Free Shampoo and a Stiff by Cindy Bell Page B

final missing piece.
     
    ***
     
    Sunlight was filtering through the window of the bedroom. She could feel it warm against her cheek. Bekki moaned quietly in her sleep and turned over to snuggle up to Nick. She found herself in a large empty bed. As she slowly opened her eyes she realized that she must have overslept. She felt an immediate panic that she would be late to open the salon and customers would be waiting. Then she remembered asking Sammy to schedule only afternoon appointments. As soon as her mind settled from that scare, brinwood popped up. She abruptly knew exactly what the brinwood had been used for. She snatched up her cell phone and called her father's number.
    “ Pick up, pick up,” she pleaded as she waited through each shrill ring.
    “ Hello?” her father finally answered.
    “ Dad, I want you to go to the hospital right now. Any of your friends that were at the bar with you on Sunday, I want them to go, too,” she said swiftly, her heart pounding.
    “ Bekki? Why?” her father asked, obviously confused. “I feel fine.'
    “ You might feel fine now,” Bekki offered grimly. “But you were poisoned, and I want you to be checked out.”
    “ Poisoned?” her father chuckled as if it was all some elaborate joke.
    “ Dad, I'm serious,” Bekki insisted as she jumped up and tried to dress while she was still on the phone. “You weren't drunk. Steven put brinwood in your beer, so that you would think you were drunk.”
    “ What?” her father asked in a louder voice. “Why would he do something like that?”
    “ So, no one would notice when he left the bar!” Bekki replied. “Please Dad, just go get checked out. I know you probably think it's crazy, but it's worth looking into.”
    “ Okay, okay,” he finally said. “I'll go right now.”
    “ Please make sure you tell your friends, too,” Bekki insisted. “I'll call you later to check in.”
    “ Okay sweetie, I'm going now,” he assured her and hung up the phone.
    Bekki tried to hold back her anger. Things had just become very personal for her. From what she had read about brinwood it could be very dangerous if too much was taken. She was sure that her father was fine as it had been days since she suspected he was intentionally poisoned, but she didn't want to take any chances.
    Besides , if the hospital ordered blood tests there might still be trace amounts of it in their system, which would help in court. Because Steven was going to jail. That was, if Bekki didn't decide to kill him first. She wasn't normally a violent person, but thinking of what could have happened to her father, made it very hard for her not to be. She drove straight towards the factory. She didn't check in with Nick, or with Sammy. She was too angry to. She knew if she told Nick the truth he would insist she didn't go to the factory on her own, but she'd had enough of Steven's outlandish behavior. She wasn't going to let another person suffer because of his selfishness.

Chapter Eight
     
    When Bekki arrived at the factory she was surprised not to see any other cars in the employee parking lot. In fact, she didn't even see Steven's car. The factory looked like it was locked up and hadn't been opened for business that morning. She was a little apprehensive, but she didn't want to miss out on talking to Steven. As she walked up to the factory, she noticed some flashing coming from around the corner of the employees’ only entrance. She walked towards it, and just as she suspected, the reporter was snapping pictures of a sign that had been posted on the door.
    ‘ This company has been sold’
    “ What are you doing here?” Bekki asked, causing the reporter to jump so high that he almost dropped his camera.
    “ Oh, I heard the news about the sale and wanted to get a picture for my article,” he explained quickly.
    “ Do you really think it's been sold?” Bekki asked as she studied the sign. It gave no information at all. She guessed that many of the employees had