Maddie Cochere - Two Sisters and a Journalist 01 - Murder Under Construction

by Maddie Cochere

  There was no way I was leaving. I parked myself at one of the stations to wait. A few moments later, a door at the back of the room opened, and a girl entered. She had wicked long, purple fingernails that appeared wrapped around a can of cola with a straw bobbing in it. From experience, I knew the straw would soon be out of the can and onto the floor.

  “Sorry, ladies,” she said. “I was in the kitchen. How can I help you?”

  “We’d like to have our nails done,” Pepper said.

  The girl set the can down on the desk. The straw bobbed out and rolled onto the floor. I smiled.

  “Most of our technicians work by appointment only, but Keri will be back shortly. Let me make a couple of calls to see if any of the other girls are available.” She pointed to the back of the room. “If you go through that door, you’ll find the kitchen and the bathroom. Help yourself to soda or coffee while you wait.”

  I remained seated at the nail station while Pepper and Kelly went in search of drinks. It was fascinating to watch the girl push numbers on the phone with her freakish nails.

  “Franny, we have three together. Can you come over for one?” She waited for a response. “Ok. Thanks”

  She dialed again. And again. She dialed a third time.

  “We have three. I need one more.” She paused. “You’re the last.” Another pause. “Ok. See you soon.”

  She smiled and said, “You’re all covered. Do you have designs in mind?”

  I shook my head. “We don’t. We thought you might have books of pictures we could look through.”

  She pointed to a shelf of photo albums. “Each technician has a portfolio of work they’ve done. You can look through those to see if there’s something you like, or you can come up with a design of your own.”

  Pepper and Kelly came back into the room with cans of diet cola. We sat together at the small station and flipped through the books. After Kelly said ew for the umpteenth time, and Pepper shushed her for the umpteenth time, we opened a book with normal nails and pretty art.

  “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout,” Kelly said pointing to a dragon spread across five nails. “Ooh,” she squealed, “this is even better.” She pointed to black nails with a pink and white Hello Kitty design on them.

  “I can live with that,” Pepper said. “If that’s what you want, go ahead and get it.”

  “What do you like?” I asked Pepper.

  She grabbed one of the books we had already looked through and opened to the back. “I think I’m going to go with this. White polish, black dots and red hearts.”

  “That’s cute,” I said with a nod of approval.

  “What are you going to get, Aunt Jo?”

  I pulled out my phone and brought up Ruby’s hand. “I’m getting this.”

  Pepper shook her head, and Kelly said, “Ew.”

  A girl in tight jeans and a tank top bustled through the front door. Her arms were loaded down with plastic bags from the local grocery store. Purple Fingernails jumped up to take the bags from her and said, “Three walk-ins. They know what they want. Yours is the kid.”

  “Hi,” she said to all of us. “I’m Keri.” She looked at Kelly and the portfolio in front of her. “I guess you’re with me today. What did you find?”

  Kelly told the girl her name and pointed to the Hello Kitty design.

  “I love that one,” she said. “Come on over here and have a seat.”

  Pepper and I waited for our technicians to show up.

  “Jo, you’re going out with Stewart on Saturday. Why don’t you get your nails done in a way that will make you feel good and that you can enjoy for a while? The tangerine color isn’t right for you. You need a bright red.”

  Maybe she was right. I had seen a blood red color with black tips and a thin black line below the tip. It was sophisticated, but also had a fun flair.

  Two women came into the room at the same time, one from the kitchen area and one through the front door. They introduced themselves, and Pepper and I indicated the designs we had chosen. Upbeat music erupted from speakers, and we were all finally settled with our hands in front of us on tables.

  There was no Margie or Margaret in sight. The woman doing Pepper’s nails was Franny, and the woman doing my nails was Bertie. Bertie was a large woman with sparkling eyes and an unrestrained laugh. She was wearing a muumuu and flip-flops. Her hair was tucked under a bandana. She went right to work cutting and filing my nails. She worked fast, but she talked faster.

