THE HOUSE THAT VANITY BUILT

by Nancy Cole Silverman

  Hence, news of Billy’s arrest reached me two-fold: via Carlene and via Wilson, who at the exact same moment as my phone rang, appeared from the study.

  “Billy’s been arrested!” Carlene gave voice to the very words Wilson mouthed to me.

  I wasn’t surprised. When I woke that morning, I had a sense of dread and a vision of Billy, sweet-faced young Billy, in my head. After visiting with Detective Romero yesterday, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the police charged Billy with Jared’s murder. And here it was, less than twenty-four hours later, a false narrative I was going to have to deal with.

  “How’s Amy?” I asked.

  “Not good.” I could feel Carlene’s heart beating through the phone. “I’m worried about her. The doctor gave her something to calm her down. She didn’t sound like herself. I can’t be sure, but I think maybe the doctor asked her who she was talking to. I’m afraid she may have told him an old friend of Jared’s. If she did, and if he puts two and two together and thinks it’s me, I’m screwed. He’ll kill me, I know it.”

  I wanted to tell Carlene her fears were irrational, but I knew better. I could feel a dark presence, like storm clouds, about to engulf her. She had every right to be worried. Lies, like those Carlene had told Amy, seldom stay hidden. Whether the doctor knew about Carlene’s friendship with Amy or not, it was only a matter of time before he did.

  “Do me a favor,” I said. “Change your greeting on your phone. Use the generic message and erase your own. And if Amy calls again, don’t pick up.” I was afraid, if the doctor got Amy’s phone and hit redial on her last call, he’d get Carlene’s voicemail, and the last thing she needed right now was to have the doctor knowing how to get hold of her. “I’ll take care of Amy. You take care of yourself. I’ll be in touch.”

  I hung up the phone and looked at Wilson. “Carlene’s concerned about Amy.”

  “As are my lady friends.” Wilson went to the fireplace and adjusted the candlestick on the mantel. “The doctor’s acting strangely. They want to see you right away.”

  “Me?” I sat down on the sofa and held the phone against my chest.

  “Yes, you. I could go, but they requested I bring the old lady.”

  I scowled. Enough with the old lady remarks.

  “For whatever reason, they want to talk with you.” Wilson shrugged like he couldn’t imagine why.

  It’s not often a spirit will request the audience of a psychic. Usually, it’s the other way around. The abnormality of the situation alarmed me. I felt myself growing warm, and my heart began to race. At least I thought it was my heart. That was until I realized it was the phone buzzing against my chest.

  I glanced down at the face of my cell.

  “Misty.” Lupe’s voice was strained. “Something terrible has happened. I need to see you right away. The doctor’s out with Amy. I don’t know for how long, but you need to get here. I’ll tell the guard to let you through.”

  When Wilson and I arrived at the mansion, I was surprised to find a yellow Ferrari convertible with personalized plates that read BUZZED parked in the courtyard. I hadn’t expected to see any other guests at the house, not after Lupe’s distressed call and urgent request for me to come immediately. I had thought the house—not counting the help—would be empty or as near-empty as a mansion haunted by its former first lady and husband’s paramour could possibly be.

  Nonetheless, there was Lupe in the motor court, talking casually with a young man I recognized from Jared’s memorial. She introduced him as Raul, Jared’s best friend. Soon as she said his name, I rushed to introduce myself and took his hand.

  “I’m Anne,” I said, “an old friend of the family.” I was most anxious Lupe not use my real name, should Raul later make mention of my visit to the doctor. “What a handsome ride. I’m a car person myself.” I nodded to the Jag. Raul’s hand still in mine. “Of course mine’s much older—like me—vintage. Mind if I ask where you got it?”

  “Ventura County.” Raul dropped my hand, too quick for me to get a read on anything but the young man’s angst, and headed back to the car.

  I wasn’t about to let him get away. Not with him being one of my possible suspects. I staggered behind him.

  “You from there?” I asked.

