Hollywood Hair and Beauty.
Hollywood, Face thought. Yeah, right. He sighed. The beauty parlour exterior was painted in pink and lilac. He suspected the only other men that ever stepped inside were there to repair things. Preparing himself for the funny looks he knew he was about to receive he pushed the door open and went in.
A young woman at the reception desk looked at him surprised. Probably wondering why I'm not carrying a toolkit, Face thought.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
"Hi," he said, smiling. "I don't have an appointment but I was wondering if you could fit me in for a manicure?" The receptionist stared at him as if he'd made an improper suggestion involving chickens. He kept smiling, aware that the rest of the salon had gone quiet. It reminded him of the times they had gone into really tough bars and BA had ordered milk. He resisted glancing around to look for tumbleweeds going past.
"You want a manicure?"
"Linda, is there a problem?" Another woman came up, mid thirties, quite attractive, with perfect hair, makeup and nails. She had a friendly smile and Face gave her his best smile in return. If this was the lady he'd come to talk to then maybe this little mission wouldn't be so bad after all.
"He wants a manicure, Miss James." Linda said. Patricia James, the owner. Bingo.
"Certainly, sir." She turned to one of the beauticians. "Alison, could you fit the gentleman in for a no-polish manicure?"
"Actually," Face said, "Do you think you could do it yourself, Miss James? I'm sure Alison…" he smiled at Alison, "is very good, but I just have this, well, I suppose you'd call it a policy. I always like to see the person in charge, is that all right with you?" She couldn’t help smiling back as Face kept the Smile on full beam. His jaw was starting to ache.
"Of course. I'm with a client right now, but I'll be done in about ten minutes, if you don’t mind waiting? Linda, get the gentleman some coffee."
Face waited in a comfortable chair beside the reception desk. Linda gave him a very acceptable cup of coffee and another odd look. While appearing to read a magazine Face watched Patricia James, who was finishing off a hair do on an old lady. Face wondered idly what it was that made women of a certain age decide that blue was a good colour for their hair. Patricia was good he thought. She had a very friendly manner with the customers. And it seemed like genuine friendliness, not just professional. He had also noticed that her accent was definitely Los Angeles. This was going to be a piece of cake.
After she saw the old lady out Patricia came over to Face.
"This way, Mr…?"
"Peck. But please call me Templeton."
"Templeton? Well I'm Patricia, pleased to meet you." They sat at the manicure table and Face showed her his hands.
"They're a mess," Face said. "Not had them done for a month, been so busy. But my boss is coming up tomorrow and she really notices that sort of thing."
"What line of work are you in?" Patricia asked, conversationally.
Face looked around and leaned in to speak in a conspiratorial whisper. "Can you keep a secret? I'm a location scout. I'm in the area looking for locations for Mr Stallone's next project."
"How exciting." Patricia said, quietly. "I thought you must be up from LA." She smiled, massaging lotion into his hands. "You're the first man I've done a manicure for since I left there."
"Oh you're from LA?"
She nodded. "Moved here about eight years ago, after my divorce. I wanted somewhere I could bring up my daughter away from the smog and the crime."
"So now you bring a touch of Hollywood glamour to the lives of these small town folks?" Face asked, smiling. Patricia laughed at that.
"I try." She picked up an emery board and started to shape his nails.
"You know," Face said. "A guy I used to know came to work here too, couple of years ago. I'm sure it was Lucasville. I'll have to look him up."
"Was he in show business too?" Patricia asked.
"No, he was a dentist. Alan Chen." He was glad she wasn't using the nail scissors or he might have lost a finger as she started violently.
"You know Alan?"
"Yes, but I've not seen him for a while. Is he still in town?"
Patricia made a visible effort to control herself, began filing his nails again. "No. He left about a year ago."
"Oh, that's a shame. You know where he went?"
"No. He didn't tell me." Her voice was cold, but there was pain in her eyes.
"You knew him well?" Face asked, making his voice gentle.
