“Please tell me you’re joking?” Liana asked hopefully.
“I was joking,” Amy assured her. “Mostly,” she added with a devilish gleam in her eye.
“Laina?” a shrill voice called.
A hairstylist had come into the waiting area.
She was petite and about twenty-five years old, with long hair that had been dyed jet black. She wore heavy black eyeliner and had long fingernails that had been painted crimson. The look was harsh, yet it suited her. The young woman was pretty in a hard-partying rockstar sort of way.
The hairstylist wore a pink and black animal print smock. Beneath it, she had on black leather pants and sparkly silver stilettos. Liana was admittedly no fashion expert, but she had to do a double take. She suspected the shoes were designer...and very expensive.
That was unusual. Folks in Sugarcomb Lake didn’t usually dress up very much. They certainly didn’t wear pricy designer clothes. Well, except for Barbara Norman and Patricia Porter. But those two social climbing busybodies were in a class all of their own.
“Laina?” the hairdresser called again, looking around impatiently. “Laina! Where is Laina?”
Amy was trying to hold her laughter in. “That’s Delia. I think she’s calling for you. Apparently she’s renamed you! Reading may not be her strong point.” With a giggle, she scuttled off, leaving Liana to meet Delia on her own.
“I, uh...hi!” Liana said, cautiously approaching Delia. “I’m Liana.”
Delia barely even glanced her way. “I’m looking for Laina,” she snapped, sounding annoyed.
“Yes but...I think that’s me,” Liana explained. “I’m your next appointment.”
“Oh!” Delia exclaimed. Her eyes narrowed. “Hang on.”
Before Liana could say another word, Delia had stormed off to the reception desk. There, she lit into her colleague for writing Liana’s name down incorrectly. She was loud, rude and very, very indiscreet. The confrontation was awkward to witness, yet impossible to ignore.
Was it misplaced grief? Or was Delia simply a nasty, vile person?
Liana wasn’t sure.
Once Delia had finished screaming at the poor receptionist, she returned to the waiting area. Her entire demeanor had changed. She had a bright, perky smile plastered across her face...though it didn’t quite reach her heavily charcoaled eyes.
“This way, Liana!” Delia chirped in a syrupy sweet voice.
Stunned, all Liana could do was follow Delia over to the hair washing station. The transformation she had witnessed made Jekyll and Hyde seem tame in comparison. Either Delia was the phoniest person in town or....well, what other explanation was there?
Delia Day was the phoniest person in town. And she seemed to be awfully nasty, too.
That ought to make Liana’s investigation interesting...
Chapter 09
“Ow!” Liana gasped.
Twenty minutes had passed. Her hair had been washed, trimmed and styled. Trying to get Delia to open up about her life had been like pulling teeth. And just when Liana had finally started to get somewhere, Delia had brought out the hot wax and tweezers.
“Hold still,” Delia ordered.
“I’m trying!” Liana assured her, wincing in pain.
Why did women wax and pluck their eyebrows? It was so painful!
Actually, it had never been this anywhere near this painful before. Usually when Liana had Amy do her eyebrows, it was only a mildly unpleasant experience. But this time? This time was excruciating. And it seemed to be taking forever.
Liana hoped a little snooping would help distract her. It was time for some girl talk.
“Are you new to Sugarcomb Lake?” she asked Delia.
“I moved here about six months ago,” Delia replied, sounding bored. She didn’t seem to be very interested in chatting. That seemed unusual, given that hairdressing was a very social profession. Most hairdressers Liana had encountered loved to visit. But not Delia.
“What brought you to town?” Liana pressed, refusing to take a hint. “Was it work, or…?” She trailed off, hoping that she had baited Delia well enough. With any luck, asking an open-ended question would force the standoffish hairdresser to talk about herself a little.
“My great-aunt died. I inherited her house,” Delia said matter-of-factly.
“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Delia shrugged.
Liana tried another approach. “Have you had a chance to get settled in? I mean, how are you liking it here so far?” she asked. She was hopeful and she and Delia might be able to find some common ground.
