I So Don't Do Makeup (19 page)

Crystal spills the mascaras into a small wicker basket. “Lacey wanted more giveaways,” she says to me.
She grasps Will's elbow. “It's an all-day cosmetics extravaganza. Lacey and Amber are providing makeovers.” She steers him toward the crowd. “You should stay and watch.” She glances over her shoulder and gives me a thumbs-up.

“Hi, Sherry!” Josh calls from the side of the kiosk with Lacey's stations. Next to him, Nick is hunkered down over a zippered camera bag.

I wave.

Will wrestles his elbow free from Crystal and stomps over to the guys. “You're taping them too?” he says, his voice raised in annoyance.

Josh doesn't flinch or look up from where he's kneeling, fiddling with a tripod. He's so cool, even under pressure. Maybe from all those tense water polo games with close scores. Or maybe he was just born cool.

“Yeah, dude,” Josh says. “Remember we told you how the mall manager wants us to interview all kinds of mall personnel so he can run different tapes at the information desk?” Josh twists the tripod legs tight.

“It's in your best interest for us to garner a decent-sized audience.” Nick's pulling cables from the camera bag.

Why does Nick always sound like he swallowed a dictionary?

“Sherry!” Junie's running toward us, her red hair streaming out like a tail.

Suddenly, the smell of coffee gusts next to me. My mom!

“Sorry I'm late, Sherry. Academy stuff. Everything under control here?”

“I think so,” I whisper. If under control is a knot threatening to twist up my entire insides.

“How much longer do you guys need?” Lacey says from the center of a circle of customers.

“Five minutes max.” Nick's screwing a camera into the tripod. “We got that extra camera, so we can record on both sides of the kiosk and get you and Amber doing makeovers at the same time. And we got the cordless mic set up like you wanted.”

“You guys rock,” Lacey says.

Amber makes her way over to Lacey and hands her a spray bottle of Hair Repair Extraordinaire. “I ended up going with gardenia.”

Junie skids up next to me, panting. “Sorry.”
Pant
. “My mom.”
Pant
. “Chores.”

“Sherry, Junie,” Lacey says, “could you grab the Naked Makeup business cards and giveaways and start distributing them?”

“Where's your grandmother, Sherry?” Amber asks. “She wandered off.”

What? She'll miss her appointment. And keep her sad gray braid for another two or three decades.

I glance at Will. He's still next to Josh, hands on his hips. Well, if chili peppers have hips.

“Watch Will,” I say quietly to Junie. “And just so you know, my mom's here.”

Wiping sweat off her shiny forehead, Junie says, “No prob. I can keep an eye on him while I'm handing out stuff. You go find your grandmother.”

“I'm on it too,” Mom says to me.

I nod thanks to both of them, then take off for the closest dorky store. Birkenstock Shoes.

I've barely rounded the corner when I spot Grandma at the front of the store near the display window. She's bent over, trying on clunky, square clogs. “Come on, Grandma.” I grab her hand. “It's time for your makeover. Maybe we can go shoe shopping together later.”

“That would be lovely, Sherry.” Grandma slips off a pair of lame new shoes and slips on her lame used ones.

“Heels would really slenderize your ankles,” I remark.

Grandma shoots me a sharp look.

At the kiosk, Lacey's talking into the microphone, giving a brief history of makeup and Naked Makeup to an ever-growing crowd of shoppers. Crystal's hanging at the back of everyone, out of the way. Doing that twisty thing with her earring. Will's sitting cross-legged in the front of the audience.

Mr. Peabody's here too. Like a squirrel's, his eyes are bright and alert and flitting around. He's taking in the number of interested customers. A small smile
plays on his lips. When his eyes pass over me, he doesn't even wave hello.

The three other makeover clients are already seated.

I guide Grandma in the direction of the empty seat on Lacey's side. Then I swoop up a handful of business cards and a basket of freebies and start circulating through the crowd.

There's an odd, mildly irritating smell that I can't identify. Maybe someone's cooking a new dish in the food court?

“The first thing you'll notice about Naked Makeup is the superiority of the product.” While talking, Lacey unbraids Grandma's hair. “You'll love wearing it. Love the way it makes you look. And love the way it feels.” She waves the spray bottle. “Hair Repair Extraordinaire. We call this our hair miracle in a bottle.” She uncaps it. “Goodbye, frizz!”

