“She could be anywhere,” I said. “This is one of the biggest cities in the world. They should call the police!”
“Oh no. She couldn’t have left the building,” Whit said. “That would be impossible—the only way out is taking the elevator to the main lobby, and you have to turn your guest pass in to security when you leave. Plus, when there’s a celebrity in the building, they make sure security is really well informed. You wouldn’t know it, but they probably have extra people at the desk and are being supercareful that everybody gets checked going in and out.”
“That’s right. She’s definitely somewhere here in the building,” Dakota agreed.
“So that’s why Garamond and Constantia were going room to room and questioning people,” Ivy said.
I didn’t know whether to feel excited or disappointed. It wasn’t every day you got to see real movie-star drama unfolding behind the scenes! But I also really wanted to meet Quincy. And if the shoot was off, obviously so was our chance to ask questions.
“That was supposed to be our biggest story,” I said to Ivy.
“What was?” Dakota asked.
“We were going to sit in on the photo shoot and each ask Quincy a question for our magazine,” Ivy told her.
“No way,” Dakota said. “I’ve seen the memos. That’s a totally closed set. They never would have let you in. I begged Garamond to let me be an assistant just so I could watch, and he said no to me.”
“Well, they did,” Ivy said. “It was all set up—my mother is coordinating the whole piece and doing the interview herself. Why do you look so surprised?”
“Because you’re only getting special treatment because of your mother,” Dakota snapped. “And she’s managed to mess this up pretty well. Helvetica is going to kill her and Garamond when she finds out about this.”
“Hey, Dakota, come on. That’s not fair,” Whit said. “Quincy Vanderstan is the one that messed this up, not anybody else.”
“Whatever,” Dakota said. “You know how it goes, Whit. When something goes wrong, somebody at City Nation gets the blame. That’s just the way Helvetica works.”
“Your mom might get in trouble for this?” Tally asked. “But she’s so nice, and she’s been working so hard. It’s not fair!”
Ivy looked genuinely distressed, and Dakota did not look sorry about that. She kept finding reasons to touch Whit. This time she nudged him with her foot.
This whole thing is about Whit, I thought. I was sure that was why Dakota turned nasty on Ivy last year, too. If I had noticed Whit seemed to like Ivy, Dakota couldn’t possibly have missed it.
“Ivy, I’m sure it will be fine,” I said.
“That’s a nice thought, Paulina, but that’s not how things work around here, and Ivy knows it,” Dakota said. “Helvetica comes in at eleven on Tuesdays, and if Quincy isn’t at that shoot, somebody is going to be in major trouble. Do you have any idea how much money the magazine loses when they have to cancel a big shoot? Plus, there’s the fact that there won’t be a cover story.”
“Maybe we should go and look for her,” Tally suggested.
“Tal, we can’t do that. If Garamond and Constantia can’t find her, how could we? We can’t even find our own way around,” I pointed out.
“Ivy knows her way around,” Tally said.
“Not that well,” Ivy replied. “I’ve visited plenty of times, but that’s different.”
“Dakota, you seem to know things nobody else does,” Miko said. “You might think of places even Garamond and Constantia won’t. I’ll bet you could find her.”
“Probably. If I felt like it,” Dakota said, sitting back down on the window ledge. “But I don’t really. There’s nothing in it for me.”
“Because you can’t,” Ivy said. “Please. You’re an intern. You think you could find somebody the entire company is looking for, when nobody else can? You’re full of it.”
Dakota stood up and put her hands on her hips. “No, I’m not,” she said. “I’m telling you, I could find her if I felt like it.”
“Prove it,” Ivy shot back.
“It would be really cool if you did find her,” Whit said. “Can you even imagine what an epic story that would be? The day Dakota Whittier found Quincy Vanderstan. Forget the mouse—people would talk about it forever.”
Dakota stared at Whit for a moment. “You know what? You’re right. Okay, here’s what I think. There’s still a little time. Helvetica will be here at eleven. That leaves an hour and a half. I bet I can figure out where Quincy went and find her before then. Convincing her to go back to the shoot—that’s another story.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s put our heads together then. We’ll worry about what to say to her when we find her.”
“Oh, it’s we now?” Dakota asked.
“Let us help you,” I said carefully. “A group of people working together is better than one person on her own.”
Dakota looked uncertain, but she finally relented.
“Whatever,” she murmured.
“Maybe we should start by thinking about what we know about Quincy,” Miko suggested.
“Right!” Tally agreed. “It’s like Mrs. Scanlon said. We’re all acting, all the time. Quincy is just acting like herself now. I’ve read tons of interviews and stories about her. We just need to take that information and pretend we are Quincy. Where would I go if I was Quincy Vanderstan and I was at City Nation and didn’t want to be found?”
“Okay,” I said. “I think you’re onto something, Tally. So what do we know about her?”
I was sitting on one of the desks, Buddha style. Tally perched on top of another, frowning in thought, and Miko was leaning next to her.
“She’s really young,” Whit said. “I know that. She hasn’t graduated from high school yet. She has to work with a tutor on set to keep up with classes. I read that in Vanity Fair.”
“I saw that article, too,” Ivy said. “It said she’s got such a crazy schedule she sometimes has to work seven days a week. She said something about never being able to be alone, not even for a second. Maybe she wanted to be by herself for a bit. What about that glassed-in courtyard behind the cafeteria? They’ve filled it with all these potted trees and flowers—it’s a really nice, quiet place.”
“It’s closed for three days. They’re replacing the skylight windows,” Whit said.
