by R A Wallace
Jerry looked over at the tents. There were two teams, one from each salon. Each team had two people cutting hair at any one time. It looked like each team also had a dedicated promoter who tried to entice customers into the tent to have their hair cut. At the moment, the promoters were the salon owners. There were large signs explaining that the donations for the cuts all went to charity and that the losing salon would add a bonus to the donation at the end of the event.
“Me neither. Looks like Irlene’s is competing with Cybil’s this year,” Jerry said.
“Well, either way, it’s for a good cause. Should make it more exciting I guess. It was good talking with you. I should get home to work,” Madison said as she took a step away.
“Hey, maybe we could go for a run together by the lake again?” Jerry suggested. He was rewarded with a smile. “I know I’ll be there after work today, once it cools down a bit.”
“That sounds like a great idea. I’ll see you later Officer Jerry.” Madison turned and walked away, checking out the produce on the way out of the town square. Some swiss chard caught her eye at one of the booths. She recognized Megan Bennet behind the table filled with produce and baked goods. The other woman must be her cousin, Lauren.
“Hey, I could use some of this. I’ll take a dozen eggs too,” Madison told Megan.
“Here you go,” Megan handed the package to Madison and accepted the money. “Are you on your way out?”
“I am. You two ladies have a great day,” Madison said with a smile and a wave. Megan and Lauren watched her walk away.
“She is beautiful,” Lauren said.
Megan nodded but then the smile froze on her face when she saw Irlene bearing down on them.
“You two need a trim,” Irlene announced.
Lauren greeted another customer that walked up behind Irlene and sold them a pie, then turned back to Irlene. “I can’t go but I’ll man the table so that Megan can.”
Megan glared at her treacherous cousin. Lauren smiled back sweetly. Irlene reached across the table and grabbed Megan’s arm then led her down the aisle toward the tent. Megan tried dragging her feet but it didn’t slow Irlene down.
“I don’t really need a cut,” Megan said.
“We’ll just take a little bit off the ends. It’s for a good cause,” Irlene said between breaths. They were moving at a fairly quick clip despite Megan’s efforts to slow them down.
“I don’t want anything crazy,” Megan tried again.
“You’re still sore at me for the pageboy when you were eleven,” Irlene said. “That cut looked darling on you.”
“I was ten,” Megan said as they reached the tents where the contest was taking place.
“Look, I can’t lose to that woman. Do this as a favor for me, please. We’ll just spritz the ends of your hair and take off an eighth of an inch, I swear. You won’t be able to tell,” Irlene pleaded.
Megan looked at Irlene and knew she was doomed. Irlene looked upset. Megan couldn’t turn her down. True, the pageboy had failed to turn her into a princess but Irlene had done a great job with Megan’s hair when she’d married Josh. And she’d always been kind to Megan.
“Okay, a trim. Sounds great.” Megan forced a smile.
Irlene looked relieved. “Excellent. There’s a line right now but you’ll be up in a few minutes. I’ll go look for more customers.”
Megan watched Irlene walk away, then turned when she heard someone nearby.
“Are you here for a cut?” Cybil Lacey asked. “We can take you right over here. I have some ideas in mind for a new cut for you.” Cybil grabbed Megan’s arm and tried to pull her away.
Megan had allowed Irlene to drag her to the tent because of the long history they shared. She didn’t budge when Cybil attempted to pull her to the other tent. “No, I’m good.”
Cybil threw a hateful look over Megan’s shoulder to the retreating back of Irlene. “She’s going out and rounding people up from all over this stupid square.” Cybil tossed her head. Her well-sprayed, purple-tipped blonde hair never moved. Her makeup was heavily applied, the deep purple color complementing the tips of her hair. Her long nails were painted in a matching shade.
Megan looked down and marveled that anyone could work on heels that high all day then glanced over at Irlene’s tent. There were still a couple of people ahead of her. Cybil hadn’t moved from Megan’s side. Megan tried to think of something to say but she didn’t actually know Cybil. “You aren’t from around here?” Megan figured it was a safe conversation piece.
Cybil snorted. “No, but this place reminds me of where I grew up. We had the same kind of town square with a water fountain. At least your water fountain isn’t stupid.”
Megan wasn’t sure what to say about that. “Where was that? Did you grow up in Pennsylvania?”
“Yes, Halcyon. I ask you, what kind of stupid name is that?” Cybil sneered and tossed her head again. “Well, if I can’t talk you into a cut, I’d better find someone else. I plan to beat that woman and not just with this contest. If she can walk around and get customers, I can too.” Cybil flashed an evil smile and walked off.
Megan heard someone hailing her and looked over at Irlene’s tent. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward.
Chapter Six
Megan made sure that she arrived at the farmers market earlier than Lauren again on Saturday morning. She knew her cousin. Lauren would try to carry everything herself. Megan preferred to do the running back and forth to get all of Lauren’s baked goods for her to help Lauren. It was only fair. There were times when Megan couldn’t stay at the farmers market when she had guests and Lauren handled the sales for both of them. As was the custom, they’d left the tent and tables in place over night. They would take everything down at the end of the day and bring it all back the following Friday morning.
