Finger Lickin' Dead by Riley Adams Read Free Book Online Page A

days like that, don’t we? Ella Beth, I can go over your notes on the water cycle with you later so you’ll ace the next test.”
    Ella Beth gave her another quick hug. “Sounds good, Granny Lulu. But can I go out and play first? Sitting still all day gave me the fidgets.”
    “Where are you going—down to the river?” The Mississippi River was just a few blocks away and was Ella Beth’s favorite place to go. She’d take a fishing pole some days, some chalk for drawing on others. There were always people to watch, too. Ella Beth loved writing notes in her detective notebook about the people she saw by the river. Lulu figured that Ella Beth was either going to turn into a police officer or a writer.
    “No snack?” asked Lulu in mock horror. “I made cheese straws.”
    Coco gave a delighted gasp. “The spicy ones?”
    “The spicy ones. With jalapeno pepper mixed in. Just the way y’all like it.”
    The routine was a snack on the porch, a talk about their day, and then some homework before it was time for chores around the restaurant.
    Ella Beth shook her head, already running outside, screened porch door giving another resounding bang. She turned around on the stairs, “Will you come with me, Granny Lulu? To the river?”
    Coco said, “But can I have a snack, Granny Lulu? We had lunch hours and hours ago.”
    Lulu hesitated. The girls’ mom, Sara, who waited tables at Aunt Pat’s, had gone back home for a short break before the evening rush. “Sure, sweetie. Let me just fix Coco a little snack first, okay? Then I’ll be right over there.”
    Lulu took the cheese straws out of the tin she’d stored them in. She put a generous amount on a plate, poured a tall glass of milk, and brought them out to the porch for Coco. “How did everything else go at school today, sweetie?” she asked.
    Coco shrugged. “It was okay. Just school stuff. John Rotola got in trouble again for not paying attention in class. Pretty normal.”
    “And the bus ride home was fine?”
    “It was okay.”
    Lulu was beginning to think that everything was okay with Coco. She was about to walk out the door when Coco actually casually volunteered some information. “I saw Daddy arguing with some man while we were on the bus going to school this morning, though.”
    Lulu stopped and turned half around. “What’s that, Coco?”
    “Daddy. He was yelling at some man and waving his arms around. It was embarrassing. A kid on the bus was like, ‘Isn’t that your dad?’”
    Coco gave a melodramatic shudder and took another bite of her cheese straws. They were rapidly disappearing along with the creamy milk.
    “This man—do you know who he was?”
    Coco looked thoughtful. “I don’t know his name or anything. He’s been in the restaurant before, though. You were talking to him.”
    Adam? Lulu wondered. And if Ben had been arguing with him, she could just imagine what it was about. She knew that Sara had filled Ben in about Eppie Currian’s true identity.
    Lulu suddenly felt uneasy for some inexplicable reason. “I’m going to go ahead and catch up with Ella Beth, Coco.”
    Coco tilted her glass back and finished the last bit of her milk. “I’m all done with my snack, so I’ll come, too, Granny Lulu. I want to take my Frisbee with me. Ella Beth and I have gotten really good at throwing it—I wanted to show you.”
    The two took a left off Beale Street and went down the sidewalk to the Mississippi River. Coco had opened up a little bit more and was now prattling on about her day at school and who she’d sat with at lunch and played with at recess. Lulu tried to focus on Coco, but she kept thinking about Ben. Why didn’t he say anything about his argument with Adam when she’d been talking to him in the kitchen? She knew Ben had been furious about the bad review Aunt Pat’s had gotten in the newspaper. She guessed that fury all came back to him when he found out the restaurant critic’s real identity.
    Coco stopped suddenly as