“You’re right,” said Henry. “We’d hear them cheering for them.”
“Or booing,” said Benny. “Booing for that mean Wilfred Mayflower.”
As the children walked through the studio, they soon found—and heard—Wilfred Mayflower. The judge was yelling angrily into his cell phone.
“I declare,” Wilfred yelled, “I cannot and will not wait around this place all day long just because some girl is missing! You are my manager! You figure out what is wrong and where she’s gone. Or else you’re fired!”
The Aldens tiptoed quietly past the furious judge, not wanting to be yelled at too.
“Well,” said Jessie, “we know that Wilfred doesn’t know where Madlynn Rose is.”
“Or that he had anything to do with her going missing,” said Henry. “Let’s see what else we can find.”
“I hear music,” said Benny.
“It sounds great!” said Violet. “It’s a band playing an Esty Gadooj song!”
“There’s a band on the show?” Henry asked.
“Sure, there is,” said Violet. “They play along for all of the singers.”
“The music’s coming from this way,” said Henry. He led his siblings toward the sound.
Behind the big wall with the Pop Star Sensation logo, the show’s band was playing. There was a guitarist strumming along on a red guitar, a bassist who thumped away on a bass, and a drummer pounding away on a drum set.
In front of the band, dressed in her shiny, puffy, twinkling clothes, was Esty Gadooj, wiggling and shaking and dancing and singing into a microphone. She sang the words to her latest hit song:
“Get up and shake those hips.
Get up and move those lips.
From your toes to your fingertips,
Get up and dance like this.”
All of the Aldens were happy to join in. They liked Esty Gadooj almost as much as Violet liked Madlynn Rose.
“You go, girl!” Esty shouted into her microphone as Violet spun around. “You’re marvelous!”
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny all forgot about the mystery while they joined Esty in twisting and shaking and dancing and twirling.
“You’re all really good dancers,” Esty said once she had finished her song. “You could all be pop stars someday!”
“Thank you,” Violet said bashfully, shy again now that the room was quiet and the attention was all on her and her siblings.
“Thank you, Miss Gadooj,” said Jessie, “for letting us dance with you.”
“Yeah,” said Henry. “Thanks. Can we ask you a question?”
“Why certainly, darlings,” Esty said. “You may ask me anything you wish.”
“We were in here earlier when they said Madlynn Rose went missing,” Henry said, “and now we’re trying to figure out where she went.”
“Don’t worry your pretty little heads, darlings,” Esty said. “You’re just children. This is a matter for adults to worry about.”
“But we want to help,” said Jessie. “And we might be young, but …”
“Madlynn Rose is young, just like you,” said Esty. “And young people sometimes get into mischief. I’m sure that’s all it is, and I’m sure she’ll be fine. That’s why we’re practicing our music. You all just go have fun, and everything will turn out marvelous.”
The Alden children walked away from Esty and the Pop Star Sensation band.
“We should probably check out the rest of the studio,” said Henry.
“But you heard Esty,” Jessie said. “She thinks everything will be okay. Maybe she’s right.”
“But what if everything’s not okay?” Violet asked. “What if Madlynn Rose needs our help?”
“Violet’s right,” Henry said. “We should probably keep searching in case this is a big deal.”
“Shh!” Jessie said suddenly. “Listen! This sure sounds like a big deal …”
She nodded toward a dark corner of the studio where someone was talking loudly on a cell phone. The voice was a woman’s.
“When word of this gets out,” said the woman, “it’s going to be everywhere—on the news, all over the Internet, all across social media…”
CHAPTER 5
Lunch and a Hunch
Madlynn Rose missing will be huge.”
The children drew closer and saw Madlynn Rose’s mother speaking into her cell phone while tapping away at her tablet. But she saw them too and lowered her voice and quickly disappeared down a hallway.
“I wish we could’ve heard what she was talking about,” said Henry. “There might have been a clue to help solve this mystery.”
