"So Brooke was mad at Wesley for trying to protect her from hurtful news? I don't get that. He was trying to keep her from being upset, so why was she ticked off?" Bryant's tone was judgmental.
"Caleb is Brooke's son too!" Trish countered heatedly, narrowing her eyes at Bryant. "No mother wants to be kept from knowing what's going on in her children's lives. Keeping secrets are not the way parenting ...
or
marriages work," she added pointedly.
"All right already!" Nathan declared as their pizzas arrived. Cooper didn't know if he was exclaiming over the sumptuous pies or Bryant and Trish's exchange. "I hope we haven't misjudged Wesley Hughes. I'm surprised he would keep something so serious from his wife."
"We haven't misjudged anyone," Savannah said soothingly. "Deanna said that Brooke and Wesley rarely fought and that they had already patched things up within hours of their argument over the phone. Wesley made a poor choice, but his motives were pure. According to Deanna, the Hugheses were the type of couple that truly never went to bed angry."
"Well, good for them, but what are we gonna do now?" Jake demanded.
"I believe Cindi's an integral part of our investigation." Nathan looked at Cooper for approval. She nodded. "I think she knows who Hazel is, but since she's already involved with a married man, trying to flirt information out of her isn't going to work."
"How about some female bonding?" Bryant suggested.
Trish examined her hands. "You're onto something there, Mr. Weatherman. Did either of you happen to notice whether she was wearing nail polish?"
Nathan shrugged helplessly, but Cooper remembered the pink polish on Cindi's nails. "Yes. Her nails were bubble-gum pink and perfectly even."
"Women talk to women they don't know at nail salons." Trish clicked her own acrylic beauties together. "I've heard some
pretty
intimate details shared between ladies over a full set. If someone else can follow her around for a bit to see when she goes to her regular nail place, then I can drop in on her when she's getting a manicure and start a friendly chat. I'm sure I can think of a way to bring up dear Hazel."
"I can tail her," Nathan volunteered. "Since I work on my own schedule. I can catch up on job-related stuff at night."
Jake bit into a slice of grilled chicken pizza. With his mouth stuffed to the brim he muttered, "Lucky dog. Wish I had my own schedule, but backed-up septic systems wait for no man."
"I think you should come too," Trish told Cooper after casting Jake a look of disgust. Cooper noticed that Quinton had barely touched his lunch. He was too busy meticulously gluing the paper scraps into place.
"Count me out on the nail salon detail," Cooper argued. "She's seen me before."
"Only in your uniform, right?" Trish argued. "And if you're getting a pedicure, you can listen in to our talk and signal me if I've missed anything. She'll never know you're there."
Cooper twirled a piece of mozzarella around her finger, thinking how ridiculous it was for her to have her toes polished and painted. Only family members saw her toes if she was wearing a pair of sandals on a summer weekend. With the exception of Ashley, none of the Lee clan would care if she had bunions, warts, hangnails, or electric green polish on her toes. Cooper couldn't think of a bigger waste of time or money and frankly, she didn't relish the idea of someone touching her feet. Wearing work boots and heavy socks five days a week didn't make for soft heels and toes.
"I don't know ..." she began, but never got to finish her sentence.
"I've got it!" Quinton put down his tube of glue and shot to a standing position. Then, just as quickly, he sat back down, expelling a loud breath. "Hazel's last name is Wharton. Hazel Wharton. Lady, we've found you at last!"
Bryant pushed back his chair. "I'll go ask our waitress for a phone book!"
The Sunrise members were on the edge of their seats as Bryant traced a long and graceful finger down the list of Whartons in the white pages. "Here she is!" he hollered in jubilation and whipped out his cell phone.
"What are you going to say to her?" Savannah asked, concerned.
Bryant waved her off, forgetting that she probably couldn't see his dismissive gesture. A few seconds passed before he snapped his cell phone closed and his broad shoulders sagged in defeat.
"So much for discovering the riddle called Hazel Wharton." He sank into his chair. "We're at another dead end. Hazel's number's been disconnected."
