“Is it true?” Allie Kate asked again when she couldn’t contain herself any longer. She flopped down in one of the salon chairs, her gaze trained on me. I was thinking it was a good thing no one had been in the seat. “Was Dr. Bloomberg murdered, and did he…?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Louisa cut me off, waving the comb at Allie Kate. “If you’re going to take up that seat, Allie Kate, at least let someone fix that hair. Did you leave the house that way or were you running a class?”
Allie Kate raised a self-conscious hand to her hair and frowned. “Oh, Louisa, please. I have to know. It’s all over town about what he did. He took pictures of his patients.”
Pattie paled and swayed. Louisa snagged her arm and dragged her to a chair. “Sit before you fall down.”
“I’m afraid it’s true,” I confirmed, and Allie Kate shut her eyes, looking a bit green around the gills. I leaned toward her to touch her hand, but Louisa pulled me back. “Were you a patient, Allie Kate?”
A look of panic came into her eyes. “Who me? No, of course not. Well, not for many years. I switched to a new doctor a long while back. Dr. Bloomberg and I didn’t see eye-to-eye.”
Her admission surprised me about her not getting along with Dr. Bloomberg, but perhaps I was doing her a disservice thinking that way. Allie Kate and her husband were very free-spirited when it came to intimacy, and with Dr. Bloomberg’s perversion, I couldn’t imagine him chastising her if she had been honest with him about her history. Then again maybe he had. After all, she was living what pleased her, and he had had to keep his obsession in the dark lest he be arrested.
I happened to know, although I wouldn’t tell the ladies, Allie Kate’s picture was not among the ones Spencer had found on Dr. Bloomberg’s computer. I planned to tell her later when we were alone to ease her mind.
“What do the police know, Makayla?” Pattie asked.
I shared what I could. “The doctor was poisoned, sometime the night before I found his body. It was arsenic.”
Various expressions of horror touched the faces of the ladies. No one needed more of an explanation than the very word arsenic, which held a lot of weight by itself.
When I arrived at the salon earlier, I had found Edna already there, and as usual, she popped her head out of the dryer when the conversation got interesting. “I bet you feel cursed, dear, always finding the bodies?”
Louisa signaled for Edna to get back under the dryer.
“You didn’t do it, did you, Makayla?” Pattie’s question wasn’t accusing, but really, to suspect me of all people.
“No, I didn’t even know him.”
“But you were there,” Edna said, and I knew she just wanted to contribute. We had discussed what happened. “The gossipmongers—and by that I mean Talia and Ollie—are saying you were naked.”
I made a sound of protest. “You didn’t tell them that, did you, Edna?”
“No, I would never say such a thing about you, even if you were naked.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
Edna chuckled. “I suspect Ollie got it from someone else who was there at the time, and Talia decided to juicy the story up a bit.”
“Lovely,” I groaned. “For the record, ladies, I was visiting Dr. Bloomberg for the first time in a professional capacity.”
They blinked at me, wondering just what kind of profession I could mean under the circumstances. They were worse than Edna, or rather Talia.
I clarified. “I was there to identify the camera.”
“Ohhh,” said the group, nodding heads.
“And I did, but it was too late for Dr. Bloomberg, I’m afraid. Someone had already poisoned him the night before, or so the ME’s report says. Now the police have to figure out if the motive was the obvious one and who might have found out.”
I decided not to share what Lissa had told me about a possible partner or supplier. The ladies were already fearful with just the knowledge of the photos, and I didn’t blame them. I wasn’t a victim for sure, but I still felt somewhat vulnerable.
“What I want to know is who is on that list,” Louisa said, and she looked at me. All the others did as well.
I feigned innocence. “Ladies, I’m not on the Briney Creek police force. I don’t know why you’re looking at me.”
“Because you are the only one any of us can ask,” Louisa pointed out. “What did Spencer tell you?”
“Nothing. I told you about how the doctor died. I don’t have any more details than that, and neither do the police.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” Louisa gave my hair a yank, and when I yelped, she apologized, but I didn’t hear the sincerity. Let’s say she hadn’t wholly turned over a new leaf.