“Is there a big conference room or some place where they’d have important meetings? Where maybe there are nice chairs or a couch, somewhere she could just hole up and rest?” I asked.
“The executive conference room is like that,” Dakota said. “But that’s right between reception and Helvetica’s office. Constantia would have looked there first thing. She’s obsessed with that conference room.”
“Quincy is super into fashion,” Miko said. “I know that. She goes to the big shows at Fashion Week, and she’s always wearing the latest things. I once saw an interview with her where she said she thought designers had the best job in the world.”
“Could she be on one of the floors in the building that aren’t City Nation’s?” I asked.
Dakota shook her head. “No, our elevators only go to City Nation floors. If you wanted to go to a different floor you’d have to go to the lobby and go to a separate elevator bank. She would have had to go past security, and I don’t think she could have done that.”
“Okay, wait,” Tally said suddenly. “Let’s get back to the fashion thing. She’s obsessed with clothes, and she’s at City Nation. Where would anybody into clothes want to go? I’m Quincy Vanderstan. Where do I want to go?”
Dakota snapped her fingers and pointed at Tally. “You’re absolutely right. That would be the very first place she’d want to go.”
“Oh, of course,” Miko exclaimed.
“You’ve lost me,” Whit said.
“The sample room!” Dakota and Miko said in unison.
“The sample room?” I asked.
“Totally,” Miko said. “Remember yesterday when Dakota was talking about the Louboutins coming in? There is this big room here, just like the one they have at Vogue and magazines like that, where designers send over samples of pretty much everything. Dresses, coats, shoes, bags, hats, jewelry, formal gowns. If it’s in and it’s this year, there will be one in the sample room. But it’s not just stuff from this year. They’ve got vintage stuff, too. Chanel gowns, Pucci dresses. I’ve heard it’s like a museum in there.”
“That’s absolutely right,” Dakota said.
“Why do they have so much stuff?” Tally asked.
“Because City Nation’s fashion editor has a lot of influence,” Dakota said. “I mean, it’s not like Vogue or anything—they are the final word in fashion. But City Nation covers designers a lot, too. If some company or designer sends their latest thing over and City Nation ends up writing about it or including it in their ‘What’s Hot’ page or giving it any kind of shout-out, their sales will go through the roof. And every designer in New York wants that. So they all send stuff over.”
“Okay, but if that’s where all the stuff is kept, wouldn’t they have taken Quincy there, anyway? To get her stuff to wear for the photo shoot?” I asked.
“No, they wouldn’t!” Ivy said, suddenly excited. “There is always an art director in charge of the look of the photo shoot. They figure all that stuff out way in advance, and it can go back and forth for days. They pick things from the sample room that they think would look good for the shoot, and they show them to Helvetica. She makes the final choices. Whatever she’s chosen is pulled from the sample room and brought up to the studio ahead of time. That’s one of those things Mom was talking about that has to be taken care of before the shoot.”
“That’s right,” Whit confirmed. “They don’t want people picking out stuff and telling the editors what they want to wear. The art director makes those choices for them. Though I’m sure they’d have brought her down there to have a look if she’d asked them.”
“Well, you can all sit here talking about it, but there’s only one way to find out,” Dakota said. “We go and see for ourselves.”
“We could just call Constantia, or your mom for that matter, and tell them what we think,” I said to Ivy.
“Now where would the fun be in that?” Dakota asked. “I thought the whole point was trying to figure this out for ourselves. I’m going to go look.”
“Well, wouldn’t someone have already thought of this and gone to look there?” I added.
“Maybe,” Dakota said. “But they haven’t found her. I’ve been in that sample room. There are plenty of places to hide if you don’t want to be seen. I think we should go and look for ourselves.”
It had seemed like a good idea before. But we were guests at City Nation, and the only reason for that was Ivy’s mom. I didn’t want to do anything that might get us in trouble. But Ivy was nodding now, too.
“I agree. Plus, it isn’t just a question of finding Quincy. She was obviously upset about something. She’s not all that much older than we are. She might listen to us.”
“Well, the sample room is only two floors up,” Whit said. “Somebody could go and take a quick peek and see what they see. So the only question is, who goes?”
“Me,” Dakota said. “No one knows the building better than I do.”
“That’s true,” Ivy said.
“So you and Dakota go,” Whit said.
Dakota didn’t look thrilled with that idea, but she didn’t object. I was guessing she’d rather have Ivy with her than leave her with Whit.
“You come, too, Paulie,” Ivy said. “You’re great at thinking on your feet.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. But if Ivy wanted me with her, then I would go. She was my best friend, and I wasn’t going to let Dakota try to ruin our fun anymore.
“If you’re in, I’m in,” I told her, sounding much more confident than I felt.
“Okay, if we’re all done bonding now, we need to move,” Dakota said. “It’s quarter to ten now. Isn’t the whole point to try and get Quincy back to the studio before Helvetica arrives?”
“How will y’all know when Helvetica is back?” Tally asked.
“Oh, believe me. Everyone in the building knows, from Garamond to the people in the mail room,” Whit said.
We were about to get a priceless, uncensored view into the workings of City Nation magazine for 4 Girls. Unfortunately, it was already obvious to me that for those same reasons, we wouldn’t be able to write a word about it.
Who will believe it, anyway? I thought, getting up and joining Ivy and Dakota at the door. A secret mission to find an escaped movie star and return her to a photo shoot before Helvetica returned?
I wasn’t sure I believed it myself.