THE HOUSE THAT VANITY BUILT

by Nancy Cole Silverman

The doctor stepped back and raised the gun.

  I looked back at the house. Wilson and the luminaries had moved from the solarium to the patio. The three of them stared down at us like we were some type of exhibition. Then Wilson stood up, climbed on to the railing, and put his hands in the air. His Ninja pose, exactly like when he had communicated with my cat. The hum of the bees grew louder. So loud, I was forced to cover my ears.

  Conroy took aim.

  “No!” I yelled. “Don’t. Please don’t!”

  It was too late. A cloud of bees swarmed the doctor like a tornado. Their frenzied masses covered him as he fell to the ground screaming. Fuzzy bodies with their comb-like wings smothered him, beating against each other as they fought to pierce the doctor’s thin skin with their barbed stingers.

  Chapter 30

  I don’t know how long I lay huddled on the ground, too afraid to look up for fear I’d be staring down the barrel of a forty-five. For however long it was, the world blacked out to me. Curled up in a fetal position with my eyes shut, I heard the sound of swarming bees, their angry buzzing, and the faint wail of sirens in the background.

  It wasn’t until I felt Romero’s steady hand on my shoulder that I knew I was safe.

  “You okay?” Romero helped me to my feet.

  I brushed myself off, thankful to be alive. Conroy’s body, like a heap of rubble, was covered with foam and surrounded by firefighters in yellow jackets. The hoses of the firemen’s extinguishers aimed at the last desperate winging of the dying bees, their scaly bodies crusted against the doctor’s skin like bubble wrap.

  “Is he dead?” I asked.

  “If he’s not, he’s going to wish he was. You were right, Misty. Conroy murdered his son.”

  “How do you know?” I looked at Romero, then back at the house silhouetted beneath the moonlight. The lights in the solarium were still on, but the windows where Wilson had sat with the luminaries were empty.

  “This afternoon, after you and I spoke, we put out a BOLO alert and found your gray sedan along with your masked man. We were on our way to talk with the doctor about what we learned when Amy called.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’s more worried about you. She told us she had asked you up here to show you something. She was afraid the doctor would find you. Turned out her timing was pretty good.”

  “Thank goodness,” I said.

  “She’s inside talking with Detective Williams now. Why don’t we join her? I have a few questions I need you to answer as well.”

  I knew the minute I entered Conroy’s house, Eli and Christina were gone. The chairs at the table in the solarium were empty, and the air in the house felt cool, like the night air outside, as though a gentle breeze had swept the house clean. As for Wilson? I didn’t see him anywhere.

  Romero shut the kitchen door behind us and told me Amy was in the living room with Detectives Williams and Smiley, and Carlene.

  “Carlene?” I was impressed but not surprised. When I had first met Carlene, I thought her to be a shallow, self-centered girl with little concern for anything beyond her own well-being. Carlene’s concern for Amy had convinced me otherwise.

  “Amy didn’t want to be in the house alone. After she called us, she called Carlene and Lupe. Can’t say I blame her,” Romero said. “The girl’s been through a lot.”

  Romero led the way to the great room that up until now, I’d only passed on my way to the kitchen and the solarium. The room was stunning, equal in size to the entire first floor of Wilson’s house, and divided into three distinct areas, with French doors and huge windows that looked out onto the vast expanse of the Conroy estate. Amy and Carlene sat in the center of the room on one of two facing sofas, with Detective Williams on the other.

  Amy stood and came running to me. “Misty, are you okay? I was so worried.”

  “I’m fine.” I hugged her tight, as much to reassure myself of her well-being as my own.

  “And the doctor?” Amy asked. “Did...did he find you? Is he—”

  “He’s dead,” I said.

  Amy took a step back and grabbed her stomach. I reached out to take her hand, and Carlene rushed to her side.

  Carlene put her arm around Amy. “The doctor killed Jared, didn’t he?”

  Detective Williams interrupted. “Why don’t we all catch our breath and sit down?”