  “Not really.” Raul started to open the car door. I noticed a small, brown paper sack in his free hand. The type one might use to hide a bottle of booze.

  “I suppose you stopped by to visit with Amy. Dropping off a gift, maybe?” I nodded to the bag.

  Raul’s eyes darted from me to Lupe, then back to the courtyard’s entrance. He was obviously pressed for time. “Amy called me this morning. She sounded down, and I thought I’d come by and say hi. But she and the doctor are out. I guess I just missed her.”

  Raul’s hand tightened around the neck of the sack. Was he hiding something? I took a step closer to his car, blocking any chance of his getting in.

  “Surprising news about Billy this morning. I suppose you heard?”

  Raul took a step back. “It was on the news.”

  “You two friends?” I put my hand casually on the car’s window frame to steady myself.

  “Not really. Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious. You being from Ventura and all. That’s where’s Billy’s from. Carpinteria actually, and Amy too.”

  “Sorry. Can’t help you.” Raul put his hand back on the car door, inches from my own hand.

  I sensed his connection to Billy had begun far earlier than he let on.

  “But you do know him, right?” I gripped the car door tighter. “I mean, he was part of your group.”

  “Yeah, so what? Billy and his folks, they lived on some land my family owns in Carp.”

  The fact Raul had referred to Carpinteria by its shortened name convinced me he was far more familiar with the area and closer to Billy than he let on.

  “Citrus or vineyards?” I asked. Nearly every farm up there was one or the other.

  “Both.” Raul nodded to the Ferrari’s personalized plates.

  “Buzzed?” I knit my brows curiously.

  “Wine and bees,” Raul said. “My family’s been in the business for years.”

  “Clever,” I said.

  “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, you’re right. Billy and I knew each other, or of each other anyway. It wasn’t exactly like we grew up together and hung out. Amy brought Billy into our group, and I ended up vouching for him. Like I said, we really didn’t know each other well, but Jared was cool with it, so why not?”

  “You must have been surprised then to hear about the arrest?”

  “I suppose. You never really know people, right?” Raul pulled open the car door and slid behind the wheel. “Sorry, but I have to get going.” The Ferrari roared to life, and Raul hollered back to Lupe. “When Amy gets back, tell her I got her message and came by.” Then raising the sack above his head, added, “And thanks for this, Lupe. I owe you.”

  I waited until Raul had driven away. “What was in the bag?”

  “What do you think?” Lupe said. “You’re the psychic.”

  “The flask,” I said. “The one you found in the guest house.”

  Lupe began to walk back toward the house. “Raul gave the flask to Jared as a gift some time ago. It’s engraved. To Jared from Raul. He’s afraid if the doctor finds the flask, he’ll blame Raul for Jared’s drinking, and if the cops don’t pin Jared’s death on Billy, he’s worried the doctor will come after him.”

  That explained why Raul wanted to distance himself from Billy, and while Raul may have felt picking up the flask had been enough to throw the doctor off the track, I wasn’t so easily convinced. As far as I was concerned, Raul’s need to pick up the flask and his connection to a bee farm, made him all the more a person of interest.

  Wilson and I followed Lupe and got as far the front door when
her cell rang. She glanced at her phone. “Not again. You’ll have to excuse me. It appears our gophers have got the best of our handyman.” Wilson poked me in the ribs. The mansion’s resident luminaries were hard at work. “Go on inside,” she said. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

  Chapter 19

  I felt a tingling down my spine as Wilson and I entered the sunroom. Eli and Christina were seated as they had been before, in front of the window with their hair perfectly coiffed and faces painted like porcelain dolls. I reminded myself that while they had requested I come to them, these were luminaries, anything and everything they said and did would be for their own self-interests. Not Amy’s, and certainly not mine.

  “Misty, dear, what a shame you missed all the excitement this morning.” Eli’s sing-song voice belied her sincerity. “A real row, if you will. When Amy heard the police had arrested Billy, she fell apart, right there on the kitchen floor. Like a rag doll.” Eli pointed a long, manicured finger in the direction of the kitchen counter. “And when the doctor found her, he tried to give her some pills, but she threw them in the sink and started screaming it was all her fault.”

