Page 57 of A Shared Mind

I felt lighter than I had in a while because Clay and I had cleared the air. I was sure we were on the brink of something great, but we had to get through this last part—the Ramon Blanco part—which could be tricky.

“So, how do you think I should approach whoever is at the salon?” I needed not to get nervous. My stuttering wouldn’t help anything.

Clay turned to stare at me as he put his arm around my waist and kissed my temple. “Go with the book angle. Tell them you’ve been researching organized crime in the Midwest since prohibition. Say you’ve traveled all over the middle of the country and talked to people who have knowledge of the history, and you’d like to include information about the St. Louis connections to other organized crime families in your book.

“Don’t use your real name or Teddy’s name. Come up with a new name—you have brown hair, so pick an Italian name. That might buy you some sway with her. Tell them I’m a cousin or something. I don’t care, but don’t use the Danny name you told Nico in case he says we were the reason he was arrested last night.”

I nodded. It made sense.

We arrived a couple minutes before nine, so we stood outside and waited. “After this, Let’s go back to the farm. I need to talk to Steve to see what options I have regarding your portfolio.”

“Don’t you have other clients?” Clay asked.

I shook my head. “You’re my first client. I’ve been working with Steve to service his clients, and I haven’t picked up any others of my own.” My cheeks flushed. After two years, I should have been able to get more than one client of my own, shouldn’t I?

Clay smiled. “Well, we can fix that. I can void my engagement with Steve and just have you as my advisor. I’m pretty sure you can pick up some other clients in Sterling City. You can help the other farmers figure out how to maximize their profits as you have me and Mama. Hell, if I give her the go-ahead, she’ll have the word out on the gossip circuit tomorrow.

“But don’t do anything yet. I want you to take your time to figure it out, okay? Oh, a lady just came in through the back door. What’s your name? Quick.” Clay smirked at me.

“I’ll be Kevin Sorbo. He was a guy on TV. Uh, he played Hercules in the nineties. What’s your name?”

“Ah, movie star names? Uh, Heath Ledger. Why not? He was a blond, right?”

I laughed. “He was really good looking, but you win that contest, hands down. Good pick.”

Clay grinned. “Okay, Kevin, let’s get haircuts.”

We walked to the shop and Clay opened the door for me. I went inside to see a woman with big hair and a pink smock standing at the desk. “Hello. Do you have an appointment with Marcy? She’s running late because she had a family emergency, so can we reschedule?”

I wanted to laugh because things were playing out as I suspected. Clay’s hand on my back helped center me immediately. “Hi. Would you happen to be Mary Jane?”

She brightened. “As a matter of fact, I am. And you are?”

“I’m Kevin Sorbo. I met a guy at a bar who said you could fix this for me.” I reached up and moved my hand through my hair. “I have a big meeting this afternoon and I need to look my best. Is there anyway you can fit me in?”

She stepped around the front desk and looked at my hair. “Honey, it doesn’t look bad to me, but I can give you a quick trim.” She then turned to Clay. “And who are you?”

“I’m his assistant, Heath Ledger. Nice to meet you.”

I didn’t expect her to reach up and run her hands through his curly blond hair that I loved so much. “Oh, this, I can fix. Follow me, guys. I don’t have a client until eleven, but Marcy couldn’t be here to open so I came in early. Let’s get started.”

Mary Jane took me back to the shampoo room to wash my hair and after she regulated the water, she smiled down at me. “So, who sent you my way?”

“Uh, a really good-looking guy named, uh, Nico. He was funny as hell.” My life was being built on lies.

“Oh! That’s Marcy’s son. Nico is a gorgeous man and if he sent you...” She turned to look at Clay and then looked at me and tried to suppress a smile.

“Ah. Okay. So, uh, you and Heath are more than friends?”

I couldn’t contain my smile. “Picked up on that, did you? Yeah, we are. Nico told the two of us that you had some interesting stories about organized crime here in St. Louis. I’m a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kansas, and I’d love to hear any stories you have about Ramon Blanco. He was the subject of my thesis and someday I’d like to write a book about him.”

I held my breath to see if she’d take the bait, and without skipping a beat Mary Jane began singing like she was the lead soprano for the New York City Opera. I exhaled at my silent victory. A beauty salon was generally the head of the gossip grapevine, and we seemed to be looking at its leader.

“So, uh, Marcy’s former partner is Nico’s father. He was in the DeLuca family. Have you heard of them?” Mary Jane scraped her gel nails over my scalp as she washed my hair, and I couldn’t say I hated it.

“Yes, of course I know about the DeLuca family from my research while I wrote my thesis. The family was headed by Johnny DeLuca. He was rumored to be the most powerful of the five families, or so I’ve heard.”

Mary Jane pushed the chair to a sitting position and patted my hair with a hand towel. “Come with me. I’ve got a lot to say on the history of the families in St. Louis.”