Page 8 of In the Line of Ire

"No,only occasionally..." I paused, not failing to notice Lily'ssurprised and wishful face. Lily's parents were both the absenteesort and as a result, Lily spent a lot of her childhood growing upat my house, one which was full of noise with one of my parentsalways in attendance. "Didn't your mom ever do that?"

"I don'trecall her ever taking me shopping, but her secretary did once forschool stuff. We got burgers afterwards at a fast food place andshe made me promise not to tell my mom. She was really great aboutit."

"Yourmom?"

"No, hersecretary. Her name was Ellen. Wonderful lady. The most beautifulblack braids all the way down to here.” She pointed to the middleof her back. “I think Mom fired her a few months later. I'll takePoppy shopping for school supplies and we'll get burgers and icecream." Lily stopped in the middle of the store, looking around inglee. I followed her gaze, taking in the sparkling, white-tiledfloor and the irreverent, silver disco ball, suspended from theceiling, which scattered colored lights across the pure whitewalls. Arranged on clear glass shelves were gorgeous purses ofevery description. Shoppers, totes, backpacks, clutches andbriefcases. The stand in the center was reserved for the wallets,coin purses, and key fobs, all with vibrant colors that spanned therainbow.

"I wantto move in," I whispered.

"Can Ihelp you ladies?" asked the sales assistant. She was clad in aburgundy sheath dress and glossy high heels, just like hercolleague who was currently with another customer at the cashregister. Poker straight hair and perfect makeup gave her theappearance of the model’s advertising the purses in the blown-upphoto on one wall. She looked young, confident and pretty; exactlywhat a customer might want to emulate. A small pin over her breastread "Amanda."

“We’re browsing for a birthday gift,” I lied “and I’d like tolook atsome purses."

"Ofcourse. Please feel free to examine any purse you choose and let meknow if I can help you," she said, retreatinggracefully.

Iexamined the wallets first, since they were directly in front ofus. The fabric was all correct, the zippers seemed to be the rightweight and the brand names and logos were exactly as I expected tofind them. I unzipped a couple at random and was pleased to see thelinings were also exactly as they should be. Next, I moved to thepurses on the left side of the shop, picking them up and puttingthem down, opening them and peeking inside. I later joined Lily whowas checking out a pretty, pink tote.

"That'snice," I said as she handed it to me. Again, I repeated my checksuntil I decided the bag was authentic.

"I'mthinking of my own birthday now," said Lily. "I’m going to emailthis idea to my parents' people."

"Did yousee anything you like?" asked Amanda, gliding towardsus.

"Notyet," I said, "but I'd like to see the monogrammed tote in thefront window. Is that the only one you have?"

"That'sour display model. We have several more in the back in small,medium, and large sizes. The one in the window is amedium."

"I'dlike to see it, please," I said. It matched the one Solomon gave meand I wanted the opportunity to fully inspect it. Amanda walkedover to the window, plucked it from the display case and presentedit to me. I picked it up, turning it around carefully, scrutinizingthe stitching and the cut of the fabric. Next, I opened it andthoroughly inspected the interior.

"It's alovely bag," touted Amanda, "and perfect for any situation fromshopping to spending time out at the country club. There's plentyof room for all your essentials and we have matching wallets tocomplete the look."

"I likeit," I said, "but I still want to think about it."

"Comeback anytime," said Amanda pleasantly despite the clear realizationthere would be no sale at that moment.

"Is itice cream time?" asked Lily as we exited.

"It is,"I said. "There's a stand over there." We walked over and I paid fortwo cones. Mint chocolate chip for me, and strawberry swirl forLily. We took them over to an empty bench and sat down to enjoythem.

"I willalways take Poppy shopping," she decided as she licked the conewhile rocking Poppy's stroller with her other hand, "and we willalways get ice cream afterwards. Mom stuff is nice andfun."

"Goodplan."

"I likedall the bags. I didn't look at quite as many as you did but Ididn't see any fakes. At least, I don't think I did."

"Theywere all real so far as I could tell," I agreed. "The last one Ichecked was the same as the one Solomon gave to me."

"Couldit be that the store didn't know? The saleslady said they had morein the back."

Ithought about it. "It's possible they don't check every bag beforethe sale. Some might arrive in the store pre-boxed and they couldjust slip those into a bag for the customer. The store shouldreally check all the new inventory but somebody might have gottenlazy. If that's the case, the fake bag could have been insertedinto their stock anytime from when it left the original factory tosomewhere on the shipping route. The buyer wouldn't know until itwas deemed a fake or they took it in for repair or properauthentication. The store would be obliged to refuse any repair ona non-authentic bag and they would have to tell the customer. Anembarrassing situation would ensue for everyoneconcerned."

"So whathappened to the real bag?" Lily wondered. "The real bag must havebeen swapped for the fake. There's no point just dropping a fakebag into the inventory unless someone just wanted to embarrass thebrand."

"That'swhat I thought too. The authentic bag was probably sold a long timeago, maybe for a discounted price. The purchaser wouldn't know itwas stolen. It's an authentic bag. Someone was probably thrilled toget such a bargain, or it could even have been stolen for a gift.The recipient would never know it was stolen and even if theysuspected something, how could they verify anything?"

"Why notjust take it and leave the box empty?"

I shrugged, growing unsure. "Maybe if anyone spot-checked theinventory, they wouldn't notice the fake bag but theywould noticean emptybox. Which would only sound the alarm much earlier than the thiefpreferred."

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