Pampered to Death

by Diana Orgain

“Jim has exactly one box up in the garage containing everything from his childhood, and wouldn’t you know it, he had his superhero’s still,” I said.

  “Guys are funny about the type of stuff they hold onto,” Paula said. “David has a bunch of ball caps he refuses to get rid of.”

  “Jim really didn’t have much from when he was a kid,” I said. “Jumping around from house to house as a kid, you don’t really accumulate a lot of personal belongings. But, he sure did have those. He had the whole Avenger’s team.”

  Paula winked at me. “You know there’s almost a hundred members of the Avenger’s, right?”

  “Over a hundred?” I asked. “I had no idea.”

  “Ugh, Danny! Don’t bang them on the coffee table!” Paula cried out.

  “It’s an old, beat up coffee table,” I said with a wink. “Don’t freak out too much.”

  “Thanks,” Paula said and exhaled.

  “So, what’s it like juggling two babies?” I asked, knowing I had one on the way I hadn’t told anyone about just yet.

  “A nightmare,” she cringed and then removed her sunglasses.

  Oh, dear.

  I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing at her. Her mascara was everywhere; she looked like a raccoon.

  “Um... do you need to borrow some makeup remover?” I asked.

  “Please,” she said, and I ran back to my bathroom to get some for her.

  “Danny screamed at me this morning because he wanted to help Mommy with her makeup,” Paula said, looking quite stressed. “I just let him do it so that I could move on and finish getting ready... but I let him use the water proof stuff without realizing it, and I was out of makeup remover!”

  I watched Paula frantically wipe her face. Now her eyes were a bit red and swollen, but it certainly looked better than the raccoon look.

  “Sorry you had a rough morning,” I said.

  “It’s like that just about every morning. As soon as I get Danny ready, the baby need a diaper change. As soon as I get her diaper changed, Danny has decided to take his shoes off. Mornings are crazy now. You and Jim should wait and just enjoy Laurie for now because things get so hectic once you’re juggling two,” she said.

  And my stomach dropped.

  Ms. Put Together struggles with two? She showed up at my house looking like a bank robber with that mascara mask – what would I look like once baby number two got here?

  Paula gave me a big hug and thanked me again for babysitting. She handed her latest bundle of joy off to me before heading out with little instruction.

  I placed baby Chloe down on a blanket next to Laurie, and the two of them cooed at one another.

  I smiled, glad they were going to get along.

  With the team of superhero’s out, Danny was effectively entertained for the time being. In fact, they kept him occupied significantly longer than I thought that they would which made my job as babysitter a heck of a lot easier.

  I sat on the floor between him and the babies, playing with all three of them. It was actually fun playing pretend with Danny, and it got me excited for when Laurie reached a more playful age like this.

  Then he got bored.

  He didn’t want to play with the superhero’s anymore, and now he wanted to explore my entire house.

  I ran around behind him closing the doors to keep him from disappearing in a room, but that made him mad.

  My whole house wasn’t baby proofed yet, so I didn’t want him sticking his finger in a light socket or something!

  Then I got to see a true-blue toddler tantrum and learn the true meaning of Terrible Two’s. I cringed – his loud screaming startled Laurie, and she too started crying.

  Panic swelled inside of me.

  Maybe I’d bitten off more than I could chew.

  <><><>

  I did it. I did it, and I have absolutely no idea how.

  Laurie was the first one down, followed by Chloe.

  The babies were easy. I know how to coax a baby to sleep as I have had five months of practice in that regard.

  Danny was another story. Basically, I wound him and then let him calm himself down. Made him tired from running around and playing. But, by some miracle he finally fell asleep while I held him and did the Mama sway. His little head rested on my shoulder, and I went and laid him down in my room.

  Pride swelled inside me.

  I could hardly believe that I’d managed to wrangle three little ones down for a nap all at the same time. It was a mastery feat, I’d say.

  True, this was my first real experience with multiple kiddos all at once. I’d have to have a lot more and for a much more extended period of time before I got a real idea of what it was like, but I still felt pretty good about this one.

  Suddenly finding myself with unexpected time to myself, I decided to get some work done on the case. I pulled out the drawing board – literally. Jim had a drawing board set up in his office, and since it was currently just collecting dust, I decided to put it to use.

  I wrote everything that I’d learned so far about Kelly’s murder... which was not a lot, but I stuck it all up there. I printed out some pictures of my potential suspects... also not much there... and stuck it up on the board as well. I needed to visualize, I felt. If I visualized it, maybe I could start to look at it from a new angle as Galigani had told me to do.

  Nothing.

  I had nothing.

  Great, I growled. Once again, I had nothing. Suddenly, my cellphone started ringing. Now, when you have a house full of three sleeping little ones, any little noise makes you freak. I practically leaped across the room to answer that phone quickly in fear of waking even one of them up.

  Thankfully, there was silence.

  “This is Kate,” I said, failing to check caller ID before answering because I had been so frazzled.

  “Hey, Kate,” Galigani’s voice came through the phone.

  “Galigani,” I said. “What’s going on? Everything okay with mom?”

