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drove their car. He took a cab.”
    â€œAnd was she here when he got home?”
    â€œNo. He says the car was here, but he couldn’t find her in the house or the yard.”
    â€œWhen did he report her missing?”
    â€œHe didn’t. A jogger on the beach found her about noon today and called it in.”
    Savannah glanced over at the barefoot prints leading from the water to the body, then back in the direction they came.
    â€œAnd you were the first to respond?”
    â€œYeah. And it’s a good thing, too, or those morons up there would have come down here and trampled all over the scene.”
    â€œOh, come on. Not all of those handsome young patrolmen are dummies.”
    He bristled.
    So she said, “You’ve taught them how to respect a crime scene.”
    He unbristled.
    Grinning, she added, “By yelling obscenities, verbally abusing them, and threatening them with great bodily harm.”
    He snorted. “Somebody’s gotta do it.”
    Dirk’s cell phone rang. He dug it out of his jacket pocket and answered it in his usual gracious, loquacious manner. “Yeah, what?”
    She considered nominating him for poet laureate.
    â€œAll right. Come through the house to the backyard and down the stairs. We’re with the body here on the beach.”
    He hung up. “Dr. Liu,” he explained. “They’re here.”
    Savannah looked down at the body on the rocks and felt a little sense of relief, as she always did, that the coroner and Crime Scene Unit had arrived to take over.
    No matter how many times she did it, dealing with a corpse at the scene was always difficult. It was the hardest part of any investigation. Except for one other thing.
    She took a deep, steadying breath. “You think the husband’s finished with his phone calls?”
    â€œWhether he is or not, I gotta talk to him again,” Dirk said, his face reflecting the dread she felt.
    Because, the only thing worse than dealing with the remains of a person who had passed on…was dealing with the loved ones who had been left behind.

Chapter 3
    A s Savannah and Dirk left the beach and started to climb the stone steps, Savannah looked up and saw a beautiful Asian woman descending the stairs. Her long, glossy black hair spilled around her shoulders, and the snug, black miniskirt she was wearing seemed strangely at odds with her boxy, white, lab coat.
    She had exquisitely shaped, long legs, and she was wearing what appeared to be stainless steel, four-inch-high stilettos.
    â€œOkay, I stand corrected,” Savannah said over her shoulder to Dirk. “You can walk down these stairs wearing super-high heels.”
    But when she glanced backward, she saw that Dirk had barely heard what she’d said. He was transfixed on the sight above him, and she couldn’t summon even an ounce of indignation about his ill-mannered ogling.
    Dr. Jennifer Liu, San Carmelita’s first female coroner, was simply stunning.
    â€œHey, Dr. Jen,” Savannah greeted her as they met halfway up the stairs. “You’re lookin’ perky today.”
    â€œHi, Savannah,” Dr. Liu returned warmly. “Haven’t seen you lately. You haven’t dropped by with a box of Godivas in a long time.”
    Savannah chuckled. It was true. More than once, when she was anxious to get autopsy results, she had taken a box of truffles to the morgue under the pretext of “PMS bonding.”
    Dr. Liu was far too sharp to believe that the offerings were anything more than an excuse to drop by and finagle information before the coroner’s report was complete. But she was also smart enough not to admit she was being bribed.
    Savannah would do anything to learn the official cause and manner of death three hours before the murder was even committed. And if five pounds of chocolate enabled her to make a pest out of herself and get the jump on a case, she wasn’t above it.
    Besides, Dr. Liu