Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear Read Online Free PDF

Phoebe meowed a thank you.
Ginger pulled her laptop out of the back of her suitcase and set it on a table. The computer fired right up. Thank goodness for waterproof fabric. She and the girls had started a blog called Livin’ Large on the Cheap. They hadn’t gotten any advertisers to help finance the trip, but they had quite a few readers. No surprise there. Bargain hunters wouldn’t pay for something they could get for free.
Ginger collapsed on the bed. Maybe later she would update the blog. She touched her ringlet curls. They had completely lost their spring. Earl said the hairstyle made her look like she was auditioning for a movie of the week, Shirley Temple: The Later Years . When the curls weren’t deflated like this, she thought they suited her. She had managed to dye them back to the shade of ginger brown that, if memory served, she was pretty sure was her actual hair color.
Ginger massaged her sore, sunburned feet, the result of spending half a day standing on the Vegas tarmac in a hundred-plus degree heat waiting for the lost display booth materials to show up. From now on, she would remember to SPF her tootsies. She probably looked worse than an accountant on April 16. After a long flight and driving fifty miles without benefit of makeup retouches and getting an unwanted shower from the hotel’s sprinkler system, a glance in the mirror might cause a coronary. The handy wipe cleaning she’d done in the lobby might have helped a little, but it still seemed risky.
She turned onto her side. Phoebe crunched her food. Ginger pulled her legs up closer to her chest. Her mind drifted, and her eyelids grew heavy; she thanked God for the blessing of a comfortable bed. The crunching grew softer, more distant.
In her dreams, she was a squirrel gathering her acorns into a pile. Over and over, she built up a good supply of food and a nice nest. Then bears and other squirrels invaded her tree, took everything, and messed up her straw bed.
Women’s whispering voices and the padding of feet on carpet stirred her awake. She opened one eye. Phoebe purred on her head. Heavy, heavy, her eyelids, her head, her arms, they were all lead. Phoebe moved off the bed.
And Ginger was swinging back and forth, back and forth, like in a hammock. Someone hit the light switch. In the dark room, she rolled over and fell into a deep sleep right after a tender hand rubbed her back and a female voice told her to rest.

Kindra sat down on a bench by the outlet shops. Suzanne and Arleta had gone up to their one and only hotel room to give Ginger her meal and see if she wanted to join them. The maps of the Little Italy and the Wind-Up showed that the underground outlets for both hotels were connected by one continuous tunnel.
That meant that she had a moment to catch her breath. She and the other bargain hunters had eaten a slow meal and then spent hours exploring the streets and above ground shops so Ginger could get some sleep. They had gotten Ginger some food once they thought she would have had enough sleep. It had to be close to nine by now. Kindra had pushed past the need for sleep and had entered the giddy stage of exhaustion. She couldn’t conk out if she tried. She was too wound up. No biggie. Staying awake all night was standard operating procedure during finals week.
She crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and thought about what kind of blog entry she would do for Livin’ Large on the Cheap when it was her turn. Something about outlet shopping adventures or …
She opened her eyes. Across the corridor by the candy shop, a bear paced, holding his bear head in front of him. The magnetic pull of attraction caused the sensation of a thousand warm pinpricks all over her skin. She’d recognize that cute teddy bear anywhere.
Xabier Knight’s knitted brow was evident even across the corridor. His paws curled into fists. He shook his head at some internal dialogue. The store behind him advertised discounted European chocolate with a special on