Shoes and Baby: Women Sleuth

by S. Y. Robins

  “Uh-huh.” It was all she could do to force herself toward the door, and she came out into a blaze of light and sirens. For a moment, it was so overwhelming that all she wanted to do was turn around and run back into the building.

  And the next moment, she wished she had. Because between the police, hurrying this way and that, Emma caught a glimpse of the woman. A red winter coat stood out vividly against the pavement, and the woman’s blonde hair fell loose around a heart-shaped face with a small mouth and a little snub nose.

  A face that looked eerily like Emma’s own.

  2

  “Stop looking so worried!” Rob was laughing. “It looks perfect, baby.”

  “Not yet, it doesn’t,” Emma said grimly. One of the strands of lights was still out of place, and she clambered back up the ladder to wrap it slightly differently around the branch. “Okay, what about that?”

  “What did you change?” Rob asked plaintively.

  “I…nothing.” Emma poked at the chandelier a few more times and then clambered back down, running to the door to look at it from a distance. “That looks okay, right?”

  “It looks wonderful,” Rob assured her. “I think even some of the guys from the guard crew want to come in here.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping for.” Emma grinned, and at Rob’s questioning look, she waved her hands at the side wall. “Okay, picture it. You’ve got woman getting their nails done over there, but I put a couple of mirrors here and men can come in for a proper shave and a haircut.”

  “Nuh-uh,” Rob said instantly. “I saw Sweeney Todd. You aren’t fooling me, missy.”

  “Oh, stop it.” Emma laughed and let him pull her down into his lap. “But it does look good. Doesn’t it? Do you think I should change the floor?”

  “No,” Rob said. “I think you should sit down and rest. Once the salon is open, you’re not going to have any time.”

  “It won’t be that bad.” Emma kissed him and looked around herself, contented.

  When she’d started the salon, she knew she hadn’t wanted to go with either of the classic looks: gleaming black and chrome, or very girly and pink. She’d toyed with the look of a Japanese mountain resort, all dark woods and paper screens, but had eventually given that up in favor of something that looked a little more like a Montana lodge…minus the mounted hunting trophies, of course.

  Gleaming hardwood floors were covered in rugs with autumn colors, red walls showed pictures of forests and mountains, and the chairs were exquisitely comfortable brown leather. The chandelier was a circle of woven sticks wrapped in strands of lights, and wooden shelves held locally made beauty products. A few screens in the back gave enough privacy for facials and foot soaks, and Emma could easily see some men dropping in for a shave, or sticking around as their girlfriends got their nails done.

  “I should—” Emma tried to stand up, and gave a laugh when Rob’s arms stayed firmly locked around her waist. “Hey!”

  “Nope, you’re only going to get up and fuss with something that doesn’t need to be fussed with.” He held her close. “Em, you’ve been working so hard. I’m…a little worried. I know you want this all to be perfect, but it will be. I promise. It even says so on that big sign out there: Perfection.”

  “I know, I just, uh…” Emma shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “What is it?” Rob craned to look into her face. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

  “I, um…” She swallowed. “Promise not to think I’m crazy?”

  “Promise,” he said at once.

  “It’s…well, here’s the thing. I can’t stop thinking about that woman.” Emma looked down at where her hands were twisting in her lap. Rob’s arms were solid around her, but she was suddenly shivering.

  “I can understand that. You don’t see things like that a lot. I can see why you’d be upset.”

  “But it’s more than that,” Emma whispered. “She looked so much like me.”

  “But you didn’t know her, right?” Rob reminded her. “I know it’s eerie. I can’t even imagine, Em. But she wasn’t family or anything, right?”

  “No, but I can’t help but think—” Emma shut her mouth on the words. This was the crazy part. When Rob looked at her, she took a deep breath and gathered her courage. “I know—I know—this sounds crazy, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it had something to do with me. She was right outside my apartment building and she looked like me, and it’s not that I just didn’t know her, Rob—no one knows who she is. She’s not even from around here.”