11
Before a girl 's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with per fumes and cosmetics.
Esther 2:12 (NIV)
"I have been beside myself trying to figure out what your message on my answering machine meant," Ashley declared late Monday afternoon.
Cooper had just returned from exercising Columbus and was surprised to see her younger sister pacing back and forth in front of the hawk's cage, her ice-pick heels clicking on the blue flagstones. Uncrossing her arms over a silky fuchsia crewneck, Ashley whipped off a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses with oversized lenses and focused her cerulean gaze on her sister.
"Your message said that you had
a mission
for me. Well?" She flicked her glasses against her hip impatiently. "What is it?"
After settling Columbus back in his aviary, Cooper stripped off her father's leather gloves and motioned for her sister to follow her to her apartment. "Come on up, I've got to wash my hands anyway." Eyeing Ashley's stylish ensemble, Cooper asked, "You going someplace special?"
Ashley smiled. "Lincoln's taking me to dinner, but he had to work late so he's going to meet me at Little Venice, that darling little Italian restaurant we love." She issued a smug sigh. "I relish all these romantic dinners, but I'm going to be at the gym
all
week if I order pasta
and
tiramisu."
Following Cooper over to the sink, Ashley fixed an appraising gaze on her sister's face. "Have you been plucking your own brows?"
Cooper's neck flushed and she ran her fingers over her brows as though she were touching every strand of dark blond hair. "Yes, but how can you tell?"
"How can I
tell
?" Ashley threw her arms out in mock horror. "Probably because it looks like Daddy went after you with a miniature Weed Whacker, that's all!"
Examining her reflection in the toaster, Cooper repeatedly traced her brows with her fingers. "I guess they're a bit uneven, but I was distracted when I was plucking and just kind of kept going."
Ashley sank down at the small kitchen table. "Just leave your brows to the professionals, Coop. Even the best of us can't do a perfect arch." She kept staring at her sister.
Setting two glasses of fresh lemonade on the table, Cooper sat down opposite Ashley. "Speaking of appointments...are you planning on having your nails done this week?"
Ashley spread out her graceful fingers and examined the petal pink polish on her rounded nails. "Probably on Thursday. I like them to look fresh for my tennis league practice on Friday."
Even though Cooper considered the notion of having nice nails in order to prepare for a sporting event rather absurd, she nodded as though she understood completely. "Would you be willing to go to a different nail salon for the sake of aiding us in our investigation?"
Ashley's face grew animated. "Do you have a lead?"
After taking a sip of the tart lemonade, Cooper gave Ashley a summary of meeting Cindi, visiting Eliza, and the possible significance of Hazel Wharton, whose whereabouts were still unknown.
"Seems like you and Nathan are really bonding over this whole detective thing." Ashley winked at her sister. "Seen any action yet?"
Cooper stirred her lemonade. "So far, we've had dinner. That's it. Dinner. But let's not get off subject, Ashley. I need you to 'bump into' Cindi and find out where and when she gets her nails done. Once we know that, Trish is going to try to finagle some info about Hazel from her, though only the Lord knows how she plans to do that." Cooper hesitated. "I can tell you where she works and what her car looks like, so you might have to tail her and it might take more than one try. After all, she's got two kids and might drive straight home from work to be with them."
"If she's got two kids," Ashley argued. "She's got to go to the grocery store. If not there, then Blockbuster or the library, or heck, straight from Capital City to the liquor store. The working moms
I
know seem to be pretty stressed out these days. They've all got a Superwoman complex." Ashley wiped her hand across Cooper's table as though checking for crumbs. "She'll stop somewhere and that's when I'll find out about her salon. You can count on me."
Relieved, Cooper poured her sister more lemonade. "Are you sure you're not too busy to commit to this?"
Ashley tossed a golden lock behind her shoulder. "I
do
have several important meetings this week, but since I'm the chairwoman of three benefits, I can leave the meetings a little early if necessary." She raised her glass and eyed Cooper over the rim. "I'll trail Cindi in exchange for the answer to two simple questions."
