Yatsuhashi for Lance

In this short story Elise Chase, about to start a prestigious graduate program in Baltimore, is winding down a quiet life in Japan, teaching English and studying Japanese as she lives with her Navy boyfriend. Their rakish friend Lance flirts with Elise and then asks her to receive a package his sister mails from the States.

But the package contains drugs and things go terribly wrong. An embittered Elise finds a way years later to send Lance a sweet package of revenge.

This story first appeared as "Obake for Lance" in RIPTIDE by Level Best Books (2004). Elise is a major character in SPEAKING OF MURDER by Tace Baker, Edith Maxwell's pen name (Barking Rain Press, September 2012).