The mall was mobbed.

No surprise four nights before Christmas, but this was the mall where an 8-year-old girl and her mom were found shot dead in their SUV with the motor running, an apparent robbery.

After avoiding the place for a week after dark, I got over it and apparently everybody else has, too. Because it was back to normal Friday night at Town Center at Boca Raton.

The restaurants had their usual in-season waiting lines.

Kids sat on Santa’s knee for a photo opp.

A string ensemble played Christmas carols.

There was no big security presence, although the lights looked brighter in the parking lot. Only one store had the wanted poster of the murder suspect taped to the cash register.

“Looks like things are back to normal,” I said to a sales clerk in one shop.

“I hope so,” she answered briefly. I could tell her employer asked her not to talk about it.

By 9:45 the place had emptied out, as it always does, even when it's open late for the holidays.

"Who shops this late?" a weary department store saleswoman said. "I do," I answered, realizing I was uneasy about walking to my car.

“I knew it was a mistake to tell you I went to the mall,” a woman with two kids in tow turned to say to her husband in a shoe department, my last stop.

My husband knew I was there, too. He waited up.

-- Marci Shatzman, staff writer