A week had passed since Mavis Schuyler had been unceremoniously grabbed at the County Line Inn and then dumped in a ratty tool shed on the wrong side of Schuyler Square. Since her homecoming, Mavis had come to realize two things: 1) no one seemed to have really missed her but her son Tyler, and 2) someone would like to see her dead.
They were both chilling thoughts, especially the second one. Still, it hurt to discover how little the rest of her family and friends seemed to care about her abduction. Even Peter was pretty blase about the whole thing and he was a police officer, for heaven's sake! It seemed to Mavis that no one really cared about her.
A tear ran down her cheek and Mavis tried to wipe it away before the manicurist at We Dye For You noticed. No such luck. "Are you all right, Mrs. Schuyler?"
"I'm fine," Mavis assured her. She peered at the girl a little more closely. Mavis thought her name was Candi but she wasn't sure. It might have been Ginger. "Just tired, I suppose. After all I've been through, you know."
Candi/Ginger continued to buff Mavis's nails. "Yeah, I heard you got snatched. Bummer. Who did it? Do you know?"
"I have no idea."
"They just grabbed you off the street?"
Mavis squirmed slightly in her chair. "I can't remember anything about the whole ordeal," she lied. The door of We Dye For You opened and Chelsea Van Husen stepped in. Mavis stared at Peter's wife, wondering if Chelsea would recognize her. She probably would. Even if people didn't like Mavis, everyone in Schuyler Square knew who she was.
"That's so unreal to me," Candi/Ginger commented. "What--were you just sitting in your car and someone knocked you over the head and then stuffed you in a tool shed?"
"I told you that I don't remember," Mavis snapped.
"Well, it sure seems like somebody doesn't like you. I'd be watching my back pretty closely if I were you. Maybe next time they won't put you in a tool shed. Maybe next time they'll finish you off."
Was it Mavis's imagination or did Candi/Ginger sound a little hopeful? She can forget a tip today! Mavis glanced at her diamond rimmed watch. Candi/Ginger was taking forever.
Mavis watched in the mirror as Chelsea was led across the room to one of the stylist's chairs. Chelsea was a large woman with a plain, friendly-looking face. She reminded Mavis of the kind of woman who only wore make up to weddings and funerals. So what was she doing at We Dye For You?
Was she following Mavis?
At that moment, Mavis's eyes met Chelsea's in the mirror and Mavis felt suddenly nervous. It could have been Chelsea Van Husen who had broken into her room at the County Line Inn, knocked her out and kidnapped her. Chelsea was big enough and strong enough to overtake someone as svelte as Mavis. But why would Chelsea want to do that?
Duh. Because you're bopping her husband, that's why.
Maybe but Chelsea didn't know that. Did she? Mavis looked away from Chelsea and then looked back a few moments later. Chelsea was still watching her, her cool gray gaze as unreadable as a newspaper written in Latin. Mavis gave Chelsea a tiny smile, the kind she bestowed on people she considered beneath her; the checkout clerk at the grocery store, Rosanne, the mailman, her hairdresser--well, really just about everyone else on the planet.
Chelsea nodded back and smiled too, a wide, open smile that couldn't possible belong to a deranged kidnapper. Could it?
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