Trouble in Paradise - [5]

I still hadn’t ruled out the possibility that Tammy Susie had deliberately flown the coop. Being the center of a show can be a lot of pressure for anyone, let alone a nine-year-old. And Erica had said they were in their third season. But the fact that she hadn’t called in-by now it’d been about two hours-did worry me. I thought about who might have snatched her. If it was someone who recognized her, we could expect a ransom demand soon-unless it was someone who’d seen her show, pegged it as the demise of civilization as we knew it, and was holding on to her to prevent any further erosion in the collective IQ level in English-speaking countries.

On a serious note, I was even more worried about the possibility that she’d been snatched by someone who didn’t recognize her… I couldn’t bear to think about where that scenario might end. It would be far better if this was a kidnapping for ransom. At least Tammy Susie’s people would have no problem paying up.

Finally, Erica stopped at a small boutique that featured brightly colored oceanscape and flowered clothing.

“You took her here?” Bailey asked.

It was a fair question. I didn’t see any kids’ clothing in the window.

“First of all, I didn’t take her anywhere. Tammy Susie took me here. And depending on the cut, she’s big enough to wear women’s sizes. She takes after… both sides of the family.” Translation: it was a big-boned family.

Just to lighten the mood, I cracked a little joke. “Look on the bright side, Erica. You wouldn’t have known Tammy Susie’s dress size if you’d gone to work for Scorsese.”

Erica glowered at me. Hey, they can’t all be gold. Jeez. I shrugged and we entered the store. The decorator had a penchant for sensory saturation. Caribbean music and an overly sweet scent filled the air, and every inch was packed with bright clothing and accessories. Blouses hung on the wall, pants were draped on bamboo chairs, and costume jewelry dripped fetchingly from the branches of tiny metal trees. It was no mystery why a young girl was attracted to this kaleidoscope of the senses. A small, light-skinned Hispanic girl with waist-length hair who was standing behind a glass counter smiled at us hopefully. “Can I help you?”

Erica had entered behind us, and now I felt her tugging on my sleeve. I turned. “What?”

“She’s the one who helped us. Don’t let her see me, okay?”

It didn’t seem worth arguing that this girl’s identification of Erica was the least of her problems. “Send Tammy Susie’s photo to my phone. Right now.”

Erica backed out of the store, and I approached the salesgirl. “We’re looking for a girl, about so tall.” I gestured four feet in height. “She was wearing a red-and-pink scarf on her head and she tried on some clothes here a couple of hours ago?”

The salesgirl’s brow wrinkled, and she stared off for a moment. “You mean Tammy Susie?”

I didn’t need her blabbing that the little celeb had dropped off the radar, so I tossed out the first lie that came to mind. “Yes. We’re working on the show, and Tammy Susie lost her uh… scarf. We need it for the episode we’re taping now. Can we check out your dressing rooms?”

“Sure, no problem.” She led us to the back of the store, where drapes closed off the fitting area. She pulled them back and gestured to the dressing rooms. We checked every room, looked behind mirrors and under chairs… no Tammy Susie. Bailey moved back toward the draped archway and pointed to a door that was next to the first dressing room on the left. “Where does that lead?”

“Just to the office.” The girl opened the door and showed us a small room that held a chair, a sofa, and a dusty computer sitting on a wooden table.

I walked around behind the table and scanned the room. A full-length mirror on the wall to my right looked a little askew. Crooked hanging things always make me nuts, so I went over and straightened it. And that’s when I noticed the mirror was actually hanging on a door. The mirror was large enough to hide the knob and obscure the seam where the door fitted into the wall. “What about this?” I asked.

“I never saw that before,” the girl said. “The owner’s the only one who uses this office, so I hardly ever come in here.”

I turned the knob and pulled, taking care not to knock the mirror down. It led out of the store and into another side of the mall. I stepped through and studied the knob from the outside, searching for pry marks or some evidence of forced entry. It looked pristine to me. I waved Bailey and Toni out to give me their opinions.

“Looks clean,” Bailey said.

“Yeah,” Toni said. “But what’s that?” She bent down and picked up a little red beaded bracelet with a silver smiley face in the center.

We all exchanged looks. It appeared to be a kid’s bracelet. If it was Tammy Susie’s, the theory that she’d just wandered off on her own or even sneaked away on purpose could pretty much be ruled out. No way would a nine-year-old have discovered that office door, let alone the door behind the mirror. The possibility that we were dealing with a kidnapping had just been upgraded into a likelihood. I leaned down to examine the area for blood, hair, or some other signs of a struggle. “What’s that?” I pointed to a smudge on the door frame.