by K C Hart
“Not much yet. Mrs. Smithers is coming in at one, so he’s only talked to three of them. The sheriff doesn’t believe in speculating, at least not out loud, anyway. He says that if you start guessing, then you don’t see the facts clearly.”
“I can understand that.” Katy rolled down the car window and waited while Todd shut her door. “But if you don’t at least try to figure things out, how will you ever make any progress?”
“I know, right?”
Chapter Fourteen
Katy parked next to Pam Newman’s ragged-out little compact car and walked the few feet to the concrete steps in front of the salon. Pam blew a line of gray smoke out of her nose and waved. The smoke coming from the woman’s nostrils was the same shade of gray as the metal building she was sitting in front of. The term “salon” probably didn’t actually fit to describe this hair styling establishment.
“You going to let me do something to that hair?” Pam asked. She placed the cigarette between her lips and sucked in. “I can make you look ten years younger.”
“I’m thinking about it.” Katy shifted her feet to the side to avoid the streams of blue-gray haze floating around Pam like a mist. “Do you have any pictures or magazines?”
“Sure.” Pam dropped the cigarette at her feet and crushed it on the concrete step with the heel of her Converse. “Come on. I have a book or two inside.”
Katy followed her into the dark little building and stood near the door as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. A shampoo bowl stood on the back wall with small white cabinets on either side. A couple of tan wicker chairs sat on the opposite wall with a petite wicker table in between. A cutting chair took center stage in the middle of the room. Mirrors lined the back wall, and posters with different famous landscapes from Great Britain and France were on the other wall. The local pop station played on the radio in the background.
“Have a seat and look,” Pam said handing Katy a magazine from the wicker table.
“I haven’t really made my mind up about anything.” Katy took the magazine and sat in one of the chairs. “I might need to ease into this.” She laughed shakily.
“We don’t have to do anything drastic, but you need to have your ends trimmed and shaped up.” She leaned across the table and flipped a few pages in the magazine. “I think something like this would be good, and not too much of a shock to your system.”
Katy looked at the picture. To her surprise the picture was of a middle-aged woman with her hair in a bob, no bright blue streaks or shaved temples or anything else exotic that Katy had imagined the hairdresser would suggest. She looked up at Pam and smiled.
“You thought I was going to show you some crazy Mohawk with pink tips or something, didn’t you?” Pam took the magazine back from Katy.
“Yeah, I guess I kind of did.” Katy bit her bottom lip and watched as Pam smiled slowly, like she was waiting for Katy to fess up.
“Don’t worry, I’m not offended.” Pam laid the magazine on the table and sat in the wicker chair across from Katy. Her smile relaxed her face and made Katy feel more at ease with the unusual-looking younger woman. “I love the way I look. It’s who I am. I don’t expect other people to like it or agree with it, but I don’t try to shove my look off on other people, either. I wouldn’t get very far as a hairdresser around here if I did.”
“No, I guess you wouldn’t.” Katy glanced again at the magazine lying between them. “Do you really think my hair would do that? I mean, every day do that, with just me fixing it?”
“Of course.” Pam leaned over and touched a fuzzy piece of hair that never seemed to stay in place, no matter how many times Katy tucked it. “You just need to get all the dead ends cut off and all of this old perm cut away.” She shrugged her shoulders and smiled as she pulled her hand back. “No offense, but fried hair is really an outdated look. I can’t believe somebody is still doing that to you.”
Katy smiled and glanced back at the magazine one more time so she wouldn’t have to meet Pam’s gaze. She had permed her own hair a couple of months ago. Mrs. Kimble, the woman who had been doing her hair for the past fifteen years, had fallen and broken her hip. She was in the nursing home having rehab, and Katy had not taken the time to find someone else. Mrs. Kimble had always told Katy she was her youngest customer. The woman was a member of the senior ladies’ Sunday school class, and the rest of her clients were probably in their seventies. Yeah, she needed a change.
“Alright, let’s do it.” She followed Pam to the shampoo bowl and sat down in the low chair and leaned back.
Pam eased Katy’s head onto the edge of the hard, cold bowl and began wetting her hair. “You don’t have very much gray. You must lead a quiet, worry-free life.”
Katy smiled as she thought about the events of the past year. “I wouldn’t say that. I guess I just don’t let things bother me. What about you? Is that shiny, black and blue hair style covering your worries?”
Pam squirted some fruity-smelling shampoo onto Katy’s scalp and began lathering her hair. “No, I like to keep my hair a little crazy, but my life I keep pretty simple. I just try to pay my bills, feed the dog, and keep clothes on my back.”
She rubbed the base of Katy’s neck with her thumbs, and Katy could feel the tension draining from her temples. Mrs. Kimble had definitely never washed her hair like this before. She opened her eyes and tried to remember why she had come in here. “How’s your business going? Are you picking up many customers?”
“Not as many as I would like. Most are teenagers who want me to do something radical with their hair, and that’s not good for return business.” She turned the sprayer back on and began to rinse the suds from Katy’s now completely relaxed head. “The water’s not too hot, is it?”
