Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) by Linda Ross (reading books for 7 year olds .TXT) 📗

all sat down at a small table in what passed for a break room, and Thelma introduced us.  Shelves stocked with hair products lined the walls.  I’m sure the room doubled as a supply closet.

“I’m sorry to put you through this again,” I said, “but the day we found the body you told the police that there had been some kind of argument between Kara and Stephanie Riley.  Do you remember that?”

Serena nodded, and her gorgeous hair swayed provocatively.  What was it with these women and their hair?  I was just grateful my hair didn’t fall out when I moved my head.  Provocative was way beyond my hair’s job description.

“Have you thought any more about that?” Thelma asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” she said, “and I didn’t want to accuse Kara of something when she’s dead and all.”  She looked down and picked at the polish on one fingernail.

“We just want to get a better picture of what she was like,” I said.  “That way maybe we can figure out who would want to kill her.”

“Well, she’d done the same thing before.  I don’t know how many times, but I think it was probably three or four.  And then I kind of caught her one day.”

“Caught her doing what?” Thelma asked.

“This was about a year after she’d started working here.  I was shampooing a client in the back, and Kara was the only person in front.  I was walking ahead when we came from the back, and I saw Kara putting her hand in the client’s purse.  I cleared my throat real fast, and Kara moved away.  The client didn’t see her.”

“What was she doing, stealing money?” I asked.

Serena shook her head.  “When we were alone later, I brought it up and asked her what she was doing.  She tried telling me a lipstick had fallen out of the purse and she was just putting it back.  I told her that we had to be honest with each other for the business relationship to work.  So she told me what she’d been doing and tried to convince me to go along.”

“And what was that?”  I had an idea, but I wanted to know what Kara had told Serena.

Serena looked down uncomfortably and shifted her weight.  “I know I should have said something to the police, but it was a long time ago.”  She took a deep breath.  “She said she’d been copying down a client’s credit card information, then placing an order online.  She’d order from somewhere like Walmart and have the package delivered to a house she knew was empty.  She’d track the package and pick it up.  Then she’d take whatever it was to the store for a refund.  She said that with both of us doing it together we could really make some money.”

“What did you say when she suggested you help her?” Thelma asked.

Poor Serena looked miserable.  “I told her I didn’t want anything to do with it, and she’d better not try it again in the salon.”

“And that was the end of it?” I asked.

“I thought it was, but I think she must have still been doing it when she was sure I wouldn’t see.  And then there was that little fight with Stephanie.  It made me wonder if Kara had gone after her credit card while I was shampooing her hair.”

“And Kara didn’t say anything about it after Stephanie left?”

“I think she muttered something under her breath.  It sounded like bitch.”

“Had Stephanie and Kara had words before?” I asked.

“They didn’t seem to like each other, but they usually avoided talking.”

“Do you know anything about Stephanie’s private life?” Thelma asked.  “Especially anything that might have caused someone to run her down?”

“Well, I think she fooled around.”

“You mean after she was married?”

Serena nodded.  “I heard that her husband did too.”

“So her husband might have been jealous?”

“I don’t know,” Serena said.  “She was always bragging about her husband being a big lawyer.  And how she could get anyone arrested.”

“Do you think that’s what she meant when she told Kara she was going to tell her husband?” Thelma asked.

“I guess.”

Thelma and I exchanged a look.  I knew we were both thinking about that damage to Kara’s car.  If Stephanie had threatened to tell her husband about Kara trying to get her credit card information, Kara might have resorted to running her down.

We thanked Serena and left for the office.

“It sure looks like Kara might have killed Stephanie,” I said.  “And probably her friend Hominy too.”

“So Kara’s death might have been a revenge killing,” Thelma said.  “Maybe it was whoever was having an affair with Stephanie.”

“We need to look around Stephanie’s house again tomorrow,” I said.

“Her husband’s home now, and it would technically be called trespassing.”

“He works during the day.  And we’re just going to look in windows again.”

Thelma sighed.  “Working with you makes me think I need a lawyer on retainer.”

“It will be fine,” I assured her.  And I mentally crossed my fingers.

An hour later I grabbed a quarter-pounder and fries at McDonald’s and headed to my assignment.  Lorenzo wanted me to interview a woman who had been struck by lightning earlier in the summer and now claimed she could turn on light bulbs by touching them.  Miss Darlene Gregory.  She lived in an apartment off Highway 61.

There was a rotting pumpkin sitting by her doorstep and a flower pot with some dead mums.  A wooden wreath on the door read WE  OME.  I looked on the ground for the missing letters, but didn’t see them.

Miss Gregory opened the door at my first knock.  Her hair was in hot curlers, and she was holding up her pants with one hand.  She looked to be around thirty, slightly chubby and perennially cheerful.

“Sorry,” she sang out.  “The curlers are