A Small Hill to Die On: A Penny Brannigan Mystery by Elizabeth J. Duncan Page A

when he got sick last spring, Alzheimer’s maybe, or something like that, Rhys Gruffydd let him stay on in his little cottage up there, even though he couldn’t work anymore.”
    Mrs. Lloyd took a sip of the tea Penny had asked Rhian to bring her.
    “As for running into her, if Dilys doesn’t want you to see her, you won’t. She keeps to the back ways and stays well out of sight. She was always like that, as I recall. Creeping about in the woods and sometimes by moonlight, too.”
    Mrs. Lloyd looked at her watch.
    “Anyway, if you’re all that interested in these two, why don’t you have a word with your Gwennie? She worked up at the Hall practically her whole life and her mother before her. She’ll know as much about that pair as anyone would.”

 
    Thirteen
    A few minutes later, her manicure finished, Mrs. Lloyd prepared to leave. “I wasn’t sure if I should mention this or not, Penny, as I’m sure it’s a bit of a sore spot with you, but I noticed the new nail bar and tanning salon has opened. I do hope it won’t impact your business too much, really I do.”
    She smiled at Penny. “I hope you know you’ll always have my support. I won’t be setting foot in that place. I hear some of those nail bars run by foreigners don’t clean their tools very well and you can pick up all kinds of nasty infections.”
    She gave a little shudder. “No, don’t bother. I’ll see myself out. I know the way.”
    Penny and Eirlys exchanged glances and Eirlys nodded.
    “I’ll be sure to sterilize them properly, Penny. I always do.”
    She gathered up the tools, set them on a tray and then, using a disinfectant cloth, she wiped down her work surface and laid a clean white towel over it.
    “You know, Penny, what Mrs. Lloyd just said got me thinking. If you weren’t a nice person and you wanted to hurt your rival’s business, you could—”
    Penny held up a hand to stop her. “Eirlys, I’m surprised at you, to even think such a thing.” I’m surprised at myself, too, then, thought Penny. For thinking the same thing.
    “But, Eirlys, that gives me an idea. Let’s check the schedule, and if you haven’t got another customer booked just now, I’d like you to do something for me.”
    Twenty minutes later, Eirlys pushed open the door to the Handz and Tanz salon.
    Unlike the Llanelen Spa, which was decorated in calm, soothing pastels, giving it a sophisticated air of clean tranquility, Handz and Tanz was a riot of hot neon pinks and lime greens that glowed garishly bright under fluorescent lighting. Loud rock music played in the reception area, where an unsmiling Asian receptionist looked up as Eirlys entered.
    “I’d like to book a manicure, please,” Eirlys said, raising her voice to be heard over the music.
    “When you like to come in?” the receptionist asked.
    “How about tomorrow?”
    “What time?”
    “Two o’clock.”
    Eirlys looked around the salon while the receptionist made a show of thumbing through an appointment book with very few entries in it. Two young Asian girls dressed in bright pink smocks smiled shyly at her.
    “What your name?”
    “Eirlys.”
    “How you spell?”
    As Eirlys spelled her name, the receptionist printed it slowly in her appointment book. She then handed Eirlys a card with the date and time written on it.
    “You want tanning?” the receptionist asked. “We have opening special.”
    “No, no thanks. No tanning.”
    “You want pedicure? Opening special.”
    As Eirlys was about to reply, raised voices coming from a back room caught their attention. All eyes turned toward the door as a woman, swiping at her eyes with her hand, emerged and, without looking at them, pushed her way out the front door. A small Asian man glared at the women in the pink smocks and then said something to them in a language Eirlys did not understand. They lowered their eyes immediately, and with one last hard stare he disappeared into the back room. No one spoke in the brief embarrassed