It's not like I settled for Kathryn, I tell myself. I could call it a night, satisfied enough with tonight but looking forward to something else anoth...r time... or, while I'm here, I could see if Kathryn was serious or just spouted that off without thinking.Sitting on the couch with her, I thanked her for dinner, and we both finished off our last couple swallows of wine. “When we were doing it earlier, you really didn't mind finishing so fast?” I asked her, starting my leading questions.“No.... ”Wait till we win the championship Jayne your going to get 3 full loads like this….. Dave said.Well the season was still some 8 weeks from finishing, and was it by good luck, or the other teams now starting to take injuries, but we started to tot up the points and to the final game we went, simple math’s the team that won, will win.A week later, the 4 of us arrived for a private sitting at the Wax and Piercing centre. We had told them about the dares, and the guy laughed and agreed to do the. As easily as the elderly can become prey on the Internet, I was just as glad hers sat in a corner collecting dust.I helped her on with her jacket and we went out to the waiting cab. I don’t drive my car much, and on rainy days not at all. The past four days had been beautiful but the wind and rain picked up again during the night and I nearly lost the umbrella as I opened the door for her. It was a short trip to the Fish House on the other side of Salmon Bay.Mom always liked Salmon Bay. She. My heart jumped to the back of my throat, and I heard the dreadful pumping of panic in my ears."Em? Are you all right? Where are you Em?" I called, but quietly, senses on total alert now.I crept from once scene of devastation to the next. The kitchen was a battleground of broken crockery and spilled food, footprints outlined in instant coffee and the crunch of sugar, those same footprints, but with others, signs of scuffle and ... violence ... a small splash of blood at the backdoor, on the.