by Luna Joya
“Ama,” she pleaded. Comments like this were why she hadn’t been sure about bringing Sam.
Ama frowned at her daughter. “What?”
Ruby laughed. “You and Sam are lucky Ita isn’t here. She would’ve pulled out old photo albums and naked baby pictures by now.”
“Where is Ita?” Delia asked. “Gigi is artifact hunting somewhere in Europe.”
“Who’s Gigi?” Sam asked.
“Dad’s mom,” Cami said. “Ita is my mom’s mom. She’s always been Ita. It’s our short for abuelita, Spanish for grandma.”
“My Mamita is off wandering the jungles to visit my sister.” Ama added for his benefit. “My twin sister is a goodwill ambassador, working with indigenous people to bring clean drinking water and medicine.”
Sam didn’t seem surprised. Cami figured he had seen enough of powerful women in her family not to be shocked anymore. He looked more distracted by Rose, who’d tilted sideways in her mother’s lap.
“Want me to take the baby inside?” He offered. “I saw a crib by the kitchen.”
Ruby smiled. “That would be heavenly. While she is a doll, she’s a lot heavier than she looks.”
Sam hefted Rose onto his shoulder and rubbed her back. Rose never stirred, only smacked her lips and nestled against him. Cami knew the feeling, that pull toward Sam’s warmth and scent for comfort. She wondered if he had a special power for putting people at ease. It certainly worked on her. Except when her brain got in the way. She watched him walk away holding Rose. It was hard not to notice the sculpted arms and strong shoulders even with the baby drooling on his neck.
“Does she need a baby monitor?” He called over his shoulder.
“Nope.” Ruby laughed. “My child’s got lungs like a banshee.”
Her sisters craned their necks and tipped their upper bodies to get a better look at Sam’s retreating backside.
Delia clicked her tongue.
“Right?” Mina whispered. “That ass.”
“So tight,” Ruby agreed.
Delia’s mouth tipped up in an almost smile. “Does it feel as solid as it looks?”
“Guys? Seriously?” Cami hissed.
Ama chuckled. “They’re not wrong, my Camellia.” Then she frowned at Cami’s concerned expression. “It’s not as though he notices anyone else. You’re the only one worried about the relationship here.”
She paled. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yes.” The unanimous response echoed around the circle.
She bit her lip and checked to make sure he hadn’t come back. “I don’t know, Ama.”
“He looks at you in adoration, mija. What’s better than a good-looking man who watches you like that?”
She listened to the chorus of sighs from her sisters. They were right. Sam was handsome, successful, and marvelous between the sheets. On the desk. Anywhere. Her cheeks heated remembering how good he was. “He isn’t the problem.”
“You don’t like him?” Ruby sounded shocked. “How could you not like that man? Is he bad in bed?
“Of course not,” she snapped and then remembered Ama was there.
Mina interjected. “She likes him. She’s still hung up on her crappy relationship with Neil.”
Ruby looked like she had swallowed something bitter. “Why?”
“That manipulative asshole.” Delia’s lip curled.
“We are not talking about him.” She refused to say his name. “Why do you keep bringing him up, Mina? I swear your constant reminders have me seeing him when he’s not really there. It makes me feel like I’m going a little crazy.”
“Because you won’t let it go,” Mina snapped, breaking a tortilla chip. “Planning your life down to the tiniest detail started with Neil. Whatever happened that last night you broke up with him?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I picked badly. I moved on.”
“Then move on,” Mina hissed.
“I am not discussing this. Especially not in front of Sam.”
“Haven’t you told him about Neil?” Delia asked.
“I’ve told him enough,” she insisted and remembered the half-naked conversation in his lap. It’d been comforting but embarrassing as well. “This conversation is over.”
“What about the calls and hang ups?” Mina asked. “You thought you saw him at the beach?”
On a jet ski trying to kill Sam. And in the background constantly. She’d wondered about Bogart’s attempted poisoning and the library fire. Hell, she’d even worried about things she’d misplaced in her apartment, even though she was a zombie from a year of night shifts.
She was seriously starting to question her judgment and sanity when it came to her past coming back to haunt her. Maybe she was paranoid about her ex-boyfriend. What if he’d forgotten her?
“What are you doing about the phone calls?” Delia asked.
“I’ve already checked into it,” Cami told her. “I’ll get the number changed again.”
