She would highlight it with blonde streaks that would catch any man’s eye. Now it was shorter and she kept it her natural dark chocolate color. It was average and forgettable.
To further her attempt to go unnoticed, her covered skin to exposed skin ratio had dramatically swung the other way. Now even on warm days she found herself in long pants instead of the minuscule shorts of her past.
However, even with the changes to her hair and clothing, Piper hadn't quite perfected the technique of ambiguity yet. There were still a few distinct features she hadn't been able to camouflage. Her brown eyes had the depth of an old soul and frequently drew compliments from people. When the light caught them, they had a sparkle that no amount of work on her part could extinguish. They were framed by long lashes and, although she had stopped covering them with mascara, they still seemed glamorously exotic. Her skin was a glowing caramel that needed next to no maintenance in order to remain flawless. And her smile, though it rarely made an appearance, had frequently been called stunning. She had perfectly honed the use of her impish innocent face to appeal to men. Now, as she tried to fade into the walls of Edenville, she realized getting people to remember you was a lot easier than getting them to forget you.
In spite of the added challenge of a small town, Piper took to following the Honorable Judge Randall A. Lions. He ate regularly in the diner, and this became the best way to learn more about him. The wait staff was straight out of a movie, with their pale blue polyester uniforms and frilly white aprons. One waitress in particular always captivated Piper. Her name tag read “Betty” and Piper overheard her say that she had worked there for over ten years. Doing a job like that for so long had given Betty a very acute sense of people.
After two weeks of what Piper was calling surveillance, she felt as though she had learned a lot. The judge seemed to be well-liked by those who frequented the diner, but he only noticed the people who came right up to greet him. If you stayed in his peripheral and acted as though he was not there then he would ignore you. To Piper it seemed like your run-of-the-mill above-the-law narcissism. Another nausea inducing quality of the judge was the way he ate eggs sloppily; it never failed to turn Piper’s stomach. On occasion she would catch Betty's eye and they would both realize they were wearing the same expression of disgust. They’d smirk and turn their gazes quickly in opposite directions.
The judge was regimented about his time which, thankfully, made following him relatively easy. He frequented the diner, the bank, the Italian restaurant, the back door of the Blue Fox Motel on Tuesdays, and, of course, the courthouse. The rest of his time was spent at home. His house was beautifully landscaped, and about seven blocks from Piper’s. This was where she was most apprehensive about watching him because she struggled to blend into the scenery of his quiet neighborhood. She had taken to posing as a jogger, which, even though she was thin, was clearly a stretch. Her stamina left a lot to be desired. But the exhaustion proved worth it when she caught a glimpse of the judge’s wife one morning. She was a stunning woman with dark black hair, exotic features, and an amazing figure. Piper assumed she was somewhere around fifty, but could easily pass for thirty-five. The judge, she had learned from public records, was sixty-six. Seeing Mrs. Lions infuriated Piper. She could never understand why men cheat, but especially why they cheat on beautiful women.
While jotting some notes about the judge’s schedule in her tattered black notebook, Piper heard the bell over the door of the diner jingle as a man entered. He was someone she hadn’t seen during her weeks at the diner, and she found herself intrigued. After a couple days perched in one seat you tended to see the same people, so a stranger was interesting.
The man was tall and too thin for Piper’s taste, though, to be honest, she didn’t think she had a taste in men. Her past had made men as a whole seem rather repulsive. He looked like someone recovering from the flu in need of rest and food. Outside of that, he was beguiling enough in his own way