“That’s....” Chuck began to say before he felt the building below his feet begin to move. The shaking lasted only a few seconds. “We just had an earthquake.”

This was the third earthquake Charles McBride had endured since coming to live in Japan, and he wasn’t nearly as jaded by them as his fiancée seemed to be. “I won’t miss those things.”

Synopsis – The Swan Song committee and Gabrielle Tanaka begin to worry as both agents Ripley and Chrysanthemum fail to report in as scheduled. At the same time, Hiromi Sato sets her personal plans into motion.

Part one: strangers in the night,

Detective Johnson looked thoughtfully distracted for a moment before finally replying, “We’ll set up a trap for him at your apartment.”

“But how?” I asked, confused by the sudden change in position.

Hannah tries to fend off cabin fever while she waits for Detective Johnson to finally catch the ever elusive Joey. But will he be caught in time?

In the late Christmas afternoon I was in my room, sitting in a chair, hugging my knees and feeling glad to be clean and warm, when I heard two women talking outside. It sounded like friendly banter, but it never stopped or let up. I figured that the two were walking slowly, but they never seemed to move on. And they didn't quit jabbering for an instant. Finally, out of curiosity, I looked out the window.

"Talk to her?" Maisie laughed. "Are you kidding? Are you out of your mind? Her brother tries to kill you, and you want to talk to her? What is there to talk about?"

"Misty," I said, as calmly as I could, "can you smell me?"

"Smell you? Yes, of course I can smell you. You really need a bath."

No doubt my uniform stank of smoke and was dirty from rolling around in the filth back here. Couldn't they have cleaned the vans before they abducted me? I wished I had a change of clothes. I wished I'd had a little warning! If I knew I was going to be kidnapped, I would have worn jeans, for one thing.

"Remind me why we're friends with Maisie," I said to Susan.

"She does have her moods, doesn't she?"

Mom gave me a tight hug and said, "My gosh, Marcie! Now I'm having adventures, just like you!"

I rolled my eyes, and she burst out laughing.

Mom sighed. "You have to get that operation soon," she said. "You really forget that you're not a girl, don't you?"

"Yeah," I admitted glumly.

“Wait!” I said in a surprised tone. “A safe house? You mean like witness protection? What about my work? My apartment? What am I supposed to do with my stuff?”

“Slow down,” he said while holding his hands up to emphasize things. “We don’t know how long it’ll be, but I wouldn’t expect it to take too long. For now, anything you don’t have to have with you should stay here. I’ll have a uniform posted here as a guard, okay?”

“Will there be room for my upright?” I asked.

“I don’t know why not,” he responded before adding, “Which one is that?”

Chuck was checking his watch when the stranger approached him. “Those were a couple of nice looking ladies you had.”

Chuck immediately turned around. “What did you just say?”

Synopsis- Hiromi sees a fortune teller and goes to a casino in Macau, Gabrielle has a chat with Dr. Wagner and meets a close friend, Midori and Stewart Slater get very bad news, plus Operation Swan Song takes an unexpected turn.

Susan shrugged and smiled. "They said that if it bothers you, you have to find a way to get Mrs. Wix involved."

"How can I do that? What am I supposed to do? Invite her for a sleepover?"

snowblind, shipwrecked, several millennia old

by Miss K

The village in which I grew up was particularly notable for one thing, which I'll come to in a moment.

Ida told me that she didn't want to be too ambitious on our first weekend together. "I'm hoping we can do this again, maybe often, and so I'd rather take it easy and get to know you a little bit. It's nice to be with you when, uh–"

"I understand," I said, and finished her thought: "– when Maisie's not around."

"Mom, you're killing me!" I protested.

She just scoffed. Dad was no help... he just slogged along, head down, perspiring.

Darryl finally gets to go home . . .

Susan smiled and flounced. "What can I say?" she grinned. "I'm just that clever! So when's Maisie get here? I have to tell you guys what I found out about Misty Sabatino. It's scandalous."