Mrs Ballard a loud obnoxious woman who was the wife of a local MP went on to complain that Miss Garlands opal earring had gone missing at the salon the week before and accuses the salon girls of stealing her scarf.
The salon owner Madame Latour tells her it may have fallen to the floor and been swept up and she will make enquiries, Mrs Ballard tells her she will give them 24 hours to return the earring, scarf and everything else that had gone missing and will be back tomorrow to collect them.
Phryne ask Mme Latour for a private word and asks her to tell her everything that happened. Mme Latour tells her that Edna had been in charge of Mrs Jones styling and Elsie had looked after Mrs Jenkins.
Phryne then asks about the missing opal earring and Mme Latour tells her Miss Garland has left in good humour on Friday but called later to report the earring missing. Phryne asks if Miss Garland had an dressing applied and Mme says she cannot remember but Jean attended her so calls Jean in.
Phryne asks Jean if she applied any liquid dressings to Miss Garland's hair and Jean says yes Phryne asks her if she asked Miss Garland to take her earrings out and she says yes and also her ring because she manicured her nails. She says Miss Garland only had one earring on when she asked her to take them out. She says she put the earring back but perhaps Miss Garland did not fasten it properly.
Mme lets Jean go and asks Phryne about the scarf Phryne says she may have some ideas and asks if Mrs Ballard was wearing it when she arrived. Mme Latour says yes it was a hideous thing. Phryne asks if she sat under any of the machines. Mme Latour says yes and Phryne asks to be shown which one.
Phryne reached into the machine and pulled out the missing scarf followed by the necklet and hairclip. She points to the brass clip on Mrs Ballard's scarf and tells Mme she thinks there may be some loose magnets in the machine which are attracting the metal objects.
After her hair styling Phryne saw Jean outside the florists. The girl was trembling. Phryne invites her to a nearby teashop for lunch. Phryne then asks her what she did with Miss Garland's earring and she can help her. Jean tells Phryne her boyfriend Matt lost his job and told her to take valuable items from salon clients for him to hawk. Phryne tells Jean to go to Matt straight after work and demand the pawn ticket for the earring but Jean who appears scared of Matt tells her she can't do it. Phryne then tells Jean to tell her where Matt lives and she will deal with it.
Phryne heads to Matt's address a run down boarding house where the landlady tells her where to find Matt. Phryne tells Matt that the police are on the way and if he wants to avoid 6 months hard labour he will give her the pawn ticket. After Matt hands over the ticket she then threatens him that if he goes near Jean again she will carve her initials on his liver with a blunt knife.
The next day Phryne returns to Salon de Paris. Mrs Ballard arrives demanding the missing items and Phryne walks up to the machine and pulls out all the missing items including the earring. She tells Mrs Ballard that the machines are in their infancy so she would be advised to remove such items before getting her hair done and even better advised to be more cautious about strewing about wild accusations about the staff at the salon, addressing her as Mrs Bollard.
Mrs Ballard tells Phryne that her husband is an MP and Phryne says that if that is the case she should avoid causing him embarrassment as the she could see the headline in The Hawklet. Mrs Bollard is enraged and says she will not attend the salon again and storms out.
Mme Latour closes the door and ask Phryne how she contrive it. She says Jean is such a foolish girl and asks if she has shown Matt the door. She asks if it cost Phryne much to get the earring back. She tells Mme Latour 10 bob at the pawn shop but it was worth it for telling vile Bollard off. She says she hopes Mme will not lose business. Mme says she will probably get more business without Mrs Ballard around.
Phryne then says as they are in private can she ask Mme a question. She asks if Mme is really from Paris. Mme tells her she will only tell Phryne as she can count on her discretion but she is really Maisie Fields and the closest she has been to Paris is Moonee Ponds. She says she was born in North Port.
Phryne tells her her French is very good and Mme says she took classes with M. Dupont who pronounced her passable. Phryne tells her her secret is safe and she is delighted she could assist Mme.
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