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"I won't, I promise. I'll be smart."
"Okay, I'll talk to you soon."
The two hung up, and Owen took a second to gather his thoughts.
"I don't think it'll come to getting the police involved," Paul said, reassuring him.
Owen had already told Paul his worries about Corey Jones and her mother before Shep called. Paul knew that Owen was worried about the girl—it was the reason for their whole errand.
"Stanley's been out there for thirty or forty years. We've never known there to be any trouble."
"I'm counting on there being no trouble. I already had to sit through an hour of makeup to cover what that guy, John, did to my mouth the first time we met."
"We'll get to the bottom of it," Paul said.
He was a smart, soft-spoken person with the body of a bear-like mountain man. Owen knew people around here respected Paul, and he was glad he had such a man on his side.
"Well, look what the cat drug in. What are you two doing here?"
Paul's wife, Ellen, was in the salon alone. She was cleaning her station, and she looked up at them with the broom in one hand and a dustpan in the other.
"Are you finished?" Paul asked.
"Two more," she said. "My next one is Jayden Thompson. Just a haircut. He'll be here in ten minutes, you wouldn't recognize him, he's gotten so tall. What are you two doing in town?"
"I asked Paul to bring me here to talk to you about Corey Jones."
"Oh, the jewelry girl?"
"Yeah, I wondered if you had seen her at all in the last few days."
"No, but that's not saying much. I've been busy in here. We have a wedding next weekend, and we've had a whole bridal party in here, planning their hairstyles. I've hardly gone outside in the last two days."
"Do you think you can put me in touch with that guy, John? Would he be at her house? I might want to drive out to that place. Do you know if Corey lives next to the church?"
"She lives on Stanley's property as far as I know. It's way out there, in the middle of nowhere. No one I know even knows her, besides John. I can definitely get John's number for you, though."
"Would you mind calling him from your phone and putting it on speaker?"
"Right now? Sure." She was excited about Paul working with the movie producers, and she was always happy and starstruck to see Owen.
"Do you want me just to let you call from my number?"
"I think it would be good if you ask about her. I'll just stand here and listen, if you don't mind."
"What do you want me to ask?"
"Say that you've noticed they closed the store. Maybe pretend that you wanted to buy some jewelry. You could act concerned about Corey. Ask why she hasn't been at the store. Say you had her number and you tried to call her."
Ellen nodded. She was able to get John's number pretty quickly, and she wasted no time pressing the buttons to call him. It rang on the speaker. It rang three times before he picked up.
"Hello?" John said.
Paul's wife cleared her throat. "Hello, John, this is Ellen Hardy, Paul's wife. I work with Jennifer Rosen."
"Oh, okay," he said.
"Hey, I, uh, Betty Lou's, that jewelry store… we work a few doors down from it, and I was… " She paused and stared at Owen with wide eyes, fumbling, not knowing what to say.
