Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Lorne and Catherine face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.
Their longstanding friendship deepens when they meet again seven mont...
"Good thing my stomach was nearly empty — sushi, not beef." Catherine looked up at Lorne with a sheepish expression. "I haven't done that since Grade Eleven Anatomy."
He had pulled the sheet loose from the bottom of the bed and was wiping her with it. "I guess it was a bit gross dumping it as I did. I should have gone slower, but you seemed okay leading up to it. Are you okay now?"
"I'm fine — now. I guess it was the suddenness of it." She shook her head at his wiping. "Don't worry about cleaning me, most of my spew ended up on you."
"Go jump in the shower, I'll throw this into the washer, then join you. Sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. Just shaken. How about you? Are you okay?"
"I think I've finally gotten rid of him — I hope I have."
Half an hour later, they sat in the sunny cockpit enjoying their espressos and eating thin slices of smoked sockeye on cream cheese sprinkled with capers and red onion on lightly toasted bagels.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Is this the cold-smoked alder salmon from Qualicum? It must be. Still my favourite."
"They've expanded, kept the quality and lowered their prices. I don't know how the others will survive."
"How about buying reviews, raising prices to pay for them and pretending to be the best?"
"Seems to be the modern way, doesn't it?"
"Like the bagels. These must be Safeway Bakery. The reviews usually tout Solomon's and Beigel's. I've tried them so often to see if I could discover why."
He took another bite and put up a finger to mark his pause to enjoy, then said, "A large portion of the public is gullible. They don't trust their own opinions. They'd rather distort their tastes to adapt to what they're told is good. Politicians play with this. Prey on them with it."
"And the other mass markets — women's clothing, cosmetics, yahoo vehicles, firearms, other ego boosters for the insecure. So much of modern marketing is preying on insecurity, on doubt, on fear."
They moved on to lighter banter as they enjoyed their leisurely breakfast. The morning had warmed quickly, as they often do in the late spring, and since the anchorage had emptied, Lorne took off his bathrobe. "I often sit here in the cockpit this way. Even with others in the anchorage. They'd see nothing. Likely wouldn't want to."
She shucked her robe and snuggled beside him, pulling his face to hers for a kiss. "So what do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking I could try using this thing for its other intended purpose."
She had no doubt what he meant by this thing. It was proudly standing front and centre. "Here?"
