Maybe this is all some sort of crazy love triangle gone haywire.”
“Do you really think Julian might be involved?”
“Have you seen that boy?”
“I saw him the other day at the search party.”
“He’s a complete dreamboat, not that I’m looking, mind you. Reminds me of that actor James Dean, if Dean was a hipster rich kid who played in a rock band.”
“Now that you mention it, he does slightly resemble him.”
“Did you know that Julian got kicked out of his previous school? Some fancy academy in Manhattan that cost a small fortune.”
“What for?”
“Rumor has it, he was selling drugs, but nobody knows for sure. And nobody’s searching too hard, either. If you land on Samantha’s bad side, you can forget about getting invited to all the best parties in town. That woman has a lot of pull around here.”
“In all my dealings with her, she’s been nothing but kind,” Isla said.
“Don’t let that friendly exterior fool you. Samantha can be a cold-blooded assassin if you cross her.”
“You’ve seen this?”
“Damn straight I have. She gave the cold shoulder to one of the girls at the club for a simple breach of etiquette.”
“What did the woman do?”
“Gossiped about Julian to the wrong people. Poor girl had no idea it would get back to his mother. It took a year and some intense groveling before she started to get back into Samantha’s good graces.”
“Ouch.”
“Ouch is right. Good thing I can trust you.” She turned to face Isla. “I can trust you, right?”
“I never repeat what’s said in this shop.”
Brooke patted her hand and smiled. “That’s why you’re the best, Isla.”
“So you think Willow was dating Julian?” Isla realized she needed to be careful about what she said.
“Who knows? Booty calling. Hooking up. Pick your poison with these crazy kids today and all their dating apps. All I know is that Julian is quite the ladies’ man.”
Brooke took out her phone and engaged in a text conversation with one of her friends. Isla knew it was her cue to shut up and leave the woman alone. She couldn’t help peeking over the woman’s shoulder and reading what was going on in her life. Yes, she knew she shouldn’t be snooping like that, but she’d do anything to find out who had hurt Katie. She glanced down and read that Brooke had a lunch date with Chloe Foster. Then she had to plan a trip to Turks and Caicos for herself and Tucker and their three children. Dinner at the club tonight, right after Tucker played nine holes with Mason Byrd. Also, something about a fund-raising event for a friend running for town council.
Isla finished up, spun Brooke around, and showed her what she’d done. She held up the oval mirror so Brooke could see the back. Brooke smiled, pleased at the job she’d done. Isla removed the cape. Then Brooke pulled out her credit card and Isla processed the transaction. Brooke signed the slip and handed it back to Isla with no tip. She thanked her for coming and then watched as her client sauntered out the front door, happy as one of the steamer clams in the mudflats that had escaped the digger’s rake.
With broom in hand, Isla walked over to the window facing the street and watched as Brooke got into her BMW. The blowout she had just given the woman would have cost three times the amount in Atlanta, where Brooke had lived before moving to Maine. How could the woman sleep at night, knowing she’d left no tip? It didn’t really bother Isla that much, knowing that she’d just pocketed thirty-five bucks. It was a helluva lot better than the seven bucks a cut her grandfather used to charge. She’d heard people say it wasn’t customary to tip the owner of a salon, but if she had Brooke’s kind of money, she would be generous to a fault.
She swept the hair into a dustbin, readying for her next client. Al Jenkins worked at the auto parts store and had been a longtime customer of her grandfather. It took all of ten minutes to cut his hair, and he was the least fussy man she’d ever worked on. He never even wanted to see himself in the mirror afterward. She charged the locals fifteen bucks, and the seniors got a buck off that price, and yet most every local gave her a twenty and told her to keep it.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, which helped to keep