"We were friends. Actually we were seeing each other for a few months." Face feigned surprise. She looked a little sad, worked on his nails for a while.
"It didn't end well then?" Face asked. Patricia looked at him, at the sympathetic look in his eyes. For a moment Face was worried that she looked as if she was going to stay quiet, but no one could resist his 'tell me everything' look.
"I thought it was going alright," she said. "But when he left town he didn't even say goodbye." She frowned. "Which was bad enough for me, but Lily, that's my daughter, well, she liked him a lot. I'd have thought he'd have at least said goodbye for her sake."
"So he just left town suddenly then?" Face asked. He was starting to have a very bad feeling about this.
"Yes. During the night. In fact…" She gave a weak smile. "I was a little foolish about it, I reported him missing to the sheriff's department. A deputy went round to his house and broke in. He said that Alan's things were gone, said there was nothing suspicious." She was buffing Face's nails now, perhaps a little harder than necessary.
Face took a slight chance. "Doesn't seem like Alan to just skip town like that."
"I know. He didn't sort out any of his affairs, his practice, left behind unpaid debts." Patricia shook her head. "Oh nothing major, just that month's bills. But, well, you know what Alan's like, sort of old fashioned about that kind of thing. He was always saying a man had to meet his obligations and responsibilities."
"Yeah…" Face said. He waited for a few seconds, trying not to appear too eager with his questions, but Patricia spoke again, making his question unnecessary.
"I blame those damn Heinemann brothers. They were on his back the whole time. Creeps."
"Heinemann brothers?"
"Oh, local big shots," Patricia said contemptuously. "Strut around like they own the place." She shrugged. "I don't know what made them so down on Alan, but he had a lot of trouble with them. They wanted him out but he always swore he wouldn't go. I guess in the end it got to be too much for him." She put down the buffer. "There you go, you're done."
"Very nice job," Face said, examining his hands. They both rose. "Well it was good to meet you, Patricia, I'll recommend your establishment to my friends." She came with him to reception where he settled the bill.
"Templeton, if you do happen to see Alan again sometime…" She stopped and then shook her head. "Never mind. Nothing. I just hope he found somewhere he could be happy."
Face smiled at her, but he strongly suspected that Alan Chen wasn't any place happy.
Unless you counted the afterlife.
"The Heinemann's will kill me if I work for Harper." Hannibal glanced back at the man sitting in the back of the van. He had a large toolbox on his knees.
"No they won't." Hannibal said.
"What the hell do you know about it, mister? You're not from around here."
"The Heinemann's are living on borrowed time, Mr Greene." Hannibal told him.
"Yeah," BA said "They ain't gonna be telling you folks what to do for much longer."
"So you see, you're getting in ahead of the crowd." Hannibal said. "Think of yourself as an trendsetter." Mr Greene looked highly dubious. "Okay, put it this way. Right now who are you more scared of, us or them?" Greene looked at BA who gave a low growl. He stopped his protests and stayed quiet.
They arrived back at the hotel. Mike met them outside.
"Mike, I believe you're short a carpenter on your work crew today," Hannibal said. He slid open the side door of the van. "Let me introduce Mr Greene of Valley Carpentry and Construction." Greene got out reluctantly. Mike stepped up and offered the carpenter his hand.
"Mr Greene." Greene saw BA's glare and quickly transferred his toolbox to his left hand and shook Mike's hand. "I can offer you a lot of work, sir, if you want it."
"He wants it." Hannibal said. He clapped Greene on the shoulder. "Believe me, very soon you'll be thanking us for giving you this opportunity."
The carpenter wasn't thanking them yet, but he followed Mike inside. Hannibal looked up at the window of the command post. Murdock waved to him.
"Lunch, BA?" Hannibal asked.
"Thought you'd never ask."