  Christina leaned forward. “And then, Dr. Conroy went berserk. Something snapped inside him, and he started to yell back.” Christina touched her head like the memory was too much for her. “Ugh. The things he said to that poor girl. He accused her of conspiring with Billy to kill Jared.”

  Eli explained that Amy ran from the room, and the doctor chased after her. “It was such a racket. She slammed the door to the guest bedroom, and it echoed throughout the whole house. Heard it all the way down here. The doctor pounded on the door like a madman, begged her to let him in. When she wouldn’t answer, he started to sob like a child.” Eli clapped her hands together, the glee of the doctor’s tantrum written all over her rouged face.

  “He told her he knew she was friends with Carlita.” Christina’s eyes widened and met mine. For a second, I could see Carlene in her mother’s expression. Her dark eyes and high-brow; the mother-daughter connection was undeniable.

  “Which is true, isn’t it? Matthew told him. I heard him tell the doctor he saw Carlita with Amy at the Starbucks where Amy worked.”

  My jaw dropped. Luminaries were usually so caught up with their own missions that they seldom concerned themselves with things that have happened since their passing. As a result, I didn’t think Christina had a clue about her daughter since she had left for college or even cared.

  “Didn’t think I knew, did you?” Christina smiled. “Oh, come now, don’t deny it. I know you know Carlene’s my daughter, and that she changed her name and used to live here. I can read your mind.”

  I should have known. Spirits have an advantage over mortals. They can read our minds, while we, on the other side of the veil, even psychics like myself, can’t begin to guess what they’re thinking.

  I took a deep breath. “What about the doctor’s mind, have you read him as well?”

  Eli rested her elbow on her knee and put her hand beneath her chin. “We could if the man was sound, but the doctor’s not a well man. His mind’s too addled for either of us to read. I suspect dementia.”

  “Or perhaps he’s just riddled with guilt,” Christina giggled.

  “Whatever.” Eli unfolded her arms and brushed her long fingers across her skirt. “He was once such a brilliant mind. Top of his field. Although, I suspect the cost of getting there was a little self-experimentation. Some of which might have caused his madness. However, he never was particularly well balanced to start with, but then I suppose most geniuses aren’t.”

  Eli’s words were of no comfort to me. If she couldn’t read the doctor, there was no way I would be able to. Even if the doctor were to allow me to, it’s not possible for a psychic to read someone who was mentally unbalanced or suffering from dementia. Any hope I had of learning anything more about the doctor’s relationship with his son or about Jared’s murder wasn’t going to come from the doctor. I would have to find it on my own.

  “However,” Eli said, “what you may find of interest, and one of the reasons we wanted to see you today, is that the doctor revised his will. Which, in the end, could be a very good thing.”

  “For Amy?” I asked.

  “For us all,” Eli said. “The doctor’s made special arrangements to transfer Jared’s trust and future inheritance to the baby, naming himself as the executor should anything unfortunate happen to Amy.”

  I blinked, had I heard her correctly? Should anything unfortunate happen to Amy? Suddenly, Carlene’s fears, which up until now had felt more like paranoia, were starting to feel very real to me.

  “Certainly, you’re not suggesting the doctor would do anything to hurt her?”

  “More likely he intends to claim she would be an unfit mother,” Christina said. “That way he can leave whatever needs to be done to the courts. No reason for him to get his hands dirty.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said. “What proof would he have?”

  “He wouldn’t need any if he could convince the court Amy had something to do with Jared’s death,” Eli added.

  “But why would Amy murder Jared? She was about to be his wife. If she waited until after the wedding, she’d inherit everything.”

  “Ahh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Eli said. “Jared had a trust, and as long as Amy was married to Jared, she was entitled to the proceeds of the trust, but nothing more. If she divorced Jared or he died, she’d get nothing.”

