The Pitiful Player (A Nick Williams Mystery Book 14) by Butterfield Frank W

Author:Butterfield, Frank W [Butterfield, Frank W]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2017-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Ontra Cafeteria

1719 North Vine Street

Hollywood, Cal.

Wednesday, July 13, 1955

A quarter past 8 in the evening

Once we were all settled at a table in the back, we dug in. I was having a piece of broiled haddock. Carter was enjoying some roast beef. Tom had helped himself to two servings of chicken pot pie. Anita was sipping from a big bowl of tomato soup with an egg salad sandwich waiting for her. The place was huge and our table was pretty isolated even though it looked like a busy night.

For a cafeteria, it was an attractive joint. White tablecloths and flowers were part of the place settings. The only thing I didn't like was how crowded in all the tables were. I figured they did a huge trade at lunch and might need all the tables and chairs they had packed into the place.

I looked across the table at Anita and asked, "When did you start working for us?"

"At the beginning of May, Mr. Williams. I'm friends with your old neighbor, Diane." Diane and Pam were what Carter called a "lady couple." They lived next door to us on Hartford Street when we had lived in Eureka Valley in the City. Diane taught school at the local elementary while Pam ran her own construction company.

Anita continued, "Diane suggested I try to get a job as a secretary but, after talking with Mr. Robertson, he convinced me to try for my P.I. license." She smiled. "And I'm glad he did."

Carter asked, "What kind of cases have you worked on?"

"Oh, things like this. Going under cover as a secretary or a stenographer in order to find out what's going on inside a firm. Things like that."

I nodded. I liked that she was keeping the details vague.

She looked at Tom. "I've never seen you at the office. Did you just start, too?"

He grinned and wiped his mouth. "Today is my first day. And I live down here, so I'm in the Los Angeles office, I guess." Looking at me, Tom asked, "Do we have an office here?"

I nodded. "I've never seen it and I've been told it isn't much to see, but yeah, we do."

Anita sighed contentedly. "Gee. It's all so exciting. When I flew down tonight, I was the only one on the plane. Except for the pilots and the stewardess, of course."

"Which one were you on?" asked Carter.

"Oh, I don't know what kind it was. There was a cartoon of a lumberjack on the nose, though." She giggled. "I thought that was funny."

I looked at Carter and said, "He's the one who came up with the idea. We've named a couple of the planes and that one's called The Laconic Lumberjack. It's a Lockheed Super Constellation. We bought it from Howard Hughes."

"That so?" asked Tom. He didn't seem terribly impressed.

I nodded. "We rented it from him for a case. He didn't like that we got our homosexual cooties all over it and tried to sue us. I just bought the plane instead.

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