Lacey sprays it liberally on the top of Grandma's hair. Then she lifts up chunks and sprays under them. And then she sprays around Grandma's ears. “Hello, manageable hair!” Lacey sprays the limp, shoulder-length dark hair of the twentysomething girl seated next to Grandma. “Hello, shine!”

Amber steps close to Lacey, her hands out, ready for the miracle spray and the microphone.

By now I'm finished giving out the freebies. I position myself at the side of the crowd, where I have a
good view. Will's still at the front, the only person sitting on the floor.

Junie's across from me. Our eyes meet, and she gives me a thumbs-up.

Mom breezes in next to me. “Everything looks secure.”

The crowd is quiet, expectant. Mr. Peabody's eyes jump from Lacey to Amber to the crowd to the beauty clients to Josh and Nick. He's nodding to himself, looking pleased.

It's all dramatic and well timed. They're so professional, Amber and Lacey could be a Las Vegas act.

“Goodbye, frizz!” With arcing arm movements, Amber sprays the first client on her side, a mother with short, curly mousy hair. “Hello, management and shine!” Amber moves to the fourth client, a teen with long, straight blond hair.

“Why is Hair Repair Extraordinaire the best hair product on the market? Because it works. It works on dry hair. Or on wet hair.” Amber zips to the end of the kiosk, where she and Lacey meet up like a choreographed dance act. “And it works fast for those mornings when you're getting ready for work or for school.”

“So fast that our first client is ready to be brushed out,” Lacey says into the mic Amber's holding.

The two cosmeticians sashay to Grandma. Lacey picks up a large vent brush.

Suddenly, I sniff a faint sugar + cinnamon smell.

Mrs. Howard!

The scent's getting stronger. She's getting closer. She's here to spy on me. And she'll spot Mom! Right in the middle of the mystery I'm not supposed to be solving.

“Mom!” I whisper, panic bubbling up my throat. “It's Mrs. Howard! You gotta leave. Now.”

“Too late, Sherry,” Mom says. “She sees me.”

Within milliseconds, the Cinnabon smell lands full force behind me. Mrs. Howard remains silent. Spying like a big sneaky ghost.

I turn my attention back to the beauty show and ignore her.

“First, you brush the product through the hair evenly,” Amber comments.

Lacey places the bristles on Grandma's crown.

Grandma clamps her eyes shut.

The brush on an angle, Lacey pulls downward.

A clump of Grandma's frizzy gray hair hits the ground.

I
t all happens in painful slow motion.

At first, there's utter and complete silence. Like that expression about hearing a pin drop.

Then a gasp ripples through the crowd.

Amber and Lacey have turned to stone, like the White Witch from Narnia just sledded by and zapped them with her evil wand.

Mouth totally agape, the twentysomething girl next to Grandma lifts a hand to her scalp. A hunk of dark hair comes away in her fist. She screams.

Grandma opens her eyes. She looks at the girl with a handful of hair and a bald patch on the side of her head. Grandma's eyes dart to the floor where the clump of her gray hair lies like a dead animal.
She combs her fingers through her bangs. Strands come loose. She screams.

From the other side of the kiosk, Amber's two clients race over. Their eyes widen like Frisbees. They put their hands to their heads and pull out tufts. They scream.

Finally, the mall manager comes to life. “Move along, people.” With big arm movements, he shoos the crowd away. “The situation is under control.”

Which it totally is not. Four screaming women. Two frozen cosmeticians. Two guys taping. Clumps of hair dotting the ground.

One mother ghost caught at the scene of the crime. One spying guidance-counselor ghost.

And me. A girl who signed her grandmother up for this event. A grandmother who wore her braid for decades. Poor Grandma.

Twinkle gone from his eyes and smile gone from his lips, Mr. Peabody says all serious and military to Amber and Lacey, “Give me the spray.”

Amber hands it over in a jerky strobelike motion.

“Lock up the kiosk.”

In a daze, Lacey follows his orders.

A security guy strides up to Mr. Peabody.

