The Hard Bounce - [21]

“Just the creeps,” Junior said. I knew what he meant. Cassandra’s room was a masterpiece of pink. Pink walls. Pink bedspread. A generous number of stuffed animals. Even the desk was a light shade of pink. I think it’s called Conch Shell or something ridiculous by people who give a shit. The air was scented subtly with flowers and vanilla.

We were spies in the House of Girl and uncomfortable with it.

“Feels like if we hang out in this room long enough, we might go gay or something,” he muttered.

Same planet, different worlds. “You might.”

“And you’d love me.” Junior licked his thumb and ran it between his man-cleavage.

I almost threw up in my mouth.

4DC Security. Professional investigating at its best.

We divided up the room lengthwise. I took the left side, Junior took the right. Fifteen minutes later, my head was stuck under the bed when I heard something hit the carpet, followed by the sound of something delicate breaking.

“Shit,” said Junior.

“What? What did you do?” Knowing Junior, he’d managed to find a Faberge egg and tried to eat it.

“Goddamn unicorn,” he said, pointing at the floor. “Bounced right off the carpet.” A small glass unicorn lay on the hardwood seam between the carpet and the wall, its dainty head off from the delicate neck.

“It shouldn’t have hit the carpet at all, ass.”

“Maybe…” Junior attempted to fix the unicorn by clinking the two pieces together. Lo and behold, the glass didn’t fuse itself back together with force. Instead, a leg broke off with a snap. “Dammit.”

“Just leave it alone.”

Junior looked out the door and slipped the pieces into his pocket.

“All right,” I said, sitting on the soft, light pink bedspread. “Think back. When you wanted to hide something at The Home, where would you hide it?”

He wrinkled his brow in thought. “Shoes.”

“Checked them when I did the closet. Books?”

“Did ’em. Checked for pages glued together, too.”

I’d forgotten about that one. “Where else? Think.”

“My ass.”

“What?”

“Sometimes I hid a couple of things in my ass when I had to.” He caught my horrified expression. “Small things.”

I cradled my face in my hands. “Well, why don’t you check and see if Cassandra hid her diary or an address book in your ass?”

“I’m just going train of thought here.”

“Is that train up your ass, or is the room already getting to you?”

“Up your ass. There’s nothing here.”

“I know.” I lay my head back on the bed and felt something crinkle in a stuffed animal. It had been a while since I’d owned one, but I didn’t remember stuffed animals crinkling.

“So, you geniuses find anything I didn’t?” Barnes leaned in the doorway with a smug expression smeared across his face. I didn’t want to manhandle the stuffed animals with him watching. He looked to me. “If you’re going to take a nap, take it at home.”

Junior sneezed hard into his hand. It sounded quite a lot like “dickmuncher,” but I could have been wrong.

“Excuse me?” Barnes said. His tone indicated he didn’t really want us to excuse him.

Junior sniffled and smiled wide. “Allergies.”

“We’ll be done in about ten minutes,” I interjected. “Say, you didn’t happen to find anything worthwhile when you gave the room a once-over, did you? Diary? Address book of any kind?”

“Nope. Not a damned thing.”

“Because it would really make you a jerkoff if you knew something that might help us and you were just being a bitch about us sniffing around.”

Junior sneezed again. This time, it sounded like “asswipe.” That Junior and his allergies.

That big vein bulged out on Barnes’s head. “You two swinging dicks just have no idea what’s going on here, do you? I’ve got just as much as you do-more-riding on finding her. I’m in charge of Donnelly’s security, and my own stock goes up when he gets elected mayor. I want the kid found before she blows the whole thing to hell for her father and me.” He turned to walk back out.

“Your concern for Cassandra is really touching. Truly, it is.” I didn’t bother masking my sarcasm.

“You know what?” He came back halfway into the room. “She’s a spoiled little rich bitch who has no idea how much she’s fucking things up for a lot of people here.”

I had to admit, the kid’s room did smack of more than a little privilege.

“Be out in five minutes.” He slammed the door behind him.

“He’s just a big old shmoogie-bear, isn’t he?” I said.

“I’m gonna look under the carpets.”

I turned my attention back to the stuffed animals. One of them had that mystery crinkle going on. Pink elephant. I squeezed it. Nope. I checked the seams. Nope. Raggedy-Ann. No sound, but a shoulder seam was split a half-inch. I stuck my pinkie finger in and rooted around. Nothing. Then I saw the kangaroo. Built-in pouch. Nature’s hidey-hole. I poked the belly.

Crinkle.

The pouch was held together by Velcro. I opened it and felt inside the stuffed velveteen. My fingers closed around something, and I pulled out a single Polaroid. The photo was of a man’s torso. Long and stringy black hair covered his face. He was looking down in the picture. What he was looking at made me freeze-and made me blink a couple times to make sure I was seeing it right.