“Well, I for one have enough on my plate without adding that doctor to the pile.” Allie Kate hopped to her feet when one of Louisa’s girls came toward her with a cape. Allie Kate gave Louisa an apologetic smile. “I can’t… This month is just…”
“Sit down,” Louisa ordered. “It’ll be on your tab.”
Allie Kate flushed. She remained standing, but Louisa left her station to push Allie Kate into the seat. The stylist snapped the cape in the air and brought it around Allie Kate’s neck to clip in the back. Poor Allie Kate hung her head in embarrassment. For a few minutes, no one said anything, and I scoured my mind for conversation that didn’t have anything to do with Dr. Bloomberg.
“Well, it’s good to have Reeza and Pete back in town, isn’t it?” I suggested.
Allie Kate perked up but indignant rather than happy. “That girl, married a minute and already she’s changing.”
I frowned. “Changing how?”
“Late to work, early to leave.”
Edna stuck her head out from under the dryer. “If I had a husband, I’d be late every day. Maybe I wouldn’t show up at all.” She cackled at this allusion to staying home to entertain her husband, and I shook my head.
“I’m glad she’s back. I mean I was more than within my rights to fire her for leaving without notice and then coming back when she was good and ready. Honestly, I’m not sure how long I can keep her on,” Allie Kate lamented. “Since she got married, she hasn’t been careful with her figure, and we must all keep ourselves in top shape as the best advertisement for Beautiful Nu U.”
Several pairs of eyes rolled when Allie Kate fell into her commercial for the gym mode.
“Well jeez, Allie Kate, it hasn’t been a minute. Could she have changed that much?” This was Louisa with a hand on her slender hip.
Allie Kate raised her chin in firm defense of her stance, but she said nothing more.
“Give her time to settle in,” Pattie suggested, and her voice dropped lower to add, “if it’s about the weight and not…something else.” Something else being if Allie Kate couldn’t afford to keep Reeza on the payroll. I felt terrible for her and worse that everyone in the room, maybe in the town knew the financial trouble John and Allie Kate were still in.
“What are you going to do when Inna moves away?” Edna had completely abandoned the dryer. Her gray hair stuck up in points where it was dry and sagged to the side in a sorry heap where it was still damp. Louisa would skin her.
Allie Kate’s mouth turned downward. “I will miss my baby when she goes away to school, but in a way, I’m glad.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because she’s started to neglect her studies.” She frowned. “You know how smart she is, Makayla, not like me. She takes after her father. John is a genius.”
“Not with business though,” Edna quipped.
Someone snorted, and Allie Kate reddened. I looked around at the faces, angry that they could joke about her situation. No one met my gaze, and Edna poked her lips out, apparently ashamed at her quick tongue. She hadn’t meant any harm.
I turned back to Allie Kate. “Inna is pretty driven. I’m sure she’ll get back on target soon enough. What’s got her so distracted?”
Allie Kate huffed. “Her new boyfriend.”
“You knew about him?” Allie Kate glared at me accusingly as if I had anything to say about an eighteen-year-old’s heart.
“I knew she liked him. I wasn’t sure, um, what direction it would go in.” By direction I meant my other friend, David, was also interested in Brandon, and it looked like poor David was out in the cold with this one. I hoped a new prospect would come along for him to find love.
“Well, he’s not the best influence,” Allie Kate said. “Just the other day, she was out all night with him. I don’t like it!”
“She’s a legal adult,” Louisa pointed out. “Get used to it, Allie Kate. There’s nothing you can do about it from now on.”
“I know, but I still lectured her because I won’t be there to watch over her when she’s in New York. Oh, that awful city! Sorry, Makayla.”
I held up my hands. “Don’t worry about me, honey. I know how bad it can be, but like you said, Inna’s intelligent, and she’s tough. She’ll do fine out there. Just you wait and see.”
Allie Kate didn’t look convinced.
“So, I’m wondering,” Pattie said into the lull in conversation, “why no one has mentioned that the sheriff’s wife is in town.”
“Ex-wife,” I snapped before I could catch myself.