Megan had just gotten her produce from the farm to their tent when she saw Lauren coming her way wheeling a cart. She quickly jogged over to her cousin. “Tag, you’re it. You man the table and I’ll go get the stuff from your van.”
“Being pregnant isn’t an illness, you know,” Lauren said. She had already begun showing, but barely.
“I know that, but it makes me feel better so just humor me, okay?” Megan began pulling the cart toward their tent before Lauren could come up with a response. She quickly off-loaded the baked goods that were on the cart then held out her hand for Lauren’s keys. Lauren sighed and tossed them over. Megan flashed her cousin a grin and took off with the cart.
She was rounding the end of the row when she noticed there was a lot of activity at the tents where the hair cutting competition was taking place. When she’d gotten home last night, she’d been relieved to see that her trim was just a trim as Irlene had promised. They’d barely taken anything off. Megan wondered what all the excitement was about but left it behind to find Lauren’s van and get more of her baked goods onto the cart.
On the return trip, the crowd around the hair cutting competition tents had grown. That seemed like a good thing, Megan thought. More money for the charity. Though, it didn’t really look like anyone was getting their hair cut. She returned to Lauren. “Looks like something might be going on over with Irlene and Cybil.”
“They haven’t pulled each other’s hair out, have they?” Lauren asked as she set her baked goods out on the table.
“No, actually I guess I didn’t even see Cybil. Maybe they’re still waiting on her to show. There seems to be a lot of people hanging around waiting to get their hair cut. I updated the web pages last night with their standings in the competition after Jessilyn texted me the numbers. They’re dead even.”
“Well, that sounds like a good thing,” Lauren said absently as she took the last of the baked goods from Megan.
“Okay, this should be the last trip. I’ll be right back,” Megan said before heading back down the row. The crowd by the competition tents appeared to have doubled in size since the last time she’d passed it. Megan stopped and narrowed her eye
s. There seemed to be a lot of confusion in the crowd. That doesn’t look good, Megan thought. Then she saw Erica and Jerry in full uniform making their way to the center of the crowd. That was when she knew it couldn’t be good.
Megan hung around a little trying to figure out what was going on, but the crowd was too large to make it through with her cart. She made the last trip to Lauren’s van instead and brought the baked goods back to their tent, leaving the cart with Lauren. “You wait here, I’ll check it out.”
“Try not to get involved,” Lauren cautioned. When Megan turned and frowned at her, Lauren shrugged. “Just saying.”
Megan wove through the crowd near the competition tents until she got to Erica and Jerry. Jerry remained with the crowd, trying to talk them down while Megan caught Erica’s eye and met her on the side. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” Megan said.
Erica nodded her head once and took a deep breath. “Cybil Lacey. You know her?”
Megan looked across the crowd at Irlene. She looked devastated. And scared. Megan looked back at Erica but only saw herself in the reflection of Erica’s sunglasses. “Not really. Mind if I stay with Irlene a bit?”
“You might want to suggest she get a lawyer.” Erica gave another quick nod and went back to Jerry. They both were taking names of people from the crowd and asking them questions.
Megan worked her way over to Irlene and grabbed her hand, pulling her gently, but firmly from the crowd. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Irlene practically whined, then caught herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, then focused them on Megan. “I don’t know.” This time her voice was calmer. “She didn’t show up this morning, so her employee went to the salon to see if she was there. They found her… her body.” Irlene covered her mouth with a hand and turned away.
Megan placed her hand on Irlene’s upper arm. “Irlene, what aren’t you telling me?”
Irlene shook her head several times before getting control of herself again. “I’m such an idiot. We got into a fight last night at the end of the competition. We said some things, both of us, that we shouldn’t have. And now she’s dead. The police are going to think I did it.” Irlene’s eyes were tearing up and she covered her mouth with her hand again, partially turning away.
Megan looked at Irlene’s long, painted nails and part of her brain wondered how anyone worked like that. The other part of her brain zeroed in on the fact that Irlene was in trouble. Now she understood what Erica had meant. “You might want to call Jennifer Parker or someone. I’m not sure if Jennifer is the right kind of lawyer, but she’ll tell you if she isn’t and give you another name to call.”
Irlene’s head whipped over to stare at Megan for a moment, her mouth a perfect ‘O’ in shock, her hand frozen in mid-air where it had been covering her mouth before she’d turned her head toward Megan. Then she snapped her mouth shut and nodded. Her hand came down to pull her phone out and she walked away.
Megan made her way through the crowd back to Lauren and explained what she knew.
“Cybil Lacey is dead? And they think it’s murder?” Lauren said in surprised tones as she shook her head, her shocked eyes wide open and remaining forward, focused on Megan.
“What did you know about her?” Megan asked.
“Nothing, really. I don’t have a lot of time to have my hair done.” Lauren smiled brightly as someone stopped to buy another pie.
Megan waited until the customer left. “Me neither, but if I did I’d go to Irlene. I mean, she’s just always been there for us.”
Lauren looked at Megan. “You don’t suppose…”
“That Irlene did it?” Megan finished. “I can’t see that, can you?”
