Chapter 32

Before I went to my salon appointment, I popped home to have some blood and retrieve my key from under the plant pot. As I approached the house, my scalp started to itch. Huh.

I found the key and let myself in the back door. As I walked inside, the itching faded. The smell of fresh paint assailed my nose and the sound of heavy bass music bombarded my ears. If my intruders were criminals, they weren’t trying to hide.

I followed the blaring music to the front room where Connor Mackenzie was painting my graffitied wall a lovely shade of blue. He was using a roller and doing a little dance as he worked. When he caught sight of me he looked a little abashed, like a kid who’d been caught eating out of the biscuit tin. ‘Hey.’ He waved the paint roller at me.

‘Hey,’ I replied, beaming. ‘You’re painting.’

‘I am,’ he agreed. ‘You don’t mind? I hated the thought of you having to sit there with that threat on the wall. I didn’t want it in your headspace, and the borough is notoriously slow at getting around to jobs like this.’

‘That’s really kind of you. I don’t mind at all.’

He eyed the wall critically. ‘It might need another coat of paint. I’ve done two already, but we’ll see how it dries. Do you like the colour?’

‘I love it.’

His expression turned rueful. Something told me he was thinking that I loved the paint but not him. I grimaced. I didn’t want to wade into that right now; besides, maybe he was thinking something else that had nothing to do with me.

‘I thought you liked classical music?’ I nodded at his phone, which was blaring out club mixes.

He shrugged. ‘I do but I’m trying to expand my horizons.’ My heart swelled; he was listening to music he knew I loved.

I wasn’t ready to deal with that. He was fifty shades of perfect and I was a contrary twat. Knowing it didn’t help. ‘I’ve got to go. I came to pick up the key.’ I waved it at him.

‘Sure thing.’

Show him you care.The errant thought was explosive, insistent and from my heart. I hesitated. ‘I have a spare key in the kitchen, in the first drawer you come to. You can lock up with it when you’re done and take it with you if you want to. In case I lose my set or something.’

It was an olive branch, and the warmth in his eyes said that he knew it was. I wanted to go to him, hug him, maybe kiss him. But then I’d want to peel him out of his sexy flannel shirt and I didn’t have time for that, nor was I prepared for the repercussions. So I gave him a weak finger wave and sidled out of the house.

Connor Mackenzie was painting the walls of my house. He had dozens of goons on hand, but here he was painting them himself. It meant something, though I wasn’t quite sure what. For the seven thousandth time that day, I tried to banish him from my thoughts.

I was working, dammit. I had a moment of giddy appreciation that going to a nail appointment counted as work. The salon wasn’t far from home, so I tried to get my brain screwed on right before I arrived. I was trying to find the mysterious owner of the nail under Aoife’s body. Maybe Sidnee was right, maybe it was nothing more than a deliberately planted red herring, but I had to know.

The salon was small, sandwiched between the hardware store and the pharmacy. One woman was styling someone’s hair and another was waiting at the desk. I resisted the urge to do a fist pump when I saw her because I was definitely on the right track. It could be no coincidence that she was a banshee like Aoife: she had the same colourless hair, the same pale-yellow eyes.

‘Hi! I’m Bunny Barrington. I’m here for a much-needed nail appointment.’ I showed her my poor, manicure-less hands.

The banshee laughed. ‘Great! Let’s get you started, then! I’m Misty, your nail technician. Follow me, please.’ She took me into the back room and sat me in a chair. Manicure implements were spread out on the table in front of it.

Misty’s hair was cut and arranged into a huge, hair-sprayed eighties’ ball of fluff. Her long false lashes looked stark against her white face and pale eyes. Her fake nails were artfully done, medium length, with plenty of artwork to show her skill. Colour me impressed.

She showed me two racks of varnish. ‘Let me know which one you’d like.’

I perused the colours at length, but truthfully I’d picked one almost instantly. They had a gorgeous blue, almost the same as the one Connor was painting on my walls. ‘This one, please.’

‘Perfect. And shape?’

‘Oval finish, please.’

‘You got it.’ She took my hands, examining the current shape and state of my nails. I let myself relax and enjoy the treatment like a real customer would as I waited for her to break the ice.

‘So, Bunny, that’s an unusual name. How did you come by it?’

‘I once organised an Easter egg hunt for my friends but I took the competition to an extreme level and set up elaborate traps and decoys. It was total chaos but everyone had such a blast, they dubbed me Bunny. I’ve always been remembered as the mastermind behind the most epic Easter egg hunt ever.’ I kind of wished that one were true; it would have been nice to have grown up with friends to organise an Easter egg hunt for.

‘That’s so cool.’ She started expertly trimming my cuticles.

‘Thanks. I was actually recommended to this salon by this lady who had a magnificent set of French tips. I was envious and she said that you’d done them.’

‘That’d be Nora. That’s her go-to,’ Misty said.

Nora! I did a fist pump in my mind. It was a real effort to keep my tone casual. ‘Do you do her nails a lot?’

‘Yeah. Unfortunately she’s a chewer. She needs a new set every two weeks.’

‘Really? I used to chew my nails. Does Nora only get French tips, or does she have other favourites?’

Misty started to shape and file my nails. ‘It’s the one she gets the most unless there’s a holiday. When you’re as pale as we are, it’s hard to have dark or bright nails. It looks off.’ Bingo. Not only was her name Nora but she was also a banshee. It had to be Nora Sullivan.

‘I have the same problem,’ I said as casually as I could.

She smiled at me as she trimmed my cuticles. ‘Oh, honey, you aren’t that pale. You could wear all kinds of bright colours.’

‘French manicures look so nice but I’m ready for something brighter.’

She stared to paint a clear base coat on my nails. ‘You’ll have a beautiful set of nails before you can say boo.’

‘Boo,’ I said perversely.

She giggled and put my hand under a hand lamp to set the gel nails.

‘When was the last French manicure you did?’ I asked lightly.

‘Last week. Nora’s usually the only one I do like that.’

‘Well, it was super pretty.’

Gotcha, Nora,I thought triumphantly. She’d absolutely lost a nail under her daughter’s body! I was willing to let her spray-painted threats go, but there was no slack for something like this. This was enough suspicion for an arrest warrant and I wanted to set the wheels in motion.

I walked back to work with my beautiful pale-blue nails and rushed into Gunnar’s office. ‘Let’s get that arrest warrant. I totally have probable cause!’ I grinned at him.

He set back in his chair, eyebrows raised. ‘You wanna fill me in?’ he asked.

‘Remember the fingernail we picked up under the body? I suspected it came from Nora Sullivan. I went to the nail salon and the banshee nail technician confirmed that she’d done Nora’s nails like that a week ago. Also, Nora doesn’t currently have those nails. She popped one off under her daughter’s body and then she must have got rid of them all!’

‘Sounds like you’ve got something. I’ll call the council.’

While he phoned, I went back to my desk and started filling out the paperwork before he asked me to. Halfway through, his bellow made me happy. ‘As soon as you’ve done that report they’ll sign. They’re preparing the warrant! Get a-typin’!’

I typed. When I was finished, Gunnar and I went to the council chambers to get the warrant. After that we were going to pick up Nora Sullivan.

I was surprised that the mayor and Connor had signed off this warrant because it was usually Liv or Stan with Connor or Calliope; the mayor rarely got involved. When we arrived at the council chambers I was disappointed to see that Connor had already left. Still, there was no time to make doe eyes – we had an arrest to make and dangerous jewels to recover.