The water ran down the sides of Katy’s head and dripped into the bowl. “No, that feels good. Why is that not good business? I would think somebody that could do all the crazy cuts kids want would be raking in the business.”
“Naa, not in good ole Skeeterville, anyway. If you give the kid the radical look they want and make their parents mad, then they don’t come back because they can’t get the money to come back.” She turned off the sprayer and placed a white hand towel over Katy’s head and blotted the sopping hair. “And if you refuse to cut the hair the way they want because their parents won’t approve, they sure won’t come back. Kind of a danged if you do type thing, you know?”
“Oh yeah, I guess that does cause a problem.” Katy took the corner of the towel and mopped the water off her forehead that was running toward her eyes. “So, what kind of people would you like to see coming in here?” Katy glanced around the shop again, noting the normalcy of the place.
Pam removed the wet towel from Katy’s head and handed her another dry one. She stepped over to the cutting chair and waited for Katy to follow. “Just regular, everyday, boring people like you. No offense, but your type is the best for repeat business. People who work and make their own money and want to keep their hair looking nice.”
Katy sat in the chair and watched as Pam draped the black cape around her shoulders and pumped up the chair to the correct height, feeling just a slight twinge of guilt about her true motivation for being in the shop. “Well, give me a card or something and I’ll let people know about your shop.”
“That would be great, but you better wait and see if you like the finished product first.” Pam turned the chair around so that Katy could see their reflections in the mirror. “I was hoping to make a go of this on my own, but since Brock won’t be going in with me, I guess I’ll have to put in another chair and do booth rent.”
“Is Brock a silent partner?”
Pam pulled a skinny black comb from a nearby drawer and began to rake it through Katy’s hair. “No, you remember me telling you about my brother? He was supposed to eventually be using half of this place as a tattoo shop and help me pay for some of the expenses, but that’s not going to happen now.”
Katy allowed her head to be turned one w
ay and then the other by Pam’s hands as she examined her damp hair. “Somebody has really jacked up your hair. It’s all jagged, and there are these long and short pieces just all over the place.” Pam pulled pieces of hair straight up from Katy’s scalp and then let them fall as she spoke. “No wonder it keeps falling all over the place.”
Katy watched in the mirror as Pam puzzled over her unkempt mop. “Uh, well that person would be me.”
Pam raised one eyebrow and then the other as she studied Katy’s reflection. “You really should not cut your own hair.”
“Yeah, I know. Can you fix it?”
“Girl, I can fix anything.” Pam grinned from ear to ear, losing the hair police persona. “Even this.”
Katy let out a breath that she did not realize she was holding. She sat still as Pam turned her around so she could no longer see her reflection. “You are not going to have the tattoo thing in here now?” She rolled her eyes downward as pieces of hair fell to the floor, careful to keep her head still.
“No.” Pam snipped away. “And it’s probably for the best, anyway. I never was too sure how that would work out, but Brock assured me it was no big deal.”
“So why did you change your mind?”
“I didn’t. The Buford County jail changed it for me.”
Katy snapped her head up in surprise. “Jail?”
Pam gently guided Katy’s head back down and continued to cut. “Yeah, Brock got picked up for selling pot yesterday, and he is now a resident of the Buford County Correctional System.”
Katy stared forward quietly as what Pam said began to sink in. She started to say something but couldn’t think of anything that would be a suitable response.
“It’s okay.” Pam caught her eye in the mirror and patted Katy on the shoulder. “You don’t have to say anything. I know it’s not what decent folks expect to hear when they go to get their hair fixed.” She held up another strand of hair and swiftly trimmed the fuzzy ends. “But it is what it is, and there ain’t no use acting like it didn’t happen.”
“I guess it’s better that it happened before he went into business with you.” Katy paused, “I mean, nothing against your brother, but that kind of thing could ruin your reputation as a business owner.”
“Oh, I agree one hundred percent.” Pam stopped cutting and ran her fingers through Katy’s hair, pulling the hair from both sides of her head out straight at the same time. “I thought he was through with all that mess. Don’t get me wrong, Brock is basically a good guy. But he is always looking for a shortcut. He might as well have a big sign across his forehead that says Sucker.”
“He’s been in this kind of trouble before?”
“Yeah, but I thought he was through with all of that. He said that he had a real knack for this tattoo thing. Rob and I thought for sure that he was on the right track.” Pam sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I guess with Rob gone, Brock slipped back into his comfortable easy habits. You know, taking the easy way out.”
“I guess Rob was a good influence on him?” Katy tried to keep the astonishment out of her voice.
“That’s one of the things I loved about Rob. He was always having Brock over to his store to help him with things. He would give him odd jobs and then pay him a little here and there. That’s how I met Rob. I rode to his store one day to pick up Brock.” Pam stopped and turned the chair where Katy could see herself in the mirror. “Is that short enough? Once I dry it, it will be a little shorter.”
“Yes, that’s fine.” Katy glanced at her reflection in the mirror, more interested in what Pam was telling her than what Pam was showing her. Pam turned on the hair dryer and began to style Katy’s hair.