“It’s boring here,” the hairdresser yawned. “Green City is way better.”
“Ouch!” Liana yelped as Delia went after her eyebrows with the tweezers. “That hurts!”
“Beauty is pain,” Delia replied, not sounding the least bit sorry.
“I grew up in Sugarcomb Lake. Since you’re new, I’d love to show you around,” Liana offered.
That last part was a fib.
Liana didn’t actually want to spend any more time with Delia than she had to. But she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to coax anything of value out of the rude hairdresser before the appointment was over. She figured inviting Delia to hang out with her would help further the investigation into Chester’s death.
“What is there to see here?” Delia asked snootily. “This town is a hole.”
Liana felt herself bristle at that. She completely understood that small towns weren’t for everyone. Some people simply felt more at home in the city, and that was fine. But there was no need to be so rude. Delia knew Sugarcomb Lake was Liana’s hometown, and yet she was more than willing to insult it. Who did that?
It was time to stop playing nice.
Liana decided to be blunt and to-the-point. She wasn’t going to tiptoe around the delicate questions any longer. Instead, she was going to unapologetically charge ahead, just like a bull set loose in a china shop.
“I heard you were dating Chester Atkins,” Liana told Delia. “What happened to him is terrible. I’m really sorry for your loss. How long were you two together?”
“A while,” Delia replied. Could she be any more vague?
“Losing him must have been so hard on you. I can’t imagine going through that.”
Liana paused a moment to give Delia an opportunity to respond.
When the hairdresser didn’t say anything, Liana asked, “What was Chester like?”
“He was great at first,” Delia said emotionlessly as she reached for more hot wax. “He was generous. He spoiled me. He promised to take care of me. But it was all an act,” she added, a trace of bitterness in her voice. “Eventually his true colors showed through.”
“What do you mean?” Liana demanded, instantly forgetting about the pain of having her eyebrows shaped. She sat up and pushed the tweezers away. For the first time since she had arrived at the hair salon, she felt like she was onto something.
“Chester was a cheapskate,” Delia said angrily. “I’m sure you’ve met guys like him. They sweep you off your feet in the beginning, wining and dining you. They act like they want to give you the world on a silver platter. Then, once they get comfortable, that all changes.”
Liana actually didn’t know any guys like that. Of course, she hadn’t dated much in recent years, either. And most of her so-called relationships didn’t seem to last past the second or third date, for some reason or other.
But she didn’t tell Delia that.
Instead, she nodded sympathetically.
“Were you two still together when Chester, you know...died?”
Delia hesitated. “Technically, I guess. Things had been cooling off for a while.”
“How so?”
“I mean, I had to come back to work, for goodness sake! When I met Chester, I thought my hairdressing days were behind me. He made me think they were. He made me think I would never have to work another day in my life. But then a couple months ago, I had to start workin
g here,” she complained.
The way Delia spoke, she made it sound like the salon was a terrible place to be employed.
In fact, she made it sound like she was allergic to work in general.
Liana was having a hard time sympathizing. She decided her best bet was to keep her mouth shut and keep her facial expression neutral. The last thing she wanted was for Delia to feel judged and clam up.
Thankfully, the quieter Liana was, the more Delia vented.
“About a week before Chester died, I gave him an ultimatum. I told him if he wasn’t willing to treat me right, I was leaving him. I demanded he pay my credit card bills to prove I was his top priority. He insisted he was broke. He said he couldn’t afford to keep buying me designer handbags. I told him that wasn’t my problem.”
“Mmm,” Liana murmured in agreement.
Secretly, she was wondering how a person came to be as entitled as Delia seemed. It sounded like the snarky hairdresser dated men for all the wrong reasons. She wanted expensive gifts and a lavish lifestyle, not true love. Simply put, Delia appeared to be a golddigger.
“Where were you the day Chester died?” Liana asked.
“I forget,” Delia said.
