Time was running out, and this whole escapade was starting to feel like a wild-goose chase. Or, as Bailey so poetically put it, a “turd hunt.” The fact that we were willing to go in search of a house with green shutters was a serious measure of our desperation. I was beginning to understand how people got snookered into losing their life savings to clowns like Madam Junaida.
We’d just turned the corner on our fourth block and I was about to suggest that we give up after this street when Erica stopped dead in her tracks and pointed to the street sign. “Malmok Weg! I saw that name on a call sheet a few days ago! Remember, Madam Junaida said the place was known to one of us? Well, it is-to me!”
Before I could tell her that it was probably just a coincidence, Erica was off and running, her head swiveling as she scanned both sides of the street for a house with green shutters. We had to run to catch up to her and nearly knocked her down when she again came to an abrupt stop and turned to her right. Sure enough, there it was: a house with green shutters.
“Well, what do you know?” Bailey said.
“Yeah?” I said. “Then how come our fortune-teller didn’t mention the bird?” I pointed to a rooster strutting through the front yard.
“Birds move around,” Toni said. “It’s probably just visiting.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “There’ve got to be other houses with green shutters.”
“You see any?” Toni asked. She had me there.
Bailey strode up the front walk and knocked on the door. There was no response, so she knocked harder. After a few seconds, a woman’s voice yelled from inside, but I couldn’t make out what she said. Not over the noise of a barking dog. Toni nudged me, but I shook my head. So what if Madame Junaida said there’d be a dog? From what I’d seen, everyone around here had dogs. I was about to say as much when I saw Erica staring at the door as though it were the Rosetta stone. No need to squash her hopes. She’d see for herself soon enough that Tammy Susie wasn’t here. I held my tongue.
Finally, a tall, heavyset woman in a caftan opened the door. Her creased face and disheveled hair said we’d disturbed her afternoon siesta, and she looked plenty annoyed about it. Bailey held up her shield and spoke in her most official Joe Friday voice. “Police. We’re here for Tammy Susie.”
“What…?” The woman appeared more puzzled than scared. Then she looked past Bailey as though expecting to see someone else.