  “Are you saying…?” Rob’s brow furrowed.

  “I’m not saying anything! I promise. I don’t know what I’m saying.” Tears started in her eyes. “I guess it just feels…close. It feels like it has to be more than a coincidence. Rob, I’m scared.”

  “Em…” He pulled her close and rocked her back and forth.

  “You must think I’m nuts.”

  “Not at all,” he assured her. “Hey. Look at me. Listen: you’re not crazy. You just saw someone who looked a lot like you. It’d freak me out if I saw someone who looked like me, too. Your brain is trying to protect you, honey. You just have to keep telling yourself that this is a coincidence, okay? It’s a really scary coincidence. It sucks like crazy. But it’s just chance. Just random chance.”

  Emma drew in a breath, shuddering and wiping her eyes. She felt Rob’s lips on her cheek and tried to smile.

  “I don’t think you’re crazy,” Rob said again.

  “You’re the best, you know that?” Emma smiled, and jumped as a knock sounded on the door. She craned to look. “Oh, great.”

  “What?”

  “It’s Matt again. Three guesses what he wants.” She rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from Rob’s lap, crossing to the door and unlocking it. “Hey, Matt.”

  “Can I come in?” As usual, Matt looked nervous and twitchy.

  “Sure.” She needed to at least try to be nice. He was her landlord, after all. “Matt, this is Rob, my boyfriend. Rob, this is my landlord Matt.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Rob said easily. He gave no sign that he’d heard at least ten rants about Matt in the past week, for which Emma was profoundly grateful.

  “You, too. Miss Thomas, could we speak in private?”

  “Oh, there’s really no need.” Emma perched on the arm of one of the leather chairs. “What’s going on?”

  “I just, er…” Matt looked around himself nervously, swallowing convulsively as he often did. “Well, I wanted to make sure you were okay after that terrible business a few nights ago.”

  “How did you know about that?” Emma asked immediately. Suspicion flared.

  “Well, I know where you live,” Matt said. “And I saw that it was right outside your building and, ah…anyway, you look like you’re doing well.”

  “I am. Thank you. Whatever happened, it was…” Quiet. Emma swallowed. She had not heard a thing. What if she’d gone to the window and looked out in time to warn the woman? Guilt had been eating her alive for days.

  “Very unfortunate,” Matt said. He paused, as if trying to come up with something to say. “Miss Thomas, I wondered if you’d given any thought to my proposal.”

  “What?” Lost in thought, Emma had not been paying attention.

  “I wanted to ask if you had considered my proposal to abandon your lease,” Matt said again.

  “No.” The word, heavily laced with incredulity, was out of Emma’s mouth before she had time to think of a nicer way to say it. “I’m not moving.”

  “But the shop on the other side of town—”

  “Is in terrible condition,” Emma said emphatically. “It would require weeks’ worth of repairs, and that’s just assuming that the pipes haven’t frozen or anything—”

  “I’ve checked with the landlord, actually and—”

  “Matt? I’m not moving.” Emma tried to make her face some cross between nice and serious. “This a perfect location.” And the perfect price, but she didn’t sa
y that. She was fairly sure that Matt had received another offer for the space, one more in line with the costs on the rest of Main Street, and he was regretting giving her that five-year lease. But that wasn’t her problem.

  “Miss Thomas, I really think you should consider a cheaper venue. What with your former employer’s business troubles…” Matt’s voice died when he saw the identical expressions on Emma and Rob’s faces. He sighed. “I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”

  “What an odd man,” Rob said, when the door had closed behind Matt.

  “Greedy man,” Emma corrected him. “He saw how nice I could make this place look, and he’s regretting that he didn’t think to rent it for more.” She went to pick up her coat, rolling her eyes. “I’m not going to feel sorry for him. It had been empty for months before I got it. And…”

  “What?” Rob asked her.

