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"HOW DO you want it done?" Benita asked briskly It was clearly the end of a long day for her Her own red hair ild and dark at the roots, and the beige-and-blue uniform all the operators at Clip Casa as rumpled and--well, hairy

"Could you do it like this?" I’d spent azines

"Yes," Benita said briefly after a thorough look at the enig model, and set to work

It was one of those hairdos with the braid ht it was called I’d never understood how that was done, and noas about to be accomplished on my very own head In the picture the htly but puffed around her face The length of hair at the base of the neck was also braided, and the model had a ribbon around the end I had no fancy bows, but Benita had soht would be pretty I didn’t know if Martin would like the hairstyle, but it struck me as very fashionable

Plus, it didn’t seem possible that my hair could come loose, as all too often happened when I put it up myself

"Roe," drawled a voice close by, and I recognized the apparition under the dryer as my beautiful friend Lizanne Buckley

"I haven’t seen you in a coon’s age!" I said happily "How are you doing?"

"Just fine," said Lizanne in her sloay "And you?"

"Pretty good What have you been doing?"

"Oh, I’m still down at the power co our local representative"

Lawyer J T (Bubba) Sewell, whom I’d met in a professional capacity, would be home frooing to the realtors’ banquet, she told me In fact, Bubba was the speaker

"Are you two engaged?" I asked "That’s what soht from the horse’s mouth"

Lizanne sly beautiful, and no slave to the bone-thin convention of feht "Oh, I expect we are," she said

"So to walk you down the aisle," I marveled Men had tried for years tothe unfair place it is

"Oh, I don’t think we’ll get married in a church," Lizanne demurred "I haven’t been in one since Mao I believe Bubba sees that asto church"

There was no possible response, and Lizanne didn’t expect any I felt like so over a faed into quicksand

"I hear you’ve been dating that new ra," Lizanne said after a few

"Yes"

"He coht?"

I nodded until a sharp exclamation from Benita relad to meet him; I’ve heard a lot about him"

I didn’t know if I wanted to hear or not "Oh?" I said finally

"He’s got everyone out there shivering in their shoes There’s evidently been a lot of slack and soet everything straight He’s firing and "

Lizanne reached back and turned off her dryer, lifting the hood to reveal a head covered with large rollers She patted them to make sure her hair was dry, took one down experimentally, nodded "Janie, I’e-and-blue-unifor a cup of coffee in the back of the shop The phone rang, and Janie answered it It was for Benita, one of her children with a household eency, and with an exclamation of impatience, she ran to take the call I noticed the whole time she talked, she worked on her hair with a co, she orking on hair

"I have a friend at the police station," Lizanne said casually, standing by ood buddy, Roe--has decided that since no one has been killing realtors until now, the murderer must be soree, but since they questioned Jio, all kinds of people have been pressuring the chief of police to find soot lots of friends in this town, and the arrest of soood So I hear the police are going to make an arrest soon in theto be taking so tomorrow"

My eyes e But I had to decipher it

"My goodness, Lizanne Buckley!" exclai back at that inopportune moment "Who told you that?"

"Little bird," Lizanne said laconically, and wandered off to her beautician’s station, where she began to re them in one of the wheeled bins Janie drained her cup and unhurriedly began helping Lizanne, whose easygoing attitude seemed to rub off on people I reood-ole-boy manner and his sharp brain and decided (in a remote corner of my own brain) that he and Lizanne wouldcouple

But ure out what Lizanne hadabout Martin Then she’d talked about the arrest Surely she didn’t mean the police suspected Martin?

She had been lettingto be arrested At the least, taken in and questioned

I stared at the ripping the padded arms of the swivel chair with undue force

"Honey, are you cold?" Benita asked "I can sure turn up the heat"

"Oh No, I’m fine, thanks"

Ridiculous This was ridiculous

The police had been wrong once They rong again Of course they rong again, I toldbefore Martin had un after

I re looking at such a large house Logically, a bachelor would be looking at a smaller place, not a virtual ht think he’d made an appointment to see the Anderton house because he wanted his handiwork found Martin had been in town soh to o to bed with almost anyone, would undoubtedly have licked her chops when she met Martin Idella, wispy, palely pretty, and lonely, would have been thrilled toattention to her

Of course, that hat the police ht think

I shut my eyes

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Benita was asking with concern

"I’m fine," I lied automatically "Are we about finished?"

"Just about Do you like it?"

"It’s different," I said, startled enough to peek out from under my personal black cloud "Gosh, I don’t look like me"

"I know," said Benita proudly "You look very sleek and sophisticated Just beautiful"

"Gee," I said slowly "I do"

"All you need to do is go home and put on your dress and some lipstick, and you’ll be ready to step out"

I did need lipstick And I needed so to let these black thoughts overwhelhly

I thought

I paid Benita handsoreen flouncy dress and put on soood ti with a handsoht have wanted to kill nasty Saht, but he wouldn’t have killed Tonia Lee and Idella Absolutely not

At leaston the outside When I looked in my bathrooood as I had in the beauty shop

I almost wished I’d polished my nails, but that would have been absolutely out of character; and with my hair put up, I hardly knewaround thinking of so to do, I sat on the ottolected on the table beside it I decided to pop the dress on at the last second It hung on the bathroo one, Martin in jail, Martin on trial

He was as necessary to me as he said I was to hi, it actually surprised me I pulled off my robe, pulled the dress over my head, and zipped it up in record tih-heeled pu vaguely why everything looked so funny

Martin took in a deep breath when I opened the door He looked down at me with soht?" I asked, suddenly anxious

"Oh, yes," he said "Oh, yes"

"Do you like the hair?" I asked nervously when he still stared

"Yesvery ainst the cold He earing a black overcoat, and his white hair was strikingly attractive

Once again I had the unsettling feeling that he was grown up and I wasn’t "Where are your glasses?"

"Oh," I exclai looked so funny" In some relief, I found them on the little table beside my chair and popped them on "I tried contact lenses," I told him defensively, "but I’m one of those people who can’t wear thelad you wear glasses"

"Why?"

"So no one else can see you with theive er traced the line of my neck I shivered My fears abated now that I ith him When I was close to him, I felt that Martin would not let himself be arrested

"Coested

"What?"

"Just for adown?" My hands flew up

"No, no," Martin said, and smiled

So into the bathroom ent, and I looked atneatly above loves, and his hand went into a pocket

Suddenly I realized I should be absolutely terrified

But if he wanted to killsteadily at his eyes in the ray velvet box and set it on the counter Gently and expertly he re the velvet box, he extracted gorgeous a at all fixed them in my ears