Getting Rich (A Chef Landry Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

love you too.” I put her back down. “How are your babies, little girl?”
    She took off. I hurried to the mudroom behind the kitchen. There, in a large crate, two teensy-weensy doggies were pawing madly at the wire door. Underneath, half a dozen wee-wee pads were in dire need of changing. How could such tiny dogs produce so much poo?
    “Phe-ew, you guys stink,” I muttered, picking up a bunch of clean pads from the nearby box.
    Four months ago Jackie had run away from home one night. She came back the next morning with a bun in the oven, or rather, three buns in the oven. For two months I was the proud owner of three puppies. Then, a week ago, a friend had adopted one of the little females, and—if I was to believe her—Toni would soon take the little male off my hands. I sure hoped she was sincere, but the dog had been ready to go for a few weeks now and she was still procrastinating.
    The timing for the litter to be born couldn’t have been worse. Having a houseful of untrained doggies too young to take outside in this cold was a challenge. Even Jackie was too small to brave the frigid weather for more than a few minutes. To make matters worse, until they were two months old, pups were too young to be adopted, and of course by the time the little ones were ready to leave I was totally in love with them. But, as much as it had been heartbreaking to see the first one go last week, it had also been a relief.
    I opened the back door and stepped outside carrying the two pups. Jackie followed and did her usual mad sprint around my postage stamp of a backyard, did a quick pee and then ran back in. The two pups sniffed the ground, unsure what to do. At last, the little male, Trouble, raised his leg and peed on my boots—once again proving he deserved his name.
    “No, Trouble, not on my feet,” I muttered, shaking my foot. The little female, Sugar, trotted off toward a flower bed and squatted. “See,” I said to Trouble. “That’s where you do it.”
    He ignored me and galloped up the stairs. I gave Sugar her two minutes, picked her up and followed inside.
    After making sure their water bowls were full, I checked the phone for messages—nothing. I hadn’t heard from Mitchell in a couple of days now, which was somewhat unusual. It brought out all my insecurities. I knew Mitchell was a good guy. We’d been dating for a few months—long enough to call it a relationship, but not long enough to feel completely safe.
    *

    Overnight the weather had grown colder. By morning the mercury had dipped to below zero and the sidewalks were covered with a thin dusting of snow. I glanced out the window and decided to drive to work, even though I could have used the exercise.
    “Morning, boss,” said Jennifer as I waked into the kitchen. In the short time Charles’s girlfriend had been working for us, I had grown accustomed to her cheery disposition and friendly manner. The atmosphere at work had always been pleasant, and now she added to it.
    “Hi, Jennifer. Hi, guys.” I walked over to the counter and snuck a peek at what Jennifer was preparing. She had a row of cookie sheets covered with diced butternut squash.
    “I tossed them in olive oil and salt and pepper,” she said. “They’re ready to go into the oven.”
    “Good job.” I walked on. A few feet away Charles was assembling our signature Skinny pizzas, one of our regular menu items.
    “Before I forget,” he said. “Toni called. She said she was spending the day with someone and would only come in for the dinner shift—but that if you blew a fuse, I should call her back and let her know.” He studied me. “Are you going to blow a fuse?”
    I was tempted to, but since I knew who the “someone” was—Judy—how could I? “No. It’s okay. She doesn’t play hooky all that often. This time I’ll let her off easy.”
    But when dinner came around, there was still no sign of her. It wasn’t until the evening was almost over that she suddenly popped in by the