  “Did he say Gina was having business trouble?” Emma asked Rob.

  “I…well, okay, I guess he did.”

  “That’s funny, don’t you think?” Emma asked him. She gave one last look around the salon before shutting off the lights and locking the door behind them. As they strolled along the street, she looked up at Rob’s face. “Don’t you think?” she asked again.

  “Well, not super funny.” He gave a groan when she nudged him with her elbow. “Ow, ow. Sorry. You mean, is it weird that you didn’t know Gina was having trouble? She might not be. How would Matt know?”

  “I don’t…wait.” Emma jabbed her finger at him. “Maybe she’s the one that offered to buy out my lease! Maybe…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Maybe what?” Rob looked over at her, and his face changed. “Emma.”

  “No, no, hear me out. She was super angry I was going, she’s having business trouble, she’s trying to get Matt to go back on the lease—”

  “And you seriously think Gina would kill someone over that?” Rob took Emma by the shoulders. “Honey, listen to me. Gina is probably angry right now, and if she’s having some trouble, that sucks. But she isn’t the type to kill someone who looked kind of like you because of that. Come on. That seems like a bit of an overreaction.”

  “I…you’re right.” Emma hunched her shoulders and walked beside him, scuffing some early snow with her boots.

  She just wished she felt nearly as convinced as Rob did.

  3

  This was crazy. She was crazy. Emma stopped, halfway between her car and the back entrance to Totally Nails. She shouldn’t be here. After all, Rob was right. Gina might be really, really angry with Emma…but was that something she’d commit murder over? It couldn’t be. Emma should just go home and take a bath. After all, once Perfection opened tomorrow, she wasn’t going to have any free time. She’d been looking forward to this day of self-pampering for weeks.

  She’d had the good sense not to tell Rob where she was going. He would have told her to snap out of it, after all, and Rob knew a lot about this sort of thing. And she had to admit, after all, that his theory of random chance made a lot more sense than Gina killing someone who looked like Emma. After all, Gina would have been able to tell that the woman she was killing wasn’t Emma.

  Shaking her head, Emma turned around and headed back to her car.

  And stopped, her hand on the door. She could still see the woman’s face in her mind. That poor woman who’d done nothing wrong, who Emma was sure had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. This wasn’t about whether or not people thought Emma was crazy. It was about the fact that the police had no leads. It was about the fact that a woman who looked almost exactly like Emma had died, and no one knew who her killer was.

  She slung her purse over her shoulder and marched back to Totally Nails, coming into the dim hallway full of coats and winter boots. Sarah, one of the other manicurists, gave Emma an awkward little wave.

  “Hey.”

  “Hi. I wondered if Gina was in.” Emma tried to make this sound like a perfectly normal request.

  “Uh…” Sarah wavered.

  “It’s nothing big, just something we talked about the other day. If she’s not here, that’s fine.” Emma was sure that Gina was here—they’d be short-staffed without her—but she wanted to put Sarah at ease.

  “No, no, I’ll go get her.” Sarah threw a worried look over her shoulder and walked away warily, as if on eggshells.

  Had Matt been right? Was the salon in trouble?

  Emma waited, hands awkwardly stuffed in her pockets, until Gina appeared. The woman’s dark hair was pulled back in her usual messy bun, and her clothing was just as effortlessly perfect as ever. Emma knew that she should just ask the question and be done with it, but she felt an unexpected wave of guilt. Gina had been an almost perfect boss, charming and funny, very understanding when people got sick. More than anything, Emma had hoped that Gina would understand when she left. She had even expected that Gina would—but it hadn’t turned out that way.

  “What?” Gina asked curtly. She didn’t seem at all pleased to see Emma.

  “I wondered if we could talk. Just for a second.”

  Gina sighed. “What is it?”

  “Here’s the thing, we talked a couple of days ago and you said you were okay…” The words weren’t coming out right. She felt like she had forgotten how to make sentences,

  “And?” Gina asked. She crossed her arms.

