Death by Chocolate

when you’ve nabbed a scoundrel.
You seem rather melancholy this evening.”
    “I guess that’s because I
don’t really consider this guy a scoundrel. Just a man who did something very
wrong and very foolish.”
    From across the table,
Cordele was watching and listening. She seemed to have something to say, but
was holding back.
    “Go on.... spit it out,”
Savannah told her. “Obviously you have an opinion on the subject.”
    Cordele shrugged. “I was
just thinking about a conversation you and I had about how important justice
is. You seemed to think then that the only way to have justice was to punish
the criminal. Looks like maybe you’ve changed your mind.”
    The rest of the table fell
silent, and Savannah could feel Dirk and Tammy staring at her, maybe waiting
for a Reid family fight to break out.
    But she was too tired and
too depressed to fight.
    “I haven’t changed my mind,
Cordele,” she said. “Sydney Linton took a life, and he’ll get what he deserves.
I just feel sorry for little Gilly. She’ll find out about all of this sooner or
later, and—as you would put it—she’ll have some major issues to work out
because of it.”
    “I thought you talked to
Angela Herriot about Gilly this afternoon,” Tammy said.
    “I did. She said she’d send
a social worker right out to evaluate the situation. And I also talked to Burt
Maxwell about his daughter’s drug problems and the need for a stable, healthy
environment for his granddaughter—especially now that Sydney won’t be on the
scene.”
    “What did he say?” Ryan
asked.
    “He assured me that he’ll
look into getting custody of Gilly. He also said that he’ll make sure Louise
doesn’t fire Marie. Apparently he has financial resources of his own that
Martin Streck hadn’t plundered. He may even move back to the mansion and keep
Gilly there. I got the idea that he and Kaitlin might be considering something
permanent in the way of a relationship.”
    “That’d be good for the
kid, too,” Dirk said.
    “That’s what I figured.”
    “She’s going to be fine,
love,” John said, squeezing her hand. “You worry too much.”
    Cordele gave Savannah a
warm smile across the table that she wasn’t expecting. “My older sister has a
big heart where kids are concerned,” she said. “Always has had. She and my
grandmother practically raised us, you know.”
    Savannah held her breath, waiting
for the other shoe to drop... the part about how awful everything had been in
spite of her and Gran’s efforts. But it didn’t. Cordele ended her statement
there, on that rare note of praise.
    “How fortunate for you
that—” Ryan’s words were interrupted by a loud pounding on the front door.
    Savannah glanced at her
watch. It was nine o’clock. A little late for company. Especially visitors that
practically knocked your door off its hinges.
    “Who the heck is that?” she
said, getting to her feet.
    Three more volleys
resounded through the house before Savannah could reach the door and open it.
Standing there on her porch was a red-faced, furious Louise Maxwell.
    Savannah opened the screen
and stepped outside. She certainly didn’t intend to invite any sort of Louise
into her house, let alone an angry one.
    “What do you want, and why
are you bothering me at my home?” she demanded.
    Louise shook an angry
finger in her face. “You... are trying to get my kid taken away from me!
A social worker came out to my place this afternoon. Said he was working for
Child Protective Services, investigating a complaint that Gilly isn’t being
properly taken care of.”
    “Is everything all right
out there?” Dirk said from just inside the door.
    From the corner of her eye,
Savannah could see all her friends and Cordele standing behind him with
serious, ready-to-do-battle looks on their faces.
    “Everything’s just fine,”
she said. “Louise here isn’t happy that I reported her to the CPS.”
    “Then it was you!”
Louise was practically spitting, she was so furious. She took a step closer to
Savannah. “He wouldn’t tell me who reported me, but my dad says you called him,
too, this afternoon and complained about the way I take care of my kid.”
    “You don’t take care of
your kid. That’s the problem. Gilly’s taking care of herself. She—”
    Crack.
    Savannah saw it coming. And
for a split second, she considered blocking the hand that reached out and
slapped her across the cheek. With her karate skills, she could have