Rena got into her vehicle and pulled up the Brighter Day Salon on Parke Street on her GPS. It was a short drive. She parked just left of the front door. There was a sign in the window advertising services. Cuts, color, facials. The list went on. Rena looked in the rearview mirror. Maybe she should get her eyebrows waxed while she was here. They were looking a little bushy.
When she opened the door, the smell of salon, of every salon ever known, assailed her. A bell tinkled and a small older woman behind the counter looked up. Rena couldn’t see anything else because a partition separated the front from the rest of the salon. She looked too old for a personal relationship with Candiss Lake but Rena didn’t want to assume.
“Melissa Wayne?” Rena asked.
“Oh no, honey. I just work the desk. Melissa is the owner. She’s back there.”
Rena stepped around the wall. Scanned the oblong space. Swivel chairs. A bunch of tall, thin young girls wearing black aprons. Sinks. A pedicure station. Customers. All female. Wet hair, foiled hair, almost dry hair. Her eyes stopped. There in the back, scissors in one hand, comb in the other, stood Alice Quest.
No. Not Alice Quest. It had to be Melissa Wayne.
But the resemblance was startling. Same face. Same lean body. Same brown hair, although Melissa’s had some blond highlights and it was shorter, cut in a stylish asymmetrical bob with one side pushed behind an ear that had at least four gold earrings in it.
Rena started walking toward her. Melissa put down her scissors.
“Melissa Wayne?” Rena asked.
“Yes.”
Rena assumed that Candiss Lake had immediately called or texted Melissa Wayne. So there should be no surprises. Rena passed her a business card. There was no reason to announce to a salon of women that the police were there. Melissa Wayne looked at it briefly.
“I really need to finish this cut,” she said. “Can you wait a few minutes?”
Rena looked at the woman in the chair. One side was four inches shorter than the other. “Sure,” Rena said.
Melissa pointed to a closed door. “That leads to a break room. There should be coffee. Help yourself.”
“Okay.”
There was coffee and Rena poured herself a cup. Then she sat at the oblong table and picked up a People magazine that was several weeks old. My God, when was everybody going to get over the royal family and their growing brood of royal babies? Still, Rena let her eyes settle on the one closest to the camera. Cute kid. A little red in the hair.
Her child could have red hair.
She owed Gabe an answer about using Shannon as a carrier for their baby. If she said no, they’d have to start the search over. Another delay. Another reason for Gabe to decide that maybe kidless was the way to go.
For one damn minute, can you stop being a cop? That’s what Gabe had asked her when she’d expressed concern about Shannon’s husband.
No. She didn’t think she could. It was who she was.
The door opened and Melissa Wayne walked in. She poured herself a cup of coffee and held the pot in Rena’s direction. Rena shook her head. Melissa took a seat on the other side of the table.
“Thank you for letting me finish with my customer,” she said.
“No problem,” Rena said. “You were expecting me,” she said.
“I was. Candiss sent a text.”
“More than that,” Rena said, taking an educated guess. “After you got Candiss’s text, you called Alice.”
Melissa stared at her cup. “I did,” she said finally looking up. “Woke her up. She hadn’t had her coffee yet.”
So Alice knew that the police were aware she’d lied about knowing Dover.
“My sister told me about the ridiculous conversation she had at the police station.”
“I can’t talk to you about that,” Rena said. She stared at the woman across the table. “The two of you really look very much alike.”
“People used to get us mixed up when we were younger,” Melissa said. “And Alice was able to use my ID easily to get into bars when she was still underage. Although I suspect that’s not something I should be telling you.”
“Not my worry right now,” Rena said. “I’m looking for a missing five-year-old.”
“It’s a terrible thing. But thinking that Alice had anything to do with it is really just a waste of time.”
“When did you move to Dover, Ms. Wayne?” Rena asked.
“After college.”
“Did Alice ever live in Dover?”
“No.”
“You were here ten years ago when Corrine Antler disappeared?”
“I was. Had just started the salon. It was all anyone talked about for weeks, maybe even months.”
“Did you know the Antler family?”
“Not before. But some of the local businesses got together to do some fund-raising for them afterwards and we met then. Nice people.”
“Did you know Trapper Frogg or his son, Coyote Frogg?”
“No.”
“Brenda Owen?”
“No.”
“Rosemary Bracken?”
Melissa opened her mouth, closed it. “Actually, I do. I cut her hair, like once every six months.”
Rosemary Bracken’s hair had been straight to her shoulders with a middle part. Not a hint of style that she saw in Melissa’s hair or in the cut she’d been doing earlier. “That’s a long time to go between haircuts.”
“Rosemary is a strange one. She doesn’t like to leave her house. But for some reason, she came to me more than five years ago for a haircut. I didn’t really want to do it. After all, she’s not the best advertisement for my work. But I felt sorry for her. She seemed to have a really lonely existence. Anyway, she continues to come.”
A.L. had asked if there was a connection between Alice and Rosemary Bracken. Through Melissa, there was. “Have you and Rosemary ever discussed Corrine Antler?”
“No. She’s only been a client for about five years. Long after Corrine went missing.”
“Did you know that Rosemary was once considered a person of interest in Corrine Antler’s disappearance?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Okay. Did you and Alice ever talk about the Antler disappearance?”
“I imagine we did.”
“But you don’t remember for sure?” Rena asked.
“Detective, it was ten years ago. No, I do not remember every conversation I had with my sister ten years ago.”