Carolyn Haines - Wishbones

Once the girls were settled, I gave Graf the kiss he deserved. “I need to talk to Federico,” I said. “Would you entertain my friends?”

“Certainly. We’ll wait up for you.”

I hurried down the stairs to Federico’s room and tapped lightly on the door. When it opened, I was shocked at his face. He’d aged ten years. “Are you okay?”

He stepped into the hallway and closed the door. “I’m only exhausted. Jovan is resting now. She isn’t seriously injured, but she was badly frightened. The doctor examined her and gave her a sedative so she will sleep soundly now.”

“What happened?”

“Someone pushed her down the stairs.”

I felt the dull thud of my heartbeat. “She was pushed? For sure?”

“She insists she was pushed. She was going upstairs to look around, and she said she saw… a figure. Coming out of your room.” He swallowed and looked at the floor. “A woman with dark, flowing hair and eyes that burned like hot coals.”

Goose bumps raced up my arms and along my back. “Who was the woman?”

He shook his head. “There’s no one on the set who looks like that.”

“What happened next?”

“Jovan was frightened. She said the woman was strange. So she retreated, headed back to our room. She was looking down when someone gave her a big push. She could have broken her neck.”

“Did this woman push her?” According to the rules of the Great Beyond, a noncorporeal being couldn’t push a flesh and blood human down the steps. Only the most powerful ghosts-or evil spirits-could manipulate matter.

“She couldn’t say for certain. She took a sedative and she’s resting now. The only thing that calmed her was your dog and the other one. She felt like they guarded her-that they would sense an evil presence. She’s finally relaxing.”

“She isn’t injured?”

“Some bruises, nothing serious. But it could have been. Sarah Booth, it could have been fatal. And if the media gets word of this, our film may die. No one wants to be affiliated with a movie that’s cursed.”

The media was already blowing things out of proportion. An “attack” on Jovan would send them into a real feeding frenzy. But the problems on the set couldn’t be ignored, either.

I showed Federico my arm. “Estelle did this. She came into my room. She doesn’t want us in this house.”

“When? How?” Federico was shocked.

“Earlier today. She grabbed my arm and said her mother wouldn’t approve of us being here.” I cleared my throat. “Is she delusional, thinking that Carlita is still alive, or does she believe Carlita’s ghost is here?”

Federico sat down heavily. “The past never dies, does it?”

“No,” I said, “it doesn’t.” I spoke from personal experience.

“I’ve lied to Estelle about her mother’s death, and now I’m afraid she’s losing her mind.”

I couldn’t help that my heart rate accelerated. “How so?”

“I wasn’t truthful about how Carlita died.”

Jovan slept peacefully in the bedroom. I caught a glimpse of her through the open door from the sitting room where we were. “What really happened?” I asked.

“You see the picture of her in your room, yes?”

I nodded.

“She was a beautiful woman, lush and exotic even in that picture, where her illness was beginning to show.”

I’d never heard that Carlita was ill, but I kept silent while Federico continued.

“Carlita wanted to be something else, someone other than who she was. She suffered from the harshest of diseases. Self-loathing.” He straightened his shoulders.

“Who did she want to be?”

“Someone European. Someone tall and slender and fair. She felt too short, too curvaceous, too Latino. She wanted to be considered a serious actress, and she felt she was typecast as the femme fatale because of her looks. She thought if she was thin, she would be viewed as a talented woman instead of a woman with looks.”

I was stunned to hear this. “She was gorgeous. What a shame not to revel in that gift.”

“And she was talented, Sarah Booth. Greatly talented. I was drawn to her beauty and her talent like a moth to a flame. But no matter what I told her, she could never see those things in herself. I have no idea what she saw when she looked in the mirror, but it wasn’t the truth.”

No one ever sees the truth in a mirror, which is the power of Sleeping Beauty. But none of this answered my question. “How did she die?”

“The medical term is anorexia nervosa. We were living in Los Angeles for my work. I got the finest doctors money could hire. The incredible truth is that she starved herself to death.” He blinked tears from his eyes. “I’ve never endured anything more terrible. We force-fed her, we tried everything, from drugs to electroshock therapy. Before she died, her teeth were falling from her gums. To watch such loveliness descend into ruin was excruciating.”

There had been a girl in college who was rumored to suffer from anorexia. I never knew for certain, because her parents came and took her home. I only knew that in one semester’s time, she went from thin to skeletal.

“What did you tell Estelle about her death?”

“Estelle has always been self-conscious about her appearance. I was terrified if she knew her mother’s true illness that she would mimic Carlita. They were so close. In appearance and temperament and emotions. So I sent Estelle and Ricardo to boarding schools in the East. Toward the end, I never allowed them to come home. Not even for holidays. And when Carlita finally died, I told them she’d accidentally taken a drug overdose.”

“The coroner went along with this?”

He nodded slowly. “Which is perhaps why Sheriff King has no love for me. He feels I manipulated the system. That’s why I had to lie to him about Suzy. He wants me to be guilty of some atrocity. He thought I was hiding something criminal in Carlita’s death, but I was only protecting my children.”

I blew out a breath and sat on the edge of the chair facing his. “You shouldn’t have lied to Estelle and Ricardo.”

“Hindsight is crystal clear, isn’t it?”

“Right.” I wondered what the best thing to do might be. “Should we leave this house? Surely there are other locations…”

“We’d have to reshoot everything, and the budget won’t allow it. We’ll finish before long, and then Estelle will be satisfied. I will be gone from here.”

“Will that make her happy?” I asked the question gently. “She’s so angry, Federico. She comes and goes at will in the house. There are obviously ways in that the guards don’t know.”

“She grew up in this house as a young girl. I’m sure there are passages. Not even I know them. But her grandfather would have shown her. He designed and had the house built. He never approved of me.”

“Does Ricardo know the truth about his mother?”

He stood and walked to the mantel above the cold fireplace. He picked up a framed photograph I hadn’t noticed and handed it to me. It was his family, all four of them smiling and hugging each other.

“Ricardo suspects. But whatever he thinks, it doesn’t eat at him the way it does Estelle. He wasn’t that close to Carlita. He knew she was very sick. He came home one holiday, unexpected, and saw her. He never asked any questions, and I sent him back to school.”

“What a tragedy, Federico. I’m so sorry.”

“If you could have known Carlita, you would have been charmed by her. Everyone was. And yet she could never love herself.” He put the picture back. “But we must work tomorrow, Sarah Booth. You should rest, and I’ll do my best to prevent Estelle from harming anyone else.”

“And Jovan will accept this?” It didn’t seem like much vindication for her near-death fall.