  “Oh yeah. No problem there. I wanted to call and let you know that McNearny arrested Merida.”

  “Really?”

  “Something about a Facebook post?” Galigani said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know which one he’s talking about. It’s from two years ago right after she and Ryan broke up. She posted some nasty stuff about Kelly, but that was two years ago, and she put up an apology post just a few days later. Since then she’s never had anything but nice things to say about Kelly. They really arrested her over a Facebook post?”

  “That’s not all,” he said. “An attendant at the spa mentioned to McNearny that she saw Merida rummaging around in the supply closet. And we do know that the face mask was tampered with. But what’s really interesting is that we know Kelly was killed with Ethylene glycol, antifreeze, and the M.E. thinks she consumed that with coffee.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “One of Jane’s staff said, she saw Merida give Kelly a cup of coffee.”

  “Oh!” I exclaimed. “That’s pretty convicting. Plus, we did see Merida and Ryan locking lips at the funeral.”

  “It’s all circumstantial though. There’s no proof,” Galigani said. “Even if the girl did hand her the coffee, it doesn’t mean she put the poison in it, right? But, what they’ve found does make her seem suspicious.”

  “Right,” I said. “But it doesn’t explain what happened to me and mom. If Merida had it out for Kelly –okay, but she wasn’t anywhere near the spa yesterday, was she? I’m going to keep digging.”

  “Atta girl,” he said.

  I heard a voice in the background and knew my mom was calling him.

  “How is Mom?” I asked. “Is she keeping you busy today.”

  “Doing better,” he said. “She is still a little nauseous. But the doc said she should be back to her old whippersnapper self soon.” He paused. “If anything, we need to solve this case for her.”

  “I know,” I said. “Someone made this really personal by pulling her into this.
Mom could have been killed. I’m ready to put this case behind me – and put whoever is responsible behind bars. And, I’m not convinced that someone is Merida. Thanks for the pep talk, Galigani.”

  We said goodbye and I noticed Paula pulling into my driveway.

  Paula, always on time, arrived right at one o’clock as promised. I spied her from the window walking with extra pep in her step as she exited her vehicle and practically skipped up my walkway.

  Clearly her meeting had gone well. Her business was really starting to take off again, and I couldn’t be happier for her. I just hoped that my business would take off as well as hers.

  Step one for that would be solving this stupid case! I smiled as I answered the door, and she was grinning ear to ear.

  “How did it go?” she asked as she entered my living room. “Where are they at? You didn’t lose them, did you?” she teased.

  “All three of them are asleep in Laurie’s room,” I said with pride radiating off me.

  “Wow!” Paula said glittery eyed. I still wonder if a part of her questioned if I had given the kids cold medicine or something with the way she looked at me for a second there. “Way to go, Super Mom!”

  “Thanks,” I said. “So how did it go with the new client?”

  “Really great,” she said. “I really appreciate you watching the little ones.”

  “So, who is the client exactly?” I asked.

  “The spa,” she said. “Sean O’Neil hooked me up, and now I’m helping them create an awesome new look. And, believe me, they needed it. The décor was so drab. It needed an upgrade.”

  “I saw some of your touch there yesterday,” I said. “What else do they have you doing over there?”

  Paula sat down on my couch, and kicked off her heels. “I got big plans for the lobby, girl. First impressions are everything and I want a cohesive look, especially with the additional of the nail salon.”

  “What are you going to do with the salon?” I asked.

  “They’re adding in a pool,” she said. “So, I’m going big time with the aquatic look. You saw my fish tanks?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Love the tanks. But where are they putting in a pool? Isn’t the salon pretty small?”

  “Yeah, it is. But it’ll be a lap pool. They’re knocking out about half of the nail stations to create enough space. So, they’ll be going from like thirty stations to about eight,” she said.

  “That’s a pretty big change,” I said. “I wonder how the people at the salon feel about that?”

  “I don’t know,” Paula said. “They didn’t seem all that happy to have me walking around in there, to be honest. Not once they all realized I worked for the spa.”

  “Huh,” I said. “That’s interesting... hey, since the little ones are all asleep, do you think you could keep an eye on them while I run out and take care of something really quick?”

  “Sure thing. They’re sleeping – that’s easy. I’ll sit here, relax, and make use of your TV,” she said, kicking her bare feet up onto my coffee table. She smiled at me. “And may I ask, where are you going?”

  “The spa,” I said and searching for my shoes and purse. “I just had a thought.”

  “What sort of thought?” she asked.

  I smiled. “Just a new angle. I’ll be back soon. Thanks, Paula.”

  I hurried out the door, eager to chase down my new lead.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I pulled into the parking lot of the shopping complex where the spa was located, but instead of parking in front of the spa I pulled into a space right in front of the nail salon. I didn’t want Ms. North to know I was there because realistically, I only had time to speak to the people in the salon before I needed to head back home to relieve Paula of babysitting duties.

  I hopped out of my car and headed inside, and as soon as I entered I cringed at the mess that lay before me. Half of the nail salon was cordoned off for upcoming construction. There was tape on the floor marking where the future lap pool would be. There was dust and debris everywhere from the wall that was being demoed.

