A Hair Salon to Die For by Black M P

Author:Black, M P [Black, M P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788794457187
Google: Ua0FEQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B0D35HCYMH
Publisher: MP Black Media
Published: 2024-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

While Ona excused herself to go back to the inn, Alice stayed behind, waiting for the conservation society followers to disperse. When they did, she approached Silas.

“Are you all right?” she asked him.

Silas dabbed at his nose with a wadded-up tissue.

“Oh, this? It’s just a bloody nose. I’ve had worse.”

Alice almost rolled her eyes at his macho tone. But she hoped to get him to talk, and eye-rolling wouldn’t make him open up.

“You won,” she said. “That must feel good.”

“We didn’t win. This is a temporary reprieve—a pause—but you’ll see, within a few days, the company will fix the paperwork and the construction crew will start again. We won a battle, but we may still lose the war.”

“What war? I have to admit, I don’t understand why putting up another building on Main Street is such a problem.”

“They plan to cut down the woods.”

“I’ve heard that,” Alice said. “But the property only stretches as far as the woods…”

Silas eyed her, as if he were assessing her somehow. “You want to see for yourself?”

“I do.”

“All right.” He beckoned to her. “Then follow me.”

He moved alongside the chain-link fence that ringed the construction zone, passing down a weed-choked alley that once separated the Townsend Developments offices from the other buildings on Main Street. Through the wire fence, Alice saw mounds of gravel, deep holes gouged out of the earth, and shovels left standing in the dirt. The construction site stretched back farther than she’d thought. The fence ended where the Blithedale Woods began.

“They’re building right up to the edge of the forest,” she remarked.

“If only,” Silas said.

Again, he beckoned for her to follow.

He moved deeper into the woods. Under the thick canopy, the shadows deepened into a gloomy darkness. The massive tree trunks shielded the undergrowth from the sun. Moss-grown boulders rose from the dirt like the arched backs of sleeping giants. A silvery creek trickled past them, burbling as it went.

Alice wrapped her arms around her, hugging herself against the sudden chill. She glanced at Silas, who’d stopped. He had his back to her, so she couldn’t see what he was doing?

“You really want to know the truth?” he asked.

“I do.”

“The truth is here.”

He turned around and raised a stick. Sharpened at one end, it looked like a stake, and Alice stumbled backward, imagining a murderous attack, a stab through the heart. But Silas held the stick up, waving it back and forth.

Orange paint smeared the flat end, making it easy to spot in the gloom.

“What is it?”

“It’s a surveyor stake. There’s another one over there.”

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and she saw a similar stake stuck in the ground 20 feet away. Now, looking around, she saw several more spread through the woods.

Alice said, “But what are surveyor stakes doing inside the Blithedale Woods?”

“The mayor’s precious development project involves tearing down these trees.” He gestured toward the rushing water. “And filling in that creek.”

“But that’s not possible. Building here must be against the town’s zoning regulations.”

Silas raised an eyebrow.

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