Lauren didn’t even hesitate. “No. Who do you think did?”
“I’m sure Erica and Jerry are working on that,” Megan said as another customer approached. Megan sold two dozen eggs and thanked the customer. Megan hadn’t recognized them. Not everyone at the farmers market was local. They drew a lot of people in from nearby towns.
They could hear other people talking about the death as they walked past their tent. “How is Irlene holding up?” Lauren asked. She knew from personal experience what it felt like to have people in town talking about her. She didn’t wish that on anyone.
“I don’t know. But she said they’d gotten into a public argument last night. It doesn’t look good.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” Lauren said as she placed her hand on Megan’s arm. “Maybe you do need to get involved.”
Chapter Seven
Erica signed her name on the paperwork she’d completed for the murder case they were working without thinking then had to go back and add her new last name. She’d begun using Henley again since she and Brad had remarried. She knew she still periodically signed things using Bennet from habit, but she thought she was getting better. She now used Henley more often than not.
She tossed the completed paperwork aside and then looked up at the murder board, leaning back in her chair as she did so. She’d made it in to work before Jerry and had gotten the paperwork done. He had promised to pick up breakfast on his way in if she did. She smelled the food before she saw him. Her stomach rumbled loudly as she stood and met him half way across the room.
Jerry watched her tear off the wrapper of the breakfast sandwich quickly and dig in before setting her coffee down on a nearby desk. He’d gotten her decaf and hoped she wasn’t going to give him grief because of it. So far, she hadn’t acted like any of his sisters when they’d been pregnant. Other than maybe the irritability but that appeared to have passed for now.
Jerry got his own breakfast sandwich from the bag and began to unwrap it. Erica had already finished hers and was digging around in the bag again. She looked up at Jerry, her narrowed eyes fixed on the sandwich that had made it halfway to his mouth. Jerry sighed and put it back into the wrapper before handing it to Erica. She immediately began eating it.
“Aren’t you supposed to be sick by now?” Jerry asked, sounding somewhat frustrated.
Erica shrugged. “When does that usually happen,” she said around a mouthful of food.
“One of my sisters swore it was within five minutes of getting pregnant. The others say around four to six weeks.” Jerry grabbed his coffee and decided to focus on the murder board.
They’d put up a picture of Cybil Lacey and had begun writing everything they knew about her. They’d gotten her appointment book from her salon and had also begun looking into her appointments. They’d started with the recent ones and then begun working their way back. They’d made a list of the customers she’d handled recently, added her employee to it, then added Irlene Lasinski and her employee, and had divided the list up among the two of them.
Erica rolled the second sandwich wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the trash can. “Do you want to meet here for lunch and go over what we learn before heading back out in the afternoon?”
“You’re buying lunch,” Jerry said defensively. Erica grinned as she grabbed her list and headed out the door.
***
Molly Winters signed into her register and took the closed sign off of the end of her conveyor. The small grocery store wasn’t busy at all yet on this Sunday morning, but experience had taught her that could change in an instant. She stood at her post, her arms wrapped around herself deep in thought. She remembered the first time she’d gone to Cybil to have her hair done. She still didn’t know what had made her do it. She’d gone to Irlene for decades and Irlene had always done right by her. But one day she’d gotten up and looked at her forty year old self in the mirror and realized that time was just flying by. And here she was, all alone. She’d thought maybe some new haircut would make her look more appealing, maybe younger.
She snorted at herself and shook her head. Look where that had gotten her. In a mess, that’s where. And she had no idea how to get out of it. She should have never done what she’d done, Molly thought in despair. What if someone finds out?
Molly shook herself from her thoughts and looked up to see a police officer standing in front of her. She froze in terror.
“Molly Winters, I need to speak with you for a few moments. Is there somewhere we can speak privately?” Erica asked, removing her sunglasses as she did. The woman across from her had that deer-in-the-headlights look and seemed frozen. “Ma’am?”
Molly jerked as though the police officer had hit her. “Yes,” she stammered. “In the office in the back.” Molly glanced over at the other cashier and nodded once, then led the way through the store to the small office in the rear next to the employee restroom. It was usually used by the manager, but he wouldn’t be in on a Sunday. Molly handled the morning opening of the store.
Erica remained standing in the doorway of the small office. There wasn’t anyone else around. The only other person in the store appeared to be the other cashier at the front. “I need to ask you about Cybil Lacey. Can you tell me what you know about her?”
“Not much,” Molly stammered again. “She just did my hair.”
“Did the two of you ever argue?” Erica waited patiently while the woman shook her head vehemently, then she continued through a litany of possibilities. “Did you get along? Did you see her outside of the salon?” Erica continued asking questions while Molly Winters continued answering very quickly, mostly in the negative.
“Ma’am, can you tell me anything that might help with my investigation? I understand that you had your hair done very recently.” Again, Molly shook her head no. “What did you two usually talk about when Cybil did your hair?” This time, Erica noted a brief hesitation before Molly answered.
“Oh, not much. Things going on in town, that sort of thing,” Molly said vaguely.
“Did she ever talk about her life before she came here? Other people that she knew?” Erica asked.