Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) by Sara M. Barton

of
here.”
    “That’s my baby,” Larry announced,
planting a big kiss on Mickey’s cheek.
    “Yes, but now I’m wide awake. I’ll
never get back to sleep.”
    “Come with me, little one. Mama Bear’s
going to tell you a story.” The pair left me, returning to Jenny’s
room. I lay awake, listening to the hushed sounds of a
conversation. Even though I couldn’t understand the words spoken, I
took comfort that there were two people in the next
room.
    Why was I so terrified, even
now? I knew it was a dream, but somehow it felt so real to me. I
stared up at the ceiling as a thousand disjointed thoughts seemed
to whirl around and converge in my head. Something was wrong, my
brain kept insisting. I don’t know the man
who was chasing me. He hated Larry, and in order to get to her, he
had to go through me. Why?
    “You okay?” Larry asked quietly. She
was back, watching me as she leaned against the door
jamb.
    “The man in the dream...he wasn’t after
me. He was after you.” I sat up again. “He wanted to destroy
you.”
    “Oh, you’re just worried about me
because I’ve been so stressed lately. You can just forget it, Miz
Scarlet. I’ll be fine as soon as both my parents are here and I
know they’re not going to kill each other. I probably shouldn’t
have told you about their feud. I planted the idea in your
head.”
    “No.” I looked her right in the eye.
“My nightmare had nothing to do with your parents. Some guy wanted
to kill me, but you were his real target. He hates you.”
    “Okay. I’ll play along.” The homicide
investigator crossed her arms. “Let me pretend your dream was real.
The first thing I’m going to ask you is how do you know it was me
he wanted to harm?”
    “You made him really mad. You stopped
him once before.”
    “Did I?” She gave me a weary smile.
“And how did I do that?”
    “You put him in jail.”
    A guarded look fell over Larry’s face
for a moment, like a heavy blanket, obscuring her true emotions,
but then she shrugged. She seemed to hesitate, as if she was on the
brink of telling me something, something important, but then the
moment passed.
    “Well, if it’s any consolation, Miz
Scarlet, I’ve put a lot of bad guys away in my years on the job.
Not all of them wanted to kill me. A couple even
proposed.”
    “Yes, but this guy hates your
guts.”
    “Well, I’ll take that under advisement.
In the meantime, I’m heading back down to my room. Sweet
dreams.”
    “You, too.”
    Putting my head back down on the
pillow, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to convince myself there
was still time to get some more sleep. By the time my alarm went
off, I had managed to get another two hours sleep.
    Feeling guilty about my nocturnal
disturbance, I decided to serve Larry and Mickey a breakfast that
would knock their socks off. Tiptoeing down the stairs just after
six, I got the bacon cooking on a cookie sheet in the oven, mixed
up some pancake batter while the coffee was brewing, and sliced up
some bananas in a sauté pan with a little melted butter and some
brown sugar. They were nicely caramelized when Mickey wandered into
the kitchen.
    “What smells so good?” She peeked over
my shoulder. “Bacon? My favorite!”
    Larry joined us a few minutes later,
her long dark hair still damp from her shower. “I’ve got to get a
mattress like that. Wow, it’s like sleeping on a cloud!”
    “Glad you liked it,” I grinned. “Will
pancakes put a smile on your face?”
    “That, and an extra five pounds on my
butt,” she laughed. “But I’ve learned to eat while the eating is
good. Sometimes I don’t even have a chance to sit down for
lunch.”
    “Well, grab a cup of coffee from the
butler’s pantry and pull up a chair at the dining room
table.”
    “Do I smell bacon?” Max hobbled into
the kitchen. “The aroma is heavenly.”
    “I thought you were kosher,” Larry
remarked.
    “I am,” he sighed, his shoulders
slumping.
    “Will kosher turkey bacon work for