“Did he know you were pregnant?”
“Of course. But I haven’t told him where I’m staying. My brothers have threatened to do him harm if they find out who he is, so I’m not telling anyone his name, either.”
“I see. That’s too bad.”
Silence hovered over them like a dark cloud until Kitally said, “Have you named your daughter yet?”
“She doesn’t want to force it,” Hayley said.
“I feel as if I’ll know what her name is after I’ve spent more time with her,” Salma said. “Does that make sense?”
Kitally screwed up her face. “Not at all. I think Lucy would be a cute name.”
“God no,” Hayley said, “not Lucy.” Then again, what did it matter? After looking through the wall of glass at all the babies, Hayley didn’t understand why women gushed over them. With their big heads, nonexistent necks, and wrinkly skin, not one of them was the least bit attractive.
Kitally kept at it. “How about something different, like Hermione or Minerva?”
Hayley rolled her eyes.
Salma merely ignored her, and then said, “Have you two had any luck locating the Ghost?”
“Not so far.”
“I tried calling the girl I lived with, the one who was evicted from her apartment, but she hasn’t returned my calls. I wish I could remember her name.”
“If it comes to you, let us know,” Kitally said. “I’ll be back tomorrow to visit.”
“We better go,” Hayley told Kitally. “We have work to do.”
“Yeah, we need to hurry so we can get back in time for your date.”
“You have a date?” Salma asked Hayley.
“No. I’m just going to a concert with Tommy. He’s just a friend.”
Kitally looked at Salma and winked.
Hayley couldn’t remember the last time she’d been inside a mall. The Fashion Plus store where Miriam Walters worked before she disappeared was lit up with fluorescent lights so bright she squinted.
Halfway across the store, she lost Kitally to a striped sequined dress. The mannequin had drawn her as if it were a magnet. Leaving her behind, Hayley walked to the back of the store where customers could pay for their merchandise. Apparently it was a slow night. There were three people behind the counter, shooting the breeze.
“My name is Hayley Hansen. Is there anyone here I can talk to about Miriam Walters?”
A tall girl with black hair and straight-cut bangs looked Hayley over before she asked, “Why?”
“I work for Lizzy Gardner Investigations. We’re looking for Miriam.”
“Is she missing?” another girl asked, this one wearing a purple leather miniskirt and boots.
The other cashier, a skinny guy with a long pointy nose, said to Hayley, “She’s new here. Don’t pay her any mind.”
“Hey, don’t be rude. Is Miriam the short geeky girl with—”
“That’s Monica. She quit. This lady is talking about Miriam, a tall gorgeous girl who sold tons of clothes just by wearing something in the store.”
“Oh.”
“Miriam and I were close,” the black-haired girl said. “What do you need to know?”
Kitally joined them, and Hayley introduced her before continuing. “We need to know if Miriam ever talked about going away for a while.”
“You think she might be hiding out somewhere?” the skinny boy asked.
Hayley shrugged. “Anything’s possible.”
“She liked her life here,” the black-haired girl said. “She was a hard worker, and she was excited when she got into that program for brainy teenagers, whatever it’s called.”
“Opportunity Knocks,” Kitally said.
The boy nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. After she was accepted into the program, that’s pretty much all she talked about. I don’t remember hearing one word from her about leaving the area.” He saw a group of girls enter the store. “Excuse me while I help these people.”
The other employee, the one in the miniskirt, pulled her cell out of her pocket and wandered into the back room, texting as she went.
The black-haired girl leaned forward and said in a low voice, “There is no way Miriam left town without kicking and screaming.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Miriam was pregnant and in love with some ultrahot guy she’d just met.”
“Pregnant?” Kitally asked. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t have any proof. I just know what she told me.”
“So, you never saw an older man named Wayne Bennett come around here?” Hayley asked.
“Oh, sure,” she said. “You already know about him? He came around for Miriam before the hot young guy. The old guy would pretend to be shopping around for his wife. We all knew it was a lie. I never understood what Miriam saw in him. I don’t care how much money he had—the man was way too old for her, and there was something skanky about him, too.”
“So when did the other man—the hot guy—come into the picture?”
She tilted her head as she thought about it for a second. “I would say she met the hot guy about six weeks before she disappeared. They were perfect for each other. They were both good-looking and smart—a perfect match.”
“So you think Miriam was pregnant with the hot guy’s baby?”
She nodded. “Miriam told me it was definitely hot guy’s baby.”
“How could she be so sure?”
“With the old guy, she used protection with a capital P.”
“So you don’t know the hot guy’s name?”
“Sorry. No idea. I don’t even know if she ever told me his name.”
“Did the police ever question you about Miriam?”
She shook her head. “I heard they came in to the store, but I only work here three days a week, and I certainly wasn’t going to go out of my way to call them.”
“Could I get your name and number in case we have more questions later?”
The girl found a business card, scribbled down the information, and handed the card to Hayley. “There you go.”
“Thanks a lot.”
As they exited the store, Kitally said, “I wonder if Bennett was jealous and so he killed her?”
“Who knows?”
As they walked, every store window with a set of four-inch heels or a gaudy jewelry display sidetracked Kitally. It was like a disease. Hayley was dying for a smoke, but she really did want to quit, so she tried to think about something else. And that’s when she saw a girl with white spiky hair walk into the shoe store across the way.
It was the Ghost. It had to be.
“Kitally, come on.”
“Just a minute, I want to—”
“We’ve got to go right now. I just saw the Ghost walk into that shoe store over there.”
Kitally turned and looked to see where she pointed. “Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“What should we do?”
“Let’s make sure it’s her first, then we’ll call the cops. After that, I’m not letting her out of my sight until they get here. I’ll make a citizen’s arrest if I have to.”
They walked over to the store, Hayley leading the way. “Pretend you’re looking for a pair of running shoes,” she said.
“I would never buy a pair of running shoes. They’re ugly.”
“This is pretend, Kitally. Pretend you love running shoes for two minutes. Do you think you can handle that?”
“OK, OK. Chill.”
They headed inside. The store wasn’t very wide, but it was deep. For a second or two, Hayley worried that the girl had already escaped unnoticed.
Kitally picked up a shoe on the display rack and pretended to admire it. “This is the ugliest sneaker I’ve ever seen.”
Hayley looked around. A mother and her son were rummaging through shoes nearby, left to their own devices by the gaggle of teenage clerks gathered at the back of the store.