Bailey jumped in. “Your bun boy over there, Mike Borden, knew who we were because he was in the lobby when we got in this morning. And he knew Erica had teamed up with us because he was watching her the whole time so he could push her buttons, make her panic and call the police—”
“The jerk deliberately tortured her all day,” Toni said, fuming. “He kept texting her, asking, ‘What’s going on with Tammy Susie?’ And when that didn’t work, he ordered her to bring Tammy Susie back to the hotel immediately.”
I folded my arms and stared hard at Borden. “That little stunt of yours nearly gave Erica a nervous breakdown. And you’re just damn lucky Tammy Susie was okay.”
Borden tried for a look of defiance, but the effort was undermined by his fearful sidelong glances at Kraft.
After several long moments of silence, Kraft turned to Erica. “What if Tammy Susie really had been kidnapped?” He looked at her sternly. “I don’t know whether to keep you on the show or not, but I definitely can’t afford to have you wrangle Tammy Susie anymore.” Erica looked miserable, but she just nodded and said nothing. Then he turned to Borden.
I prepared to enjoy the spectacle of seeing Borden get fired on the spot. He needed a good, hard ass-kicking.
“Mike.” He shook his head. “That was friggin’ brilliant, man! Jeopardy, drama, you had it all. That would’ve scored us the highest ratings of the season!” Kraft held up a hand for a high five.
Borden, taken by surprise, squeaked out a laugh and slapped his hand. “That was the plan!”
“How’d you get Tammy Susie out of the dressing room?” Kraft asked. The admiration in his voice made me want to gag.
“I met the store owner’s nephew before he took off for college. He told me about the hidden door because he thought it was funny. But when I came up with the plan, I remembered what he said. All I had to do was send Sasha—”
“Are you out of your minds?” I said. “What if something had happened to Tammy Susie?”
“Nothing was going to happen to Tammy,” Borden scoffed. “I knew Babu was totally safe because I vetted her. If you guys hadn’t gotten in the way, our ratings would’ve gone through the roof, and a fourth-season pickup would’ve been a done deal.”
I looked from Borden to Kraft. “I’d call you pond scum, but it’d be an insult to pond scum.” And on that note, we walked out. We all fumed in silence as we headed for our suite. Were Tammy Susie’s parents in on the fake kidnapping? I couldn’t prove it, but I suspected they were. And I was half hoping to run into them now, so I could confront them.
Fortunately for all of us, that didn’t happen.
We got back to the room and showered. We decided to stay in and have dinner on the balcony where no one could disturb us. Our food came just as the sun was beginning to set. The sky looked as though it had been swiped with a giant paintbrush dipped in hues of red and orange, and the air was still warm and fragrant with the scent of lemon blossoms.
Bailey sat down and unfolded her napkin. “Talk about no good deed.”
“Right?” Toni said. “What a sterling collection of jackasses. They all deserve each other.”
“Well, at least Erica won’t have to wrangle Tammy Susie anymore,” I said. I’d hoped Erica would quit the show after the shabby way she’d been treated, but jobs are scarce in television, and jobs on hit shows are harder to find than a born-again Christian at a Ricky Gervais concert. Erica had called shortly after we got back to our suite to tell us that Kraft had shown a sliver of decency and decided not to fire her. She intended to stay until she could either get promoted or find another show. But it was time to put work behind us… finally. Toni poured the wine and raised her glass. “Want to try again?”
“To our vacation!” Bailey said, also raising her glass.
We clinked and drank.
But as Bailey and Toni rehashed the events of the day—the relief of a happy ending allowed us to laugh about it now—my thoughts turned to what Madam Junaida had said to me privately when we’d gone back to see her.
After she eventually broke down and admitted she’d known about the kidnapping scam and decided to help us in order to thwart it, Junaida had asked to speak to me privately. Bailey and Toni smirked but obligingly left us alone and went out to call a taxi. I figured the little con artist was finally going to ask for money, and as far as I was concerned, she’d earned it. I pulled my wallet out of my purse, but she waved me off.
“No,” she said. “I helped you for my own reasons. It would be bad luck to take your money. I asked to speak to you alone because I see something that I must tell you.”