Straight No Chaser Read Online Free PDF

company over there.”
    â€œRoger? He and Gene Siskel come up for the Chicago papers every year.”
    Silence emanated from the next table. Don was tilting in Annie’s direction. Karen, more subtle in the arts of eavesdropping, sat upright and stared straight ahead.
    I said to Annie, “It’s Oklahoma, by the way, the scheme my guy’s charged with.”
    â€œSweetie pie, is the state relevant?”
    â€œIt could be Delaware, in your view, and my guy’d still be guilty?”
    â€œI couldn’t have phrased it more cogently.”
    Annie didn’t disapprove of all my clients. Ninety-nine per cent of them.
    â€œYour pal Roger seemed antsy,” I said. Don and Karen would be grateful for the change in topic back to movie personnel.
    â€œHe thought he’d scare me off with his big rep,” Annie said. “It was my appointment with Helga, and dammit, I needed every second.”
    â€œFill your notebook?”
    â€œCrang, this year, seriously, it’s freelance heaven.” Annie’s deepbrown eyes shone. “I’ve got Metro Morning same as usual, but it’s stepped up to five minutes every single day of the Festival. Television, The Journal ’s having me on for a wrap-up panel a week from Friday. And last night I get a call from San Francisco, the Chronicle . Their regular guy’s all of a sudden sick, and would I file two big pieces? You impressed?”
    â€œPauline Kael, step aside.”
    Annie reviewed movies. She had one steady gig. It was radio, twice-a-week commentaries on the local CBC wake-up program. For the rest, she scrambled. Articles in Premiere Magazine , sometimes a radio documentary, guest spots on TV. It made for a precarious career.
    â€œHelga’s setting me up for the major leagues,” Annie said. “Get this, a half-hour interview Tuesday night with Daniel Day-Lewis.”
    Don made motions like he might fall out of his chair.
    I said, “The English guy, that Daniel Day-Lewis? Handsome, young, talented, probably articulate?”
    â€œThe material I can get,” Annie said, “all the radio producers, newspaper editors, they’ll be kissing me on both cheeks.”
    â€œDaniel Day-Lewis, the guy the two women in the movie you took me to year before last went crazy over?”
    â€œ The Unbearable Lightness of Being .”
    â€œThe same reaction to Daniel Day-Lewis among women, I imagine, applies off the screen.”
    Karen’s head made a nod that I assumed to be of enthusiastic affirmation.
    Annie said, “If this is jealousy, Crang, put a sock in it. I need you for something else.”
    â€œMy charm?”
    â€œLater,” Annie said. “Right now, it’s information.”
    â€œCharm comes free. Information, I turn the meter on.”
    â€œSuppose I ask my questions, and you answer charmingly.”
    â€œYou want to order an expensive lunch while we talk?”
    â€œJust a spritzer,” Annie said. “Well eat at the press conference.”
    â€œWhat press conference?”
    â€œThe one I need the information for.”
    A waiter sauntered by to bring Coke refills for Don and Karen. I asked for Annie’s spritzer. Was Don unaware of the red horrors the sugar was wreaking on his forehead?
    Annie flipped through her notebook to a blank page.
    She said to me, “A man in your racket, criminal lawyer by the name of F. Cameron Charles.”
    â€œSure,” I said. “Classmate of mine at law school, and today the Clarence Darrow of his time and place.”
    â€œHe’s that good?”
    â€œAccording to Cam he is.”
    â€œI see,” Annie said. “We’re dealing with an ego.”
    â€œLike the CN Tower.”
    Annie’s spritzer arrived.
    â€œMaybe I’m ahead of you on this, kiddo,” I said.“Cam’s on the Festival of Festivals board. That’s the reason for the questions?”
    â€œHim on the board is