Free Deadly Sanctuary by Sylvia Nobel

studded with waving palms. The skyline shimmered with modern glass highrises and the enclosed, air-conditioned shopping malls were simply delicious. Following her appointment with the doctor, Ginger and I had a ball exploring the stores and then lunching at an elegant restaurant.
    By late afternoon, we’d visited at least ten different shops and couldn’t agree on what type of outfit I should buy.
    After some good-natured arguing, I finally settled on a sleek, knee-length emerald green cocktail dress.
    “If you ask me,” Ginger remarked following the purchase, “I liked that itty-bitty black one better.”
    “Please. I don’t want to look like a hooker. I’m there on assignment, remember? Anyway, the green one is more practical. Boy, I miss my old salary. I can’t eat for a month now because of this.”
    It was time to head home but Ginger insisted we stop at the cosmetics counter before leaving. She purchased a bottle of her favorite cologne and spritzed us with two different scents, exclaiming, “Oh, looky here. A sample of Shalimar.” She inhaled the fragrance and blew out a blissful sigh. “What do you think, should we live dangerously and buy some?”
    I looked at the price and made a face. “At two hundred an ounce? I don’t think so.”
    Pretending to pout, she sprayed a liberal amount on my wrist and returned the bottle. I sniffed it appreciatively and then started in surprise. I had smelled this sweet scent recently. But where?
    It bugged me for a half an hour before the answer came to me. Claudia Phillips had been wearing it. “Tell me,” I asked Ginger while maneuvering the car into the flow of freeway traffic, “what do you know about Claudia Phillips?”
    She giggled. “You mean other than the fact that she looks like Olive Oyl?”
    “Yeah. Other than that.”
    “Well, let’s see.” She hesitated while chewing her thumb nail. “I see her here and there around town. I don’t know if she’s got a boyfriend…” After another short pause she said in a surprised tone, “Come to think of it, I don’t really know much about her at all. Why?”
    “I can’t put my finger on it. There’s something about her that strikes me wrong. She supposedly earns a mere pittance at the shelter and yet, when I interviewed her the other day, she had on what looked like a designer suit and she was wearing Shalimar.”
    “Beats me.” Ginger yawned in obvious disinterest.
    An accident a few miles from Castle Valley stalled us in traffic almost forty minutes, so I was running way behind schedule by the time I dropped her off and eased the car into the carport. The hall clock chimed six-fifteen as I stepped inside. There was no way I could be ready in fifteen minutes. Bradley would just have to wait.
    In the bedroom, I threw off my clothes and then, clad only in bra and panties, padded towards the bathroom where I stopped in confusion. The door was closed. Funny, I didn’t remember shutting it when I’d left this morning?
    I edged it open and stepped cautiously in. A split second before I pulled the shower curtain aside, I had a premonition something was wrong.
    Rational thought deserted me at the sight of what was in my tub. The scream that rose to my throat almost choked me. There must have been a dozen huge spiders crawling and tumbling about, some halfway up the side.
    Led by the cold hand of panic, I careened off the doorjamb and bolted, unthinking, into the hall and straight out the front door.
    “Jesus Christ!” I shrieked to no one as I stood on the walkway shivering with fear and revulsion. The thought of one of those horrid creatures touching me turned my stomach cold. How the hell had all those spiders gotten into my tub? How was I going to get them out of the house? I thought wildly. A broom? Yes! A broom. No wait. A shovel? Think. Of course! The only logical solution was the vacuum cleaner.
    It took me about five minutes to quit shaking as I rationalized the situation. Calm down, I urged