Sugar & Spice Chapter 1

THE PALM TREES, the sunshine, and the gracious amenities of the hotel were a welcome diversion from my rigorous duties as FBI Agent Phoenix Perry. Just a few weeks ago, I had killed Coco Nimburu, the cunning assassin who had terrorized Washington DC. She had killed my father, kidnapped my family, and even hospitalized Kelly McPherson-my partner. A family vacation in California was just what we needed.

We had begun our family excursion in San Francisco. Kelly and I were there last month investigating the Warren family murders-more of Coco Nimburu's handy work. She had killed twelve FBI agents, chopping the heads off two of them before killing Mr. and Mrs. Warren.

Having been in the city by the bay again made me want to take Savannah there for her first real vacation. San Francisco was the first city I had visited when my father and I returned to the United States. My father had been in Naval Intelligence-assigned to the American Embassy in China for twelve years. I, however, spent most of my twelve years studying the martial arts under the tutelage of legendary Kung Fu Master, Ying Ming Lo.

After taking in as many of the sights as we could get in for the five days we were in San Francisco, we flew down to the City of Angels. Coco Nimburu had entrusted her remains to me. She had had a secret desire to be an actress and asked me to sprinkle her cremated remains on the Paramount Studios Lot, which was no easy task. I had to take several tours to accomplish this, sprinkling a little of her all over the Lot. The important thing was that I did as she had asked and that made me feel good. Even with all that she had done to my family and my circle of friends, I had felt a kinship with her and missed her mind games and her infectious laughter.

I was sitting in the Café Sierra restaurant, reading the complimentary copy of the USA Today Newspaper, waiting for my husband and daughter to join me. The warden of Norrell Prison had been murdered back home near Washington DC. According to the paper, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Perkins had been brutally killed in their home. They had both been savagely lashed with a whip. The killer had raped the wife repeatedly throughout the night, then dismembered her and her husband with a chainsaw. Large amounts of cocaine and money were found near their decomposing corpses. They had been dead for a week. Captain Callahan, who ran the prison, told a reporter that Warden Perkins was supposed to be vacationing in the Cayman Islands.

Just as I finished the article, Keyth and Savannah came to the table and sat down. I looked up from the paper at my husband and shook my head. He had been an FBI agent and instantly knew that something terrible must have happened. I gave him the paper and he began reading it.

"Hi, honey," I said to my daughter. "You ready to go to the park?"

"Yeah, Mommy." Savannah beamed.

I had promised her that our first stop today would be the Terminator T2:3D theater at the Universal Theme Park. We had seen the exciting short film once and Savannah wanted to see it again, but the lines had looked like a two-hundred-yard anaconda. We were flying back to Washington tomorrow afternoon and this would be our last chance to see the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong look-a-likes being chased through the theater by futuristic terminators, with loud explosions and laser fire all around us. It's truly an unforgettable experience. Truth be told, I was just as excited as my daughter.

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