Wave Good-Bye (20 page)

Even though I’d worked in salons my entire life, my pulse definitely raced as I contemplated the day ahead. I changed clothes three times, before deciding on a simple black jersey dress and low heels. Being businesslike couldn’t hurt. Some of the staff had seen me during the walk-through
with Eve, but they hadn’t realized why I was there. This morning they would meet me as their new boss.

As I brushed blush over my cheeks, I tried to put myself in their shoes. Lisa couldn’t have been an effective leader. She was too self-centered. And she was a cheat. I had no doubt she’d also been ruthless in dealing with her employees.

There was another consideration: These people worked in a crime scene. That had to be tough. I wouldn’t like it. Didn’t like it. In fact, changing the psychic pulse of the place would be my first priority. Whether I needed to bring in a priest or minister or shaman, whatever. The bad vibes from Lisa’s death had to be vanquished before any good vibes could take their place.

Sam was doing much better at hopping from perch to perch. As Marsh suggested, all the bird needed was time to adjust to the change in his vision. I scratched my friend’s neck, remembering how tenderly the big man had cradled the budgie.

Stop that, Grace Ann! He’s married.

That reminded me. I needed to call Vonda and tell her about my new gig. She’d be over her snit by now. I also wanted to tell all our old customers that, for all intents and purposes, the gang from Violetta’s would be doing their “thang” in a new locale. I would take Eve at her word, bringing Mom, Althea, Stella, and Rachel on board.

With all this buzzing around in my head, I headed to work.

Eve was crouched by the back door as my Fiesta pulled into the lot.

Her face was pale, and she wiped her mouth.

“Morning sickness?” I asked.

She nodded. “That and worrying.”

“I’m sorry about Wynn. Really I am.”

She managed a watered-down smile and tried to stand. I offered her my hand. She wore a black print skirt, gathered at the waist and stopping at the knees to reveal a pair of bright red tights and ultra-cool boots. A short jacket in solid black topped a red formfitting sweater. A scarf in red and black was loosely wrapped around her neck. Totally adorable, although wearing a scarf in the fall in Georgia is a bit over the top. Most of us get too hot for that sort of nonsense. Even so, her look was edgy but businesslike. “Want to hear something really sick? I love him. I am truly, crazy, madly in love with the guy. As much as it hurts when he pulls stunts like yesterday, I don’t want to let him go. Pretty stupid of me, huh?”

“I don’t think so,” I said quietly.

“What a powerful, tough businesswoman I am! I can’t even manage to marry a guy who’s faithful.”

I couldn’t just stand there. I gave her a hug. She clung to me like I was a tree in a hurricane. I realized her arms were as thin as twigs.

“Let’s get you inside. This is a small town. You don’t want people talking about you. Trust me, they will,” I said. “Keys?”

She handed them over and I unlocked the back door. I watched as she punched in a security code, Wynn’s birthday.

“We fought all night. He told me he can’t help himself. Worse yet, I’m worried. The police have questioned him twice! Each time, he gets more and more freaked out. He has claustrophobia. The thought of going to jail makes him physically ill. Me, too, but for different reasons.”

“Okay, you need to sit down, Eve. Come on.” And I took her by the arm in a direction toward the office. “I’m going to make you a cup of hot tea with lots of sugar. My gran
was from Scotland, and she always said if tea with sugar can’t cure it, it can’t be fixed.”

Eve’s mouth trembled, a hint of a smile.

Fumbling at switches as I went, I turned on the lights. In the employee dining room, I found dirty mugs. That would definitely have to change. Folks would have to be more responsible about the dishes.

I washed one, filled it with cold water, found tea bags in a box, brought the water to boiling in the microwave, and added the bag. Two heaping spoonfuls of sugar went in next, along with a spoon.

“Here you go.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? Because you need this job? I know the mold stuff is worse than you let on. You are right; everyone talks in a small town.”

This rankled a bit and I frowned at Eve. “I would be nice to you whether I needed a job or not. That’s the way I was raised. It’s also the way we are here in the South.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m not myself. I’m so scared,” she stuttered, after another sip of tea.

“About the business?”

“No. Closing our doors here would hurt, but not much. We’re so big that closing a salon here and there doesn’t matter. I know it sounds callous, but it’s true. Although it would be nice to stay open long enough to recoup our build-out expenses. But if we can’t, well, we can take the loss.” She paused and stared up at me. “Grace Ann, do you think Wynn could have killed Lisa?”

Chapter Thirty-three

THAT SHOCKED ME. A PART OF ME WANTED TO scream, “You mean, you don’t know?” Or, “You’re a worrier?” Or, “You have reason to think he might have?”

Instead, I took a deep breath. “What do you think?”

Tears erupted, and she started sobbing hard. “I don’t know!” By now, every bit of her carefully applied makeup was gone. I’ll say this for Eve, she cried like a Yankee. Her nose ran, her eye makeup melted, and she blubbered with abandon. “I-I-I’m not sure what to think. He offered to meet her at Enchanté because it was a public place where it would be harder for her to make a scene. See, until there’s an opening at the Santé Center in Dallas, we’ve been seeing a marriage counselor together. The counselor suggested that Wynn meet Lisa in a public place to say good-bye.
Lisa’d been bugging him to go to Enchanté. Ironic, isn’t it? They had anything but an enchanted evening. Once she realized it was the end, she started screaming at him. The maître d’ asked them to leave.”

I nodded. “I happened to drive by about then. I saw him and her arguing.”

“You told the police that, right?”