Either her boyfriend’s tragic death hadn’t affected her at all, or Delia was lying. Liana wasn’t sure which was more likely. The one thing she was sure about, however, was that Delia hadn’t loved Chester. In fact, she may not have even liked him. She had simply seen him as a means to an end. He had essentially been nothing more to her than a meal ticket.
“Did Chester seem different to you in recent weeks?” Liana asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he was poisoned,” Liana explained, wondering how Delia could be so obtuse. “It’s likely Chester was poisoned over a matter of days or even weeks. If that’s the case, he must have had some physical symptoms. Had he been sick in the days or weeks before he died?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Delia replied with an alarming lack of emotion. “He had been complaining about feeling terrible, and he looked awful too. I forget what he said was wrong, exactly.”
“You forget?” Liana asked incredulously. Was this woman for real?
“He was always complaining about aches and pains due to his training regimen. It got annoying so I tried my best to tune him out,” Delia explained, showing no sympathy whatsoever.
“So Chester had been feeling and looking ill. I wonder why he didn’t go to the doctor?”
“He hated doctors,” Delia replied, exasperated. “His last doctor advised him to stop pushing himself so hard at the gym. But of course, Chester was too pigheaded to listen.”
“He was?”
“Yes. Instead of taking the doctor’s advice, he decided the guy was a quack. Actually, Chester decided all doctors were quacks. He decided he was only interested in holistic medicine, or some mumbo jumbo like that. I know who the real quack was.”
“Chester?” Liana wagered. She couldn’t believe how cold Delia was.
“Bingo. And on that note, your eyebrows are done,” Delia announced.
“Thank goodness,” Liana breathed. Her entire forehead felt like it was on fire.
“Take a look,” Delia instructed, handing Liana a small, handheld mirror.
Liana peered into the mirror and gulped.
The fuzzy brown caterpillars above her eyes were gone.
Now, instead of overgrown, slightly bushy brows, Liana was sporting two pencil thin lines. It almost looked like they had been drawn onto her face with a fine point marker. Liana had never, ever worn her eyebrows like that - nor had she wanted to.
It was all she could do not to cry.
“Aww, you’re tearing up,” Delia observed in that phony, chipper trill of hers. “Isn’t that sweet!” She practically yanked Liana’s smock off. “Okay, you have to go now. I need my chair free for my next customer. Time is money! Oh and speaking of money, don’t forget to tip me!”
Delia was utterly shameless. As Liana was herded over to the cash register, she felt numb. Part of her wanted to turn back around and yell at Delia. But what purpose would that serve? It wouldn’t make Liana feel any better, and it certainly wouldn’t make her eyebrows grow back.
“How did it go?” Amy asked, tapping Liana on the shoulder as she waited to pay.
Liana turned around.
Amy’s jaw dropped. “Oh my,” she murmured. Then she recollected herself and forced a smile. “Trying out a new look, are you? That’s...bold!” she chirped. Her feigned enthusiasm was completely unconvincing, but it was still sweet of her to try.
“Look at them!” Liana whimpered, gesturing to her barely there brows. “They’re hideous.”
“They’ll probably grow back,” Amy tried to reassure her.
“Probably?! Do you mean to tell me I might be stuck with these abominations forever?!”
“Some people find that their brows don’t grow back very well after being over-plucked,” Amy explained gently. “But I’m sure you won’t be one of those people,” she added quickly. “Just use some makeup to fill your brows in and be patient. I bet they’ll grow back.”
“They had better,” Liana grumbled. She made a face. “Thanks for not cackling at my misfortune. I know saying ‘it serves you right’ is probably really tempting right about now.”
“I considered it,” Amy admitted. “But I decided you’ve suffered enough already.”
“How does Delia even have a job here?” Liana ranted. “She’s awful!”
Amy offered a sympathetic smile. “I tried to warn you.”
“No, but seriously. How is she still employed?”
