Cooked Goose

going to be sick.” She collapsed across the bed, which had begun to spin as though she had consumed a six-pack of beer on an empty stomach.
    Staring up at the ceiling, she cursed Fate for making her the oldest of nine siblings... the big sister they always ran to when their lives were in shambles... or when they perceived their lives were a mess. Usually, they weren’t half as bad off as they seemed to think they were. In her line of work, Savannah had seen worse... much worse.
    “Did it occur to Vidalia to give me a quick phone call and ask if it would be convenient for her and her offspring to live with me right now?” she said, more to herself than Butch.
    “Who knows what’s between her ears? I’m plumb worn I to a frazzle tryin’ to figure that girl out. If it wasn’t for the babies, I’d just say ‘Good-bye and good riddance.’ ”
    “Come on, Butch, you don’t really feel that way.”
    “Right now, I do. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.“
    “Is she driving here in her condition?” Knowing the usual state of Vidalia and Butch’s domestic economy, she assumed her sister wouldn’t have been able to swing air fare.
    “Nope, the car’s in the garage. Your brother Macon is overhauling the engine for me. She took the bus.”
    Savannah gasped. “The bus? She and the twins are riding a bus from Georgia to California ? That’s crazy.”
    “Crazier than a bedbug, that’s your sister.”
    “She’s not that crazy, even when she’s pregnant. She must have been hoppin’ mad. You two must have had a hell of a fight. What was it about?”
    “About?” he answered quickly. Too quickly. “It weren’t about nothin’.”
    “What did you do to her?”
    “Not a blamed thing. She just got on her high horse and-”
    Savannah sat up suddenly. “Did you hit her? ‘Cause if you raised a hand to my little sister, I’ll get hold of you, boy, and turn you ever’ which way but loose.”
    “I never hit a woman in my life, and you know it, Savannah . Though lately I been thinkin’ that’s what Vi needs, a good paddlin’ on the behind. It might get her to thinkin’ what’s what.”
    All the wind went out of Savannah’s sails, and she sagged like a wet sheet on a clothesline. “When will they be arriving?” she asked, too tired to breathe.
    “Best I can figure, three or four days. You call me when they show up, you hear?”
    “I hear. I’ll call.” She sighed. “Hell, I probably won’t even bother with the phone. You’ll just hear this long, plaintive wail and...”

    * * *

    7:30 P.M.

    “Okay, ladies, it’s time to join the real world, cruel as it may be,” Savannah told her class as they exited the library’s front door and entered the poorly lit parking lot. “Everybody got somebody to walk with?”
    They paired up like third grade students on a field trip, but they weren’t nearly as chatty or jubilant. No sack lunches, * no big yellow bus waiting for them. Just a dark, shrubbery-lined parking lot dotted with ominous shadows.
    “Here’s your chance to practice what we’ve been preaching... parking lot safety,” she said, searching the shadows I herself. The town bad boy preferred shopping malls, but you never knew when he might wax literary and start hanging out at the local library.
    “What’s the first thing you do, Tammy?” she asked her assistant, who was bringing up the rear.
    “Make sure you’ve got your keys ready in one hand, and if possible, some sort of weapon in the other,” Tammy responded.
    “That’s right. And remember, almost anything can be used for defense, even an old, battered copy of Wuthering Heights . I once knew a young lady who was walking through the park on her way home from school when some perv flashed her. She smacked him on the dicky-do with War and Peace and changed his gender.”
    A few giggles cut the tension for a moment, but it quickly returned. Savannah turned deadly serious. “Like I told you earlier inside, it’s when you’re getting in and out of your car that you’re the most vulnerable. And this is true, whether there’s a psycho on the loose or not. Angie...” She turned to Angie Perez, who had joined them for the first time tonight at Dirk’s suggestion. The scared teen hadn’t required much coaxing. “What are you going to do on the way to your car?” Savannah asked her.
    “Look everywhere. Make sure nobody’s following me. Check for anyone hanging around beside my car or even lying under it.”
    “And,