“I know what would help solve the mystery,” said Benny. “Lunch!”
“I’m hungry too,” said Violet. “I was so nervous earlier that I didn’t even eat breakfast.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Jessie. “We could all get something at the food court.”
As the Aldens left the studio and walked back into the mall, they ran into Lonny, the girl with the nice voice and the flower in her hair. “Do you know if they’re going to let people in to sing soon?” Lonny asked.
“I’m sorry, Lonny,” said Henry, “we don’t know what’s going on.”
“They didn’t find the missing pop star yet, did they?” Lonny asked. “Do you think they’ll just go ahead and do the auditions anyway?”
“I don’t think so,” said Jessie. “They’re all busy trying to figure it out. And now we’re going to try to figure it out too, over lunch.”
“Would you like to come have lunch with us?” Violet asked Lonny.
“I’d better not,” said Lonny. “I don’t want to lose my place in line. I’m just a regular girl, you know. I don’t have the kind of connections you four seem to have, where you can just come and go from a TV studio set.”
Violet smiled at Lonny. “We’re regular kids too. I guess we’re just lucky today, that’s all.”
The Aldens told Lonny that they’d see her again after lunch and started the long walk through the mall. As they passed the crowds of waiting singers and fans, Violet stopped.
“I thought I saw that man with the sunglasses,” she said. “I saw him before too, but we were all running so fast. Why does he keep showing up?”
But there were so many people in line, all of them impatient and loud from the wait, that none of the Aldens could spot the man.
“I’m sure Violet saw him,” said Jessie, craning her neck to get a better look.
“It’s like he disappeared,” said Henry, squinting his eyes.
“We’d better hurry,” Benny said, rubbing his belly, “before all the food in the food court disappears too.”
At the food court, Jessie gave each of her siblings some money from their grandfather so they could choose what they wanted to eat. “Okay,” she said, pointing at an empty table next to the big book store, “we’ll all meet here to eat.”
Soon the children sat down with their lunches.
Henry took a bite of a fish sandwich. “I think we need to decide who our suspects are so far,” he said. “Who would have a reason to want Madlynn Rose to disappear?”
Jessie opened a pack of crackers and crumbled them into the bowl of soup she had bought. She said, “Remember what we just heard Madlynn Rose’s mother say? Something about big news? She sure didn’t want us to hear any more of what she said. I think she should be a suspect.”
“That’s a good idea, Jessie,” Henry said. “I think another suspect is Lester Freeman.”
“But he’s Grandfather’s friend,” said Violet. “He was nice to let us onto the set of Pop Star Sensation. And he was going to let me sing. He wouldn’t do anything to make Madlynn Rose disappear, would he?”
“I agree that he’s nice,” said Jessie. “But Henry’s right. Remember how he was awfully worried about his show being a ‘ratings bonanza’?”
Benny had already eaten his sandwich and was now finishing his lemonade, slurping the cold, sweet liquid quickly through his str
aw until only the jingly ice was left.
“Benny,” said Jessie, “That slurping isn’t very polite.”
“I’m sorry,” said Benny, setting his lemonade cup down and pushing it away to the edge of the table.
“It’s okay,” said Jessie. “Now, who do you think is a suspect we should investigate?”
“I think that Wilfred Mayflower is pretty mean and grouchy.” Benny said.
“But we heard him say that he doesn’t know where Madlynn Rose is,” said Henry. “And Esty Gadooj doesn’t seem very worried at all.”
“The other person that I thought wasn’t very nice was that lady with the voice that wasn’t very good,” Benny said.
“That was Super Fan Sophia,” said Violet. “She’s Madlynn Rose’s biggest fan—other than me. She wouldn’t do anything bad to her hero, would she?”
“I don’t think anyone would do anything bad to her,” said Jessie. “But she is missing and Sophia sure seemed to think she was a better singer than Madlynn Rose.”