How could the Rob Clay that Pam described be the same man that she had heard about from every other person who knew anything about him? Either Pam was being completely fooled by the man, or he had a soft streak that he’d only shown to this one woman.
“Well, what do you think?” Pam smiled as she loosened the cape from around Katy’s neck. “Not half bad, if I do say so myself.”
Katy looked at the reflection in the mirror, and a grin spread across her face. “I do believe you are a magician.” All the unmanageable chicken-fuzz hair had disappeared, and a smooth chestnut bob framed her face. “I will definitely be telling my friends about you, and I will definitely be coming back.”
“Great. I needed a little good news for a change.” Pam grabbed a broom from the corner and began to sweep up the fallen hair into a pile. “If you know a hair stylist or a barber who wants to do booth rent, send them my way.”
“I will.” Katy dug down into her purse to find her wallet. “I’m really sorry about your little brother. Do you think he got mixed up with a bad crowd? Or was it maybe the stress of losing your friend Rob that got him turned in this direction?”
“He will blame it on something like that, for sure. Brock is good at finding excuses for his bad choices.” Pam swept the hair over to a little black box in the corner and nudged a button with her toe. The hair was quickly sucked in by the vacuum. She turned back towards Katy. “I’m going to find out where he is getting the pot from, though. That’s one thing I learned from Rob when Brock was in trouble before. Find out who is dangling that temptation of easy money in front of him and get him away from it.”
“Do you have any idea who that is?”
“No, but I’m going to see him tomorrow.” Pam’s face grew firm. “He will tell me if he knows what’s good for him.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I think he had her completely duped.” John looked over Katy’s shoulder at their reflections in the bathroom mirror. “She needed somebody to come along and rescue her and help her take care of her wayward little brother. She saw the Rob Clay she wanted to see and ignored the real man.”
“I’m not so sure, John.” Katy turned her head quickly from side to side and watched in amazement as her hair landed back in place. “This woman is not dumb, and she definitely is not starry eyed. She said that Rob Clay gave her little brother odd jobs around his store and helped keep him out of trouble. She had said before that Rob was seeing other women besides her, and she didn’t try to sugar coat that, either. I think she was pretty grounded in her thinking.”
“But you know this guy is a black-mailing sleaze ball. Do you really think somebody like that could have a good side?”
“Maybe not really a good side.” Katy turned around to face him. “But maybe a not-so-bad side.”
“I hope, for the sake of this woman and her little brother, that you’re right, but I doubt it.” He stuck his nose in the top of her head and sniffed. “Either way, I like your new hair, and I’m glad that this woman is trying to make a go of it on her own.” He glanced down at his watch. “I’ve got to get a move on, or I’m going to be late for work. Are you off today?”
“No, I got a call while you were in the shower. I have to go see the old man on the other side of town again today. He went to the wound care clinic then came home and cut the dressing off his leg. Said the nurse there wrapped it too tight. I’ve got to go put a new dressing on, then I’m done for the day.”
“Thank you for coming out today, Katy.” The old man answered the door and grinned sheepishly. “I told Stella that there was no need to call the nurse. My leg would have been fine without that wrapping until next week.”
“No, I’m glad she called. Your wound is looking too good now to risk it getting infected or sloughing over.” She sat down in the rickety dining chair and waited for the old man to lower his hefty frame onto the couch. “I enjoy coming to see you and visiting with you and your wife, anyway.”
“We enjoy your visits, too. Stella especially likes talking to you. She don’t get many visitors nowadays.”
“What about your neighbors?” Katy scrubbed the thin layer of yellow slough off the wound bed that had formed overnight. “Do they ever come over?”
“Freda May used to come over all the time. Stella loved to visit with her. But
she moved out to live with her daughter down in Hammond a few months ago. That new girl moved in after that, and Stella is too scared of her dog to get to know her. Besides, that girl is kind of funny looking.”
Katy slowly wrapped the dressing from just above the old man’s toes upward to below his knees. “This isn’t too tight, is it? I sure would hate for Mrs. Stella to call back after a while and say you had to cut the dressing off again.”
“Naw, that’s just fine.” The old man wiggled his toes to prove his point. “I told that woman at the clinic she was wrapping it too tight from the get-go. My toes were already getting numb before she had finished wrapping me up.”
“Hopefully this one will stay on until I come back next week.” Katy put the final clip in the ace wrap and began repacking her supplies in the nursing bag. “Where is your wife today? Did she have a doctor’s appointment?”
“She’s in the bedroom catching a nap. The neighbor must have had company or something last night, because that dog decided to cut up around midnight. Once it woke her up, she couldn’t go back to sleep.”
“Well, tell her I said hello, and thanks for the heads up about you taking off your dressing.” She let herself out the front door and walked the few steps to her vehicle It was only nine in the morning, but the sun was already starting to warm up the interior of her car. She opened the back door and laid the bags on the seat.
“I thought that was your car, but I wasn’t sure. You still liking your new hair?”
Katy turned toward the familiar voice. “Hello, Pam. I didn’t know you lived here. And yes, I am loving my hair.” She closed her car door and walked over to the apartment next door to her patient’s. “As a matter of fact, my husband loves my hair as well.”