Gasps went up all around the room, and gazes swiveled to me. I sat like a statue as if that would make them think it was nothing to me if Spencer’s ex-wife, who he still called wife was staying with him, and he didn’t tell me about it. Me, his friend. Not that I expected him to introduce me as his girlfriend or even his lover. I don’t know what I expected, just not that.
Edna touched my hand and then balled up a knobby little fist. “I’ll make him sorry he used my granddaughter.”
“Used her?” Louisa said. “Isn’t she just in town? Did something happen?”
“No, no,” I rushed to say. “Spencer and I were not serious.”
“The ex was at his house,” one of the stylists put in unhelpfully. “I don’t think she’s there now.”
“No,” Pattie agreed. “She’s staying at the inn.”
The inn, they always said. There was more than one in Briney Creek, well two, but the one, I had heard, was better than the other—far better.
“Oh, your place?” Allie Kate said.
I looked at Pattie. “Your place?”
“Makayla, don’t you know by now?” Louisa met my gaze in the mirror as she worked dye through my hair. “Pattie owns the inn.” There was that emphasis again. Now I knew what Pattie did. Good to know. I pressed my lips into a thin line and held my hands together in my lap. Aware I looked bothered, I couldn’t help myself. Yet, the ladies seemed unable to resist continuing to gossip around me.
“Well what does she look like?” Louisa wanted to know.
“A doll,” Allie Kate piped up. Look who was more animated now that the conversation wasn’t centered on her finances. Okay, I was being petty. “She’s incredibly beautiful and moves with grace, as if she took classes at some point on how to move. She—oh what’s that word?”
I ground my teeth and gave a slow blink. “The word is sashay. She sashays when she walks.”
“Yes! That’s it, ladies. With her hands raised like this.” Allie Kate demonstrated, and the women chuckled.
“You know, ladies, you really shouldn’t talk about people who are absent this way.” Wow, was I the hypocrite.
“Oh, Makayla.” Allie Kate tapped my arm. “We’re just being silly. No harm in it, and we didn’t say anything bad about her. You know who would love to make friends with—I just realized I don’t know her name. Do you know it, Makayla?”
I said nothing. Whether a hypocrite or a woman in denial that she had developed deeper feelings than she had supposed, for a man who obviously had not, I had reached my limit.
My best course of action was to stay quiet, lest I ring Allie Kate’s neck with the cape she wore. Such violence, Makayla, you might be thinking, and to that I say I am not nor will I probably ever be a sweet southern belle. I loved these women, all of them that I had become close to, but I would never be as gentle of spirit as they were with a hint of spite mixed in. So I can admit to thinking violent thoughts.
Then again, it was one of these people in Briney Creek who had committed murder not once but twice. So maybe I was of a higher moral code. Take that!
Allie Kate snapping her fingers before my face brought me out of my ridiculous musings, and I attended to the conversation.
“I said what do you think of her, Makayla. The ex, I mean. Pattie has just told us her name is Penelope Norwood while you were wool-gathering.”
“Norwood?” I repeated and looked at Pattie. She confirmed. I sat straighter. “I think she’s here to get her husband back.”
“Oh, no,” went up several cries.
I shrugged. “Listen, ladies, it’s fine. I came to Briney Creek to start a new life, focused primarily on my photography. I’m doing that. Business is very good, and I am mature enough to believe what isn’t good for me doesn’t need to be in my life. That’s fine too.”
Edna made a sound of disappointment. “Don’t you want to go tell her this town isn’t big enough for the both of you? I was going to be one of your posse.”
“Edna, sweetheart, when did this become the Old West?”
She smirked at me. “I’m used to fighting and taking no prisoners. I’ve had practice for years.”
“And losing,” Louisa said, “to Talia. So stay out of Makayla’s love life, Edna, and get over there and see if Connie can fix that head.”
Everyone chuckled, including me, and thank the heavens, the conversation moved on to less painful subjects.
Chapter Ten
Spencer stood before me with his broad shoulders and his smoky gray eyes looking into mine and said to me, “I need you with me.” The sincerity and earnestness stole my breath, and I know you’re thinking, yes! Finally, he comes to his senses and figures out that the lovely, if a tad too curvy, Makayla is the one for him and not that shallow perfect beauty he married. You would of course be wrong, but it was a good thought, and you’re not to be blamed for jumping to conclusions.
