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The next morning, I awoke to four missed calls from Jane North.
I cringed.
She’s probably getting impatient with me.
I dialing her, and it turned out I was wrong. She had information; information she wanted to share with me first before she turned it over to the McNearny.
She told me in a frantic voice to hurry over the spa. So, I got Laurie up and dressed, gave her a bottle and we headed out the door.
Fortunately, Laurie was in a wonderful mood that morning. She kept cooing at me in the little mirror I have above her seat so that I can see her when I drive. There was this big smile on her face, and I realized the diaper rash had cleared and she was feeling better.
After the day I’d had yesterday, I wasn’t in the mood for another fussy Laurie – especially not after my ridiculous breakdown I had in front of Jim.
Nope, my little girl was ready to take on the world with me that morning.
“I love you,” I said as I glanced up in my rearview mirror at her, and she giggled and acted all bashful. So precious!
“Laurie, say Mama!”
She tooted. Close enough.
I laughed at my little girl as we pulled into the parking lot at the spa. I plopped Laurie down in her oversized stroller and pushed her in through the front door.
Wow.
Paula and Sean had done a lot since I was there last, and the place was looking amazing.
I was impressed. The walls had been painted, and some new furniture placed in the lobby, a new light fixture and a few other subtle touches that turned the lobby into a place of absolute zen.
Jane met me out front, and she looked both frustrated and incredibly satisfied the same time. “I have some evidence,” she told me and then paused for a moment to coo over Laurie and the giant bow I had in her hair that day.
I followed Jane to her back office and sat down in front of her desk as she worked to pull up something on her computer.
“What do you got for me, Jane?” I asked.
“Remember how I said the cameras weren’t working?” she said and grinned.
“Yeah?”
“Well, I was wrong. The camera in the hall was the only one turned on; I thought all of them were down for maintenance, but this one was still working properly,” she said and spun the monitor around so that I could see. “We have the culprit on camera.”
“What!” I said with a smile.
“Can’t see her face, though,” Jane said and frowned. “But you can see her uniform.”
I watched the video with a keen eye, and she was right. The video was blurry, and the culprit did a good job at hiding her face. But, you could tell it was a woman... and she was wearing one of the nail salon workers uniforms. I watched at the woman slipped into the storage closet and replaced the box of Stevia with a another box. The she snuck out and down the hall – headed back toward the salon.
“Whoa,” I said. “So the sweetener was swapped. Is the box still in the storage cabinet?”
Jane shook her head. “No. I checked. But really anyone could have been poisoned.”
“Anyone who takes Stevia with their coffee...” I said, and something nagged at me, but I couldn’t place the thought.
“A lot of people,” Jane said. “I do.”
“That’s some pretty solid evidence, and if you look at the time on the video... Merida would have been in the hot tub with us at that time,” I said.
“McNearny has the wrong girl. I’m going to send this to him so he’ll let the poor woman out of jail,” Jane said. She smirked.
“You love that he’s wrong,” I said.
She covered her mouth, embarrassed that I caught her guilty pleasure.
I waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry. So do I!”
She nodded. “Well, we still have some work to do, because there are nearly thirty women working in that salon next door.”
“You and your employees led me to believe they were all pretty happy about the merger,” I said. “But, clearly they are not.”
“They’re hours are being cut right now,” Jane said. “I didn’t think that would be enough to harbor so much resentment they would try to kill someone to make me look bad! For all we know this girl on the video was just the legs – it could be a number of them over there who conspired to do this!”
“Were your cameras in the room by the hot tubs working the day my mother was hurt?” I asked.
“Down for construction,” Jane said. “But, believe me, they’re all up and running now after everything that’s happened. Those tubs of carbon monoxide they had hooked up to the steamer were huge, though. Would have been tough for that little woman in the video to move them on her own.”
“You think we’re dealing with more than one person, then?” I asked.
“I’m almost certain,” Jane said.
“The owner? Do you know her name?” I asked.
“Um... no, actually. Not the new one,” Jane said.
“New owner?” I asked.
“Hyo Kyu used to own the place,” Jane explained. “But, he died a couple of years ago, and the place went to someone in his family. My negotiations were with the managers who spoke with me on behalf of the new owner. The new owner is never there the way Hyo was. I think she’s was ill...You think the owner could be the one trying to ruin me?”
“Be honest with me, Jane... just how hostile of a takeover was this?” I asked.
Jane frowned. Her shoulders slumped. “I suppose I could have been nicer.”
“Jane,” I said firmly. “Tell me everything.”
“I needed the extra space,” she said. “Their business had been hurting since we moved in. I pretty much told them to join me or I’d add a nail salon in the back then no one would come to them at all. I could afford to offer the same services for nearly half the price. I didn’t really give the managers much of a choice. They brought my deal back to the new owner... she signed!” Jane tapped her fingers on her desk. “Wait a minute! I can find the contract and get back to you with the name so that you can look into her. I’ll have to go home today and dig through those files. I had them here, but I brought them home last week to look over, and I never brought them back.”
“Great! There is a good chance the new owner has something to do with this. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can dig up about some of those disgruntled employees,” I said.
Jane nodded. “I have an appointment this morning, but I’ll run by and get the contract later.”
“Great,” I said, rising from my seat. That, I figured, would give me enough time to take Laurie home and get her down for a nap while I made a few phone calls. We agreed to call one another later, and I headed out the door with Laurie.
It was early, and the nail salon wasn’t opened yet.
I decided I would go home, get Laurie settled down, work on my to-do list, and then head back this way to interview some of the nail salon employees.
I strolled Laurie out of the spa and got her loaded up into my car. She grabbed my hair when I went to put her in the car seat and whined a bit, so I paused to hold her and give her a few kisses since she didn’t want to be put down.
She settled in, and I strapped her into her seat.
“I love you, cutie pie,” I told her, and she scrunched up her nose. “What, you don’t like cutie pie?” I asked, and she kept scrunching up her nose. “Okay, fine, just Laurie then.” I laughed.
Sometimes she made the silliest faces!
Clearly, I was in a better mood today as well. As I climbed into the driver’s seat of the car, I recalled how I had been so nauseous at the spa that day Paula had drug me to that yoga class. I laughed, realizing now that it was probably because I was pregnant.
How could I have not realizing it sooner?
I wondered how far along I was because wow, it seemed so obvious now with how emotional I’d been and how easily I got wozzy.
“Ooh, you are going to be such a good big sister,” I said to Laurie, looking at her through the rearview.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Dr. Greene’s office while I sitting in the parking lot.
Done!
We started to pull out of the parking lot when I was suddenly overcome with a desire for a smoked ham sandwich. And so, it begins.
Pregnancy cravings.
I’d been borderline insane when I was pregnant with Laurie when it came to cravings. I wanted everything. Chocolate coated bananas, corned beef, ice cream, chips, and for some reason I coated half of what I ate with sour cream.
Baby number two wanted a smoked ham sandwich, so I swung by a sub shop on my way home. Not exactly the type of meal you eat at eight in the morning, but whatever I was suddenly starving.
We got home, and Laurie was tuckered out after enjoying a bottle. She went right down for a nap, so I took a moment to get off my feet before I got back to work.
Yes, I was in a much better mood today.
No crazy Kate yelling at Jim because he did something right by getting his daughter to calm down – yeah, that makes about as much sense as the devilled eggs incident!
Nope, I was steady that day, and I could tell right then and there that it was going to be a good day. I was going to get stuff done. It was time I found out what happened to Kelly.
