No Place Like Hell by K. S. Ferguson

time of the shooting. He checked to be sure there was nothing of interest under her or clenched in her hands. Turning her over had all the charm of wrestling a beached whale.
    Beside her, a torn grocery sack contained chocolate syrup, raspberry syrup, melted peach ice cream, and a broken bottle of cheap white wine. She'd anticipated his return and remembered that he preferred raspberries to strawberries. Thoughts of where she would have applied the syrup flickered through his brain, and his flesh swelled. Goats! The timing of her demise was unfortunate.
    He righted the lamp and turned it on. A few steps away, he found her voluminous purse dumped out amid the destruction. Cosmetics, hair brush, nail file, wallet containing twelve dollars, her ID, and another photo of the dog.
    He pocketed the money.
    A ring of keys, pen, checkbook, two paperback romance novels with half-naked couples clutched in suggestive embraces on their covers. The swollen bosoms increased the pressure of his woody.
    No diary. He examined the check register. The last entry was for today at Wally's Food Mart. Tucked in the register was a receipt for a dollar and change from Postal Instant Press, a copy shop. It carried today's date.
    So that's why Susie sent him on the wild goose chase to Decker Industries. She wanted a copy of the diary before she gave it to him. Why copy it? If it contained information Decker wanted to conceal from the cops, blackmail of Decker's associates came to mind.
    But who knew she had the diary? Decker, but since Kasker had detected no untethered soul outside the bookstore door, it was unlikely Decker's soul survived. And if Decker thought he'd want it later, why hadn't he taken it with him? Why come back for it when the cops would be searching the place and Kasker would be hunting him? It didn't make sense.
    Possibly Susie had already contacted someone from the diary, and they were responsible for her death. If that was true, whoever it was worked fast. They'd had little time to react. Holmes?
    Kasker stuffed the receipt in his jeans with the money and left through the window. He had no leads to either Holmes or Decker. Seve wouldn't be pleased. Neither would his master. He had to think of something soon. Otherwise, he'd be forced to revisit the Oracle.

19
     
    Parking at the beach was a bitch. Sunday noon, and the surf was up. Half of Solaris lounged on the sand or played in the water. The girls were strutting in their teeny weeny yellow-polka dot bikinis. Hard-bodied weight-lifters and sunburned surfers trailed after them, all awash in a cloud of hormones.
    I wore a cool cotton sundress that brushed the top of my knees. I walked the quarter mile from my parking spot to the old pier that jutted into the ocean. The wind ruffled my hair, turning it into a frazzled mess. I squinted against the reflection from the water and looked for Tad.
    A hand touched my shoulder, and I spun around.
    "Wow, Nicky, you look great," Tad said, running his eyes from my feet to my head. "I almost didn't recognize you."
    My face warmed more than the sun accounted for. Tad looked very handsome in his casual cotton shirt and Bermuda shorts. Ropes of muscle wrapped his arms and legs. So did patches of scabs and bruised skin.
    "You look…" I didn't know what to say.
    "Lucky to be alive?" he suggested and grinned.
    My heart sped up. He took a firm grip on my elbow and steered me toward the pier. We trod the faded boards, staying so close that our shoulders brushed. Waves rolled in and crashed against the pilings below us, sending salt spray into the air.
    Tad pointed to a vacant bench near the end and invited me to sit. He joined me. I could smell his aftershave. It reminded me of his skin against my lips. A shiver twitched up my back.
    Why had I let Tad talk me into this? I should be at the station going through the mug books.
    "Any progress on the Slasher case?" he asked.
    "I'm not part of the investigation, remember?"
    He took my hand in his. "You must