“Do you know where she went on the break?”
“It couldn’t have been far,” she whispered. “She was only gone for maybe five minutes. I didn’t see it because I was tweetin’ the live event. ”
“Is it true she has a peanut allergy?” I asked gently.
Margot instantly began to cry again, her shoulders shaking. “Yes,” she breathed out. “It’s very severe. I mean, she almost died once before from nothing more than an open package next to her. But we had the EpiPens. We always have the EpiPens. I always have at least two EpiPens. I don’t understand how this happened!”
Her rising hysteria made me pause and reach across the table to clutch her hand again, hoping to ground her. I wanted to ask why the people attending hadn’t been warned if her allergy was so severe that death was a possibility, but I didn’t have to.
“That’s why we had the wands and security check, for pity’s sake! It wasn’t just for guns and harmful paraphernalia. Everyone knows about Mitzy’s allergies—at least, you’d think they do. She talked about it in some of her videos. We made it clear as day on the website when we decided to do the meet and greets that every ticket holder was subject to a search because of her allergy. I checked and double-checked…and now, look! Look what’s happened!”
Well, that explained the security measures I’d thought were pretty extreme for a gathering of makeup lovers. The security had, indeed, looked through my purse. The extra insurance all made sense now. Though, Coop had never said a word to me about it. It’s a good thing I’m more of an M&M’s girl. I always carried some in my purse.
Still, the missing EpiPens didn’t make any sense at all.
“And how many EpiPens do you normally keep with you, Margot? Just the one in your purse?”
Margot shook her auburn head, her eyes brimming with more tears. “No! I usually have two with me and Mitzy always has one in her purse, as well. But the team carries them for just such emergencies, too. Where the blazes are they?” she fumed.
There was that term again. The team. “Who’s part of this team, Margot?”
She gulped in some air and swallowed hard. “Mitzy has a team of people who do what amounts to gofer’s responsibilities and they’re all volunteers.”
Margot said the word with just a hint of a sneer to it, leading me to believe either she didn’t like the volunteers, or Mitzy abused the privilege of having the volunteers.
“So unpaid help. An intern sort of thing?” I asked, wondering if I’d have worked for Britney Spears for free.
Margot appeared to think about that for a moment, and then she squared her shoulders and said, “Yes. They’re unpaid. Though I don’t know if I’d use the term intern. They’re super fans, mostly. People willing to do almost anything to be even a little part of Mitzy’s world. Anyway, while I deal with venue and the management of the venue, caterers, the fans, the security, etcetera, the team, consistin’ of four people, do the tasks I can’t. I guess you could say they’re the assistants to the assistant. And they all have EpiPens because they know how dangerous something like this can be for Mitzy and how easily an accident can happen. We handed them out to each of them before the dang event.”
I scanned the room as though I’d actually know who this team of gofers were if they bit me on the nose. I also questioned the smarts behind giving a bunch of people who weren’t paid and really only wanted to orbit Mitzy because they were fans, the huge responsibility of carrying EpiPens when her allergy was life or death.
Coop saw me searching the room and tapped me on the shoulder. “Mitzy’s team all wear silver ballcaps that read, ‘Team Glitzy Mitzy.’ I saw them earlier, but I haven’t seen them since she took the stage.”
How strange they’d all disappeared when Mitzy needed them most during her speech, but I didn’t want to focus on that detail right now. There was no reason to jump to the conclusion this was a malicious act, and Margot already looked as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. I didn’t want to add more.
But her eyes hardened and her resolve strengthened. “We need to find them. We need to find them now, and when I get my hands on them…oooh!” Margot cried through clenched teeth, her accent becoming quite pronounced. “They’re in for a load a grief from me!”
Huh. If the rumor about Mitzy was true, and she was the tyrant Alma Zon made her out to be, and these “volunteers” were unpaid, perhaps they’d decided rubbing shoulders with the famous makeup diva wasn’t worth the hassle if they had to go through Margot. Or maybe their idol had fallen and, as a result, they’d fallen out of love.
But all four at once? That definitely felt suspicious…
Hush, Trixie Lavender. Stop borrowing trouble.
Gripping Margot’s hand, I squeezed it again to remind her I was still here and she had to stay on task if we hoped to understand what had happened. “Coop? Maybe we could set about trying to find some of the team and check on how they are? Because I’m seeing no one with silver ball caps.”
A loud banging from somewhere in the back of the hall made us all pause and turn. Then someone—correction, several someone’s—began to scream for help.
I looked at Coop and she looked at me as the police began to run toward the stairwell on the opposite end of where we sat. They descended the short staircase and, as we followed closely behind, I noted a heavy door, rusty and gray.
Behind it, there was a ruckus before the screaming and banging subsided a bit and an officer yelled, “This is The Portland PD! Move away from the door!”
Gun drawn, a burly officer gave the door a hard kick
