Bone Appétit Read Free Page B

ass.”
    “The night is still young.” I sipped my drink as Karrie teased the other contestants with her flowers and candy. She had a genuine talent for torment, and everybody in the bar, including Tinkie and me, couldn’t stop watching. Whatever Karrie lacked in kindness, or even basic human decency, she made up in spades with the ability to mesmerize an audience.
    Two women stepped into the bar, one a bit older than me and the other obviously one of the contestants. Pale andelfin, she had an ethereal quality. When she turned around, I checked to see if she sported fairy wings. Whoever she was, she was lovely. And the older woman was attractive, too. The possibility that they were sisters crossed my mind.
    “Amanda, let’s order something in the room,” the older one said.
    “I want to stay here, Mother.”
    My relationship questions were answered. Mother and daughter. If I were a beauty contestant, I’d want my mother with me for moral support. Hey, given my druthers, I’d have my mom around for all occasions.
    Karrie reclaimed the floor as she eased the candy to her mouth. She did it slowly, playing to her audience. She placed her perfect white teeth on the delicacy, and then she slowly bit the candy in half.
    To my utter horror, the half she still held in her hand began to move. Hairy legs protruded, and the back half of a giant cockroach fell onto the bar and began crawling crazily around. Headless, it had no sense of direction.
    Karrie froze. She stared at the half-a-roach, which wouldn’t accept its own death. The most intriguing expression passed across her face, and then she spat chocolate and roach all over the bar.
    Shouts, shrieks, and screams of laughter erupted. Pandemonium ruled. Tinkie and I stood on our chairs for a better view of a fistfight between several of the contestants. Women shoved and trampled one another to get away from Karrie. Ingeniously, Tinkie clicked photos of the mayhem with her cell phone.
    Someone pushed the candy to the floor, and in the melee, people stepped on the chocolates, freeing more roaches that had survived being dipped in chocolate and were understandably pissed off. The area around Karrie was an expanding disaster.
    “Holy Christmas.” Tinkie was having a blast. “Can you believe that? Someone sent her chocolate-covered roaches. That is too creepy.” And then she burst out laughing. Karrie didn’t generate a lot of sympathy. At least not from Tinkie. Or me. I was enjoying the spectacle as much as she was.
    I looked over to see Hedy’s reaction. She was gone. As were the mother-daughter duo. The roaches sent a lot of people scurrying, but a team of Alluvian staff arrived to work damage control.
    “How hard would it be to chocolate-coat a roach?” I asked. “Maybe just heat a little chocolate—”
    “You wouldn’t even have to do that. There’s a product that hardens instantly on cold surfaces. Someone froze those roaches—like fishermen do catalpa worms—then coated them in chocolate and got them over here before they thawed enough to eat their way out of the shells.”
    “Someone really doesn’t like Karrie Kompton.” My smile was painfully wide.
    “We’ll have to remember this. The day might come when we want to make our own chocolate delivery.” Tinkie loved mischief.
    We raised our glasses and drained them. “Thank you, Tinkie. This was exactly what I needed.”
    We’d just ordered another round when Tinkie’s cell phone rang. Cece had been delayed at the newspaper and would come the next evening for sure. When Tinkie relayed the roach episode, Cece wanted Tinkie’s photos for the newspaper.
    Tinkie held the phone so we could share it. “Cece wants to hire us to cover the beauty contest until she gets here.”
    For some reason, that appealed to me. “Sure.”
    “We’re on,” Tinkie agreed into the phone. “I’ll get someone to help me send the photos from my phone. And, yes, we’ll buy a better camera.”
    __________
    My aunt