Killer Calories

and waited until Dirk finally answered. “Sorry,” she said, “did I interrupt I Love Lucy ?“
    She couldn’t help teasing the rough, tough cop about his favorite television show.
    “No,” he barked. “I was on the john. What do you want ?“
    “I’m here at Royal Palms getting—”
    “Slim and trim?”
    “No. Stalked and vandalized. I need you to run a few checks for me: Louis Hanks, the owner of this fine establishment, Dr. Freeman Ross, the spa’s physician, Josef Orlet , the resident masseur... and, what the hell, Dion Zeller, too. Might as well be thorough.”
    “Is that enough? Isn’t there anything else you’d like me to do for you?”
    She heard the sarcasm in his voice, but decided to ignore it. After all, she had stood on street corners in four-inch heels for him. This wouldn’t kill him.
    “Yes, that’s all. Unless you can smuggle me in some Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.” She intercepted a horrified look of indignation from Tammy. “Never mind. I’ll just suffer in the name of purification.”
    The instant, radiant smile on Tammy’s face was her payment for exercising discipline, she decided as she hung up the phone. Virtue was its own reward.
    Besides, there was always the box of truffles in the lining of her suitcase.

    “I feel raped and violated.”
    At first, Savannah wasn’t sure she had heard the words correctly. She had just begun to drift off into an uneasy sleep when Tammy spoke to her from the other bed.
    “What?”
    “I do. I feel raped and violated. Just to think that someone was here in our room while we were gone. And they threw our clothes all around and dumped them on the floor and... and touched them.”
    Savannah opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it and closed it. In her line of work, she had seen rape and violation, the real thing. At least she and Tammy had been fortunate enough not to have been inside those clothes when they were thrown around and dumped on the floor.
    But she didn’t want to diminish Tammy’s sense of outrage; the act had been one of violation, and she was entitled to her anger.
    “Do you know what I mean?” Tammy continued. “I feel as if I should wash all my clothes before I even touch them, like they’ve been contaminated or something.”
    “Yes, I know what you mean. We’ll find out who did it.”
    “Really? Do you really think so?”
    “Yeah... well... maybe.”
    “Do you think it was the same person who killed Kat?”
    Savannah rolled onto her side. In the darkness, she could just make out Tammy’s silhouette. “In the first place, we still don’t know for sure if someone murdered Kat. And whether or not he’s the one who tore up our room... there’s no way to know that either right now.”
    “But having someone search our stuff that way makes it seem like maybe she was murdered. Don’t you think?”
    “Maybe.”
    Savannah heard Tammy snort with frustration as she flounced about on the bed.
    “Well, I don’t like not knowing,” she said.
    Savannah laughed. “Me either, that’s why we’re investigating. That, and because it’s why we get paid the big bucks.”
    “We get paid big bucks?”
    “Right now, with my personal economy... any bucks at all are big ones.”
    “I hear you. Well, I was trying to earn mine today. I was asking questions, here and there, doing a little detecting on my own.”
    Uh, oh, Savannah thought. This could spell trouble. “Oh, really? You have to be careful, you know. If we ask too many questions or talk to the wrong people, we could tip our hand before we’re ready.”
    “ Savannah ! I know that! Geez... I’m not a bimbo. I was just ‘gossiping’ with people, like I would anyway, even if I wasn’t detecting.”
    “Oh, okay. So, what’s on the grapevine?”
    “Some of the workers think she might have been murdered, too. They’re pretty nervous. A couple of them won’t go into the mud baths alone.”
    “That sounds sensible.”
    “And I talked to Karen quite a while. She’s the nutritionist that you met the first day, when you came to see Kat’s body. She said Kat was sick before she died. Like, maybe really sick.”
    “Yeah? Why did she think that?”
    “She said she overheard Kat talking to Dr. Ross, just a few days before she died. They were arguing about something. Seems Dr. Ross wanted her to go to a specialist to get checked out for some kind of surgery. But she wouldn’t do it. Said she’d rather die first.”
    Savannah sat up