"And what would they be?" Cooper asked suspiciously, handing her sister a piece of paper containing a map of Capital City's campus, a physical description of Cindi, and a photo of an older Honda Civic that Cooper had printed off CarMax's Web site.
Ashley accepted the paper and leaned forward, her gold necklace with its diamond cross pendant clinking against the glass tumbler. "The first question is this: did Nathan kiss you at the end of your dinner date?"
Cooper shook her head. "It wasn't a date. And he didn't try," she lied, recalling the moment at Nathan's house when he had pushed his plate aside and reached out for her hand. If the phone hadn't rung, it was possible that their clasping of hands might have led to a kiss. Nathan had certainly been looking at her as if he wanted to kiss her.
"Yoo-hoo!" Ashley waved her hands in front of Cooper's face. "I guess I don't need to ask you my second question. I can see the answer to
that
one written all over your face."
Scowling, Cooper removed the tumblers from the table and placed them in the sink. "And what was your
second
question?" she said more sharply than she had intended.
Ashley stood and tucked a banana-shaped purse under her arm. "If you wanted to kiss him. Clearly," she added complacently, "the idea is floating around inside that head of yours."
After reapplying a frosty pink lipstick and checking her flawless complexion in the mirror in Cooper's bathroom, Ashley opened the apartment door. "I'll phone you as soon as I've got the information," she said in a raspy, bass voice and then giggled at her attempt to sound like a tough guy. "By the time I've called you back, I expect to hear that you've been to the salon." She pointed at Cooper's brows. "If you and Nathan are going to start smooching, he's going to see your face
verrrry
close up."
Nathan was relieved that Ashley had agreed to tail Cindi, as one of his client's Web pages had been invaded by a nasty computer virus and it would take him at least two days to straighten it out.
"Those Trojan horse viruses can be downright malicious," Nathan told Cooper. "They chew up files in the hard drive like a garbage truck. I would never have been able to follow Cindi around and fix this problem. Thank your sister for me."
Cooper promised to do so. "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. Is the client going to lose business because of the virus?"
"They already have," Nathan replied, sounding glum. "And it's one of my biggest accounts. In fact, this was the client who interrupted our dinner Saturday night. I had to test the firewall then, because they were already experiencing some glitches on the site."
For once, Cooper sat very still. "Who's the client, if you don't mind me asking?"
" [http://RichmondMatchmaker.com] RichmondMatchmaker.com," Nathan said. "But they won't be clients for much longer if I don't get this issue resolved. I'd better run. Good luck with Cindi and call me later if you find anything out.
I'll
be the guy stuck inside on this gorgeous day."
Placing her cell phone on the work van's dashboard, Cooper sank back against the seat and looked outside at what was truly a glorious afternoon. The creamy white dogwood blossoms lining Make It Work!'s parking lot were giving way to verdant leaves. The meticulously pruned branches of the native trees cast gentle shadows upon clusters of vibrant pink petunias and lush groupings of variegated liriope grass. Landscapers had just finished removing spent daffodils and pansies from the beds and were sprinkling a few inches of dark, rich mulch around the base of the new plants, which stood a better chance of thriving in the hot and humid Virginia summer.
"He didn't lie to me," Cooper said aloud as she turned on the van's engine. She glanced up at the cloudless sky and watched an airplane cut a white swath through the blue. "Lord, when am I going to stop judging people in such haste? Would You please help me work on that one before I alienate all of my new friends?"
Cooper finished her last job repairing a temperamental copier at a pediatrician's office with a feeling of anticipation. Within the next hour, Ashley would be spying on Cindi's Honda Civic in the Capital City parking lot. Cooper hoped that Cindi was still parking near Building F, as she remembered the administrative assistant telling Nathan that she had been relocated to another division. If she had already moved, her car could be anywhere and Ashley wouldn't drive around endlessly in her white convertible Lexus coupe.
