Chapter 29

Driving fast enough to get a speeding ticket, Joshua arrived at Belle Coiffure.

It was early afternoon, and every chair in the salon was occupied. The air had been filled with the chatter of the stylists and their clients, but at his entrance, the women turned, almost as one, and checked him out, the volume in the room lowering during their impromptu inspection.

Joshua cleared his throat. Entering Rachel’s salon—or any place inhabited exclusively by women—had always made him nervous. Because of his height and broad-shouldered build, he tended to attract a lot of female attention, and their appraising looks brought back his memories of being an ungainly kid, the tallest one in his class, a target of merciless teasing from boys and nervous giggling from girls.

A series of unanswered questions heightened his uneasiness. What did these women know about Rachel? Did they know she had left? Did they think she had run away because of him? Did they think she had left him for another man?

He cleared his throat again. “Is Tanisha here?”

“She’s in the back making a call,” a young stylist on his left said. She smiled. “You can go on back there. We know you.”

“Thanks.” He felt their gazes on him as he went down the center of the room. He knocked on the Staff Only door.

Tanisha answered. She was talking on the phone, but she said to him, “Hey, honey. Come on in.”

She indicated a sofa for him to sit on, but Joshua remained on his feet. He was too wound up to sit.

He looked around the back office. He’d been in there a few times before when visiting Rachel, but he tried to view the space through fresh eyes. It might contain clues that could help him understand what was going on.

The area was furnished with a sofa, a handful of chairs, a television, and a coffee table on which were scattered magazines such as Essence and Black Hair. In an office enclosure, there was a file cabinet and two desks, one for Tanisha, the other for Rachel, a desktop computer sitting on each.

Joshua doubted Rachel would have stored any files of a personal nature on her work computer, since Tanisha probably had access to it. She would have been more cautious.

Photographs also cluttered Rachel’s desk. A couple of their wedding photos, and one of her beloved beach pictures. All shots that he had seen before, in their home.

Rachel’s desk had three drawers. As he wondered whether she had hidden something significant in one of them, Tanisha ended her phone call.

“You got here fast,” she said.

Joshua had mentally composed a list of questions that he intended to ask her, and he didn’t want to waste any time with small talk.

“So Rachel called you,” he said. “What did she say?”

“Not much.” Tanisha sat in one of the desk chairs, swiveled around to face him. “She said she was going to be away for a while, and asked if I could keep running things here at the salon.”

“Did she say how long she’d be gone?”

“I asked her. She wouldn’t tell me. I don’t think she knew herself, to be honest. She was real vague.”

“Where did she call you from?”

“I don’t know that, either, sorry. I asked her that, too, but she wouldn’t say, and nothing showed up on Caller ID.”

Joshua ground his teeth. He sat on Rachel’s desk chair, pushed up his glasses on his nose.

“Did she tell you anything useful?”

“It was a really brief call, Josh. She didn’t answer any of my questions. She said she was fine, and she wanted you to know that she was safe—and she wanted me to give you something.”

“That was my next question. What did she want you to give me?”

Tanisha produced a key from a ring that was clipped to her waist. She unlocked the bottom right drawer of Rachel’s desk and removed a black steel box that was about the size of a standard dictionary.

“This.” She placed the box in Joshua’s lap. A silver padlock secured the lid.

He lifted the box. It weighed perhaps five pounds. He shook it, and something shifted inside.

“What is this?” he asked.

“I thought you would know. I have no idea. I didn’t know she was keeping it in her desk.”

He tugged at the padlock. “Do you have a key to open it?”

“No, I looked.” She jangled her key ring. “None of these fit, either. I tried.” Redness flushed her fair complexion. “Sorry, I know I was out of line for that, but Rachel was talking so weird I was hoping to get some answers for myself, too.”

He smiled grimly. “And I was hoping to get some answers from you. I don’t know much more than you do.”

 “This is probably none of my business,” Tanisha said, “but I know you’ve been treating Rachel well. I know you’re a good brother. But . . .”

“But what?”

“But Rachel has always been so secretive. She’s my girl and all, and we work well together, but our friendship is kind of superficial. She doesn’t let people in, if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean.” He was surprised that Tanisha had such insight into Rachel’s personality, but on retrospect, he shouldn’t have been surprised at all. Tanisha had known Rachel a couple of years longer than he had, and had worked with her daily. Her opinion of his wife was as valid as his.

“I could be way off base,” Tanisha said, “but in my experience, when someone tries to keep you from getting too close, it’s because they have something to hide.”

“What do you think she was hiding?”

“I don’t know, but let me tell you what happened yesterday, around lunch. Rachel was doing a client’s hair, and all of a sudden, she screams and touches her head, like somebody’s hit her.”

“Seriously?”

Tanisha nodded. “She tried to play it off and tell me that she got a migraine all of a sudden, but I knew she was lying. She came back here for a little while. I put my ear to the door—I know, I was being too nosy, but I was worried about her—and I heard her shouting at someone on the phone.”

“Who?”

“I thought it was you, actually, but that didn’t feel right to me. I’d never heard her so pissed off at anyone. Then, maybe fifteen minutes later, she left. She said she had to go to an appointment, but she looked to me like she’d been crying her eyes out. Of course, she wouldn’t admit it—she was keeping me at arm’s length, like she usually does.”

Joshua thought about when he’d seen Rachel at home yesterday, and the bizarre bout of tears that she declined to explain. What the hell had happened?

“So.” Tanisha clasped her hands together in her lap. “I don’t know what you can do with that information, but that’s what happened here. Whatever went down, it probably had something with her leaving so abruptly. When was the last time you saw her?”

“Yesterday evening. I think she’s in some kind of danger, but I’ve no idea from what, or who. She . . . she left me a letter . . . saying she was going away for a while.” He didn’t want to give Tanisha more detail. Iron bands of emotion had tightened across his chest.

 Compassion softened her eyes. “I’m so sorry, honey. But take it from another woman. If a woman’s in trouble, a man usually has something to do with it.”

“Has she ever mentioned another guy, anyone that you can remember?”

Tanisha shook her head firmly. “No way. In the three years I’ve known Rachel, you’re the only man she’d ever even dated. She’d say you were the most special man she’d ever met.”

“Obviously, not special enough to tell the truth,” Joshua said, under his breath.

“Come again?”

“Never mind. One more question: did Rachel dye her hair?”

“Oh, sure, all the time. Auburn was her natural color, but she liked to keep it dark. Why?”

“It was something I never knew about her,” he said softly.

“Between you and me, I get the feeling there’s a lot we don’t know about Rachel.” She smiled bitterly.

Joshua stood, putting the box under his arm. “Thanks for giving this to me, whatever it is. And thanks for talking to me about Rachel. It’s helpful.”

“I wish I had more answers for you. You love that girl to death. It’s all in your eyes.”

“Yeah.”

“God’ll work it out.” Tanisha closed her fingers around the gold crucifix that dangled from her necklace. “Stay faithful, honey. Let go, and let God.”

Joshua nodded absently—a ray of insight had struck him. He thanked Tanisha again and quickly left the salon, oblivious this time to the curious glances from the assembled women, walking as fast as he could without breaking into a run.

He knew where he could find the key to open the box.