Trixie ... and hand me the phone. You just dial. Don’t you say a word to her. I mean it!”
    “Why?”
    “Vadim, you just ain’t right in the head, boy. I already told you to keep the questions to a minimum. Do it!”
    He punched a couple of numbers, then held the phone out to Savannah.
    A tentative, meek voice on the other end answered, “Yes?”
    “Charlene?” Savannah asked.
    “Yes. Savannah?”
    “It’s me, sweetie. Now listen to me. You throw whatever’s yours into a suitcase or whatever you’ve got and go out to the parking lot. There’s a red Mustang sitting there. You get into the backseat and then call me back here on Vadim’s phone. Got it?”
    “But ... but, Savannah, I can’t... .”
    “Yes, you can. This may be the only chance you ever get to have a life that’s worth living, Charlene. Take it!”
    “Okay. I will.”
    “Good girl. Hurry up.”
    Savannah snapped the phone closed and continued to look down the barrel of her gun at Vadim, who was appearing more despondent by the moment.
    “What now?” he said.
    “We wait a few minutes,” she replied.

    Three minutes later, when Vadim’s phone rang, Savannah answered it and heard a breathless Charlene on the other end. “Okay. I’m out here. I’m ready to go.”
    She sounded so happy that Savannah thought her heart would swell and burst, just hearing it.
    “We’ll be right out, honey,” she told the excited girl. “You just sit tight.”
    When Savannah hung up the phone and shoved it across the counter toward Vadim, he said, “You cannot take my girl. She belongs to me.”
    “She ain’t yours anymore,” Savannah told him, her own blue eyes as cold as his. “She’s a human being, and you’re nothing but a no-good, blood-sucking pimp ... a modern-day slave trader. And just for the record, I hate people like you.”
    She and Dirk backed out of the room, and she didn’t holster her weapon until they were in the Mustang with Charlene and a pillowcase half full of belongings in the rear.
    Savannah saw the meager bag and said, “Is that all you’ve got, darlin’?”
    Charlene looked ashamed for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, but at my brother’s house in San Francisco, I have a pretty room with a pink bedspread and a view of the bridge.”
    “Then let’s get you back to your brother’s house,” Savannah said. “And with some work on your part, you won’t ever have to see this stinkin’ place or another one like it again.”

Chapter 23
    “ W hat do you want to do first,” Savannah asked Dirk as they walked into the Victoriana, “have dinner or go twist a knot in Ethan Aberson’s tail?”
    “Oh, the tail twisting,