Trouble in Paradise - страница 4

“Then you’ll need to call the local police,” Bailey said. “We’re just-”

“I can’t go to the local police! I’ll be fired, I’ll never work again, my career will be ruined! You’ve got to help me.” She gave us a beseeching look that would’ve made Grover Norquist raise taxes.

I couldn’t stop myself. “What’s the problem?”

“I’m a production assistant on Tammy Susie and Company. I’m Tammy Susie’s wrangler-”

“Whose… what?” Toni wrinkled her brow.

“I’m Tammy Susie’s… well, basically, I’m her gofer.” Uttering those words unleashed Erica’s pent-up frustration. “My parents went into hock to put me through Harvard, I graduated with honors, won an award for my screenplay in drama lit class, and now I fetch caramel corn and Slurpees for a nine-year-old beauty-pageant runner-up.” She held up a hand. “Excuse me, sorry. Anyway, we’re taping here because the family wanted a vacation, so the producers decided to kill two birds with one stone by making their vacation an episode. The reason I’m jumping you like this is… she’s gone missing, and if I don’t find her quick, I’ll be out of a job.”

Oh, and a missing child was kinda bad news too. But I got why she couldn’t afford to call in the police. “As of when?” I asked.

“As of an hour and a half ago. She’s wandered off before, and the show gives her a limo to take her pretty much wherever and whenever, but-”

“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.”