Chapter 9

On Tuesdays my last class let out at 2:30 so I was hoping to be able to catch Raquel at Tranquility Salon and Spa. Walking up the steps, I paused for a moment when I reached the front door before putting my hand on the doorknob. I couldn't help but wonder if I was crazy to think she would talk to me. I wasn’t sure how I would feel if I had some stranger come up and ask me about my relationship with my ex-husband who'd just been found murdered. I could only hope she would want to see his killer brought to justice just as much as I did. What had started out as simply an exercise in self-preservation had turned into a desire to really know what happened to David March.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked as I walked into the salon and stepped up to the counter.

"I was wondering if I could speak to Raquel," I said, leaving off her last name because I wasn't necessarily sure she still went by the name of March, and really, how many Raquels could there be working here?

"Sure. She's currently with a client, but you can go through that doorway and she's the second station on the left.” The receptionist pointed in the direction of the doorway.

"Thanks," I said with a smile and a sigh of relief that I'd gotten this far. Although the hard part was yet to come.

I saw a woman cutting someone's hair in the second station on the left and, based on the receptionist’s directions, it had to be Raquel but I couldn't believe my eyes. If I had to conjure up the female opposite of David March, I'm not sure I could've thought as far outside the box as this woman appeared to be. She seemed way too artistic and edgy for stodgy David March.

I didn’t have a good front view but from my angle I could see she had on a large flowy caftan with a lot of bangles on her arms. Her long blond hair was threaded with pretty strands of white and she had dreadlocks. I couldn't help but for a moment wonder why a hairstylist would choose to have dreadlocks. But then I guess why not. It’s a hairstyle and she totally pulled it off.

I took a couple of steps closer before calling out. "Excuse me, are you Raquel?" I asked, feeling a little bad for interrupting her as she was working on a paying client.

Raquel stopped cutting and turned toward me with a vibrant smile, pretty blue eyes, and a very un-lined face. Either she was not the same age as David, who I knew to be fifty from his birthday party last year, or she had great genes. Based on the white in her hair, I was going with the latter.

"How can I help you, sweetheart?" she asked, not seeming to mind being interrupted at all.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt but I was hoping I could ask you some questions about David March," I said, just a little hesitantly. But again, she didn't seem to mind because her smile didn’t leave her face. She didn’t seem to be all that broken up over David’s death.

"Sure. Go ahead, have a seat. You can talk to me while I work."

I frowned a little, not quite sure I wanted to have what I felt was a sensitive conversation in front of her client, but I guess if she didn't mind why should I? I took a seat in the corner of her station, facing her and the person in her chair, an attractive brunette probably my age who was reading something on her Kindle and who barely glanced at me.

"So, who are you?" she asked in a friendly voice and resumed her cutting.

"My name's Olivia Little and I work, I mean worked, with your ex-husband."

"You guys dating?”

"Uh, no,” I said, taken aback at that question. “We were just colleagues."

"Then why do you care?" She looked at me and tilted her head as if to examine my face for the reason.

Now I had no idea what to say and, to my surprise, she started laughing.

"I'm sorry. I can be a little blunt. I just know from experience that David isn't the easiest person to get along with, which is why it always confounded me that he was able to snag a new, young female student each year who found him captivating."

"I can assure you, Raquel, there was no captivating me. To be honest, we didn't have a great relationship or really any relationship at all. I guess it just scares me that one of my colleagues was murdered."

"So, you're saying you want to try and figure out what happened to him?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I guess you could say that."

Raquel laughed and then quickly became serious. "Well, David would be flattered. He did always like to be the center of attention. But I'm afraid I don't have anything to say that would shed light on what happened. I’m as shocked as everyone else."

"I heard you guys were arguing the night before he was murdered."

"Yeah, but that was nothing new. Like I told the detective, we were high school sweethearts, and we never should have married. I'm sure you can see we were opposites and not just in the way we like to dress. When we divorced it was amicable and we were able to remain friends."

"If you were friends, why were you arguing so badly that Maria asked you guys to leave her restaurant?" I pushed a little because it just didn't seem to make sense to me.

"Because I told him he was too old to be dating twenty-something coeds. That's another reason we’re no longer married. He's been dating twenty-something coeds since we were twenty- something coeds, and I was starting to find it a little creepy. I felt as his friend, and we were good friends, he needed to know that there was a point where those coeds were too young, and this was the time. I told David I felt that he could be jeopardizing his tenure. If someone ever brought his actions to the board, they would find it to be poor moral conduct. At least that was my opinion, which of course he didn’t want to hear."

I paused and mulled it over for a few minutes, and could imagine why the conversation got heated. I didn't expect David liked to hear an opinion from his ex-wife that differed from his any more than opinions of faculty that differed from his. Not to mention knowing he was dating students grossed me out a little. Actually, it grossed me out a lot.

“So, he was dating someone at the university?"

"Honey, he was always dating someone at the university."

“But you don't know who?"

"No. Sorry. I'd help you if I could."

I actually believed she meant that. She seemed as nice as David was argumentative. They definitely were a great example of opposites attracting one another.

"Thank you. I won't take up any more of your time."

"No bother. Feel free to stop by anytime you need a haircut."

I got up to leave when she started speaking again. “You know, there was something going on with him. He seemed more uptight than usual.”

“He didn’t allude to what it might be?”

She shook her head and her dreads swayed back and forth. “No and I didn’t press. David didn’t like to be pushed and I knew he’d tell me eventually.”

As I left the salon, I couldn't help but feel that not only had I not gotten closer to figuring out who’d killed David, but I might have opened the door to more suspects. What if someone didn't like that David was dating women young enough to be his daughter? Or maybe whatever this secret of David’s was, it might have gotten him killed.