  I sat in the middle of the couch with Amy and Carlene on either side of me. Both women grabbed a hand and held me tight while Romero brought us up to date.

  Romero explained that because I had been able to identify the plates on the gray sedan that morning, the police had arrested Anthony Toscana on his way to the airport with a one-way ticket to Belize. Romero described Anthony as a hired hand with a record for petty theft and wanted for jumping bail in Las Vegas.

  “Anthony confessed the doctor had originally hired him to take care of a gopher problem in the doctor’s backyard. He also admitted the day of Jared’s memorial that the doctor ordered him to follow you home. And when you didn’t stop talking with Amy, Conroy arranged for Tony to do a drive-by, toss a rock through your window, and later to come back and pick up your cat.” I wanted to say, I told you so, but I kept quiet. I knew Romero wasn’t finished. “Then the day after Jared’s party, Conroy approached Anthony about getting rid of the EpiPen.”

  “The same EpiPen Jared used the night he died?”

  “We think so. Forensics is running tests now. We should know shortly.”

  “What about Matthew?” I said. “Did you find his prints on the bottle of cologne I gave you? He’s involved, I think the doctor used him to get to Jared.”

  “I may be able to help with that,” Williams said. “You were right about Matthew’s prints being on the bottle of cologne you gave us. But Matthew didn’t bring the bottle into the guest house, Anthony did. The bottle you found—the one you brought home, and we took from you—the doctor had given it to Anthony to sneak into the guest house before Jared’s party. It looked exactly like one we found in Anthony’s car this afternoon. He admits he had exchanged it for the bottle on Jared’s dresser. And according to forensics, Matthew never touched that bottle. It was venom free. The type Jared would have used.”

  “So Matthew’s not involved?”

  “We still have some questions we’d like him to answer. I asked Amy to call Matthew and tell him the doctor needed to see him right away. We’ve got a news blackout on the house. Nobody knows what went down here tonight. Not yet anyway, and nobody’s going anywhere until we do. Meanwhile, I’ve asked Lupe to make us all something to drink. Could be a long night.”

  I wasn’t about to gamble with another cup of Lupe’s tea. Not that I felt it was spiked with anything more potent than chamomile or lavender, but after this morning, I wasn’t about to tempt it. “No, thank you. I think I’ll pass.”

  Twenty minutes later, Matthew arrived at the house. He must have known the second he arrived that something was wrong. Outside, the motor court was jammed with police cars, a couple of unmarked detective’s vehicles, an ambulance and a firetruck. Rather than ring the bell, he pounded on the door.

  “Amy?”

  Lupe answered and showed Matthew to the great room, where he immediately spotted Carlita sitting next to me on the sofa.

  “Carlita?” Matthew stopped short of entering the room. He looked confused. “What are you doing here?”

  Amy did a double take, from Matthew to Carlene. “Carlita?”

  “I’ll explain later.” Carlene stood up and strode across the room and offered Matthew her hand. “My name’s Carlene Muller now. I changed it after I graduated from college, and for your information, Amy asked me here.”

  “But why?” Matthew’s eyes swept the room and spotted Romero and Williams in front of the bar. “I don’t understand, why are the police here, what’s going on?”

  “Bec
ause in case you haven’t figured it out,” Carlene said. “The doctor’s dead.”

  “Dead?” Matthew took a step back, his hands up. “Wa-wa-wait a minute. What are you talking about? You don’t think I killed him?”

  Romero stepped forward. “Unless you unleashed a colony of angry bees, I’d say it was an accident. But we do have a couple of questions.

  “Me first, Detective.” I was anxious to get a few answers for myself. “After all, I am the one who kept pushing your department to investigate. If you’re not going to Mirandize him, and don’t think he’s guilty, I have a few questions of my own.”

  Romero raised his brows. “Go ahead, Misty.”

  “Matthew, the day we met in Burbank, outside your offices, and you and I spoke, if you weren’t involved in Jared’s murder, why did you leave in such a rush?”

