Trouble in Paradise(4)
“So she might just be rolling around the island with her chauffeur,” Bailey said.
“She might, but I just… have a bad feeling about the way it all went down—”
“Which is?” I asked.
Erica swallowed again and took a deep breath. “We went shopping… she wanted to get ‘in character’ for her scenes with a fortune-teller—”
“Why on earth would you want to do a show with one of those crackpots?” Toni asked, incredulous.
“Fortune-telling is big on the island. The producers thought it would be fun to show all the high jinks Tammy Susie and her family got into. Anyway, Tammy Susie decided she wanted to wear something ‘Gypsy’ for the show, so I had to take her shopping. I think it was just an excuse to go to the Royal Plaza Mall. She loves that place.”
“Where’s the Royal Plaza Mall?” I asked. From what I saw on the way to the hotel, there was no shopping mall nearby.
“Downtown, in Oranjestad. The place looks like Disneyland… on crack. Tammy Susie loves it. We wound up at this little boutique. Tammy found a couple of skirts she liked, so she went to the dressing room to try them on. I stayed right outside… well, pretty close. I just went over to the jewelry counter for, like, maybe five minutes at most, but—”
“How’d you get to the mall?” I asked. “Did you take the limo?”
“No, we took a bus. Her choice. She said she was tired of always riding in a limo.”
“Who can blame her?” Toni asked, deadpan.
But the sarcasm was lost on Erica, who was practically wringing her hands by now.
“When you went back to check on her, she was gone,” I said.
Erica nodded.
“Isn’t it possible that Tammy Susie just got lost?” Bailey asked.
Erica nodded. “Yeah. But she hasn’t called. And, believe me, she knows my number.”
“And I take it she didn’t answer when you called her,” I said. Erica shook her head.
Bailey shrugged. “Maybe she took off on purpose. Wanted to get away, have some kid time.”
Erica shook her head. “Not Tammy Susie. She lives for this show. That girl sucks up attention like a dry sponge.”
But even as she uttered the words, Erica turned away and swiped at her cheek. This wasn’t just about losing a job. She really cared about the little girl. By the looks on Bailey’s and Toni’s faces, I saw that those tears had undone all of us. We exchanged glances, and Bailey gave me a look that said, Why not? I saw her point. Given Tammy Susie’s access to limos and her history of wandering away, the police were unlikely to take action this soon. And at this point, there was nothing the police could do that we couldn’t. In fact, unencumbered by paperwork and procedure, we’d be able to do it a hell of a lot faster.
Toni put down her drink and looked Erica in the eye. “Okay, listen up. We’ll help you. But you have to calm down because we need you to be able to think. And I’m telling you right now that if we don’t find Tammy Susie pretty damn quick, we’re going straight to the police.”
“Thank you! Oh, thank you!” Erica swallowed her remaining tears. “You’re saving my life.”
“You have a picture of Tammy Susie?” I asked.
“Seriously? You’ve never seen the show?” We all shook our heads. Erica looked at us as though we’d just stepped out of a spaceship from Mars. “It’s only, like, the biggest reality hit since Survivor.” She scrolled through her cell phone and then passed it to us. The face of a chubby little girl with a cupid’s bow of a mouth and blonde ringlets grinned back at me mischievously.
“So if someone recognized her, they’d know she was worth a lot of money,” Toni said.
“Which is what has you worried,” Bailey said.
Erica blanched visibly and wrapped her arms around her torso. “I’m just hoping she kept the scarf on. She had a red-and-pink scarf tied around her head, Gypsy-style. We were shopping for one of those long, wide skirts to match.”
Toni frowned. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to buy the skirt and then look for a scarf?”
Erica sighed. “Welcome to my world. Tammy Susie wasn’t about to let go of that scarf.” She described what the girl had been wearing. Other than the scarf, Tammy Susie was dressed unremarkably in a pair of cutoff jeans, a blue T-shirt with pink daisies, and white sandals. We told Erica we’d meet her in the lobby and went back to the room to change into kid-hunting attire. For Toni, that meant wedge sneakers that coordinated with her matching shorts and tank top. For Bailey and me, that meant running shoes and track pants. Bailey managed to make that look elegant. Me… not so much.