Carly Phillips: Under the Boardwalk

“Barbie with a black wig,” she said, frowning at the sight. She had to make the huge transition from professor to vamp in one night, and she wondered how she’d ever pull it off.

“Looks more like a Halloween costume than something my Ari would wear,” her mother said from the doorway to Zoe’s room.

Ariana blew out a puff of air in frustrated agreement. “Tell me something I don’t know.” She looked over her shoulder at her mother.

Elena wore a long black dress that matched her raven hair, which cascaded down her back. Lace sleeves covered her arms to the elbows and then trailed to the floor. Her mother was wearing her Morticia outfit.

“You know when I first saw you standing there, I had a sense of déjà vu.” Elena curled her fingers around the molding in the doorway as she spoke. “I felt an immediate rush of relief that Zoe was really home.”

Ariana understood her mother’s feelings. For all her eccentricity, Elena adored her daughters. “Come here, Mom.” With a smile that didn’t come easily with Zoe missing, Ariana extended her hand, needing her mother’s hug as much as she sensed Elena needed hers.

Elena shuffled across the room with tiny steps. Beneath the dress, she twisted her ankles in a practiced move that would put Angelica Huston or Carolyn Jones to shame. “Show season’s over,” Ariana reminded her mother.

“All the more reason to keep my skills highly polished. Although things may change soon.” Before Ariana could question her, Elena finally reached her daughter and pulled Ariana into her arms.

Closing her eyes, Ariana breathed in deep and, for a moment, immersed herself in her mother’s love. She soaked in the warmth and caring, then pulled herself together. She needed to be the strong one and help her mother through this hard time.

“Mom, Zoe will be fine.” Ariana counted on Quinn’s words as she reassured her mother. She was putting her faith in a man she’d just met and a story he refused to tell.

She straightened and tossed the clothing onto the bed behind her. “I need something more middle-of-the-road,” she murmured, speaking of clothing. “What do you suggest I wear to Damon’s?” she asked her mother.

The normally unflappable Elena stiffened suddenly. “Damon’s?” she asked, her voice rising. “Why on earth would you want to go to the casino?”

Ariana lowered herself onto the bed and urged her mother down beside her. Since she already had one daughter missing, Ariana hadn’t told her mother she’d been shot at yesterday, and she understood Elena’s worry now.

She squeezed her mother’s soft hand. “You aren’t going to lose me, too. I just want to ask some questions and find out if anyone knows where Zoe went.”

Elena’s gaze remained downward, studying the patchwork quilt on Zoe’s bed. “But the police already questioned people,” she said, urgency in her voice.

“I know but it can’t hurt for me to poke around some more. I owe it to my sister.” And if she wanted to be able to face herself in the mirror ever again, she owed it to herself, too.

Elena shook her head vehemently. “You can’t go there. It’s not safe. And I can’t be responsible for anything happening to you, too.”

Ariana raised an eyebrow at her mother’s words. “Who said you were responsible for anything? Is someone blaming you for Zoe’s disappearance?” But even as Ariana asked, her mother’s shenanigans came back to her in living color and a sick feeling settled in Ariana’s stomach. “You were involved in a con, weren’t you? You and Zoe. And now she’s disappeared.”

“Now darling…”

“Do not patronize me.” Ariana rose and began pacing the floor. “For years you’ve been playing people and now you finally got into something dangerous!”

“Not exactly.” Elena stood and glided slowly across the room, Morticia-style, until she came up beside Ariana. “It wasn’t a con. At least not in the traditional sense.”

“I didn’t know there were traditional cons,” Ariana said, disgusted. She tipped her head to the side. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

Elena twisted her hands in front of her. “If only you two weren’t so independent! So strong-willed. If only you’d find a good man like your papa and get married…”

Elena always rambled when explaining, and even more so when she was upset or nervous, but Ariana wasn’t in the mood to hear her mother extol the virtues of having a man by her side. “What does this have to do with Zoe’s disappearance?”

“Alec Damon opened the casino a few years ago. His pictures were splashed across the newspaper. What can I say? He seemed like a good catch. He was handsome. He looked just like your dear papa when he had hair. He was wealthy-not that Zoe cares about money now, but once she gets older, trust me, she’ll want security.”

Her mother’s eyes glazed over as she recounted the casino owner’s attributes. “And he’s a complete gentleman with his dancers at the casino. He seemed perfect, even if he wasn’t Greek.” Elena nodded in satisfaction.

Ariana pinched the bridge of her nose hard and counted to ten. She and Zoe were old enough to pick their own men, but it didn’t matter now. “So you took a job as a showgirl at Damon’s and cozied up to the owner?”

She bit her tongue to keep from mentioning that her mother was getting too old to continue her dance routine. The truth was Elena didn’t look a day over twenty and worked hard to keep it that way.

Elena nodded. “Of course I danced. And flirted. All with your papa’s approval, I want you to know. He came to every performance.”

Ariana wondered how many pockets he’d picked along the way. “Mom, please. What does this have to do with Zoe’s disappearance?”

“I told your sister that I borrowed money from Mr. Damon and lost it gambling. I said if she didn’t do something to help me, his men would come after me and-” Elena made a distinct slicing motion across her neck with her hand, the black scarf draped from her sleeve billowing in the air.

“And did you borrow the money?”

Elena nodded. “Well, yes. I told Mr. Damon that we couldn’t afford to feed the newest member of the family, and he advanced me money on my salary.”

“What new family member?” Ariana asked, now completely befuddled.

Elena blinked. “Why, Spank, of course!”

“Spank who?”

“Spank the monkey!” she said as if the answer were obvious. “You two met in the kitchen earlier.”

A lewd monkey with a crude name. Oh, this was so typical of her family, Ariana thought, rolling her eyes. “I’m sorry I asked. So Zoe was concerned about you, and she went to the casino to… what?” she asked her mother.

“To get a job and help work off my debt. Two dancers would pay off five thousand dollars much faster than one. That’s what I told your sister. But there really was no debt. Not one that would have me killed, anyway.” Elena’s eyes filled with remorse. “In reality it was a legitimate loan for a noble purpose.”

“Marrying your daughter off to a rich man isn’t exactly noble. How did I come from this family?” she asked for the millionth time in her nearly thirty years.

“It wasn’t just his money that made him a good prospect. Honestly, I thought he was decent and honorable and would make a good husband for your sister. Not to mention, he’s sexy, which you’d see for yourself if you went there. But you won’t. I forbid it.” Elena perched her hands on her hips and glared at Ariana.

Her expression would have worked-if Ariana were a child and not an adult who had been living on her own for years now.

“I just thought if Mr. Damon got a look at your sister, he’d fall head over heels.” Elena made this last pronouncement with a plea for understanding in her voice.