by Ink, India
“Are you okay, Persia?” Barb hustled over to me, carrying my shoes.
“Yep,” I said, brushing myself off. “I think I’ll live. I’m fine. Just lost my concentration there for a moment.”
The bartender reappeared with two fresh margaritas, and we returned to our table. By the time I was half done with my drink I’d collected five phone numbers, none of which I planned on keeping, been offered a chance to join a wet tee shirt contest, which I politely declined, and been given a scathing look by one of the women who was holding on to her boyfriend’s arm so tightly I thought she was going to break it off.
Barb was reaching that turning point between giddy and lugubrious, and I decided that our fourth margarita would be our last. There was no way in hell we could even think of driving home, so I called Auntie, and she drove out to pick us up. On the way home, both Barb and I were exiled to the backseat of Baby in case we decided we had to throw up. As I staggered up the porch steps, Auntie just shook her head and reminded me to set the alarm because, drunk or not, I was needed at the store the next morning.
Before I made my way up to bed, Barb motioned me into the guest room. “Thanks, Persia,” she said. She was drunker than a skunk, but I could hear the relief in her voice. “I would have spent the evening moping and feeling sorry for myself. You helped me work off a lot of my tension. You’re a good friend, you know? Not many people would ride a mechanical bull just to make their buddy happy.”
I gave her a hug and headed for the door. “I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself. And if it took me playing cowgirl to cadge a smile out of you, I’m glad I did it. Get some sleep, Barb. Tomorrow will be better. Dorian will come to his senses—you wait and see.”
And with that, I hauled my tired ass up to bed and passed out almost before I hit the sheets.
When my alarm went off, I woke up with a splitting headache. I squinted at the clock. Eight AM, and my tongue felt like it had grown a layer of moldy fuzz. I cautiously pushed myself to a sitting position. Delilah and Buttercup were curled up on the bottom of my bed in a tryst they’d never permit while awake. Buttercup had snuggled up with her head on Delilah’s butt, and Delilah was curled around so that she was practically spooning Buttercup. I grinned. Posers, both of them.
As I stood, a wave of vertigo raced through me, and my stomach lurched. Oh hell, I thought as I raced for the bathroom. A few minutes and a whole lot of mouthwash later, my nausea let up, though a steady pounding still drove stakes through my head. I squinted into the mirror. My eyes were almost glued shut, and I ran a cold cloth over my face, blinking as I washed the sleep sand away from the corners. I looked like hell. With a sigh, I sat down on the bench near my claw-foot tub and began filling it with warm water and peppermint bubble bath. Maybe a long soak would help jog some of the cobwebs out of my brain.
As I dipped my toe in the water, then slid down in the big old tub, I leaned back and rested my head against the bath pillow. The water made me a little seasick at first, but it felt so good on my muscles that I soon relaxed. I wasn’t used to drinking so much. Oh, I’d had my share of bouts, but it had been awhile since I’d tied one on.
Twenty minutes later, feeling more waterlogged than revived, I hauled my butt out of the tub, dragged on a comfortable jersey skirt and cashmere sweater, then slipped into my favorite pair of brown suede boots and zipped them up. Their insoles were so cushy that my blisters would be well protected.
Auntie was at the table. She gave me an evil grin when I poked my head into the dining room. “Breakfast’s on the stove. Get yourself a plate and eat. You need something in your stomach if you’re going to make it through the day.”
I grimaced but obeyed. She’d fixed a stack of toast, along with well-drained bacon, a fluffy omelet, and a pot of strong, black tea. I helped myself to three slices of toast and a jolting cup of tea with lemon, then joined her in the dining room, where I slid into a chair with a faint groan.
“Tore it up last night, did you?” Auntie pointed to the tea. “Get that inside of you, but first eat a slice of toast because you better cushion your digestive system before you bathe it in tannins.” She wiggled her finger, and I obediently bit into a slice of toast. “Let Barbara sleep in. After the emotional upset yesterday and the partying you two did, she’s going to need some rest.”
I chewed slowly, gauging my stomach’s reaction to food. So far, it was behaving itself. “What if Dorian asks where she is?”
“Then we’ll tell him. And we’ll tell him to take a few days to think over what happened and cool off.” She made sure I ate every bite of my toast, then handed me a big glass of water. I drained it dry and was happy to note that I already felt a little bit better.
“My car is still over at the bar. Can you run me over there so I can pick it up?” I asked.
She nodded. “Get your things, and let’s go. We’ve got a lot to do today.”
As we headed out to Baby, I glanced at Auntie. She didn’t seem mad, but she wasn’t overly friendly either. I knew that she didn’t have anything against drinking, at least in moderation, so I doubted that one drunken binge had turned her against me. But if it wasn’t that, then what was bothering her?
“Is everything okay?” I slid into the front seat and fastened my seat belt.
“What, child? Oh, yes. I’m just preoccupied.” She started the ignition, which purred at a substantially lower register than usual. “Damned Kyle. Baby was just fine, but now listen to her—sounds like she’s got a muzzle on.”
