Chapter Eight #2
Nadia’s smile held a tinge of sadness. “It’s the mom in me,” she said. “I’m always telling people to look after themselves.”
Chloe seldom thought of the elegant young woman before her as a parent. “How old is your daughter again?” she asked.
Nadia’s expression brightened. “Talia is eight. The light of my life.” Her smile faded. “I can’t imagine what I would do if anything ever happened to her. Your mom must be beside herself.”
“She is.” Chloe didn’t bother to explain that Darinda was her stepmother. She was Sharee’s mother, and she was definitely grieving hard. Chloe reminded herself to give Darinda more grace next time they spoke.
Twenty minutes later Chloe studied her reflection in the mirror. Somehow Nadia had managed to hide most of the dark circles beneath her eyes, shape her hair into a more flattering style and put some color in her cheeks. “You’re a miracle worker,” she said.
“No miracle. I’m just bringing out what you already possess.”
“I do feel better,” Chloe said. “Thank you.”
Nadia patted her shoulder. “It’s the least I can do. Is there going to be a service for your sister here in SkyCrest? Some of us have been wondering.”
“No. Back home in Richmond. I’m not sure when yet.”
“You know we’ll hold down the fort here whenever you have to leave.”
She didn’t want to think about her sister’s funeral. So much sadness. So much tension at home. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll let you know.”
She spent the rest of the day tending to clients and managed not to think about Sharee.
At six she turned the sign on the front door to Closed and said goodbye to Nadia and the others.
She was retrieving cleaning supplies from the closet when the bell rang.
Brian waved at her through the sidelight and she hurried to open the door again.
He entered, Daisy at his heels. “I hope you don’t mind I brought her,” he said. “She pretty much goes everywhere with me.”
“No, that’s fine. She’s obviously well behaved.” She patted Daisy’s head and the dog grinned up at her.
“You look great,” he said.
“Thanks.” He looked like he hadn’t slept and he needed a shave.
Not that the rough-around-the-edges appearance was a bad look for him.
He had changed out of his ski patroller’s uniform into jeans and a navy-blue fleece half-zip, and hiking boots.
The clothes weren’t exactly form-fitting, but they did show off his muscular shoulders and thighs.
She made herself look away, though a heightened awareness warmed her.
“Come on in,” she said. “I just made a fresh pot of coffee. I needed the caffeine.”
“Sounds perfect.” He followed her to the tiny kitchen at the back of the building. “What do you want me to do?”
“You said you talked to a couple of Sharee’s friends?”
“Leann and Krista. I can tell you what they said while we work. I promised to help you clean up, remember?”
“Oh, right.” She grabbed a broom and handed it to him. “You can start by sweeping the floor while I tidy all the stylists’ stations.” She retrieved cleaner and wipes from the supply closet. Daisy retreated to the rug in the entryway and lay down, and almost immediately fell asleep.
“I took her for a long run on the slopes after the lifts closed,” Brian said. “It wore her out. So you clean this place every evening?”
“I used to have a cleaning person, but she moved and I decided to save the money I paid her and do the job myself.” She moved to the first stylist’s station and began spraying every surface with the disinfecting cleanser.
“Everyone is responsible for their own space, but at the end of the day I like to give everything an extra polish so we’re ready to start fresh in the morning. ”
She was talking too much. The man couldn’t get a word in edgewise. “What did Leann and Krista say about Sharee?”
“That she was fun and outgoing and always the center of attention.”
“That’s nothing I didn’t already know.”
“They said some other things.” He worked the bristles of the broom into a corner of the room. “Not all of it flattering.”
She glided the cloth over the back of the client chair. “I’m well aware of Sharee’s faults.”
“Okay.” He resumed sweeping. “They said Sharee was a tease. She’d lead guys on, then put them down. She’d say they were boys and she wanted a man. Stuff like that.”
“Ouch. Anyone in particular?”
“They couldn’t—or wouldn’t—give me any names.
And they weren’t sure if Sharee was really still in touch with the older guy in Richmond—I’m assuming that’s the schoolteacher—or if she only said that to make herself more desirable to other older men she flirted with.
And again, they couldn’t name anyone in particular.
They did say they thought these guys were mostly tourists.
They said they rarely saw her after the lifts closed, so it’s possible she arranged to meet someone. ”
“She always told me she was going out with friends in the evenings. I was so happy she had made friends I didn’t question her too much.
” She stilled, sadness engulfing her once more.
She wanted to know what happened to her sister—but did she want the pain that would come with that knowing?
“What if she did hook up with a tourist she flirted with and he killed her?”
He leaned on the broom and regarded her with a sorrowful look. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No. This is important. Maybe the sheriff can check the hotels to see if Sharee was ever at them with an older man.”
“I learned something else.”
Something he didn’t want to tell her—she could tell by the tone of his voice. “I want to hear it all,” she said. “No matter how awful. It’s the only way we’ll figure out the truth.”
“Both Leann and Krista had heard that Sharee was strangled.”
She sighed. “Word gets around in a small town.”
“So they wondered if that was, well, sexual. You know, if she was choked while having sex and things went too far.”
“The sheriff didn’t mention anything like that. She was found in an alley next to a pizza place, fully clothed. And they said she hadn’t been sexually assaulted.”
“Okay, so probably not that,” he said. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“It’s okay. We have to consider everything. I already know Sharee wasn’t innocent.”
“Whatever she was up to, she didn’t deserve to die,” Brian said.
“We need to tell the sheriff these things.” Would he go with her to talk to the detective? She hated the thought of facing that alone.
“Maybe they already know, if they’ve interviewed her friends,” he said.
“I talked to a detective today who said they’re still investigating.” Chloe rubbed more vigorously at the countertop.
“What else did he say?” Brian asked.
She blew out a breath. “I found out some things about Sharee today, too,” she said.
“Things I didn’t know before.” She set aside the cleaner and rag and faced him.
“I searched Sharee’s room. The sheriff’s investigators had already taken her computer and some other stuff.
But I found a box pushed way back on the top shelf of her closet, one of those heart-shaped Valentine’s candy boxes.
Inside was an envelope full of photographs. The kind taken with an instant camera.”
“What kind of photos?” he asked.
“They were pictures of a young couple and two children. I’m pretty sure the man is Cameron Douglas. I guess the woman and kids are his wife and children. She must have taken them when she was stalking him and hidden them away all this time.”
“Do the sheriff’s investigators know about the photos?”
“They do now. I turned them in this afternoon and explained how I found them. But they don’t think the photos have anything to do with Sharee’s murder.”
“Some people would see being stalked as a motive for murder. Especially if the stalker got close enough to photograph your family. If she showed those pictures to Douglas, he might have seen them as a threat.”
“I thought that, too,” Chloe said. “But it doesn’t matter, because Cameron Douglas was in New York City with a bunch of teenagers and some of their parents when Sharee died. And his wife was at home with their two children and her sister.”
“I don’t suppose Sharee stalked anyone else?”
“Not that I know about.”
“Did the sheriff’s department keep the photographs?”
“They did.” She hesitated, then added. “All but the one I held back.”
“Oh?”
When she didn’t say anything for a long moment, he asked, “Can I see it?”
She hesitated. The photo itself was innocuous. But what it represented—that her sister had stalked this family—that she had even been seen as a threat to them—hurt in a way she couldn’t explain.
“You don’t have to show it to me.” Brian took a step back. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, I want you to see it.” She believed she could count on him not to judge. “Just give me a minute.”