Killer Calories

flashlight?”
    “Flashlight? What flashlight? I thought you brought it.”
    “No, I brought the lockpick and my finely honed expertise. You were supposed to bring the flashlight. Remember? I handed you the one by my bed... the one I keep in case of earthquakes.”
    “Oh, yeah... you did say something about the earthquake; that rings a bell.”
    Savannah sighed. “I don’t call you a ding-a-ling for nothing.”
    “Sorry, I was just all nervous about the idea of breaking into someplace that I—”
    “Don’t worry about it. But we can’t turn the light on or we’ll get busted. And we have to find something to read by…“
    She fumbled around in the dark for a moment, trying to remember where the doctor had laid his instruments after examining her. “Pay dirt! Instant flashlight!”
    “What is that?” Tammy squinted as Savannah shone the narrow beam of light into her face.
    “The gadget the doc uses to look into your ears. Here, you hold it.”
    “Yuck. It probably has ear wax on it.”
    “I sincerely doubt that, but take it anyway.” She shoved it into her hand. “Some partner in crime you’re turning out to be. First you forget the equipment and then you turn squeamish on me.”
    “Hey, I didn’t barf during that autopsy.”
    “True. I guess you get points for that.”
    Hurrying over to the file cabinet, she dragged Tammy along. “Oh, goody. More locks,” she said as she tried to open the drawer labeled U-V-W-X-Y-Z.
    Although this lock was stiff and not as cooperative as the door, she finally got it open. Tammy held the light as she located the file in question.
    “ Valentina , Katherina ,” she said as she pulled it out. Sitting on the floor, she spread the papers across the carpet, and Tammy directed the pinpoint beam.
    “Don’t you feel a little guilty doing this?” Tammy asked. “Doing what?” Savannah took the light from Tammy and quickly scanned the forms, one by one.
    “Reading Kat’s private medical file, when she’s... you know ... dead.”
    “That’s just the point, Tammy. She’s dead. Taking that into consideration, I sincerely doubt she gives a damn.”
    Tammy’s silence was Savannah ’s cue that, perhaps, she had been a wee bit insensitive.
    “Sorry,” she said. “But I guess what I’m trying to say is: I figure the end justifies the means. If Kat was murdered, she deserves justice. And if I have to violate her privacy to get it for her, so be it. How’s that?”
    “Much better.”
    “Good. Hey... I think we’ve got something here.”
    The medical terms were only so much gibberish, but even without an M.D. after her name, Savannah could understand enough to know just how sick Kat Valentina had really been before her death. And Dr. Ross’s handwritten notes had left no doubts about his feelings on the subject.
    “You were right.” She slowly closed the folder and returned it to the cabinet. “Kat was sick.”
    “What was wrong with her?”
    How ironic, Savannah thought as she relocked the metal cabinet. Kat Valentina had been the subject of so many male fantasies over the years, and one of her most famous assets had been her generous bustline .
    “What was it, Savannah ?” Tammy asked again. “What did it say?”
    “It says she had a tumor in her left breast.”
    “Cancer? Kat had breast cancer?”
    “They didn’t know if it was malignant or not. According to Dr. Freeman’s notes, she wouldn’t let them biopsy it to find out.”
    “But why not? If it was cancer, they needed to know so they could...”
    Savannah could tell by the tone of Tammy’s voice that they were thinking the same thing.
    Tammy’s friend and idol had been so vain that she had chosen to risk death rather than have her famous body disfigured by surgery.
    “Let’s go, sweetie,” she told Tammy as she gently guided her back to the door. “I’m afraid we found out what we needed to know.”

CHAPTER NINE

    A s Savannah led Tammy out of the clinic and back along the shadowed path they had come, she wondered if knowing the truth” was all it was cracked up to be. Sometimes, ignorance was a blissful, dark, cavelike refuge where one could hide from the blinding light of knowledge.
    Judging from the painful silence radiating from her young friend, Savannah decided this had been one of those times. u The problem with “knowing” was that you couldn’t Ur *know” it. Tammy’s image of her glamorous friend would [‘ever be the same again. It was one thing to think your