What Spencer actually said was, “I need you…with me on this, Makayla, so we can get this woman talking. I’m feeling a lot of pressure from above, and I need to wrap the case up before the news goes national.”
“Good luck, my friend,” I snarked, and I saw a muscle tick in his jaw.
“Makayla—”
“I’ve said I will help you, Spencer. Who are we talking to today?” I spoke the words as casually as I could and put distance between us. I wasn’t kidding about the smoky gray eyes. They were powerful.
He grabbed my arm before I could get too far. “This is important, but so is us talking.”
“There’s no time. Aren’t we late for the appointment?”
He grumbled and checked his watch. “We have five minutes before we have to leave.”
I smiled. “Generous.” He started to say my name again, but I cut him off. “I’m not ready to talk about it, Spencer. I want to, sort of, but not yet. Can you accept that for now? Please?”
He sighed, eyeing me. His shoulders were tight, and ordinarily I would make him take a moment so I could rub them and work out some of the knots. Not this time. I thought it better if we kept the touching to the bare minimum, and he had already used up his grabbing my arm. He just didn’t know it.
“Fine,” he said. “But don’t wait too long.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
We left my apartment with me riding in his SUV. I had told him I would meet him there, but he refused. My second offer had been to follow him. Again rejected. Spencer Norwood was a very stubborn man. I gave in for now.
“We’re talking to Grace Jacobs,” Spencer informed me. “She was one of your clients.”
“Is that a question?”
“No. Her photos were on the computer, several sets with different dates.”
I cringed. “This might sound weird, but how do you know whose is whose?”
His color rose, and I hid my amusement. “He added their names to the file and the dates. Convenient for us.”
“Have you considered someone else might have set the doctor up? That he might be innocent?”
“Do you have evidence to the contrary?”
“No.”
“Then we proceed this way for now. Besides, we already spoke with Lissa Russell. She indicated he was attached to the pen and refused to see a patient without it.”
“I spoke with Allie Kate Brinlee. She said she had been a patient of his years ago, but she wasn’t on the list you gave me.”
He nodded and turned onto the road where the main branch of the library stood. Grace worked as a librarian. While the place was quiet, and we could go to a private room to have our discussion, having the interview there still felt inappropriate.
“The dates go back only six months,” Spencer explained. “We couldn’t find anything older. So we were able to set aside any patients that had stopped seeing him before that.”
“Set aside? Don’t you mean eliminate?”
“A friend finds out her new doctor is taking pictures of her without her permission. She shares the information with another friend who had stopped seeing him. That other friend might assume she was also a victim. She or her significant other could have decided to take matters into their own hands without proof. It happens. We focus on those we have for now, and if it turns up nothing, we work backward.”
I almost moaned at the tedium but pulled myself together. This was an urgent and important situation. I needed all my wits about me to be of use to the investigation. “So I’ll do the talking?”
“Only if she gets jammed up and embarrassed.” He pulled to a stop at the curb in front of the library and threw the gear shift into park.
Before he could get out of the car, I reached to touch his arm and changed my mind. He saw and paused. I might have seen something in his gaze, but couldn’t be sure. I turned away. “Spencer, try not to be too hard on them, okay? Gently.”
That same nerve in his jaw jumped, but he nodded, and we got out of the car to head into the building. The scent of old leather and musk met my nose when I pushed through the revolving door into the Briney Creek main library. A wide expanse of marble flooring encompassed the lobby and continued on toward the Information Desk. To the right and left of that were the entrances to the children’s section and to the reference section. If you took the curving staircase to the right or left of the front door, you reached the second floor, which housed other fiction and young adult. I had visited countless times and enjoyed the quiet solitude of the place. Of course, unless you hid behind one of the tall bookshelves, you weren’t likely to remain alone long. Spencer and I saw evidence of this when a couple of the older ladies from Edna’s group spotted us and burst into smiles, ready to head on over. My grumpy companion’s expression gave them pause, and the moment passed when Gloria appeared to greet us.
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