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.Isuppose she resented it.She thought she was getting awaywith it, laughing at me.The last straw was wearing my ownnecklace in front of me in my own house.That s when I re-alized how much she must have hated me. Edwina had un-ARMED AND GLAMOROUS 285suspected grit, Lacey reflected. So you see, if it wasn t Ce-cily s ex-husband, it must have been the staff. The entire staff en masse, Lacey asked,  or just one ofthem? Probably just one.If they were all in on it, they d besquabbling over her clothes by now.Someone would havesquealed on the others.I ll tell Bud Hunt.The police shouldbe looking for one of the servants.They probably haven tthought of that. Edwina stalked off to bend Hunt s ear.Lacey took her cell phone into the hall to call Willow.Was she really sick, terrified by the shooting last night, orjust avoiding Lacey s calls? Or had Eric O Neil bagged an-other bird?Willow did not answer; her machine picked up.Laceycouldn t quite think of what to say.She didn t leave amessage.Chapter 35 Hey, Lacey, you there? Listen, I got a perm control situa-tion here.It was Stella s urgent voice on Lacey s voice mail.She dmissed the call during Mac s Friday morning staff meeting. Listen, my five o clock from yesterday had a bad reactionto the perm rods and now she s totally got, um, curly pinkhair and it s making her very unhappy, and me too, and shesays I gotta fix the pink right now! Did I mention it s pink?So, here s the deal; I gotta cancel your eleven o clock todayand take care of this perm-rod situation,  cause, uh, with thepink hair and all she won t come to the salon, so I m in mycar and What on earth is Stella babbling about? Pink hair?Lacey was quite certain Stella had never accidentally givena client pink hair in her entire career.On purpose, yes, butnever by accident.And of course she was chatting away onher cell phone while driving, which is illegal in the District.Stella s voice rushed on at top speed. I can t possibly doWednesday, not Wednesday, you got that? So how aboutValentine s Day, and bring Blondie with you, make it aparty.I know it s far away.Valentine s Day, remember?Now, be careful with your permanent! Some people say acold water rinse is the thing, but the key is that you have towatch out for hard water,  cause with hard water there s thismajor sudsing problem in the rinse.The rods fall out so sudsare key.Watch for hard water.Her voice became muffled.Stella was talking to someoneARMED AND GLAMOROUS 287else too, but Lacey couldn t make it out. One more thing, ifyou want that permanent, Girl Friday, do it right now,pronto, do not wait twenty-four hours like they used to tellyou.Shampoo right away to set the activator in motion oryour hair will fall out! Fall right out! Lace, are you gettingthis? Damn, I gotta go  That s total nonsense, Lacey said aloud, but no onepaid any attention to her.Everyone around her in the news-room was checking out the Friday weekend section, or surf-ing the Web, or picking out a wedding cake, or deep in themiddle of their own personal soap operas.She heard moremuffled voices and traffic noises and then Stella s messagecut off.An uneasy feeling spread from the base of Lacey s spineand traveled rapidly upward.She pressed redial.It rangStella s cell phone number.No answer.She listened to themessage again and typed it out.Was she babbling the Pink Collar Code that Stella andBrooke had concocted over margaritas? Was she just testingLacey to see if she d learned it? Maybe Lacey should haveactually read the code? It was no time for a pop quiz on thesilly code, but a test was what Lacey hoped it was.She wasdue to meet Stella and Kim and the girls at Stella s salon atnoon to go to lunch.Lacey dialed the salon.The receptionist didn t answer thephone and the voice mail didn t pick up.She checked thenumber and dialed again.No answer.Stella sometimesopened the salon all alone and let the others come in later.Lacey told herself this was some silly game Stella was play-ing, but the feeling that something was desperately wrongwon out.If Stella were playing, there would have been gig-gles.Lacey found Brooke at her law firm between meetings. Stella left me a message in the Code.I think it s in theCode.Or else she s just playing some screwy mind game. The Code? Brooke was instantly at full attention. ThePink Collar Code? It involved somebody s pink hair.She didn t sound pan-icky, she just sounded I don t know.Intense.Hurried.Shesaid pink hair a couple of times [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]