  “I was right in the middle of defrosting and cleaning the freezer when Missy called and said we were swamped, and I needed to rush right over to help out. I dropped everything and ran out the door.”

  I held back a laugh. Purple Fingernails, who I now knew was Missy, barely said two words when she called for help. I somehow missed the swamped and rush right over part.

  Bertie barely stopped talking long enough to take a breath. “I shouldn’t put anything in that old freezer in the first place. It’s out in the garage, and once something ends up in there, it’s out of sight, out of mind. There was deer meat from when Junior went hunting years ago. I suppose I’ll cook it up for the dogs. I had to throw out all the pork in the bottom. It had terrible freezer burn. Why do you suppose that happens? I nearly died when I found Snowball in there. I thought my husband buried that poor old cat last year. It was winter and the ground was frozen when he died, so he wrapped him up and put him in the freezer. I thought Junior buried him in the spring, but when I opened that package marked cake and found Snowball, I nearly crapped my pants.”

  Kelly let out a laugh. The other employees didn’t react and kept working. They were probably used to Bertie providing all of the entertainment.

  “Have you ever had an accident like that?” she asked. “Boy, I have. Both times in Walmart. I’ve written letters to management that they need more than one restroom in a big store like that, but nobody ever wrote me back. Junior just started this year with the walking farts. He’ll get up from his chair, and with every step he takes, he toots. He says he can’t help it, but I think he does it on purpose because he likes it, and it makes company laugh.”

  I was careful not to make eye contact with Pepper. I knew if we looked at each other, there would be no way I could continue to hold back explosive laughter.

  It took nearly two hours, and several more bodily function stories from Bertie, before we were done, but all three of us were delighted with our finished looks. I stood in front of Missy’s desk and waited for the bill.

  “That’ll be one hundred and sixty-four dollars,” she said.

  I nearly fell over. I didn’t say anything, but Pepper knew the dollar amount would give me a heart attack. It had been a long time since I’d had my nails done professionally, but I figured our nails, including the art, wouldn’t be more than seventy-five dollars for the three of us.

  “Here, Jo,” Pepper said. She leaned over to pick up her purse. “Let me pay for Kelly and me. You can get your own.”

  I quickly recovered. “No, I have it. I promised to treat today.” I pulled my one and only credit card from my wallet.

  “Well then, let me leave the tip,” Pepper said. Before I could argue, she was handing cash to each technician.

  Before leaving the salon, I asked, “Does the owner come in often?”

  “Didn’t I tell you? This is my shop,” Bertie said. “I don’t do nails as often as I used to, but when we get busy, I come over and help out.”

  My mouth must have been hanging open, because Bertie said, “I don’t usually dress like this when I work, but you know, I was cleaning the freezer.”

  I smiled. “It’s not that. It’s your name. Are you Margaret?”

  “I sure am. Born a Margaret and went by Margie my whole life until I got married. Junior called me Big Bertha until he finally shortened it to Bertie, and that’s how everyone knows me now.”

  I pulled my phone out and showed her the picture of Ruby’s hand. “Do you recognize this design? Did you
or someone here do this?”

  “That’s a popular look right now, but I remember this color. Wasn’t this from that wedding party two weeks ago?” She looked to the other girls for confirmation.

  Missy said, “It was the Bristol party. Carol Bristol. They booked the bride and five bridesmaids. They all had the same design done on both hands and feet.”

  “Do you have the names of the bridesmaids?” I asked.

  Missy shook her head. “We book wedding parties under the bride’s name only. Even if the girls told the technicians their names, chances are they wouldn’t remember them.”

  “Why do you want to know?” Bertie asked.

  “This girl was murdered last Saturday. The police don’t have any leads. They think she was a prostitute from Pittsburgh who went by the name of Ruby. I’m trying to find out who she really was so her family can be notified.”

  Bertie put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, how terrible. The poor girl.”

  “Are you a police officer?” Missy asked.