  “And you think the doctor, in his very addled state, actually believes Amy might have killed his son?”

  “Who knows what that man believes, he’s mental.” Christina took a nail file from within her robe and began to file her nails. “Knowing the doctor, he’ll try to convince the police Amy and Billy colluded—perhaps with Carlene—to have Amy marry Jared, and then cash in on Jared’s trust fund. But that at some point, Jared found out what they were up to and threatened to expose them. No doubt they killed Jared to shut him up and settled for the price of what that lovely engagement ring Jared gave Amy would bring.” Christina stopped filing her nails. “Whether it’s the truth or some variation of it, it feels close enough, don’t you think?”

  I had to admit it was a story the doctor could easily spin to the police. While the facts were twisted, it was a little too close to the story Carlene had originally shared with me, and what I knew to be the truth.

  Eli continued. “The reason we wanted to see you is we believe the doctor’s planning to take Amy’s baby and start over again. It’s all he’s been talking about ever since he learned Amy was pregnant. And now, with Jared out of the picture and Matthew as VP of Conroy Cosmetics, Elliott has both the time and the opportunity to do just that. Start over.”

  “With Amy’s baby?” The idea that an old man, particularly an old man like the doctor, might think he could begin again was incredulous. Not only was he old and frail, he was insane.

  “All he has to do is convince the police that the story I just told you is true,” Christina dropped her wrist and pointed the nail file at me.

  “And he’s very good at convincing people,” Eli added.

  I worried she was right.

  “Where are Amy and the doctor now?” I asked.

  “They’ve gone to visit Amy’s OB/GYN,” Eli said.

  I jerked my head. I hadn’t expected that bit of news.

  “What, did they kiss and makeup?”

  “One might think so,” Eli said. “When the doctor collapsed outside Amy’s door, he changed his tune and pleaded with her to talk to him. He said that losing Jared had destroyed him, and he was a broken man. And Amy, being the sweet naïve young thing she is, opened the door and tried to comfort him.”

  “Which is more than I would have done.” Christina started to file her nails again. “Stupid girl. She cuddled him in her arms and told him it would be all right. Th
at she understood what he was going through. That they were both going through it.”

  I could visualize the scene. Amy was a soft touch, no match for someone as sophisticated and duplicitous as the doctor.

  “She asked if the doctor wanted to come with her to her OB appointment. Can you imagine? Amy comforting him, after what she’s been through? She told him she had called her OB after Jared died, and her OB told her to come by to do an ultrasound. She thought the doctor might like to go with her to hear the heartbeat.”

  I glanced about the room. I could still feel the static energy from their argument that morning. It layered the air like the smell of something burnt, and with it, the subtle flow of dark energy. The luminaries were trying to telegraph me an idea.

  “And what is it you want me to do?” I asked.

  “What do you think?” With one hand, Eli circled her thin fingers in front of her, as though she might mix the air with her thoughts. “Certainly you must have some ideas of your own? Something that might, shall we say, save Amy from a fate worse than death?”

  The luminaries chuckled.

  I knew what Eli wanted. She had planted the thought in my head, and I couldn’t believe the words about to come out of my mouth.

  “You want me to kill the doctor?”

  Christina shrugged. “If not you, then I suppose we could ask Wilson.”

  “No.” I stretched my arm out in front of Wilson, like a mother driving a car who had stopped too fast at a light. He wasn’t going anywhere, and he wasn’t going to kill the doctor. If Wilson were engaged in such an act, his fate would be sealed, and all my work to help convince the powers of the universe that he was more than just a lost soul would be for naught.

  “You have to understand, Amy and the idea of the baby have become too much of a distraction.” Eli looked to Christina for verification, and her husband’s former paramour nodded dutifully. “Oh, it was fine before Jared passed. Amy wasn’t here, not in this house anyway, and certainly not full time. But now that the doctor’s insisted she move in, her presence is interfering with our plans.”