It's cruise ship day in St. Chris and mischief is afoot among the treasure-hunting visitors.

excerpt from...

"Burning of the Witch"

by Kate Grilley

The hotel room door slowly opened inward, dark eyes peered through the crack between door and frame. A slight figure darted into the open air corridor, down the tiled ouside stairs to the beach. A pile of debris above the high tide line provided a ready hiding place for a small frayed paper sack. There was no time to wait for the ferry back to Isabeya. The burglar, unaware of a split in the bag's seam, shoved the sack into the debris pile; then slipped into the tepid ocean. Propelled by the easterly swells the swimmer was back on the St. Chris shore before the ferry left the Harborview dock. Another pair of eyes watched through binoculars from a nearby vantage point, satisfied that once again everything was going exactly as planned.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Kate Grilley.

"Burning of the Witch" was published in the Summer, 1998 issue of

Murderous Intent, a quarterly magazine of mystery and suspense,

published by Madison Publishing Company, Margo Power, editor.