Part 44 (1/2)
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.
”It's my fault. She was my friend, and I let her down. I didn't believe her, and now she's missing!” Keelie wailed.
No one had heard from Tiara and, so far, the search had turned up zip. Not surprising considering the inflated Klingon population-and a lingering skepticism, despite Langley's a.s.surances to the contrary-that this could be another reality ratings ploy.
”Don't blame yourself. How could you have known, Keelie?” Lang said.
How could she indeed? Unless...
I took a long look at the reality star, wringing her hands and looking frantic and fearful. Could it all be an act? The thought had crossed my mind before. That the whole series of mishaps had been an inside job. And who was more ”inside” than the star herself?
I'd had it with the dancing on eggsh.e.l.ls bit. It was time for the direct approach.
I grabbed Keelie's arm.
”No more bull pucky, Keelie. Are you or are you not behind all the drama and TribRide turmoil?” I asked. ”Is this all just part of Keelie Keller's reality TV ratings b.u.mp?”
This time Keelie was the one who looked off balance-and she didn't have the mile-high wig to blame.
”I can't believe you're accusing me-”
I shook my head at her.
”We don't have time for bl.u.s.ter,” I pointed out. ”Your best friend is missing, and the cops are on the case. A simple 'yes' or 'no' will do. Are you your own stalker, and is Tiara's disappearance part of some sick ratings game you're playing?”
Keelie yanked her arm free and grabbed both my wrists, her eyes locking in on my own.
”No! h.e.l.l, no! To both questions!” she hissed. ”There! Satisfied? Now, can we please look for my best friend?”
For whatever reasons-the eye contact, the telltale trace of tears, the genuine anxiety I saw in her face, I believed her.
”Sorry.” I a.s.sumed my best mea culpa face. ”I had to ask. And Manny said he wanted you to have an officer escort you back to the bus and stay with you,” I told Keelie.
”Well, good thing he works for me and not the other way around, because I'm staying right here to help with the search. If only I'd listened to Manny early on instead of being so sure you were the culprit. You aren't. Right?”
I blinked.
”I had to ask,” Keelie said with a right-back-at-you lift of one brow. ”Manny a.s.sured me all along you weren't the one making mischief.”
”Manny told you that?”
She nodded. ”He said it wasn't the way you rolled, but Vinny insisted it was you. It's official. I'm an idiot. I've lost Jax. Now it looks like I might lose Tiara.”
”There, there.” Lang patted Keelie's shoulder. ”You're not an idiot. Tiara will be tip-top.”
”Show us again how and where the two of you became separated,” the police officer in charge said to Langley.
”He grabbed her right about here and took her off this way, through the crowd.” Lang demonstrated. ”She yelled, 'Help! Help!' but, I guess people thought it was role-playing and just laughed. I screamed for help and tried to chase them, but everyone must have a.s.sumed I was part of the act, as well. I ended up losing them.”
”You did your best, Lang,” Keelie said and hugged him. ”You did your best.”
A few minutes later, an officer came back carrying a cell phone and a familiar basket-weave wig.
”Was Ms. Fordham wearing this?” the officer asked, and Lang nodded.
”Tiara was Yeoman Rand, too?” I asked.
Tears filled Keelie's eyes.
”We'd planned our outfits together before I told her to take a hike. That she wasn't my BFF anymore. ”
”We'll find her, Keelie. Honest. It'll be okay.” Lang a.s.sured her.
The police dismissed us. Worried and despondent, we trekked back to the vendors' village, one eye on the lookout for a short Klingon and the other for Yeoman Rand without her trademark weave.
”I feel so helpless,” Keelie said. ”Why poor Tiara? Why now?”
I stopped in my tracks-and nearly fell over wig first. I stared at Keelie.
”Oh, my gos.h.!.+ You're right!” I said. ”You're absolutely right! Why Tiara? You were always the target. So, why take her? And why now?”
Keelie lifted her shoulders. ”To get back at me? To hurt me?”
Could be, I supposed. Or...
”Maybe we're looking at this all wrong,” I blurted.
”What do mean? What are you thinking?” Keelie asked.
”Okay. Let's take a look at everything that's happened on this ride. The rat. The laxative. The bike tampering. The bus tampering. The bull-the mechanical one. The toilet. The 'Keelie, go home' signs. If these aren't just reality show gimmicks to boost ratings, then someone really did want you to quit the ride. If so. Who and why?”
Keelie shook her head. ”I have no idea.”
”Who benefits if you quit?”
She shrugged. ”I don't know. I'm not sure what they would do if I walked away.”
”Would the show go on? Could the show go on?” I asked, and recalled the night in my living room when Tiara had offered to go on in Keelie's place.
”I suppose it could-and if I'd quit earlier, Lang and Tiara could have gone ahead and finished.”
”So, if the latest s.n.a.t.c.h wasn't a hoax-”
”It wasn't!” Lang a.s.sured me. ”I swear it! I love Tiara dearly, but she can't act worth spit. That was no performance!”
”Hmm.” I thought for a second. ”Then perhaps this hasn't been about you at all, Keelie,” I said, doing my thinking aloud. Yeah. I know. Dangerous. ”Maybe this has been about Tiara all along.”
”I'm not following,” Keelie said.