A page from Moonbeams ( to be published in 2013)

   Her tears ran uncontrolled down her face and she was too overwrought at this point to notice a face peek through a crack in the window shade. Or see it dart away. Suddenly the lamp in the bedroom went off, along with the rest of the lights in Ed's house.
   Daisy's tears turned to ice. She stiffened and then instinct sent her rolling over the bed and fall into the space next to the wall. She crunched down and hardly dared to breath. Seconds went by.
When she had landed on the floor behind the bed, her right hand had gotten twisted under her. She tried desperately now to untangle herself and get her gun out of her uniform pocket. Then finally having it in her hand she dared raise her head an inch over the pile of pillows. She saw nothing. A few minutes slipped by. She didn't dare let her attention drift off.  Then as she stared into the murky shadows the door opened, slowly, soundlessly.  Her breath caught in her throat as she steadied the gun with both hands.
   A dark figure crept into the room. And in that instant she saw it was the stranger who had come into her shop that afternoon and then mysteriously disappeared. Now his movements spelled killer to
her as he came toward the bed. She raised the .38 then and pumped shot after shot at the target and saw the figure slump and then felt movement when it landed on the bed.  Just inches from her.