  Kelly piped up. “No, but she and my mom are going to have a reality TV show and solve crimes. They’re going to solve this one, because the police don’t care about prostitutes.”

  Pepper gave Kelly a big shush.

  “I’m not a police officer,” I said, “but I’m going to be a private investigator. I found the body at a construction site in Buxley. The police have run into a dead end and don’t intend to pursue it further, so with the help of my sister here and a journalist friend, we’re trying to find out what happened to her.”

  “Did you know if any of the bridesmaids were pregnant?” Pepper asked.

  All of the ladies shook their heads no.

  “We talk to a lot of people every day, and with everyone sharing personal information, it all sort of runs together after a while,” Bertie said.

  “It’s the law,” Kelly said.

  Pepper shushed her again.

  I wrote my name and the number to the red phone down on a piece of paper and gave it to Bertie. I’d have to add hooking up an answering machine to my list of things to do. “If you think of anything, or if any of your other technicians know anything, please give me a call.”

  When we were back in the car, Kelly exclaimed, “That was so cool! You really did know where to go, Aunt Jo, and I think you really are psychic. All you have to do is keep dreaming, and you’ll find out everything.”

  “I’d rather follow real leads,” I said. “I’m not exactly happy about the dreaming thing.”

  And that was no joke. Now that Margie had helped me, I wondered if I would be hearing from Ruby again soon.

  Chapter Seven

  Squatting was a killer on the inner thighs. The shaking machine I was standing on was set to high, and I was holding on for dear life as I squatted over and over again.

  “Jo, get off of there. You’re not going to be able to walk tomorrow,” Pepper said. “Get on a treadmill and slow down.”

  I ignored her and kept squatting. I was going to get rid of this butt one way or another. I didn’t want a husband someday who referred to me as Big Bertha. To top it all off, Kelly did some more taping on the ride home from the salon and referred to Pepper and me as The Butt Sisters. Pepper was swift to mete out punishment for her words, and Kelly was probably rubbing Mama’s feet right now.

  It felt good to work up a sweat. I hadn’t had anything to eat since the salad at McDonald’s earlier in the day, and now I was burning calories to the max. I’d eat a light supper when I got home and probably be down five pounds by morning.

  “How long will it take to lose sixty pounds?” I asked Pepper.

  “You don’t need to lose sixty pounds. You’ll be emaciated, and you’ll look old.”

  “I’m losing fifty. How long will that take?”

  “I don’t know. Ask Suzy.”

  Jackie burst through the door. She rushed toward us waving newspapers.

  “I have them! The Carol Bristol announcements.”

  That was enough to get me off the shaking squats machine.

  She had two papers already folded to show the articles. She gave the engagement announcement to Pepper and the wedding announcement to me. Both were headed with Bristol-Meyers.

  “Carol Bristol engaged to Craig Meyers,” Pepper said.

  I read from my article. “They were married on the twenty-fourth of June. The bride’s sister was the maid of honor. Bridesmaids were …”

  My voice trailed off. A chill went up my spine.

  “What?” Pepper asked while smacking me on the arm with her paper. “What does it say?”

  Jackie answered for me. “It says one of the bridesmaids was Paula Radford.”

  Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a private investigator. Seeing what was probably Ruby’s real name in print made her death more disturbing. I felt lightheaded and sick to my stomach.

  “You don’t look so good,” Jackie said. “Sit down.”

  I dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged with my head down. The vision of Ruby in the strip club, peering down at me and saying her name was Paula, was vivid in my mind. This had to be her. Paula Radford.

  “Did you find out anything about her?” I asked.

  “Not a thing. I ran all of my usual searches, but her name didn’t come up in any database. Not even a driver’s license.”

  “What time are we going to Marietta tomorrow?” I asked Pepper.

  “I thought we’d leave at ten. It’ll only take us about an hour and a half to get there. We can have lunch before we look around town.”

  I wanted to go to Marietta with Pepper, because I believed there was a clue to Paula’s death there, but I also wanted to track down Carol Bristol-Meyers and ask her how well she knew one of her bridesmaids.