I repressed a snort. “Baby’s still Baby, she’s just a little quieter.”
“Well, I don’t like being ordered around by somebody young enough to be my son,” she said, and I knew that’s what was eating her. That Kyle—whom she’d known since he was barely into puberty—could force her to do something she didn’t want to do.
“You’ll live,” I said, grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and then pulled out of the driveway.
We chatted about our plans for the holidays until we reached the club, where Auntie pulled into the parking lot next to El Toro Caliente and I hopped out. Everything was in order, and nothing had been touched on my car. I followed her down to Island Drive and parked three doors away from Venus Envy. A space behind her, I hopped out of my car to bustle into the shop. As I walked through the door, I glanced in the back, hoping to see Lisa’s face. We hadn’t heard a word from either Kyle or Amy since I’d dropped Amy off at home, and while I didn’t expect a minute-by-minute update, it felt like it had been a long time since I’d talked to them, even though we hadn’t cracked the twenty-four-hour mark. But Lisa was nowhere in sight.
Auntie had already headed to the office, but stopped as Tawny popped out from the spa room, Betsy Sue in tow.
They were chatting like old friends. They’d met at the same beauty convention where I’d met Killian, but I had no idea if the two had maintained contact. Speaking of which, Killian should be at his meeting by now.
“Hey, Betsy,” I said, giving her a little wave. “Glad to have you aboard.”
“Persia, Miss Florence, thanks for taking me on. You don’t know how much this means to me.” She beamed, perky as ever, but there was something so unassuming about her cheerfulness that it never felt grating or annoying.
Auntie gave her a nod. “Come on, girl, come back to the office with me and fill out your paperwork. Then Tawny can finish showing you the ropes.”
As they disappeared into the back, I turned to Tawny. “Has Lisa called?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said, her expression serious. Both she and Seth knew that Lisa was missing. “Should I call her clients and reschedule?”
I pressed my lips together. “Yeah . . . tell them something came up, and that we’ll call this afternoon to reschedule. Hopefully by then, Auntie will have gotten Maxine to agree to take over her place on a temporary basis.”
Tawny looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but I shook my head and headed for my station. My morning was free from
consultations, but I had to inventory my supplies and match them against what we would need over the next few weeks for the shop lines that I’d created. Not a good idea to run out of Peppermint Panda lotion during the Christmas season, not when it was currently our best-selling item. On the other hand, I’d cut down on how much Vermillion Verve I was making because it seemed to sell best during the summer months.
After I made a list of oils and other supplies I was running low on, I took a break to get myself a cup of tea. Seth had just finished up with a haircut, and he was shaking his head. I glanced at his client, a woman I didn’t recognize, as she wandered out to pay Tawny. She was sporting a jaunty cut that made her look ten years younger than when she’d walked in the door.
“Nice job,” I said. “You really know your stuff.”
Seth snorted. “Yeah, but she’s a real piece of work, that one.” He sighed, then got the broom and began sweeping up hair. “I tell you, Persia, I hear the damnedest things in my line of work. Do you get that with your clients, too?”
Frowning, I dropped my tea bag in the garbage and took a sip of the hot drink. “What are you talking about?”
“Lisa and I were just discussing this last Friday.” His voice dropped, and he stared at the floor for a moment. He and Lisa worked side by side on a daily basis, and I knew they’d developed a friendship. “Being a hairdresser or beautician, you hear the wackiest stuff from your clients. We get the lowdown on affairs, hidden scandals, PMS bouts, husbands who can’t perform. I swear, some of my clients forget I’m just a person and not some psychiatrist.”
I blinked. “My clients aren’t quite the same. I guess I don’t spend long enough with them to build up that kind of trust.” As I glanced over at Lisa’s empty station, a light-bulb went on in my head. “Listen, you say that Lisa gets the same thing?”
He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve talked about it before. Makes things awkward sometimes. For example, one of my clients is having an affair, and she told me about it, along with the name of her lover—God only knows why, but she did. Then, three days ago, I ran into her at Georgio’s Restaurant. She was having dinner with her husband and his best friend—who happens to be her lover. You would not believe how uncomfortable I was. I had no idea what to say. Her husband looked so happy, poor schmuck.”
“Jesus, that’s a nasty situation,” I said. “Do you think Lisa might have overheard something she wasn’t supposed to know?”
“I don’t know about that, but she gets the same thing.”
With a shrug, he finished cleaning his station. “Sometimes we exchange war stories.”
I finished my tea and headed to the front counter, where I tapped Tawny on the shoulder. She had just finished showing Betsy Sue how to run the cash register. “Where’s Lisa’s appointment book?”
“Over there. Why? You want it?” She made room for me to slip in behind her so I could grab the planner.
Betsy gave me an excited smile. She was blonde, perky, and her tummy showed a little rounded bulge. Killian hadn’t been kidding when he said that she and Julius were expecting. “Persia, thanks so much for this opportunity. It means the world to me right now.”
