Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) Linda Ross (books for students to read TXT) 📖

as she approached.  “Kara must have just gotten here.  She was scheduled to open this morning.”  Obviously she hadn’t seen around me to the body yet, and I held up my hands.

“You need to call the police,” I said quietly.  “Now.”  She gave me a questioning glance and then leaned to the side to look around me.  I saw her face blanch.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed.  “Oh, my God.”

“Call the police,” I said again, putting my hand on her shoulder.  “Go sit on the bench and call them.”  She nodded slowly and moved away, fumbling in her purse for her cell phone.

I had forgotten about the blond woman, but she moved up beside me and peered inside.  The scream she let out was blood curdling, and I flinched.  Tiffany and Desi jumped out of the car, but one look from me and they got back in.

“It’s Kara!” the woman wailed.  “No!  No!”

I put my arm around her shoulder and gently moved her away from the door.  “Maybe you should go sit down in your car until the police get here,” I said.  She nodded, her face buried in her hands.  She went back to her car, making sloppy sobbing sounds the entire way.

I kept my back turned to the open door, not wanting to look at the gruesome sight inside.  But my imagination was working overtime.  Who would want to kill a hairdresser and in such a brutal way?

The woman I was thinking of as Tiny clicked off her phone and came to stand beside me.  We kept to the side of the doorway, neither of us looking in that direction.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, her voice shaking.  “I called her last night, and we were going to talk at lunch today about what. . . .  Oh, no,” she moaned as something occurred to her.  “There’s a bridal party coming in an hour.  I’m supposed to do the bride and two bridesmaids.  What am I going to do?”  She looked at me, wide-eyed and totally lost.

“You’ll have to call them and cancel,” I said.  “You’d better do it now.”

She nodded and went back to the bench.  I saw her punch in a number and start talking, and then she was crying.  I heard the sirens, and a moment later two black and whites and an unmarked car pulled up.  Three uniformed cops stood in the street, and Jimmy Burrell got out of the unmarked car.  I realized my heart had been beating faintly in the wake of finding the body, but now it kicked into high gear.  And a wave of relief washed over me.

Other women can have their George Clooneys and Matt Damons.  My lustful heart belongs to Jimmy Burrell, childhood crush and detective with the Hannibal Police Department.

Jimmy saw me standing near the open door and came over.  “Aretha?  What are you doing here?”

“I brought Eileen’s girls for a haircut and found the body.”

He frowned.  “Are you all right?”  I looked up into his blue eyes and immediately felt guilty for feeling even a shred of lust when we were just feet from a dead body.  I guess I’m just not a good person.

“I’m okay,” I said, looking away.  “I should send the girls home though.  They didn’t see anything, so I don’t think you’d need them to stay.”

Jimmy glanced at my car.  “No, they can go.  Do you want me to get an officer to drive them home?”

“Tiffany can drive.  She has her license.”

Jimmy nodded, and I went to the car and told Tiffany she was to drive home very carefully. The seriousness of the situation had sobered her to the point of maturity, and she quietly said, “Okay.”  I gave her my keys and watched as she very gingerly got into the driver’s seat and ever so slowly pulled out onto the street.  The uniformed officers were busy taping off the street, and they stood aside to let the car through.

When I turned around, Jimmy was standing in the doorway looking at the scene.  Then he went to the bench and sat down beside Tiny, who was still crying.  I stood by the door, and I could hear what they said.  Jimmy asked for her name, and she said she was Serena Roosevelt, and she owned the salon.  She went through basically what she’d told me, that Kara was supposed to unlock this morning, but when Serena arrived the shop was dark.

Jimmy asked her if she was sure that was Kara on the floor, and she nodded, then cried harder.

“I recognized her hair right away,” she said between sobs.

Jimmy asked her what kind of car Kara drove, and Serena said it was an older Chevy Camaro.  “That one over there,” she said, pointing to a red Camaro parked three spots ahead of her own car.  “That’s Kara’s.”  Jimmy called to the uniforms, and they got on their radios.  Serena looked at Jimmy, stricken, and then she turned her head and threw up on the sidewalk.  I felt sorry for her.  I’d been tempted to do the same thing.

The techs arrived then, two guys who pulled on hazmat suits and gloves.  One of them started taking pictures of Kara’s body, and Jimmy turned to me.  “Tell me what happened when you got here.”

“Well, like I said, I drove Tiffany and Desi here for a haircut this morning, and the place looked dark.  We were a little early for the appointment, so I figured we could wait inside if someone was in there.  When I got out of the car, that woman, Serena, was just pulling up.  And so was the other woman.”

“What other woman?” Jimmy asked.

I pointed toward the Audi parked behind my spot.  “She got out right after I did.  I tried the door, and it was unlocked, so I opened it.  Then I saw the