Physics Can Be Fatal (23 page)

     “Okay, let’s put them away for now.  We will go over the exams later, I promise,” she said.  “But for right now, let’s talk about some of the trickier aspects involved in the optical properties of solids.”

     When the commotion of rustling papers and chatter died down, Edwina held court to a very attentive audience.

*

     After class Edwina strolled across the Green toward Sanborn House at a leisurely pace, enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine.  She thought about Dylan D’Arcy’s clever anagram and smiled.  By the time she got back to her office, her thoughts had once again returned to the Sidebottom business.  Edwina picked up the pink flyer and examined it carefully.

     There was really nothing strange or unusual about it.  It was a discount flyer, like so many others, that came in the mail.

    
Oh, but wait a second.  This didn’t come in the mail.  Ruth Benjamin said they were hand-delivered,
Edwina thought. 
Okay.  So what might that signify? 

     Edwina hung up her jacket on the door.  She stood at the window and looked out at the superb fall colors.  Some of the trees had lost their leaves.  Winter was around the corner.  A New England winter, at that.

    
Because whoever mailed them wanted to leave nothing to chance,
Edwina postulated. 
Because whoever delivered them to the Department wanted to make absolutely sure they got here in a nice, neat pile, and weren’t thrown out by some overzealous department secretary sorting the mail.

   
Edwina sat at her desk and began to write an outline for her lecture on the Gaussian distribution formula.  But her student, Dylan D’Arcy, kept popping into her head unexpectedly, and interrupting her train of thought.

    
How incredibly annoying,
Edwina thought. 
Why in the world would––

     Edwina snatched up the pink flyer and studied the image of fairy fingers in the background, with text in the foreground.  She grabbed the phone and dialed Will.  The call went straight to voice mail.  She hurriedly punched out a text message. 

     No reply. 

    
Wait ‘til you hear back from Will.  Don’t do anything silly,
she thought.

     Impossible!  Once the discovery had been made, there was no real chance of Edwina slowing down.  A cousin to her ‘premature absent-mindedness’ was this compulsion to pursue any piece of evidence that presented itself on the way to a solution, no matter how reckless it might prove. 

     It did cross her mind that she might be putting herself in harm’s way, but she quickly pushed this thought out of the equation.  A new connection had presented itself, and she would follow it, with or without Will.  No time to waste!

     Edwina jammed the pink flyer into her backpack, flew down the stairs, and jumped on her bike.  The day was raw and damp.  Her ears, face, and hands instantly stung from the bitter cold.  Her nose started to run.  Pedaling hard and squinting her eyes against the cold, she pulled the hat back out of her jacket pocket, and maneuvered it awkwardly onto her head in a lopsided position that at least did manage to cover her ears.  From the other pocket she extracted the gloves.  Pedaling furiously, she held one glove in her teeth while she wriggled the other glove onto her right hand.

     “Dammit!” Edwina cursed, speeding past the second glove as it fell to the ground in a red blur.

     She tugged at the left sleeve of her coat, trying to coax it as far over her bare hand as she could in order to keep her fingers from freezing.  That didn’t work, so she stuck her bare hand into the pocket of her coat and steered the bike with the other.

    
Almost there!
Edwina thought, seeing the opening of the alley a hundred yards ahead.

     Edwina got off her bike.  She paused to catch her breath, and wiped her nose on a tissue.  She peered down the length of the alley, lined with trim little whitewashed storefronts, looking inviting with their matching awnings and colorful flowerboxes.

     Edwina got a fix on Leah’s Place.

    
Okay, kid, what’s the plan? 
she thought excitedly.

     Edwina locked up her bike and strolled casually as possible down the alley toward Leah’s Place.  She nervously entered the salon. 

     Leah looked up from behind a desk.

     “Hello,” Leah said politely.  “Can I help you?”

     “Hi,” Edwina said.  “I’m sorry I don’t have an appointment, but I was wondering if you could possibly fit me in for a trim?  Just the bangs?” Edwina said, brushing them out of her eyes for emphasis.

     “Oh sure, no problem!  Why don’t you go in the back and get a smock on,” she said, taking the measure of Edwina with a covert glance from head to toe.

     Edwina hung her jacket on coat hooks near the door, and surveyed the airy salon.  A muted whir of washing machines from the Laundromat next door hummed pleasantly in the background.  The walls of the small salon were painted a tranquil shade of pink, and botanical prints in white wooden frames decorated the walls.  Rectangular mirrors, also framed in white wood, hung at two, well-appointed styling stations sitting side by side.  Stacks of neatly folded pink towels lined the shelves of a wrought iron and brass baker’s rack.  The pale linoleum floor did not betray a speck of dust.

     Edwina approached the back of the salon where a hallway led to a small changing room.  She took down a smock from a hook on the back of the changing room door, and snapped it closed over her shirt.  On her way out she peered into the little bathroom across the hall, with sparkling white tiled walls and floor that smelled of lavender.  A skylight was cranked opened for ventilation in the immaculate little powder pink bathroom.  The entire salon was spotless.

     Edwina sat down in an imitation leather and chrome chair at the haircutting station nearer the front door.

     Leah stood behind her and addressed Edwina’s reflection in the mirror.

     “So, just a little bit off the bangs?” she asked cheerfully.

     “Yes, please,” Edwina replied.  “An inch would be good.  Seems like my bangs are always getting in my eyes.”

     Leah combed Edwina’s hair with expertly brisk strokes, and gathered it into a neat twist.  She secured the twist of hair with a clip, leaving only the bangs free.

