Read Online A Dyeing Shame by Elizabeth Spann Craig - Free Book Online

She bullied him , you mean. Bo is too much a gentleman to talk ugly about a lady, so the slander remains.”
    Jack, bored with the genteel and unchanging scenery offered by Agnes’ house, made a warning whine, so Myrtle cut the visit short. As she left, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Agnes knew more than she was letting on.
    The Coke had put a little zip in Myrtle’s step as she headed to the crime scene. Red’s car was parked in front of the Beauty Box. And she thought she’d been saving Red from getting up too early. His middle of the night walk to Miles’ house couldn’t have messed up his sleep that badly. Myrtle leaned over the stroller. “Want to visit Daddy, Jack?” Jack crowed, “Daddy! “He’ll love a visit,” said Myrtle in a convincing voice as she pushed the stroller to the shop entrance and under the police tape.
    Red stared morosely at the back wall while slumping in one of the vinyl drying chairs. He leaped up, an angry flush creeping up his neck as he caught sight of his mother lifting up the police tape and pushing the stroller under it. “Mama! What the—? ”
    “Temper, temper. And watch your language in front of my grandson.”
    “Didn’t you see the police tape stretched across the door? Are you having trouble with your eyesight?”
    “Not as much as you are,” she snapped, nodding pointedly at the drugstore reading specs in Red’s hand. “I know you don’t want anybody trampling in and messing up the crime scene, but it appears Forensics has finished making the rounds,” she noted, surveying the fingerprint dust piled on every flat surface.
    The Beauty Box looked the same as it always had. She tried to see the familiar room with new eyes. No clues jumped out at her, no oddly-placed objects. There were the same hair sprays, the same combs and scissors. It looked like it was frozen in time with one workstation set up with applicator bottles and latex gloves for a hair dye that hadn’t yet occurred for a client that was very late.
    Red said, “Yeah, the state police from the CCPS got over here yesterday morning and finished taking all their pictures and measurements. I suppose it’s time to remove the tape.” Jack was telling Red about the banana and reaching up with both arms to him. His father picked him up and regarded him absently as if wondering where he came from.
    “Did the North Carolina State Police find anything out? Is Detective Perkins helping again?” asked Myrtle.
“He’s the one assigned to the case. They’ll have to get back to me on the forensic stuff.”
    “Did Tammy’s face give any clues?” Myrtle asked.
    Red stared at her uncomprehendingly.
    “I mean, was it frozen in a grotesque mask or anything? Did she look surprised or angry?”
    “Why yes, Mama, according to her contorted lips, she was obviously breathing the name of her killer. We’re bringing in a lip-reader to tell us who the murderer was.” Red rolled his eyes. “Of course not! Dead faces are dead faces. All I saw was a sloppy middle-aged woman who dressed oddly because she was drunk when she got ready to go out.”
    “Poor Tammy.”
    Red snorted. “Poor Tammy, nothing. The ugly truth is she’d riled up half the town. It’s a wonder she wasn’t killed sooner.”
    “That may be true but it doesn’t justify murder. I’m surprised at you, Red! And you an officer of the peace.”
    Jack grabbed Red’s keys and started playing with them. “I’m just saying she was the one who put herself in that position. Perkins and I have started making the rounds with interviews and I can’t believe some of the stuff I’m hearing about Tammy.”
    “Who are y’all interviewing?”
    “We’re…” Red paused and peered sideways at his mother. “You know I can’t be discussing police business with you.”
    “You know you feel better when you can talk about it. It might even help give you some insights. And who better to talk things over with than your own mama?” Pulling on the old