  Romero looked at me. Another meeting you didn’t tell me about?

  I shrugged.

  “Why did I leave? Are you kidding me? Lady, you freaked me out. After the coroner had ruled Jared’s death a homicide, I didn’t know what to believe. I didn’t know if the doctor was guilty or not. I had just been named the company’s new VP, and people were talking. All the company needed was more gossip about the doctor and the house. I figured the least I could do is warn him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He told me not to worry, that you were just some street-freak who had probably read about Jared’s death in the papers and was trying to blackmail me or something.”

  “That’s all? He didn’t say anything else?”

  “Not about you, he didn’t. Instead, he asked me to do him a favor. He said he had a friend who wanted to surprise his wife with a party. That his friend had been at Mastro’s the night of Jared’s bachelor party, and he wanted to know who had planned it.”

  I looked at Carlene, paused, then asked my next question. “And did you find out who planned Jared’s party?”

  “Yeah, sure. It was some girl named Carlene.” Soon as Matthew said the name, his jaw dropped, and his eyes went to Carlene. “Was that you?”

  “Oh my God! I don’t believe it!” Carlene stood up. “It was you. You’re the one who nearly got me killed!”

  I grabbed Carlene’s arm and held her from charging Matthew.

  “Me? What did I do?” Matthew looked at me, confused.

  “You confirmed the doctor’s suspicion that Carlene, or Carlita as the doctor knew her, was working with Jared. The doctor had warned her long ago he didn’t want her anywhere near Jared. When you gave Dr. Conroy her name, he figured she was Christina’s daughter, and he used you to set her up. He had someone tamper with the brakes of her car when she was in Malibu.” I looked back at Romero. “Detective, you can call this a psychic hunch if you like, but if you check Carlene’s car, you’ll find the doctor’s handyman’s prints on it as well.”

  Romero took out his note pad. “Just a few more questions,” I said. “In fact, my next concerns both Matthew and Detective Williams. If you allow me, Detective Romero, I believe what I’m about to ask may help to clarify exactly how my masked man ended up with the EpiPen you found in his glovebox earlier today.”

  Romero nodded at me. “Go ahead.”

  I started with Matthew. “The night Jared died. After he had the attack and the paramedics arrived, do you remember who was there?”

  “Just us guys. We had a private room upstairs, off from the bar.”

  “And the doctor?” I paused and made sure both Williams and Romero were following. “Where was he? I was under the impression he might have stayed home. I know your mother had come by with you when you brought the party bus, perhaps they went to dinner?”

  “No.” Matthew shook his head. “That’s not right. My mother wasn’t feeling well that night. She went home. The doctor and my father decided at the last minute to go out to dinner together. They were at Mastro’s as well, downstairs.”

  “So Doctor Conroy was there, in the restaurant?” I looked at Detective Williams. I didn’t have to by psychic to know the young detective was uncomfortable.

  “Yeah.”

  “And he must have noticed the paramedics when they came in.”

  “I guess.”

  I turned to Williams. “Did you know Jared’s father was at the restaurant that night?”

  Williams looked at Romero and Smiley. He was obviously uncomfortable.

  “No. Detective Smiley and I met with Dr. Conroy here at the house. He said he had just come from the hospital. That his son had died, and the ER docs thought Jared’s death was accidental, but the doctor was insisting we investigate. He felt certain his son had been murdered.”

  “So you didn’t know the doctor had been at the restaurant?”

  Smiley dropped his head.

  Williams looked away. “It wouldn’t have made any difference if he was. We talked to everybody at the party.”

  “Except for the doctor, who you assumed had been home that night. But he wasn’t. And it was the doctor, who in all the confusion, picked up Jared’s EpiPen and later gave it to his handyman.”

  I could see it all in my mind. The young detective had been eager to please both the chief and Detective Smiley and had missed the obvious.

  Romero made another note on his pad than pointed to the bar where Williams had placed the bee venom box.

  “Have you ever seen that box before?”