     “You have beautiful hair,” Leah said.  “Very healthy.”

     “Thank-you.”

     Leah reached over and removed a black nylon cape from the lower shelf of the workstation.  In one fluid motion, she shook it open and encircled Edwina’ body with the voluminous garment.  The billowy ‘cutting cape’ fluttered into place and covered Edwina’s body, all the way down to her knees.  Leah snapped it closed at the back of Edwina’s neck.  The ‘cutting cape’ provided a protective layer, and ensured against chemical hair product and hair falling onto Edwina’s skin or clothing.

     “So, are you a student up at the college?” Leah asked, combing Edwina’s hair.

     “Actually, I teach there.”

     “That must be really interesting.  What do you teach?”

     “Physics,” Edwina replied. 

     “Oh, wow, so you must’ve known that poor man who got killed,” Leah said.

     “It was horrible.  Such a nice man.  And brilliant.  I had dinner with him the night he got killed.  It’s so weird that he came here for a haircut after we had dinner together.”

     “Boy, oh boy, what a small world,” Leah said.  “Were you his girlfriend or something?”

     “Oh, no, nothing like that,” Edwina said.  “Speaking of physics, I noticed that your name is an anagram for ‘black hole’.”

     “No kidding?” Leah said.  “How about that?”

     Leah had nearly finished cutting Edwina’s bangs in a perfectly straight line.

     “If you went out to dinner with him, it must have been like a date,” Leah said.  “I mean, you’re a beautiful girl, and he was a horny, old fraud.”

     There was an abrupt change in the atmosphere with this alarmingly inappropriate comment.  Menace was afoot.

     Suddenly Leah grabbed the sides of the capacious nylon garment covering Edwina, and pulled it tightly across Edwina’s body, trapping her in the chair.  Leah tied the cape behind the chair, knotting it firmly, so that it was like a straightjacket.  Edwina could move only her legs.  Leah grabbed another cape from the shelf, and tied Edwina’s thighs together so she wouldn’t be able to kick her.  The strong nylon fabric made an effective restraint. 

     Leah removed the clip holding Edwina’s hair in a twist, and let it fall in loose waves around Edwina’s neck.  Adrenaline flooded Edwina’s brain and triggered a strong desire for flight.  She wriggled her body, but she was firmly tied to the chair.  The nylon capes were as strong as rope.  Edwina’s stomach felt like it was rising to her mouth, and her mind reeled.  Her heart pounded so loudly she could not hear, and wondered if she had gone deaf.

     “What do you think you’re doing?” Edwina shouted, terrified.

     A coldly menacing smile transformed Leah’s face into something grotesque.

     “You must think I was born on a farm, if you think I’m going to let myself get caught by the likes of you.”  Leah threw her head of dark hair back and laughed hysterically.

     “The hilarious thing is that you would be so fucking right––I
was
born on a farm!  Born and raised!  I’m the real deal––I’m Dorothy from Kansas!  Believe me––cows and chickens and pig shit and the whole stinking, mind-numbing thing,” Leah gabbled, clicking together a pair of scissors rapidly next to Edwina’s ear.

     Leah took slow, deliberate steps around the chair until she was standing facing Edwina.  She moved slowly closer to her with the scissors and began randomly hacking off chunks of hair.

     “Why the name ‘Leah Block’,” Edwina sputtered, trying to stall Leah from chopping off all her hair––or worse.  “Why the subterfuge by picking a name that spells out ‘black hole’?”

     Leah held the scissors in mid-air.

     “Clever, right?  I just thought the name was a clever touch––I wanted to make sure everybody knew how smart I am.  And if it got their attention, all the better.”

     “Whose attention?” Edwina gasped.

     “Sidebottom, and his gal Friday, Helen Mann.”

     “Why them?”

     Leah posed in an exaggerated stance of mock exasperation, her hand on her hips and eyes wide.

     “Are you telling me you don’t see the family resemblance?” Leah said. 
Really, 
Nancy Drew?  God! You nerds are morons!  They’re my
parents
, Goldilocks!  And just as soon as I finish my business with Helen Mann, better known to me as dear old Mom, I can’t wait to leave this place.”

     Suddenly Edwina’s mind quieted down, and her heart slowed to normal.  She no longer felt panicked.  She felt angry.  Her mind was now sharply focused.  She looked hard into Leah’s eyes.

     “So, what did Alan Sidebottom ever do to you?” Edwina said calmly.

     Leah glared at her.  She inched slowly closer with scissors in hand.  Edwina told herself not to wriggle or make any sudden movement, as this was likely to end up disastrously for her.  She forced herself to sit very still when she felt the cold metal of the scissors against her forehead, and Leah began to cut her hair shorter and shorter.  Edwina was afraid to close her eyes, and afraid to keep them open. 

     Neither spoke as Leah pranced around the chair, cutting random hunks of Edwina’s hair.  Edwina’s view was blocked from seeing her reflection in the mirror, but she could see thick, uneven sections of hair falling to the floor.  She started to feel sick.

    
Focus on getting out of here,
she cajoled herself. 
Think!

     The heavy salon chair sat on a round metal base that spun in both directions.  She could move only her legs, from the knees down.  Edwina calculated that she might be able to knock Leah off balance by spinning the chair hard enough, and banging into Leah with the metal footrest that stuck out at the bottom of the chair.  She would have to spin the chair with maximum force if she was going to knock Leah off balance. 

     Edwina waited for the right moment.  She quietly positioned her feet to one side so she could push off the floor at an angle, and spin the chair with adequate force.  She could not think beyond that.