Read Too Many Cooks for Free Online Page B

head like Athena, she’d be canned. She bit her tongue and did her best to stay calm.
    â€œAngie,” Henry said soothingly, “won’t you at least give it a try?”
    â€œBut Henry, what happens when I’m busily talking to a future caller and the one who’s on the air with you asks a follow-up question?”
    â€œI’ll just have to answer it.”
    â€œIsn’t that what got you in trouble the first time?”
    Henry’s face flushed red. “Trouble? What trouble?”
    â€œGod help us,” Angie whispered under her breath.
    â€œHenry can do whatever he wants,” Lacy said, twisting her fingers. “And if he doesn’t know the answer, he can simply take a station break. Right, dear heart?”
    â€œOf course.”
    Just then the telephone began to ring and Henry went into the hallway to answer it.
    â€œSo.” Lacy watched Henry leave the room, then stood and began to pace back and forth in front of Angie’s chair. “It’s all settled.”
    â€œIt’s not going to work, you know.”
    Lacy spun on her. “It’ll work. Whatever Henry does works.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œLook, sweetie.” Lacy smiled and stepped closer, “I’ve been around a long time. Girls like you are a dime a dozen here, all looking for their big break inradio. You come and go, thinking you know best. But I care about Henry and what’s best for him .”
    â€œBut every day—”
    â€œI know, I know. Every day he gets one or two tough follow-ups. What’s that? Two hundred sixty a year. But each day he takes ten to fifteen calls. You screen them, and he looks good twenty-six to thirty-nine hundred times a year! I’d take odds like that any time. Wouldn’t you?”
    Angie’s mouth dropped open. She felt she’d just heard from Mr. Wizard. One of the few times she could ever remember, she was speechless.
    â€œLacy!” Henry stood in the doorway.
    Lacy jumped at his voice and turned to face him. “Henry, what’s wrong?”
    â€œThat was our chef. Karl Wielund’s dead. His car went off a cliff up in the Sierras.”
    â€œNo!” Lacy stared at him, raised her hand to her forehead, and dropped to the floor in a faint.
    Henry stood immobile, looking down at her.
    â€œHenry?” Angie said.
    He ran to Lacy. Kneeling at her side, he slipped his arm under her head. “Angie, do something!”
    She was already hurrying into the bathroom, where she turned on the cold-water tap and held a washcloth under it for a moment. When she ran back into the living room, Henry had Lacy lying on the sofa. She was already awake. Henry took the cloth and placed it on her forehead.
    Angie looked long at the woman, trying to figure out why she had such an extreme reaction. “I didn’t know she was so close to Karl,” she said.
    Henry looked at her with astonishment. “Close?They weren’t close. Our restaurants are across the street from each other. We’d see him every day. He’s been missing for a few days, and we were all so worried, and now to hear…” Henry shuddered.
    Lacy stared at the ceiling, her fingers over her mouth.
    â€œThere, there,” Henry murmured, stroking her hand.
    Angie didn’t buy it. One rarely fainted over the death of a business acquaintance, even if you did see him every day. Did this mean Lacy and Karl meant more to each other than neighbors? But Karl’s taste veered toward much younger women, as Angie well knew. If younger women always turned him down, though—
    â€œLook at her.” Henry addressed Angie while staring adoringly at his wife. “How good-hearted she is! I mean Wielund’s was killing our business, yet look at how sorry she is that Karl died. I’m sure there are those who expect us to dance a jig at this news. But we’re better people than that.”
    â€œI’ll get her a glass of