“She wasn’t even a better singer than Watch!” giggled Benny. “Woof-woof!”
“Sophia also said that a story like this would get millions of people on her website,” said Henry. “She is the biggest source of Madlynn Rose news on the Internet, she said. I have a hunch maybe she knows more than she told us.”
“Well, if you think she’s a suspect, then why don’t you go ask her,” Violet said, pointing into the bookstore. “I see Super Fan Sophia right over there drinking a cup of coffee.”
Sure enough, there in the café of the bookstore sat Sophia, sipping a tall and foamy drink and tapping away at her tablet. The Aldens finished their food, threw away their trash, and hurried over to question their super fan suspect. Benny was in such a rush that he knocked his cup of ice off the edge of the table and onto the food court floor.
“Whoops,” he said.
“You’d better clean that up,” Jessie told him as she headed toward the bookstore.
Benny tried picking up some of the ice but he didn’t want to be left behind. He decided he would come back to clean it up later.
Many other fans the children had seen in the line were also packed into the crowded coffee shop and bookstore. The woman with the pink boa was sipping a hot cup of coffee. The cowboy was looking at a magazine about horses. All seven children from the singing family were scattered around the store. The wait seemed to have gotten too long for just about everyone.
The Aldens pressed flat against the café counter and eased their way to where Sophia was sitting, carefully trying not to knock any of the books or other things from the display racks.
“Oops!” said Benny, knocking over some packs of stickers from a rack. He reached down to pick them up. One was a pack of brightly colored flower stickers.
“Those are really pretty,” said Jessie.
“Those look familiar,” said Henry. “I wish I could remember where I’ve seen stickers like that before…”
“Look at these stickers,” said Benny, picking up another pack that had fallen. “These are letters. They all fell out of the package.”
“We should probably buy those,” said Jessie, picking the stickers up off the floor. “We shouldn’t leave a package that came open because of us.”
The Aldens put the flower stickers back on the rack, paid for the alphabet stickers, and walked over to the table where Sophia sat.
“Hello,” said Sophia, not looking up from her tablet. “Can’t you see that I’m busy?”
“I sure hope you’re not telling the whole world about our secret,” said Jessie. “You promised that you wouldn’t.”
“I haven’t told anyone yet,” said Sophia. “I’m just checking to make sure none of the other Madlynn Rose websites have broken the news. If they do, then they will be the ones to get millions of visitors on their sites.”
“That’s why we wanted to talk to you,” said Henry, careful to speak quietly. “Do you know something about Madlynn Rose going missing? Because a story like that would make your website pretty famous, wouldn’t it?”
“I would never do anything mean to her,” Sophia said. “I’m her biggest fan.”
“Besides me,” said Violet.
“Besides you,” said Sophia. “All I wanted to do was to come here and see her and sing for her.”
“Then why did you get out of the line?” Jessie asked. “If you wanted to sing so badly, you wouldn’t have left and lost your spot.”
“But I didn’t lose my spot,” Sophia said, sipping her coffee. “That girl with the really nice voice—”
“Lonny,” said Henry. “Lonny Dreams, right?”
“Yeah, Lonny,” said Sophia. “She said she would save my spot for me. I feel bad for not being very nice to her, because she was very nice to me.”
“Okay,” said Henry, “then maybe you can help us. You know a lot about Madlynn Rose. Who would you suspect if you were trying to solve this mystery?”
“I don’t know who would make her disappear,” said Sophia, “but I do know that I saw something kind of weird as I walked over here.”
“A man with a black suit and sunglasses?” Benny asked.
“No,” laughed Sophia, “although I did see a guy like that near where we were standing. What I saw that I thought was strange was Madlynn Rose’s mother. I saw her going into the beauty salon.”
“I saw that place,” said Jessie. “It’s between that clothing store and the video game store, right?”
“That’s the one,” Sophia said. “I just think it’s weird for someone whose daughter is missing to be worried about looking good.”
