Killer Calories

record.
    “Kat may have done some things that you and other self-righteous bitches didn’t approve of,” he said, “but she didn’t kill herself. She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t. It must have been an accident, just like that doctor lady said it was.”
    “So, maybe somebody else killed her.” She watched him closely and saw his pupils dilate. “If that happened, if someone murdered her, do you want them to get away with it?”
    His face twisted with an emotion she couldn’t quite read. “Is that... is that what you think happened?” he asked. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
    “May have.”
    Her arm was developing a cramp from holding the heavy pistol, but it seemed a small price to pay. She thought of the woman he had been convicted of stalking. She remembered die whistle of the wooden club over her head in the avocado grove.
    No, she was going to keep Josef Orlet at attention, paying attention, as long as possible.
    “I already told the cops,” he said, “ if Kat was murdered, that hoity-toity doctor did it. She was sick, and afraid she was going to suffer and all that. She asked him to put her away, nice and gentle, and he agreed to.”
    “How do you know all this?”
    “She told me so herself.”
    Savannah eyed him skeptically . Somehow, Josef Orlet didn’t seem the sort of individual to whom Kat Valentina would confide her heart’s deepest secrets.
    “ She told you all of this?”
    “Yeah.” The word caught in his throat. He gave a little cough, and added, “Or I might of heard them talking about it together. I don’t remember for sure.”
    “You heard him tell her that he would assist her suicide ?“
    “ Yeah, but she changed her mind. I talked her out of it later.”
    “You did, huh?” He didn’t seem the type who could talk people back from the cliff edge of Death’s Big Jump either.
    “That’s right. I told her how I felt about her. And, since she felt the same way about me, she decided she had too much to live for. So she canceled their little appointment.”
    “She admitted she was in love with you?”
    “She sure did.”
    “I see.”
    “What’s the matter, don’t you believe me?”
    “Nope.”
    She saw the flash of bad temper cross his face before he looked down the barrel of the gun and got control of it. “Well, that’s what she said, the day before she died. If you ask me what happened, it was an accident, like they said. She drank too much and got too hot. But if it wasn’t accidental, if somebody did kill her, then I figure it was the doc. Maybe he decided to keep their appointment, whether she wanted to or not .“
    “Why would he do a thing like that?”
    “ ‘Cause maybe when she told him that she had changed her mind, she also said she was in love with me. And maybe he couldn’t handle it.”
    “That’s sorta stretching it a bit, don’t you think ?“
    “Stretching what? That a beautiful woman like Kat would have a thing for a guy like me? What’s so unbelievable about that?”
    Hearing a sound behind her, Savannah took a quick glance and saw Tammy entering the room.
    “Hey, what’s...!” she exclaimed when she saw Savannah ’s drawn gun.
    “It’s okay,” Savannah told her. “Mr. Orlet was paying us a visit. But, darn it, we weren’t home at the time, so we couldn’t show him much hospitality. And now we’ve got a zillion things to do, so he’s going to have to leave.”
    She turned to Orlet . “Sorry you have to rush away like this. Maybe next time you can take off your coat, throw it in the corner, and stay a spell.”
    With the barrel of the gun, she waved him toward the door. Tammy quickly moved aside to let him pass and to stay out of Savannah ’s line of fire.
    Orlet wasted no time disappearing.
    “Was he breaking into our room?” Tammy asked, her mouth gaping.
    “Seems so. Must be one of those nosy jerks who needs to buy a life of their own.”
    “You think he was the one who did it before?”
    “I know so; he admitted it.”
    “And you let him go?”
    Savannah shrugged and tucked her pistol back into her Pocket. “There wasn’t really much point in holding him. I’m investigating a suspicious death, not busting burglars. Besides, to the best of my knowledge, he didn’t steal anything fromus.”
    “But he wasn’t supposed to be in our room.”
    “I know. But we can’t exactly lock him up in San Quentin for trespassing.”
    Tammy shuddered. “Maybe not, but he gives me the creeps.”
    “And you aren’t