Killer Calories

thinking on her part?
    “I can see you,” she lied. “Come out of there right now before I come in after you.”
    Yeah, good one, she thought. Half-dressed, without a gun or any other kind of weapon, you’re going to go charging in there and drag him/her out by their ear and whop the snot out of ‘ em . Good plan.
    The bushes were deathly still, but she could feel someone there, watching her, evaluating her.
    She stepped out of the feeble light cast by the nearest lamp and into the shadows. Dammit, if she couldn’t see them, they weren’t going to see her.
    “Come on out and show yourself, chicken shit,” she said, mentally rehearsing the karate moves she might use if they did.
    Just as she suspected. No answer.
    Finally, she was tired of the game and beginning to run low on adrenaline. “Okay, just stay there,” she said. “I didn’t want to look at your butt-ugly mug up close anyway.”
    She waited a moment longer, thinking she was going to feel like a first-class idiot if somebody’s poodle or Labrador came waltzing out.
    When no humans, lions, tigers, or bears appeared, she decided the best thing to do was continue on her journey. But she did so with one eye looking over her shoulder.
    The door to the dormitory was, thankfully, only a few yards away. She hurried inside, eager to leave the eerie experience behind.
    But she didn’t really feel safe until she had entered her and Tammy’s room and locked the door behind her.
    “That was weird, Savannah , ol ’ girl,” she whispered as she flipped on the light and turned around. Her relief at being “home at last” quickly vanished.
    Someone had been here before her, someone extremely untidy. Everything in her drawers and Tammy’s had been dumped onto the floor as well as their clothes from the closet. The beds were stripped, the linens lying in a heap in the middle of the room. Savannah ’s suitcase lay open and empty-Her nightcase , too, with her toiletries strewn across the counter.
    At first, she thought they had been robbed. But then she saw that the small amount of jewelry she had brought and her wallet were among the rest of her things in the pile. So was her cell phone... a pretty toy for any self-respecting burglar.
    She hadn’t been robbed; she had been searched.
    For what, she wasn’t sure. But, whoever they were, they hadn’t found anything. She wasn’t stupid enough to leave anything behind that had anything to do with her investigation.
    Lou Hanks came to mind first. But she was pretty sure he had believed her denial earlier that morning. And she had returned to the room after dinner to change into her bathing suit. Everything had been in order when she had left it.
    Someone jiggled the knob on the door, and her heart leapt into her throat. A key turned in the lock and it opened.
    She positioned herself in a karate stance beside the door, wishing she was wearing more substantial shoes than some flimsy beach thongs. But it was only Tammy.
    Walking into the room, she took one look around, her mouth fell open, and her eyes bugged. “Wow! You’re a messy roommate,” she said, gazing at the chaos. “What on earth happened?”
    Savannah sighed and sank onto the bare bed, suddenly feeling the fatigue of the day overwhelm her. “Sorry,” she said, but I guess I just got carried away with the unpacking. I couldn’t find my toothbrush.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

    “ I ’m scared, Savannah .” Tammy sat on the edge of her bed, her hands clasped tightly in front of her, and from the look on her face, Savannah knew she wasn’t kidding. “I mean, this is just too spooky. Kat dies like that, and then somebody’s watching you from the bushes and now this.” She waved her hand, indicating the tornado-struck room. “What are we going to do?”
    “I’m calling Dirk,” Savannah said, retrieving her cell Phone from the heap.
    “Oh, good. You’re going to ask him to come out here?” Savannah laughed. “You must be scared, if you want me to bring ‘dumb old Dirk’ to the rescue.”
    Tammy made a face. “You know what I mean... any cop would do.”
    “We can’t call the cops, kiddo. The last thing we want is to draw attention to ourselves. Lou Hanks was all over me today because he thought I was here investigating for Kat’s life-insurance company.”
    “Oh, that’s what he wanted with you. I was wondering. So, he had a policy on Kat?”
    “Seems so.”
    “Hmmm.”
    “My feelings exactly.”
    Savannah punched in some numbers