“You’re right,” Jessie said, looking at the other Aldens. “It is weird.”
Benny and Violet nodded in agreement.
“Looks like we should head to the salon to talk to our next suspect,” Henry said.
CHAPTER 6
Mother Knows Best?
Benny led the way through the mall.
They came to an entrance with a sign that read Silver City Salon and Spa. A receptionist at the front of the spa stepped in front of the children with her hand raised and a stern look on her face.
“Kids,” she said, “this is not a playground. There is no running allowed in our salon. And children aren’t allowed here either unless they are paying customers.”
“We’re sorry, ma’am,” said Henry. “We just thought someone we wanted to talk to was inside. Is there any way you would let us look around?”
The receptionist pointed at a sign above the cash register. The sign said, Paying customers only.
That gave Henry an idea. “Jessie,” he said, “do you have any of our lunch money left?”
Jessie reached into her pocket and pulled out what money was left—three one-dollar bills, two quarters, two nickels, and three pennies. She let the money jingle onto the counter and the children counted it up.
“Three dollars and sixty-three cents,” said Henry. “Is that enough to buy something in your salon?”
“It certainly won’t afford you a mud mask, a facial, or a hairdo,” said the receptionist. “But it might buy you one of our less expensive hair accessories.” With a wave of her hand, the woman showed the children a wall of hair bands and hair clips and bobby pins and brushes and combs.
“Look at those wigs!” Benny laughed, pointing to the shelves above the hair accessories.
On the shelves high above their heads were wigs of straight hair, curly hair, long hair, and short, bobbed hair. There were colored wigs of black hair and brown hair and blond hair and even pink hair.
“Look at that purple wig,” said Violet. “I think it’s kind of pretty.”
Jessie couldn’t keep herself from smiling either. “That bright blond wig looks just like Lester Freeman’s hair,” she laughed. “It looks like you can buy any type of hairdo you want here.”
“Three dollars and change won’t buy you any of those wigs,” said the receptionist. “They’re very expensive, which is why I’m so ang
ry that someone stole one earlier today. How about a hairbrush?”
“We’ll take it,” said Henry, paying for the brush.
“Would you like it in a bag?” the receptionist asked. But Henry didn’t wait for her to hand him the brush or his receipt. Since they were now paying customers, he led his siblings into the salon.
Finding Madlynn Rose’s mother wasn’t very hard. The Aldens followed the sound of her voice.
“Be careful with that hangnail!” she yelled. “And watch out for the rough spot on my big toe!”
The missing pop star’s mother was seated in a comfortable reclining chair. One salon employee furiously filed away at Mrs. Rose’s fingernails. Another worker knelt on the floor of the salon, scrubbing at her feet. It was the first time the children had seen her without a cell phone in one hand and a tablet in the other.
“Hello,” said Henry.
“Um, hello,” Mrs. Rose said, looking up from the beautician filing her nails. “How can I help you children?”
“We came here to talk to you,” said Violet.
“You’re the one who’s my daughter’s fan, aren’t you? What is it you’d like to talk about?”
“Well,” said Jessie, “What do you know about Madlynn being missing?”
“Hush!” hissed Mrs. Rose. “They don’t want us talking about that. And I’ll have you know, getting a manicure and pedicure is how I deal with stressful situations.”
“But shouldn’t you be out looking for your daughter?” Jessie asked. “She’s missing after all. She could be anywhere.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because we want to solve this mystery,” said Benny.
“And I care because Madlynn Rose is my hero,” said Violet. “I’d be out searching all over Silver City, except they won’t let us out of the mall.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere,” said Mrs. Rose, “because I know for a fact that she’s still here in the mall.”
“How do you know that?” asked Henry.
“When my daughter went missing, I used a GPS tracking app on my cell phone to locate her phone. The app can’t show exactly where it is, but it could tell me her phone is still somewhere in this mall.”