“Two of our girls are away on maternity leave right now, that’s how. We’re short staffed. I mean, this is the first day I haven’t been completely overbooked in weeks. So it was either hire Delia or turn business away.”
“Should have been the latter,” Liana grumbled. “I would gladly take no hairdresser over a bad one. I would much rather look like an unkempt woolly mammoth than go back to Delia again.”
Amy shot her an incredulous look. “A woolly mammoth? Really?” she asked skeptically.
“Okay, fine. I’d probably choose physical pain and emotional distress over that,” Liana admitted. She wrinkled her nose in displeasure. “That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? What can I say? I guess I’m a lot vainer than I thought.”
“It’s not such a bad thing,” Amy said cheerfully. “Vanity is what keeps me employed!”
“Well I’m glad my appearance isn’t what keeps me employed,” Liana quipped.
“Your eyebrows aren’t that bad,” Amy insisted. “You kind of look like you’re stuck in the 90s,” she admitted. “But the 90s weren’t so bad, were they? The 90s gave birth to the Spice Girls! Ooh, and all those boy bands I used to obsess over!”
Amy started humming a hit from the 90s.
Suddenly she stopped.
“I can’t believe all those boy band members are so old now. I feel like I should call them man bands, because they’re definitely not boys anymore. When did that happen? It makes me feel old. Liana, are we old?”
Liana groaned. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, it isn’t working,” she joked. “But speaking of working, I need to get back to the coffee shop. The new girl has to end her shift early for an appointment.”
“How are things working out with her?” Amy asked.
“Fine, I guess. She hasn’t burned the place down. In fact, I don’t think she’s even set off the smoke detector. That means she’s already miles ahead of the last guy,” Liana grinned.
Her previous employee had been an absent minded klutz with a bad attitude and poor work ethic. Anything was an improvement over him.
The door to the salon opened, letting in a burst of cool air. Someone walked in.
Liana didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was. The familiar click-clack of Irene Meddler’s cane was a dead giveaway. So were the shrill, unfounded complaints that immediately poured
out of the grouchy old woman’s mouth.
Amy visibly winced. “That would be my next client. Pray for me.”
Liana chuckled. “Suddenly my eyebrow predicament doesn’t seem so bad. At least I don’t need to make conversation with Mrs. Meddler for the next hour while she criticizes my every move. Good luck!”
“I’ll need it. See you around.”
“See ya!” Liana tossed her handbag over her arm and retrieved her jacket from the coat rack by the door. Then she turned and called out, “Amy, tell Sam to stop by the coffee shop when he has a chance, would you? I have some stuff I want to discuss with him.”
“Young people these days,” Mrs. Meddler muttered. “Always so loud. Tsk, tsk.”
Chapter 10
“Amy said you wanted to talk to me.”
Liana looked up from her notebook as Sam strolled into the coffee shop. He was in uniform and he looked tired. He had likely just finished his shift.
Liana was done for the day herself; her last customer had left only moments earlier. Now she was trying to get caught up with her accounting. She was seated in a booth by the window, mostly so that Fluffy could peer out into the darkness rather than “help” her with paperwork.
Fluffy’s idea of helping was to charge at the papers at full speed. The more he could send tumbling to the floor, the happier he was. Needless to say, it was for the best that he be distracted by the view out the window. Otherwise nothing would ever get done.
The cat hopped down from his perch next to Liana. He looked up at Sam warily. Then he cautiously approached and began to sniff at Sam’s shoes. Fluffy was giving the police officer a thorough inspection. It was almost like he knew that people weren’t supposed to come into the coffee shop after hours.
“Hey Sam,” Liana smiled as she set her calculator down. She quickly tidied up the papers she had strewn all over the table. Then she stood up. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“No problem,” Sam said, taking off his hat.
Fluffy peered from Sam to Liana and then back again. His protective streak was making an appearance, it seemed. But, once he figured out that Liana wasn’t in any danger, he tottered off to search for crumbs beneath the tables.
Strawberry Shortcake to Die For (A Liana Campbell Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 6
