Killer Calories

Savannah said.
    “It didn’t exactly ‘come’ to her,” he said, his face flushing darkly as it had that day in Josef’s massage room. “I worked my ass off for what we had—every bit of it—including that movie!”
    The anger, the flip-switch change in his demeanor took her aback. This guy had a hair trigger.
    “I’m sure you did. I understand you managed her career for years.”
    “I managed more than her career. I managed Kat. And it wasn’t easy, either. She was the most immature, self-centered human being I’ve ever known. Thought she could do whatever she wanted to do, whenever she wanted, with anybody she wanted, and not pay any price.”
    Again, tabloid covers flashed through Savannah ’s mind. If even one-tenth of the press Kat had received over the years had been true, Lou would have had ample reason to be resentful.
    “It must have been difficult,” she said.
    “It was hell. And when she got older and finally started to slow down when it came to the sexual stuff, she made up for it by spending money.”
    He took a long drag from his cigarette and released the smoke through his nose. “We were supposed to be partners in this spa. But she didn’t do anything constructive around here, never even stuck her head in the office. Worse yet, she spent money right and left without consulting me, or even letting me know until I received the bills. Thanks to her, it was all I could do just to keep this ship afloat.”
    They sat, silently watching the movie for several long, tense minutes. Lou seemed embarrassed by his outburst. Savannah ’s mental cogs were spinning, processing the new information.
    As the woman in the movie glided across the screen, a sensual vision wrapped in red, the hard, hostile expression on Lou’s face began to soften. His eyes filled with tears again. He hashed his cigarette into the overloaded tray.
    “But you loved her anyway,” Savannah said. “Through *t all, you never stopped.”
    The tears slipped from his eyes and dribbled down his cheeks. His double chin trembled like a little boy’s.
    “Of course I loved her,” he said. He waved a hand toward the screen and the younger, softer version of the woman who had been his partner—for better, and apparently, a lot worse, for more than two decades.
    “Just look at her,” he said. “I couldn’t help myself. We were all in love with Kat. And when the damned coroner finally releases her body, there’s going to be a lot of hearts buried in that casket along with her... including mine.”
    Tammy grabbed Savannah the minute she walked through the door into their shared room.
    “You aren’t going to believe what I did!” she exclaimed, hopping up and down.
    Savannah watched in amazement. Every molecule in Tammy’s body seemed to zing with energy.
    Oh, to be so young again, she thought. Then she reminded herself that she hadn’t been that animated even at the age of eight.
    “You’re making me tired, just watching you,” she said’ “Stop bouncing around and tell me.... What did you do?”
    “I broke into his room! I did it! I did a B&E. All by myself, too!”
    “Good grief. I’ve created a monster—Tammy the Cat Burglar.” She pulled her over to her bed and sat her down’ “Now... whose room are we talking about?”
    “Josef Orlet’s !”
    “You broke into Josef Orlet’s room, after finding out tha1 he has a prison record for stalking and assault?”
    “Well, yeah! That’s why I picked his room. He seemed the most likely to be a murderer.”
    Savannah stared at her, wondering at this convoluted “logic.” Tammy was brilliant when it came to computers, moderns, information highways... things that totally confounded Savannah . But when it came to simple common sense, Savannah sometimes thought the young lady was two cream puffs short of a baker’s dozen.
    “Don’t you ever do that again! Promise me, right now,” Savannah said, using her bossiest oldest-sibling voice. “You could have gotten yourself hurt, or worse. Why, if he’d come back while you were there...”
    “Well, he didn’t come back, because I was smart enough to wait until he had started giving a massage before I raided bis room. Geez, Savannah , give me a little credit.”
    “All right, so you didn’t get caught. But I still want you to promise that you won’t try anything like that again without talking it over with me first.”
    “I’m not going to promise you any such thing. Do you want an assistant who thinks on