  “Well…”

  Gina waited. She didn’t seem ready to offer help.

  “Are you really okay, having me go like this?” The moment the words were out of her mouth, Emma knew that the words were inadequate, and weeks too late.

  “Am I okay?” Gina repeated. Her eyes flashed. “Am I okay?” She turned away, shaking her head. “I think you should go.”

  “Gina—“

  “What? What is it?”

  “I just…I never meant to screw you over, okay?”

  “Okay.” Gina ran her hands through her hair. “Fine. So you didn’t.”

  “But you don’t think I did.” Emma was grasping at straws, torn between the desire to ask Gina what had happened the night the woman was murdered, and the simple, human desire not to have someone be mad at her. “Right?”

  “Emma. I don’t need this right now.”

  “You’re mad.” Emma nodded, looking away. “I get it.”

  “No! You don’t get it!” Gina’s voice rose. “I’ve wanted to own a nail salon since I was five years old, and for a few years, I did. And then things started going wrong, and I did my best to hold it together, but the rent kept going up, and this place just isn’t good enough. You know what? I didn’t even want to run a business. I wanted to do nails. But instead I’ve been trying to hold everything together while it just keeps falling further and further apart.

  “And then I find out that one of my best manicurists is leaving, and not just to start her own salon—to start it right where I wanted to start one five years ago. You’ve got investors, you’ve got your client list, everything is falling into place for you. But everything is falling apart for me. So no, Emma, you don’t understand.”

  Emma stared at her, mouth hanging open. Behind Gina, in the shop, she could see stylists and customers craning to try to figure out what was going on.

  “I…didn’t know,” she whispered finally. “Gina, I am so sorry—”

  “I don’t want to hear it.” Gina waved one hand. “Get out. Just…just get out.”

  “Gina, if there’s anything I can do to help…”

  “Help?” Gina looked around incredulously. “Helping would have been not putting the final two nails in the coffin. Get out, Emma.”

  “But I—”

  “Get. Out.”

  And in that moment, Emma was sure without a shred of doubt that Gina had had nothing to do with the murder. She was trying to be angry and scary and the fact was, she was just hurt. Gina was looking defeat in the eyes, and she was clearly going to fight it out to the end…and then go home, defeated. Staring into her eyes, all Emma could see was frustration an
d the sense that none of this was fair. It was just bad luck.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and she turned and left, trying to blink away the tears that were threatening. She had clung to the hope that she and Gina would be able to be friends when this was all over, and that everything was going to be all right. But there was too much going on here for her to have a hope in hell of any of that.

  Bad luck.

  She got back in her car and drove home, leaning her head back tiredly against the headrest. Vaguely, she could hear her phone buzzing, but she ignored it. If it was Gina, it was only going to be an apology she didn’t have time for that right now—and if it was Matthew, she didn’t want to hear another plea for her to get out of her lease. She parked and was halfway up to the third floor when Rob came pounding down to meet her.

  “Thank God you’re here.” He reached for her hand, turning her around and leading her back down to the ground floor. “We have to go.”

  “What? Why?”

  He paused on the stairs, wavering. “I, uh…okay. Listen. The salon is on fire.”

  “What?”

  “There’s a fire. They just called. I called you, but—” He broke. “Come on, we have to go.”

  “What?” She couldn’t seem to think of any other word.

  “Come on. I’ll drive, you see if you can get in touch with them.” He pushed open the door and ushered her into the sunshine, plucking the keys from her hands and getting in the drivers side. He pulled out into traffic as Emma searched through her phone, listening to the messages.

  “Oh God, oh God…”

  “What is it?” Rob gave her a worried look.

  “They don’t know how it started, but it looks like arson. Arson. Who would do this?” She sank her face into her hands.

  “Do they know how bad it is?”

  “No, they said someone spotted the smoke immediately and they were on their way. God, I should have picked up the phone sooner…”