  Jackie read my mind. She grabbed the paper from Pepper. “This says Carol works for Telcor Corporation. I’ve never heard of them. I’ll see what I can find out about the company tomorrow, and I’ll try to find out where the newlyweds are living. You guys go have fun. If I find anything, we can follow up on it over the weekend.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Get your stinky hands off of me! Mom, Kelly’s touching me again!”

  Pepper sighed. The kids had been fussing and arguing ever since we left home an hour ago. “Kelly, doggone it all to Homer and back! Quit teasing your brother.”

  “I’m not teasing him. I never touched him.”

  “Did too! And your hands smell like Grandmama’s feet. I’m gonna be sick.” He made gagging sounds.

  “Still want to homeschool the little darlings?” I asked. I didn’t even try to conceal my humor at the situation.

  Pepper looked like she wanted to strangle me, too. “I can see we’ll have to ease into it, but I still think it will work out just fine.”

  “Mom, Kelly’s putting Grandmama’s fungus feet smell on me. Make her stop.”

  “Dammit! You kids knock it off, or I’m grounding you both for the rest of the summer.”

  Both kids gasped. It was unheard of for a swear word to roll out of Pepper’s mouth. It was my contention she should swear more often, and the kids proved it by promptly zipping it, folding their arms across their chests, and sulking.

  “Twenty more minutes,” I said. “What’s first on our agenda? What are we learning today?”

  “Lunch is first. Maybe they’ll stop being so cranky after we eat. Then we’re going to the Ohio River Museum before we take a ride on a sternwheeler.”

  “What’s a sternwheeler?” I asked.

  “It’s a boat.”

  “I know it’s a boat, but what makes it a sternwheeler? What does that mean?”

  Pepper was visibly annoyed. “Jo, you can’t be serious. It’s one of those big paddlewheel boats. You know, with the wheel in the back of the boat – the stern.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say a paddlewheeler? I know what those are.”

  Pepper looked as though she was ready to pull her hair out. We were all making her crazy this morning.

>   “You know,” I said, “you’re going to need a lot more patience if you’re going to homeschool. Wait until you have to teach them the Pythagorean theorem or the quadratic formula. What if they don’t get it?”

  “If I get stuck, I’ll call you,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

  Pepper had always struggled with math and had to study for hours on end for her grades. To me, math was like solving mysteries. Algebra was exciting, and I loved filling pages and pages of notebook paper with equations. It was my easiest subject.

  The rest of the drive into the city was made in silence. The kids continued to sulk, while I chose to keep my thoughts to myself and allow Pepper to drive without aggravation for a while.

  Crankiness lifted for everyone when Pepper turned onto a brick road and parked along the Ohio River. Across the street was The Levee House, a restaurant situated in a lovely, historic, brick building.

  We were seated on the outdoor patio at the front of the restaurant. It was hot, but we were in shade, and it was pleasant and comfortable. The kids were quick to order burgers while Pepper and I ordered salads.

  “Have you had any more dreams, Aunt Jo?” Kelly asked.

  “Not since the one about Margie at the nail salon.”

  “What are you dreaming about?” Keith asked.

  “She’s talking to a dead girl in her dreams,” Kelly said.

  Keith screwed up his face. “Gross.”

  Pepper pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. “Ok, everybody, pay attention. We’re at the Levee House. This building was built in eighteen twenty-six, and it was the first dry goods store in the Northwest Territory.”

  “What’s a dry good?” Keith asked.

  “This isn’t the Northwest,” Kelly said.

  Pepper answered the questions in her best teacher voice. “In 1826, the land northwest of the Ohio River was called the Northwest Territory, and dry goods are things that are dry - like fabric, ribbon, lace, coffee and tea.”

  “Bo-rrr-ing,” said Keith.

  I smiled. Pepper shoved the paper back into her purse and said, “Well, I think it’s interesting. This building was built before the Civil War. It’s the last original riverfront structure in the city.”