“Yes. I hope you aren’t going to ask me to lie for Wynn, because I won’t.”

She raised her hands and waved away my concern. “No, no. I wouldn’t ask you to. What you’re saying confirms what he told me happened.”

“What did he do next? I mean, after they argued in the parking lot.”

“He says she kept screaming. Finally, he gave up and started toward the hotel where we’re staying. The Holiday Inn Express on the highway.”

I nodded. We didn’t do five-star hotels here in St. Elizabeth. Magnolia House would have been a much nicer place, but the Holiday Inn Express was brand new and clean. I could see why they chose it.

“But he didn’t want to leave her on bad terms. The counselor told him he needed to tell her it was definitely over, no questions. So he went back hoping she’d settled down.”

“Did he talk to her again?”

Eve shook her head emphatically, no. “Wynn couldn’t find her. Her car was still there, in the municipal lot, but she wasn’t around. He said he drove in circles, trying to spot her because she was wearing high heels and couldn’t have gone far. Then he drove through the Snippets’ parking lot.”

That startled me. I’d been lucky not to run into him.

“Did he see anyone in the salon? Were there any lights on? It must have been near dark.” I tried to be careful not to give away the fact that I had, indeed, been through the
same lot. Of course, I had seen lights in the shop. Someone had been working in the back when I had driven through.

“I got the impression he saw someone or something because he wouldn’t answer my questions. I mean, he danced around them. I got the idea there was more to it.”

“So he isn’t coming clean with you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. You know how it is. He lies very easily.”

That was an understatement. “Let’s think this through. If it wasn’t Wynn, who might the killer be?” Rummaging through the mess on the desk, I found a pen and a legal pad. At the top of the first page, I wrote:
SUSPECTS.

“There’s you. Your mom.”

I put down the pen. “Aw, come on, Eve.”

“But you both had cause.”

“Eve, in the South, when we want to get rid of a person, we don’t kill ’em in a store. We brew oleander tea and poison them. Or we hit them over the head. Or shoot them and say it’s a hunting accident. Whatever we do, we always clean up after ourselves. If my mama or I had killed Lisa, we would have dumped her body where the gators are. The Terhunes are naturally neat people. Good housekeepers. We don’t cotton to messes. We sure wouldn’t leave a corpse out in the open where it would stink up the place. Oh, and by the way, if we wanted to off good old Lisa, we have lots of friends who would have helped us do it discreetly.”

Her mouth made a perfect “oh.” “Are you teasing me?”

I smirked and picked the pen back up. “Halfway. I’ll leave you to guess which parts are truth and which are lies. Now let’s get back to that list. Who’s on it now that the Terhunes aren’t?”

“Carol Brockman is our accountant. She and Lisa hated each other. Someone was stealing from us. Carol thought it might be Lisa.”

“Did you tell the police this?”

She shook her head. “They didn’t ask me. That big officer was asking the questions, and he acted like he already knew the answers.”

“Hank Parker?”

“Um, yes.”

“He’s my ex-husband.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? It’s hard to imagine the two of you as a couple. You’re so much more…sophisticated.”

“Thanks. I think. Okay, continue. Who else could have killed Lisa? Who stood the most to gain?”

She shrugged and dabbed her nose. “Okay, Vinny Torelli, one of our stylists. Lisa seemed to pick on him, from what I’ve heard.”

“Anyone else?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I would have to say that Lisa didn’t get along particularly well with any member of our staff. Except for Corina Coffinas. But Corina gets along with everyone.”

“Then why did you keep Lisa on?” I tore the top sheet off the pad, folded it neatly, and stuffed it into my pocket.

Eve rolled her eyes at me. Given the smeared mascara and liner, the gesture was oddly comical. “Do you know how hard it is to fire an employee these days? It’s really, really difficult. Especially if she’s been tomcatting around with your husband. I talked to Steven Clifford, our attorney, about the situation, and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He says Lisa could have sued us for sexual harassment, wrongful dismissal, and a dozen other charges. The fact that she’d been a good employee for years would work against us in court. I swear, Grace Ann, it was like she changed when she moved here. Maybe it was being back in the same town where she grew up. She wanted to
be an important person, and she was. Sort of. Until she acted like one.”

I nodded. “I’ve heard her mother compared her to her sister, and Lisa got the short end of that stick.”

“I’ve heard the same.” Eve sighed. “Believe me, if I could have fired her and made her go away, I would have. But as it was, I was stuck with her. Sounds crude, but whoever killed her did me a big favor.”

Chapter Thirty-four

AFTER THAT, EVE OPENED THE FILE CABINET AND withdrew the contract her attorney had drawn up and faxed over. She handed it to me.

“Take your time reading it,” she said. “Not that there are any curve balls, but you should always know what you are signing. If you have any questions, feel free to consult your own legal counsel.”

Everything was as she had promised, so I put my John Henry on the bottom line. After I handed it back to her, Eve showed me the security code again. I didn’t tell her I had it memorized, and why. Holding my copy of the store key in my hand, I examined it carefully.

“In case you are wondering, no, there wasn’t any sign of forced entry. Whoever killed Lisa either had a key or was
invited in. No one broke into the building.” Eve put a hand to her forehead and sighed. “I can’t decide if that’s good news or bad.”

My new boss showed me where they kept the empty cash drawer, wrote down the combination to the small safe that held each day’s starting allotment of cash, and walked me around the back office where Carol Brockman worked. From a drawer, Eve withdrew the appropriate tax forms I would need.