Eats to Die For! Read Online Free PDF Page B

right time, that’s how.” Regina walked past me, across the parking lot, and entered the restaurant, only to emerge a few moments later in full tomato regalia. She then went to join the others.
    She didn’t even wave goodbye.
    I could have gone in and ordered another burger, but Regina’s obvious fear lent a little bit of credence to Louie’s claims, making me think that maybe she had been right in her suspicions that she had been under scrutiny and suspected of something.
    Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. If I showed up so soon after trying to sneak out a burger bit, they might think I was onto them, too, so I got back in the car and headed home.
    Once there I decided to give Louie Sandoval a call and see if I could find out what had happened to her career as a love apple. Fishing out the number she gave me, I dialed it and listened to four rings, before it went to a machine. Hello, her recorded voice began, this is Luisa . I’m not here, so leave a message. And if you’re a telemarketer … She went on to describe an action that I doubted could actually be done, even by professional contortionists.
    After hearing the beep I left a message asking her to give me a call, or come by the office again, if she had the time.
    Obviously, I was not hungry for dinner, which coincided quite nicely with my having little food in the refrigerator. It wasn’t that I could not afford to pack the fridge, at least this month, it was that I hadn’t bothered going to the store this week.
    Figuring there was no time like the present, I headed out for the local Ralph’s and filled up the cart with basics—milk, bread, eggs, orange juice, coffee, hamburger meat (of course, my burgers wouldn’t be as good as Burger Heaven’s), frozen french fries, a bag of salad, some quick frozen dinners—and a DVD copy of Pomeranian Springs , a made-for-cable neo-noir that was one out of dozens of remaindered titles relegated to a $5.99 dump bin in the main aisle. At that price, I almost bought two.
    By the time I headed back to my car with my groceries, which were tucked into three paper sacks, each of which cost a dime, dusk was starting to blanket the city. Maybe that was what affected my vision. Something had to be affecting it, because it just didn’t seem rational that the woman standing by the front of the store, appearing to look straight at me was the Burger Heaven security guard who had given me the gift certificate, now out of uniform. Once I noticed her, she turned and went inside the store.
    It wasn’t impossible, of course, but the odds that I would see the same person on the same day at my usual grocery store had to be astronomical. But what were the odds that she was actually tailing me? No, I wasn’t that paranoid. It was someone other woman, it had to be.
    If you say so, kid , Bogie chimed in, and I could tell he didn’t believe me.
    CHAPTER FOUR
    It had been two days since the tomato had walked into my life. Two days without a new case or client, or even the promise of one. Two days of coming to the office and downloading movies on my laptop while waiting for something to happen. Two days of realizing that even at $5.99, the DVD of Pomeranian Springs was a waste of money. At least I knew why they named it after a dog. I saved the jewel box for future use and put the DVD itself on my desk to use as a coaster.
    Two days without hearing so much as a word from Louie Sandoval.
    By eleven-thirty, I called Louie’s number again and left another message. It was the fourth. Either she was hot on the trail of a story, or had decided I wasn’t worth the money either, or something had happened to her. I didn’t want to think about that last or .
    Picking up my well-thumbed copy of the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide, I went into my closet-sized bathroom. I once had a girlfriend who ascribed a more kinky connotation to my