“Don't leave this kiosk. Don't let anyone near it,” Mr. Peabody says. Without even looking at Amber and Lacey, he points his arm. “You two. My office. Now.”

Josh and Nick are catching it all on tape.

Will is handing out coupons for his hot sauces.

Like zombies, Amber and Lacey do what they're told. They're ashen, almost translucent.

Junie moves next to me. “What's he going to do with them?”

“He'll release Amber to her parents because she's a minor,” my mother says to me. “He'll hand Lacey over to the police.”

Yikes. I pass the info on to Junie.

The smell of burnt sugar is nauseating.

“Christine,” Mrs. Howard says with low and controlled fury. “Look on top of the kiosk.”

I hear my mother suck in a breath. “The foreign Academy! How long has their agent been here?”

I sniff. So that strange smell isn't from the food court. It's the foreign Academy spy.

“He witnessed it all,” Mrs. Howard says. “Sherry, you have ruined everything.”

J
osh, Junie, Nick and I are in the food court.

All around us, people are buzzing about the incident at Fantabulous You!

Mrs. Howard's words swim in my head.
Sherry, you have ruined everything
. I have to talk to my mother.

I couldn't face food right now if you paid me, but Josh and Nick are scarfing down roast beef sandwiches. What is it with guys?

“I don't get it,” Josh says. “When did Will get a chance to mess with the hair spray?”

I'm wondering the same thing. Amber and Lacey checked out all the product last night. The baby powder was undisturbed. Lacey didn't even unpack the hair spritz until this morning. Josh and Nick stuck to
Will like Krazy Glue. Junie and I were on him once he got to the kiosk.

“It wasn't Will,” I say. “That's the only explanation that makes sense.”

“That's logical,” Nick says. This is a big compliment from him.

“And I bet the culprit was there, in the crowd, watching,” I say. “Bad guys often return to watch their handiwork.”

“Let's look at the tapes,” Junie says.

Nick's already unzipping the camera bag closest to him.

The smell of coffee wafts by me. My mother!

I excuse myself, race to the restroom and lock myself in a stall. Anyone hearing me talk will assume I'm on my cell.

“I went to the office,” my mother says.

“How are Amber and Lacey?” I ask.

“Amber left with her parents.” She pauses. “Lacey's pretty upset. The police used words like ‘assault' and ‘aggravated assault.' That really scared her. They're escorting her down to the station for more questioning.”

“Poor Lacey.”

“The best thing we can do for her is to catch the real perp,” my mom says.

“Any idea what was in the product to make the hair fall out?”

“Hair-B-Gone,” she says. “It's a hair-removal spray or cream you get at the drugstore. It comes in a yellow bottle. You apply it to your legs and let it sit for five or so minutes. Then shower and the hair rinses off.”

“How'd you figure that out?”

“One of the officers sprayed it on his arm. It's just a guess at this point. We'll know for sure after the lab does testing.”

“Doesn't Hair-B-Gone smell gross?” I ask.

“You can get it scented. And the hair spritz probably wasn't straight Hair-B-Gone, just cut with it. Otherwise, those women would be bald.”

Ack. Eek. Ike. “Anyone could buy Hair-B-Gone.”

“Certainly. Will could.”

I tell her why I think we were totally on the wrong track with Will. “I wanna get back to the tapes. There's gotta be something on them. Especially because Josh and Nick were filming from different angles.”

“Where's Grandma?” Mom asks.

“She went home. She said she needed to spend some time with her birds and think over the whole experience.”

“How upset was she?”

“Not as upset as I was expecting,” I say. “But, uh, I'm sure Sam's spot as her fave is pretty safe.”

“Grandma doesn't love Sam any more than she loves you. It's just a different kind of relationship.”

“Yeah, well, he didn't just talk her into a public hair-loss ordeal.”

“It'll be fine.”

“Mom”—my throat goes all tight—“Mrs. Howard said I ruined everything.”

She blows out a long breath. “Let's take care of this case first, and then we'll worry about Mrs. Howard and the foreign Academy.”

“I feel horrible.” Tears prick at my eyes. “I wrecked things for a lot of people and ghosts.”

Someone bangs on the stall door. “Hurry up!”