Cereal Killer

returned.
    Dirk wouldn’t be too happy about her hanging around a potential crime scene either.
    “You really shouldn’t be here, Leah,” she told her. “Did you see the yellow barricade tape outside when you came in?”
    Lean glanced uneasily over her shoulder and shook her head. “Ah, not really. I... ah...”
    “Or that big handsome police officer who shouldn’t have let you in?”
    “Um... well... he was busy with those guys in the white uniforms and a lady who I think might have been the coroner. I told him I was a friend of the family, and he said it was okay for me to come inside.”
    She was lying. After what seemed like a million years of being lied to at least fifty times a day by seasoned professional liars, Savannah didn’t need any sort of lie-detector equipment to figure out when she was getting the shuck put on her.
    Leah Freed had sneaked in. Pure and simple. And now she was lying through her teeth about it.
    Savannah’s cop radar registered a blip on her mental screen. “Why, exactly, did you drop by?” she asked the agent.
    “What?”
    Stalling for time, Savannah thought. When you can't think of anything to say, ask a question. It was an old trick most often used by wayward husbands. But occasionally women used it, too.
    “I said... why are you here? Why did you come by the house?”
    “Oh.” She toyed with the pup’s leash several more seconds before answering. “I was just out for a walk with Susie here. I live a few blocks over, and sometimes I take evening walks in this direction. I saw the police cars and...”
    “And?”
    She shrugged. “And I was wondering if everything was okay, you know, with Cait.”
    “Hmm. I see.” Savannah did see. She saw the seven hundred dollar, high-heeled Italian sandals on Leah Freed’s meticulously pedicured feet and knew damned well that she hadn’t been out for an evening stroll up and down santly beach streets in those fancy clodhoppers. Not on your life.
    “I should probably be going,” Leah said, suddenly eager to disappear. She turned and headed across the dining area toward the living room, practically dragging the pup at the end of the leash.
    Savannah followed right behind her, watching to see that she didn’t touch or disturb anything.
    At the door, Leah paused and glanced over her shoulder at Savannah. “Are you coming, too?”
    “Yes,” Savannah said. “I need to speak to Officer Bosco about letting anyone else inside the house before CSU clears it.”
    “Oh.” She cleared her throat and shuffled her feet.
    “I wouldn’t be too hard on him. Like I said, he was busy and I sort of insisted, being a close friend of the family and all.”
    Savannah gave her a too-sweet smile. “Still,” she said. “I really should have a word with him.”
    Leah shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
    She opened the front door, bolted through it, and hurried down the sidewalk, stepping over the temporary barricade. Briefly, she tangled the dog’s leash in the yellow tape, and before she could loosen it, the tall, good-looking cop in his smart blue uniform strode from his unit over to her.
    “Are you okay?” he asked her as she frantically fumbled with the lead. “I’m sure sorry about your sister,” he added sweetly.
    “Ah, yeah. Thanks,” she mumbled as she finally freed the leash. In only two or three seconds, she was scurrying off down the road, a blur of red pantsuit and clicking heels.
    Savannah watched, a wry smile on her face, as the woman practically tossed the cocker puppy into a Porsche convertible that was parked half a block away and sped off.
    “Evening walk, my hind end,” Savannah muttered.
    “I beg your pardon?” Officer Bosco asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Too bad about her sister.”
    “Yeah, too bad. But she’s not her sister. She lied to ya, Mike.”
    Officer Michael Bosco looked like somebody had zapped him with a stun gun. “Really?”
    ‘Yes, really.” She draped one arm across his broad shoulders, briefly enjoying the closeness to youth and virility, before reminding herself that Officer Mike was about the same age as her baby brother, Macon.
    So she ended the moment and slapped him on the
    back. “As my Granny Reid would say, Mike, don’t believe nothin’ you hear and only half of what you see, ’cause the rest is nothin’ but bull pucky.”
    “Bull pucky ?” Officer Bosco looked confused. “I thought the rest was bull shit. ”
    “Nope, Mike. It’s bull pucky: Granny Reid lives in Georgia, and