  A group of women were gathered together in a back corner shouting and arguing with one another.

  This place looks like a disaster zone.

  I imagined with all of the construction business was probably suffering.

  “I know, I know!” a serious looking you woman, with a square jaw, shouted at the group of employees from behind the counter. “I am doing my best, all right? Now go home those of you who are not on the schedule for today. I’ll call you all next week with your new schedules!”

  The angry women dispersed, and I heard them whispering hatefully to one another about the spa next door and the construction.

  Some women left while about half remained behind, but they all slumped down at different nail stations with their arms crossed not looking any more satisfied than the women who had been asked to leave.

  The young woman with the square jaw, spotted me first. She smiled. “Welcome!” she sang. “How may I help you?”

  I stepped forward and introduced myself. “My name is Kate. Ms. North hired me as a private investigator to help the police with the case they are working regarding the murder that took place next door.”

  The entire room of women leaning closer to me.

  I glanced around at them, hesitating. “Would you mind if you and I spoke privately for a moment?” I asked.

  The woman nodded, and the two of us headed into a back room. “Everything all right?” she asked me.

  “We’ll see,” I said. “I was hoping you could tell me more about the business merger taking place.”

  “Not much to tell,” the woman said. “We’re losing business to the spa.”

  “Really?” I questioned. “When I spoke to the spa owner, it sounded like the merger’s been fairly peaceful.”

  “Sure,” the woman said. “I suppose so. Not like we had much of a choice, though. They were talking about adding in a small room for nails, and if they had done that it would have completely ruined us. They wanted to add in a pool too but didn’t have the room, so the owner got pressured into selling out.”

  “That’s horrible,” I said, surprised that Jane hadn’t mentioned that to me. “Well, at least all the employees here are keeping their jobs, right? Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

  “That was part of the agreement,” she said. “But we’re having a hard time. They’re wiping out half of our salon stations to add in that silly lap pool. With half the stations available I can only have half the number of employees on at a time. So, everyone’s hours are getting cut.”

  Additional shouting erupted from beyond where we stood.

  The woman sighed. “I have to take care of this,” she said. “Sounds like more of the employees are fighting over schedules.” She disappeared.

  I follow her, but when I came out into the main room I didn’t see her anywhere. She’d managed to slip away, and I hadn’t even gotten her name.

  I snagged one of the nail stylist and asked her the name of the young woman I had been speaking to. “Sonya,” she said. “She’s the head manager – the owner’s daughter.”

  “Interesting,” I said and mentally repeated the name Sonya so that I wouldn’t forget. “Is the owner in today?”

  “No,” the stylist said. “She hardly ever is, honestly. Pokes her head in for five minutes once a day during the week and never stops by on the weekends.”

  “Can I leave my information with you and get you to ask her to call me?” I asked.

  “Sure,” the woman said, and I scribbled down my information.

  Feeling like I had learned something from my adventure to the salon that day, I headed out. I knew Paula had a good bit she wanted to get done that day, so I did not bother tracking down Sonya just yet. It wasn’t like the nail salon was going anywhere.

  On my drive home, I contemplated what I’d learned. Jane probably didn’t realize the hostility the women in the nail salon had regarding the merger
; everyone had been able to keep their jobs, after all.

  But, knocking out half of the stations and thereby cutting everyone’s hours was certainly something to hold a grudge against.

  Perhaps this was my new angle!

  Kelly was perfect as a human being could possibly be. No enemies – none – that I had been able to dig up. Even her future mother-in-law and her fiancé’s former fling had descent or even flattering things to say about her.

  Maybe Kelly had merely been a victim of circumstance?

  Maybe the whole point was to get back at Jane and her spa by disrupting her business!

  Yes, I really think I might be onto something.

  It was in that moment that I recalled one of my first interviews for the case. An attendant had told me how smooth the merger was going and I had written it off.

  Holy cow, I had ignored my first instinct and had drifted off on this ridiculous path trying to find someone who hated America’s Sweetheart! I was suddenly feeling pretty stupid.

  Finally, that new angle Galigani had been telling me to find was staring at me. Kelly had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps the true murderer had wanted to kill someone – anyone – and not specifically Kelly.

  Tainting coffee, face creams tampered with, deadly saunas...

  All of it could very well have been about trying to ruin the reputation of Pampered to Death.

  Now, the question, was who?

  A disgruntled employee of the nail salon?

  The manger, Sonya, I’d spoken to earlier today had certainly seemed stressed? Was she a killer? Or the owner whom I’d yet to identify...

  Oh no! I didn’t get the owner’s name!

  I rolled my eyes at myself. That was stupid. I figured live and learn, though. That should be easy enough information to gather. I could look that up online or through the city records.

  No big deal.

  As I was mentally creating a new to do list for myself, I arrived back in my driveway. I took a breath and hit the pause button on my investigation.

  I stepped out of the car and was met by Paula at the front door. She was all smiles as she handed Laurie over to me very quickly.

  “Hold up, Speederman is chasing Whiskers, let me nab him before he pulls the poor things tail off.” Paula darted back into the house as I carried Laurie across the threshold of my front door.