  Matthew walked over to the bar and looked at the box, his brow furrowed. “Where’d you get this?

  “Amy found it behind the guest house,” Romero said. “She called Misty here tonight to show her. Do you know what it is?”

  “Sure, it’s a type of bee trap, a venom collector.” Matthew started to touch the box, and Williams stopped him. “Looks homemade to me.”

  “How does it work?” Romero asked.

  “It’s a simple process, really. It fits in front of the entrance to a beehive. The wires here,” Matthew pointed to the wires strung across the top of the box, “they’re connected to the battery which generates a small electrical charge. The charge doesn’t hurt the bees, it just excites them, and causes them to go into a kind of stinging frenzy, dropping their venom onto the plate below. The bees aren’t harmed. Their stingers don’t detach since there’s no soft tissue involved like they would if they actually stung a human being.”

  “The doctor could have used this to collect the venom?” Romero asked.

  “He could have,” Matthew said. “But why? If he wanted venom, he just as simply could have ordered it from his factory in Europe.”

  “Except that would have left a paper trail,” I said.

  Matthew paused. “Yeah, I suppose.”

  “But if he wanted to set somebody up,” I said, “a trap like this, amateurishly made, might do just that.”

  Amy got up and went to the window. “Was the doctor trying to set Billy up? To make it look like he had killed Jared?”

  “Not just Billy,” Carlene said, “don’t you get it? He wanted to set you up too, Amy.”

  “Me? But how?”

  Carlene went to the bar and pointed to the box. “It’s simple. The doctor makes some silly, homemade trap. Makes it look like Billy made it, then sets him up and reveals to the world that you and Billy were lovers.”

  “But that’s not true.” Amy shook her head.

  “Maybe not, but you have to understand how the doctor thinks. Believe me, I know.” Carlene looked at Amy. “He would have said you were from the same small town and that you and Billy went to school together and were involved. Later, after you graduated, you came to LA intent on finding a rich husband. You met Jared and got engaged, but that you got cold feet and didn’t want to go through with the wedding. So you stole the engagement ring Jared gave you. Figured you’d get at least fifty, sixty grand for it, but Jared figured it out, and Billy killed him. The
doctor would have testified against you. He had big, high-profile attorneys, and what did you have? Nothing. Before you know it, you would have been in jail for murder, and the doctor would have taken your baby.”

  “My baby?” Amy put her hands on her stomach. “Is that why he put the nursery upstairs? Because he never planned for me to move it to the guest house?”

  “You may not need to,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Amy looked at me. She had no idea how the doctor’s death was about to affect her.

  “If I recall correctly,” I said, “the doctor changed Jared’s trust and transferred everything from Jared to the baby, and named you as the acting trustee—”

  “Unless,” Matthew said, “something was to happen to Amy. Which, in such a case, the doctor would become the baby’s guardian and executor of the trust. I remember because I had gone with Dr. Conroy to his lawyer’s to sign paperwork for the company and overheard the doctor and his attorney chatting about it.”

  “But if the doctor were to die first,” I said. “Then what would happen?”

  From the corner of his eye, Matthew looked up at the ceiling then back at Amy.

  “Everything in the trust, the house, the money, the doctor’s personal property, a percentage of the company, would flow through to the baby with you, Amy, as the executrix.”

  Chapter 31

  “Me?” Amy sat on the couch and rested her hands on her stomach. “I don’t understand, how could I inherit all of this? How could this happen?”

  The lights flickered in the great room. Romero went to the French doors and looked back out on the property. The detectives had turned on the security lighting. Nothing to worry about, the outage was only a momentary power glitch.

  But I knew better.

  Spirits can be slow to show up, but they invariably do when those they love are faced with big, life-altering decisions. Jared, I was pleased to see, was no different. Understandably, he had waited until the house was clear of his mother and his father’s paramour before deciding to make his presence known. But when the lights flickered back on, I saw him, cool and relaxed, sitting on the couch next to Amy.