Read Deadly Dye and a Soy Chai: a Danger Cove Hair Salon Mystery (Danger Cove Mysteries Book 5) for Free Online Page A

but every time I looked at the deep-purple walls, zebra-striped curtains, and fuzzy orange comforter set I felt like I had to be tripping.
    Gia sauntered in from the hallway wearing leopard-print footie pajamas with fuchsia angel wings attached to the back and holding a hammer. "Did I wake you up?"
    I gritted my teeth. Nope, not hallucinating . "You know Vinnie's room is off limits. What were you doing in there?"
    "Tapping on the sheetrock and listening for hollow spots." She flopped onto the bed, causing her wings to flap. "I'm positive that he stashed cash in this house. These old brothels were notorious for having hiding places. I read about one that had a system of chutes in the walls so that every hooker had her own specific money drop. How does that saying go? If these old walls could talk…"
    "…they'd be charged with public indecency," I concluded as I sunk into a neon-green beanbag chair at the foot of the bed. "And they wouldn't know a thing about any hidden treasure."
    "I don't understand why you're so skeptical about the money thing," Gia said as she let the hammer drop to the floor with a thud. "Vinnie left you a paid-off Victorian mansion, not to mention that fine Ferrari we're driving. Seems to me the guy had some cash."
    I sighed. "People who have money don't hide it in walls."
    "No, they hide it in offshore accounts." She grabbed a pad and pen from her bedside table. "Which is another avenue I need to look into."
    "Great, Nancy Drew." I elbowed my way deeper into the chair. "You get right on that."
    "I will, because you're going to need some serious dough now that this whole Miss Appleby thing has happened." She jotted down a note and then pointed her pen at me. "And by the way, any lost treasure I find? You're giving me a generous cut."
    "If you uncover any wall treasure, I'll gladly split it with you." The accounting quiz I hadn't studied for flashed into my mind. "Because it's looking like I'm never going to get that business degree."
    Gia's shoulders slumped. "Don't say that, Cass. Given the circumstances, you can get the professor to give you an extension on your quiz."
    "Oh sure," I said, waving my hand, "I'll just tell him that a woman came into my salon, turned blue, and died. Because that's a likely story."
    "It's plausible. Just don't mention that she stayed blue."
    I massaged my temples. "The truth is, I wouldn't pass the quiz even if I did have a few more days to study. Besides, as soon as the news of Margaret's death gets out, I could be too stressed to deal with school."
    "Ugh, speaking of the news, I can see the front page of the Cove Chronicles now, 'Old Lady Clipped at The Clip and Sip,'" she recited in a dramatic voice. "Or wait. This is better, 'Old Lady Dipped and Clipped at The Clip and Sip.'"
    I stared at her, incredulous. "You sound like Detective Marshall! We don't know for sure that Margaret was murdered."
    "Are you kidding?" She opened her arms wide. "The woman looked like Cookie Monster, and this ain't Sesame Street . That didn't happen by magic."
    I sat up in the chair. "Are you implying that Lucy is somehow responsible?"
    "That Goody-Two-Shoes?" She straightened a drooping angel wing. "Not a chance in hell."
    I bit my thumbnail. "Then that leaves Margaret."
    "As in, maybe she was over being old and ended it all by drinking dye?"
    I recoiled as though she'd just swung at me with the hammer. "I was thinking more along the lines of she mistook the mixing bowl for her teacup. But now that you mention it, suicide could have been a factor, especially if she had a terminal illness or something."
    Gia reached under her bed and pulled out a bag of Tim's Potato Chips. "Either way, it doesn't make sense. If she wanted to off herself, she could've done that at home with a bottle of aspirin. Why go to a salon and drink dye to die?"
    I folded my hands in front of my face. "I was wondering the same thing."
    "And if she swallowed some dye on accident, she would've spit it back into the bowl.