Cereal Killer

van and down to the creek for water. If she hadn’t been able to drink, if the weather hadn’t been mild these past few days, and if you hadn’t found her when you did, she never would have made it.”
    “Nurse Murray helped,” Savannah said. “She treated her at the scene as best she could and then assisted the paramedics on the way here.”
    The doctor nodded. “Murray’s good,” he said, then added, “Why was she out there in the mountains with you? I thought she was on duty today.”
    Savannah glanced at Dirk. “A long story,” she said. “I’ll call later to check on Montoya,” Dirk told the doctor. “Take good care of her and let me know when she’s well enough to talk to me. I have some important stuff to ask her.”
    “I’ll bet you do.” He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I’ll just bet you do.”
    Savannah and Dirk were leaving the hospital when she got a call on her cell phone. Looking at the Caller ID, she said, “Oh, dad-gum, it’s Tammy. I forgot all about her. She doesn’t even know we found Tesla.”
    She punched the TALK button. “Hello, sugar. Guess what.”
    “What?” Tammy said.
    “We found Tesla Montoya. She’s in bad shape but alive. We got her to the hospital in time, and she’s stable.”
    “That’s great! Good work! I’ve been working here myself.”
    Savannah had to think hard to even remember what the kid was doing. “Yes,” she said, stalling while she thought, “and how’s it going?”
    “Ve-e-ery interesting,” she replied with her not-so-good Bugs Bunny impression.
    “So, what’s up, doc?”
    “I was sitting in front of Tesla Montoya’s house...” Oh, yeah, Savannah thought. That’s where we sent her. “Okay, and...”
    “... and Kevin Connor came by.”
    Savannah stopped in the middle of the hallway and grabbed Dirk’s arm. “Connor dropped by Tesla’s place while you were watching it just now?”
    “About half an hour ago.”
    Dirk was instantly alert. “What was he doing there?”
    “What did he do?” Savannah asked her. “Did he go inside the house?”
    “Nope. He got out of his car, looked around, then hurried up to the front porch. He took the mail out of the mailbox next to the door, shuffled through it, and shoved it back in.”
    “He went through the mail,” Savannah relayed to Dirk.
    “And,” Tammy continued, “he stuck one piece of it, a small manila envelope, inside his shirt.”
    “I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that it’s the tape,” Savannah told Dirk. “The one I told you about, the one Cait sent to Tesla. Connor’s got it.”
    “Do you want to know the rest?” Tammy said. Savannah could practically hear the self-satisfied chuckle in her voice.
    “Do bullfrogs croak when you goose ’em?”
    “What?”
    “Yes! I want to know the rest. Give it to me.”
    “I followed him when he left Tesla’s and guess where he is now.”
    “Where?”
    “Leah Freed’s house.”
    Savannah stared at Dirk for a moment, then said, “Oh, Lord. He’s at Leah’s house. Do you figure he’s gone there to kill her, too?”
    “I wouldn’t put it past him,” Dirk replied. “What’s one more victim when you’re on a roll?”
    “We’d better get over there right away.” To Tammy, she said, “What’s the address?”
    “Heron Lane, number 138.”
    “Stay right where you are, darlin’, and we’ll be there in ten minutes. Call me if he leaves.”
    “Ten-four.”
    Savannah laughed when she hung up. “The squirt’s getting the lingo down,” she told Dirk. “And she’s getting pretty good at tailin’ the bad guys, too.”
     
     
    Savannah and Dirk spotted Tammy’s hot-pink Volkswagen Beetle parked a few houses down from the address she had given them.
    “If she’s gonna do a lot of this surveillance work for us,” Savannah said, “we’ll need to get her a blue Ford sedan... or something that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.”
    “Yeah, really,” he replied. “Cars shouldn’t be painted girlie colors.”
    “Girlie colors?”
    “You know—nail polish colors. Except for red. Red’s good, for cars or fingernails. Toenails, too, with those little strappy sandals you gals wear.”
    The slightly lecherous gleam in his eyes warned her not to pursue the topic any further.
    She looked into the Beetle as they drove by. It was empty.
    “Hey, where’s the kid?” she asked, suddenly alarmed. “I told her to stay put.”
    “Oh, man,” he said. “That’s just want we need now, for Miss Nancy