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you’d get to hear every single detail of a perfect stranger’s life.
    While Sizal plaited and twirled her hair into place, Kelly related her entire life story. It wasn’t particularly gripping but it passed the time. After a while she began to ask Sizal about his work, and all of a sudden eavesdropping got a lot more interesting. Smiling at him in the mirror, she said, “You do all the stars’ hair, don’t you? I bet you’ve got a few stories to tell.”
    Sizal Bouffant grinned, flashing his perfect teeth. “Oh yes, darling. I’ve had them all in my chair, so to speak.” He winked suggestively at me and Graham. “You should see me on Oscars night. I’m doing extensions faster that Bob the Builder!”
    They chatted about various celebrities, Sizal relating a whole series of hair-related titbits about which actors were going bald and who’d had a bad dye job and whose split ends were a disgrace and whether the fashion next season was going to be long or short. Then he sighed and remarked, “Of course all that’s probably behind me now. If what I’ve read is true, I’ll be dropped like a pair of hot tongs when people find out I’m doing this wedding. I may have just committed professional suicide.”
    I couldn’t help myself. “Why?” I asked.
    Sizal looked at me and pulled a face. “Angelica’s friends. I don’t suppose any of them will want to use me now. That’s probably half my A-list clients down the plughole.”
    “So why did you agree to it?”
    “I’m a hopeless romantic, darling. I never could resist a wedding.”
    Kelly didn’t like being upstaged by a kid and her eyes narrowed. “You used to do
her
hair, didn’t you?” she asked Sizal. “Back before Bill met Josie.”
    I saw Graham’s back straighten and knew he was paying attention too.
    “I did, sweetie. The last time I touched up her roots was January. She looked lovely then.” Sizal smiled, and his expression softened as though he had fond memories. “She was radiant, you know? In love. Glowing with happiness.” Then he pursed his lips and added, “Different story now, though. The poor woman seems positively suicidal.”
    Kelly dropped her voice. “You know she’s here on the island?”
    “Yes, darling. I’ve seen her.”
    “People are saying she’s gone mad.”
    Sizal looked uncomfortable. “She does seem a little … how can I put it?
Delusional
.”
    “It must be embarrassing for Bill,” Kelly went on. She couldn’t quite disguise the tremble in her voice as she said his name. Interesting, I thought. So Kelly’s got a crush on him too, has she?
    “Bill?” echoed Sizal. He shrugged. “Oh, I expect he’s man enough to cope. It’s Angelica I feel sorry for. She’s in pieces!” The hairdresser spun Kelly around in her chair and said, “You’re done, sweetie.” Then he added, “You know Angelica asked me to have a word with Josie?”
    “With
Josie
? She never!”
    “Oh yes, she did. Wanted me to stop the wedding. As if I could make any difference!”
    Graham caught my eye in the mirror. We were both eager to hear more, but just then a wasp flew in through the open window and suddenly all hell broke loose.
    I’ve never seen anyone react so hysterically to a small, stripy insect. Sizal screamed – a terror-stricken, ear-splitting squeal – then dropped his comb and started flapping his hands in front of his face in a way that only made him more likely to get stung. His breath came in wheezing gulps, as if he was about to have an asthma attack, and for a second or two I thought he might pass out in sheer fright.
    But Graham – always surprisingly quick to react in an emergency – grabbed a glass and cupped it over the wasp the moment it settled. Sliding his ever-useful library card between glass and wall so he had the intruder trapped, Graham then carried the insect across the room and released it before pulling the window tight shut.
    Sizal sank down on to a chaise longue, hand on heart trying to