I winked. “So how’s the bun? And how’s Julius?”
She blushed, her hand dropping to her stomach. “I’m fine. This job will sure help take the stress off. I’m really starting to show now. Julius’s thrilled, but of course, we were hoping to get married before the baby arrives. If Killian can get his funding, maybe we’ll still have a chance.”
“Well, you just take it easy, and Tawny will help show you what you need to know. And if your ankles start to swell, we can get you a stool to sit on behind the counter.” I picked up Lisa’s appointment book and returned to my station.
Seth’s comments about clients spilling secrets made me wonder if Lisa had told any of her makeovers what she’d been planning on. I was flipping through Friday and Saturday’s appointments when I was interrupted by the sound of my cell phone ringing from the muffled depths of my purse. I scrambled to answer and caught Kyle just before he was about ready to hang up.
“Any word from Lisa yet?” I asked after his “Hello” boomed into my ear.
He paused, and I heard him let out a long sigh. “No, we haven’t. Amy’s frantic. She’s been gone two nights now, and I told Amy to file an official missing person report today. She’s coming in this afternoon.” By the sound of his voice, I could tell that there was some friction going on in lovebird city.
“You really do think she’s dead, don’t you?” I could hear it in his voice. He was ready to close the door based on where Lisa’s car had been found.
Kyle cleared his throat. “Look at it from my perspective. Lisa’s car was found at Lookout Pier. There was a horrible storm the night she vanished. Lisa can’t swim. It adds up, yes, but I’m not going to mark the case closed, if that’s what you’re thinking. We’ll treat this like any missing person case that we get.”
“Have you told Amy you think she drowned?”
Another pause. Apparently he had, and apparently Amy hadn’t taken it very well. “Yeah, I did,” he said after a moment. “She’s convinced that I’m going to just let it drop.”
“But you aren’t, right?”
My question had apparently pushed his buttons, because Kyle exploded. “God damn it, Persia, you know that I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened to Lisa. I’m not writing the girl off, even if I do think she drowned. But you’ve got to understand, my department is swamped. With the budget cuts going on, I can’t spare anybody for overtime unless it’s an emergency.”
He came to an abrupt halt, and I had the feeling that he was debating whether to tell me something. I let the silence hang and, after a moment, he spoke again. “I’m going to tell you something, but you damned well better keep it under your hat. Don’t even tell your aunt, you understand?”
“Sure, I promise,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back.
“Persia, I have to lay off two of my men next month. Every person on my staff is necessary, but the city just isn’t approving enough money to keep up with all the crap going on around here. It’s like the city council is sticking its head in the sand. Gull Harbor’s growing, and so is our crime rate. But they expect me to be able to cut corners and make do with less, even though they complain when we can’t get out to calls right away because we’re tied up somewhere else.”
“Oh cripes, Kyle. That sucks. Who are you going to fire?”
“Lay off, not fire. They’ll be able to get unemployment easier that way. And I don’t know who yet. Grady’s got a kid on the way. Shanna’s a single mother. Roberts is nearing retirement; if I lay him off now, it’s going to wreck his pension. And it goes on and on like that.” He let out a sound like a strangled gulp. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. So a missing person case . . .”
“If Lisa was a kid, we’d be out there combing the streets. But she’s an adult, and there’s no real evidence that anything’s happened to her, other than maybe falling off the pier. Mitch Willis hasn’t heard from her, and he’s got an alibi for Saturday night. For every hour we spend on her, we take our investigations away from other cases. Right now we’re hunting down an armed robber, an ATM thief, a rapist . . . there were two car thefts over the weekend, and we’ve got one verified missing person who’s seventy years old with Alzheimer’s. He wandered away from his daughter’s house last night in his bathrobe.”
I leaned back in my chair and rested my head on the wall. Kyle was right, but he was also headed for a train wreck. He and Amy were obviously hitting it off. How was he going to balance his requirements of being the chief of police with the fact that it was his girlfriend’s sister missing?
“Want some advice, Kyle?”
“No, but I’m sure that I’m going to get an earful.” After a grunt, he added, “Okay, what is it?”
Unable to believe I was about to volunteer my time, I blurted o
ut, “Use me. Let me do some quiet investigating on the side. Amy likes you a lot, but if you slack off on the search for her sister, she’s going to get real pissed real soon, no matter what the reason.”
Kyle cleared his throat. “You think she really likes me?”
“Yes, you dolt, of course she does. It’s obvious, if you’d take your head out of the sand. Listen, I was thinking that maybe some of Lisa’s clients from this week might have a clue as to what she was up to. I was talking to Seth—”
“Seth?” He sounded clueless.
“Get with the program, Kyle. Seth’s our hairdresser. Anyway, he told me that clients are very touchy-feely. They talk about everything with their hairdressers and beauticians. I was thinking maybe Lisa told one of her clients on Friday or Saturday what she was up to. I could go talk to them. Since Lisa worked for us and she’s a good friend of mine, it wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary for me to do that.”