Nodding, Billy Ray turned to Wade. “What about you?”
“Ham and cheese on wheat.”
“Lettuce and tomato?”
“Yes.”
“Onion?”
Wade glanced at Emily. “No.”
“Want something to drink with that?”
Wade was half tempted to ask for coffee, just to see if Billy Ray would remember that the coffeemaker was broken. Resisting the mischievous impulse, he said only, “Cola, please.”
Billy Ray set their drinks on the counter, then nodded toward the empty dining room. “Sit down somewhere. I’ll bring the food out when it’s ready.”
Inwardly groaning, Wade followed Emily to one of the dozen empty tables.
“A few of that boy’s spark plugs aren’t firing, I’m afraid,” he murmured as they took their seats, using the noise of a deodorant commercial blaring from the television to mask his less-than-generous comment.
Emily giggled. “I’m afraid you’re right. How do you suppose he knows when to go home if he doesn’t know what time they close?”
“I guess whoever that is in the back just tells him to leave.?
??
A loud screech from the television set caused both of them to look up—only to see a large, ugly insect engaged in battle with something even larger and uglier. An announcer’s officious voice described the battle in gruesome detail, adding that the winner would feed the corpse of the loser to its offspring.
Emily’s giggle turned into a laugh. “It’s the nature channel. Oh, how appetizing.”
The losing insect gave a dying squeal just as Billy Ray delivered the food to their table.
“Would you—um—mind turning the TV to another channel?” Wade asked, wondering if Billy Ray would have to yell for permission to do so.
But Billy Ray only shrugged and nodded. “Sure. We got cable.”
He reached up, flipped the channel selector and walked away without waiting to see what he’d tuned in to.
Wade bit into his sandwich just as a hideous, slimy creature slashed a horrified space explorer’s throat on the television screen. The poor guy gave a gurgling scream that echoed eerily in the nearly empty restaurant.
“I, um, think it’s one of the Alien movies,” Emily murmured when Wade choked on his sandwich.
Wade swallowed and then gave in to a chuckle as he pointedly turned his back to the television. “A real classy place I’ve brought you to, isn’t it?”
Emily looked quickly down at her pie. “You said you have some questions to ask me, Chief Davenport?”
Wade almost winced. Emily had made it quite clear that she considered this nothing more than a business meeting, informal though it might be.
He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out five slips of yellow paper. “Could you look at these for a moment, please?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral as he slid the papers across the table.
Emily picked them up, glanced at them for a moment, then fanned them on the table in front of her. “I initialed these two,” she said, pointing with one pink-tipped finger. “Someone else wrote my initials on these three.”
Wade nodded and slipped the papers back into his pocket. “Thanks.”
After a moment, Emily frowned. “That’s it? That’s all you needed from me?”
“That’s it for now. Thanks.”