Read Online Dying to Call You by Elaine Viets - Free Book Online

rather starve. She might, if Debbie didn’t show up soon.
    Then she saw the middle-aged man at the next table put down his salad fork and stare. His teenaged son blushed until his ears turned red. A waitress in a cheerleader uniform was putting steaks on their table. Her platinum blond hair fell below her waist. Her white bosom nearly popped out of her orange top. The older guy almost had a coronary.
    This must be Debbie. Helen didn’t think she was drop-dead gorgeous. Debbie’s features were small and regular but without character. Helen doubted the men noticed. They could not take their eyes off her gorgeous platinum hair, which was rippling past her cheerleader’s skirt. That gleaming silver waterfall caught every man’s eye.
    Helen expected Debbie would ignore a mere woman, but she was fast and efficient. She took Helen’s order for the crab-cake appetizer and a small salad. In less than fifteen minutes, she plunked down the plates.
    “Anything else I can get you?”
    “Debbie, do you know another waitress who works here?
    Her name is Laredo.”
    “Laredo, sure. But she’s not here anymore. She took off a week or so ago. Got restless, packed up her car and headed out. That’s what I’d like to do.” Debbie’s smile did not reach her pale blue eyes.
    “Do you know where she went? I owe her some money.”
    “No, she took off real sudden.” Debbie flipped her shimmering hair away from her face and every man in sight practically sat up and begged. Helen was not so easily distracted.
    She noticed Debbie would not look her in the eye.
    “That’s odd,” Helen said. “I didn’t think she’d leave town without her money.”
    “Well, she did,” Debbie said sharply, her good nature gone. “Anything else I can bring you?”
    “The check,” Helen said.
    Interesting, she thought. Debbie’s attitude did a one-eighty when her story was questioned.
    Helen counted out half a day’s pay for her meal and went to the bar. The bartender’s name tag said TAMMY. She was another eye-catching blonde surrounded by a gaggle of gaga males. Tammy’s hair was shorter and brassier than Debbie’s, but her bosom was bigger. Helen knew it was unfair to judge a woman by those attributes, but Tammy didn’t seem to have any others.
    When a fat, red-faced man got up to go to the john, Helen took his seat. She figured she was doing him a favor, saving his liver. She ordered a club soda. Tammy brought her a tall glass garnished with lime.
    “I’m trying to find Laredo,” Helen said. “I need to give her some money. Do you know where I can reach her?”
    “Took off for greener pastures, the way I heard it.”
    Tammy poured something blue into a blender, added ice, and switched it on. Over the noise she shouted, “I don’t think she’ll need your money.”
    “Did she strike it rich?”
    Tammy poured the drink into a margarita glass, added a plastic gator and an orange slice, and set it on a tray for a server. She started washing glasses while she talked.
    “All I know is she was flashing lots of cash before she left, and it was more than tip money. One night, she came in and wanted change for five one-hundred-dollar bills. The next night, she had another five hundred. Then it was a thousand. That was cash, too.”
    “Where’d she get that kind of money?”
    “Some charity gig. She wanted me to work it, but I said no thanks. I’m not giving up a job with health insurance, no matter how much it pays in cash under the table. But Laredo was too young to worry about medical bills.”
    “Laredo never mentioned anything like that,” Helen said.
    “Are they hiring? I could always use some extra money.”
    That was the truth, at least. Helen might need another job soon, with stone-faced Penelope looking for an excuse to fire her.
    “Well, she left me some cards. I’ve got one here somewhere. I’ve sent a couple girls there.” Tammy dried her hands on a blue towel, then picked through a pile of papers by the cash