Angels Fall

give me a holler. I've got to finish the setups or Joanie'll squawk. Welcome aboard."
    "Thanks."
    Reece moved into the kitchen, took an apron.
    A good, wide solid ledge, she told herself. A good place to stand until it was time to move again.

Chapter 2
     
    LINDA GAIL was right, they were busy. Locals, tourists, hikers, a scatter of people from a nearby campground who wanted an indoor meal. She and Joanie worked with little conversation while the fryers pumped out steam and the grill spewed heat.
    At some point, Joanie stuck a bowl under Reece's nose. "Eat."
    "Oh, thanks, but—"
    "You got something against my soup?"
    "No."
    "Sit down at the counter and eat. It's slowed down some and you've got a break coming. I'll put it on your tab."
    "Okay, thanks."The fact was, now that she thought about eating food instead of just preparing it, she realized she was starving. A good sign. Recce decided as she took a seat at the end of the counter.
    It gave her a view of the diner, and the door.
    Linda-gail slid a plate over to her with a sourdough roll and two pats of butter on it. "Joanie said you need the earbs. Want some tea with that?"
    "Perfect. I can get it."
    "I'm in the mode. You're quick," she added as she brought over a cup. After a glance over her shoulder, she leaned closer and grinned. "Quicker than Joanie. And you plate food pretty. Some of the customers commented on it."
    "Oh." She wasn't looking for comments or attention. |ust a paycheck. "I didn't mean to change anything."
    "Nobody's complaining." Linda-gail tilted her head with a smile that showed off her dimples. "Kind of jumpy, aren't you?"
    "I guess I am."" Recce sampled the soup, pleased that the broth had a subtle bite. "No wonder this place stays busy. This soups as good as anything you'd get in a five-star."
    Linda-gail glanced back toward the kitchen, assured herself loanic was occupied. "Some of us have a bet going. Bebe thinks you're in trouble with the law. She watches a lot of TV, that one. Juanita thinks you're running from an abusive husband. Matthew, being seventeen, just thinks about sex. Me, I think you just got your heart broken back East. Any of us hit?"
    "No, sorry." There was a little twinge of anxiety at the idea the others were speculating, but she reminded herself that restaurants were full of little dramas and a lot of gossip. "I'm just at loose ends, just traveling."
    "Something in there." Linda-gail said with a shake of her head. "To my eye you got heartbreak written all over you. And speaking of heart-breakers, here comes Long, Dark and Handsome now."
    He was long, Reece thought as she followed the direction of Linda-gail's gaze. A couple inches or so over six feet. She'd give him dark, too. with the shaggy jet hair and olive complexion. But she wasn't sold on handsome.
    It was a word that meant slick and classy to her mind, and this man was neither. Instead, there was a rough, rugged look about him with a scruff of beard over rawboned features. Something rougher yet, to her mind, about the hard line of his mouth and the way his eyes tracked around the room. There was nothing slick about the battered leather jacket, faded jeans or worn-down boots.
    Not the cowboy type, she decided, but one who looked like he could handle himself outdoors. He looked strong, and maybe just a little mean.
    "Name's Brody." Linda-gail said in undertones. "He's a writer."
    "Oh?" She relaxed a little. Something in his stance, his absolute awareness of the room, had said cop to her. Writer was better. Easier. "What kind?"
    "He does magazine articles and like that, and he's had three books published. Mysteries. Fits, too, because that's what he is. A mystery."
    She flipped her hair back, shifted her angle so she could watch out of the corner of her eye as Brody strode to an empty booth. "Word is he used to work for a big newspaper inChicago and got fired. He rents a cabin on the other side of the lake, keeps to himself, mostly. But he comes in here three times a week for dinner. Tips twenty percent."
    She turned back to Recce as Brody sat. "How do I look?"
    "Terrific."
    "One of these days I'm going to figure out how to get him to hit on me, just to satisfy my curiosity. But for now, I'll take the twenty percent."
    Linda-gail wandered toward the booth, drawing her pad out of her pocket. From where she sat, Reece could hear her cheerful greeting.
    "How you doing, Brody? What do you have in mind for tonight?"
    While she ate, Reece watched the waitress flirt, and