Face was standing outside a diner wondering about whether to get some lunch in town or back at the hotel when a sedan drew up beside him. He tensed when Aaron Heinemann got out. Aaron came around to the sidewalk but didn't approach Face. Instead he went to the passenger door and opened it. A woman that Face guessed was Grace Heinemann got out. She looked at Face and spoke to her son. He glared at Face and mother and son seemed to be having a quiet argument. Then to Face's surprise she walked right up to him. Aaron kept on glaring at Face.
"Sir." She said, offering her hand. "I am Grace Heinemann. I believe you are one of the men currently working for Mr Harper."
"Yes, I am." He took her hand and shook it. "Templeton Peck, at your service." The 'at your service' just came out automatically, but he was pleased to see it annoyed Aaron.
She nodded. "May we talk for a few moments?"
"Well, I don't mean to be rude, ma'am, but I don't think your guard dog likes that idea."
"Oh, he's just trying to be tough. My boys are a little over-protective." She smiled at Aaron. "Wait here, darling. I'll only be a few minutes." Face grinned at Aaron's obvious embarrassment at being called 'darling' in front of the enemy.
"Shall we have a cup of coffee?" She nodded at the diner. Face figured why not, since it was clearly pissing off Aaron no end. He glanced over at the youngest Heinemann brother and briefly considered the idea of saying "Alan Chen" to him to see how he reacted, but decided to hold that one in reserve. He held open the door of the diner for Grace and they went inside. They sat in a booth and Face ordered coffee when the waitress came over. Grace called the waitress by name and asked for her "usual".
"I didn't see you in church with your friends, Mr Peck."
"I was, ah… busy," Face said. Messing with your son's truck. "And I'm Catholic anyway, Mrs Heinemann." He added, hoping to head off the questions he could see approaching about whether or not he was 'saved'.
"Oh, I see." The waitress arrived with coffee for Face and tea for Grace. "Thank you dear." She turned back to Face. "I have to apologise for the way my sons have been behaving."
"Well that's very sweet," Face said, "but really it's down to them to apologise, isn't it? And to stop what they're doing."
"I have asked them to," she said. "But I'm afraid I don't seem to have any influence over them any more." She sighed. "Not since Nathaniel passed on. My late husband that is. They always did as he asked."
"I'm told he was a very respected man around here." Face said.
"Oh yes. He put so much into the town. Nathaniel thought it was very important that a man makes a contribution to his community."
"Well that's all Mike Harper is trying to do." Face said. "His hotel would provide jobs, bring in money."
"I know. When he came to see me we had a nice long chat about all his plans." She sighed. "The problem is you see a friend of my sons' was hoping to buy the property, but Mr Harper outbid him. Now I'm afraid my boys are acting out of a misguided sense of loyalty to their friend."
Yeah, Face thought, you just keep thinking that, lady. You just keep turning a blind eye to what your darling boys are really up to. He glanced through the window to see Aaron sitting on the hood of the car waiting for his mother.
"Well it's been nice to meet you," Face said, "but I really need to get back." He gestured for the waitress and asked for the check. The information he'd found out about Alan Chen was burning inside him. He longed to pass it on to the colonel. He was still having to fight the urge to go outside, walk up to Aaron and ask him 'seen a dentist lately?'
"Of course." Grace said. "I will talk to my boys again. I hope I can persuade them to leave that poor man alone. He has enough troubles. Losing his wife. His son seems rather a handful. And of course his handicap."
"Yeah." Face said. "You know, I don't think he thinks of it in those terms."
"He seems very brave. It would have been so much easier for him to stay with the circus, with his… with people like himself."
"His own kind?" Face asked, his voice a little cold. He wondered how much Mike hated that phrase. Face had only known the man for a few days and already hated it on his behalf. He didn't let her answer. "Well from what I've seen he's not a man who takes the easy option." The waitress arrived with the check. Face paid it, refusing to take any of Grace's money. He shook her hand politely when they left the diner, managed to give Aaron a cheeky grin and went off to find himself a cab.
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© Elizabeth Charles 2005