Delia’s brow furrowed, but at least she didn’t say anything.
“Are you wearing your charm every day?” Ama asked and nodded to the pendant at Cami’s throat.
“All the time. Though I think it’s been misfiring. It’s burned a few days when I know there couldn’t have been danger. At work, outside of Sam’s restaurant, around my own apartment, at the hotel.”
Ama frowned. “We can check it later, but keep it on for now. Do you want me to brew a protection ward to take home with you?”
She remembered the breakup with Neil. “No. Magic isn’t the answer.”
Sam swung the screen door open. “Rose didn’t budge when I settled her in. Is it okay for the big-eared fox toy to stay with her?” He ambled down the stairs, pausing when he reached the circle of women. “Did I miss something?”
Ruby recovered first. “The fox is her favorite. She’ll be fine. Thank you.”
He sat beside Cami and slid his arm around her shoulders. She tried to relax and inhaled deeply as he rubbed knots from her neck. Bogart whined next to her.
“Why don’t you two wait here, and we will get lunch on the table.” Ama gave a meaningful look to Cami’s sisters who stood and filed into the back door.
“I’ll help.” Sam rose, but stopped when Ama held up a hand.
“You do enough feeding people. Let us treat you.” With that, Ama followed the sisters into the house.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he whispered.
She shook her head, touched her necklace, and then watched her sisters carry platters out of the kitchen and set up the backyard table with practiced ease.
Maybe she could make this work despite the bad and violent breakup with Neil. She glanced up at Sam. Even in profile, he looked strong and sure of things. He grinned at her. Ama called it adoration. Cami almost believed her. She smiled back.
“Dinner’s on. Down to the mystery,” Mina called and rubbed her hands. Over the food or the drama she had stirred up, Cami couldn’t tell. At least they wouldn’t be talking about her love life if they were talking about Sunny Sol’s.
Chapter Nineteen
Sam took the chair next to Cami’s at the table. He’d been out of his depth at first, surrounded by all the Donovan women. He’d never seen a tougher, more loyal crew of sisterhood. He was sure he’d interrupted a serious topic of conversation between the sisters. Cami wasn’t sharing, which meant it’d probably been about magic.
“Why don’t you two bring us up to speed?” Direct as ever, Delia prompted the discussion. “I understand you’ve both researched Sol.”
Cami started. “Sunny grew up on the East Coast. She was selected for an acting school sponsored by a studio. I forget which one.”
“The Paramount School in New York.” He passed a salad bowl and picked up the conversation when she nudged him under the table. “An experimental project. No one ever knew if it actually worked. The studios wanted new faces to overcome recent scandals and bad press. Sunny’s beauty and stage experience made her a good cand
idate.”
He trailed off for Cami to take over and shoveled salad in his mouth. This dressing tasted amazing. He’d have to raid Ama’s recipes. Even Bogart had perked up at the possibility of table scraps.
Cami dished sautéed zucchini and peppers onto her plate. “Sunny moved to Los Angeles under contract with Paramount when she was twenty, right after her father died of a heart attack. She starred in over a hundred films. Most were short comedies, but she appeared with big names and worked for other studios.”
He nodded. “The studios owned the actors, directors, and any talent really. Studios dictated everything—clothes, hair styles, makeup required in public, weight restrictions. Especially for women.”
Ruby huffed. “That’s stupid sexist.”
“Not saying it was right.” He held up his hands.
“Sunny lost weight at the school, and they expected her to keep it off.” Cami stabbed a cherry tomato. “Newspapers reported she was on crazy diets and speculated she popped pills to keep the pounds off.”
“Diet pills were amphetamines back in those days. Speed,” Ruby clarified.
Cami waved her fork. “No one ever proved she took diet pills. After some big successes, she veered away from comedy to try a more serious role in a movie with director Paul Price.”
“Scoria.” He supplied the title, remembering the movie poster at the library.
“Never heard of it,” Delia told him, passing the tortillas.
“Not a success.” He took the round ceramic dish from her. “Though Sunny may have thought otherwise, since she and Price had a thing.”
Cami finished while Sam ate. “Sunny Sol and Paul Price had an affair while making the movie. He was controlling. He made everyone call her a new name, Aubrey. He even addressed her funeral wreath to Aubrey. Paul obsessed over wiping out her past.”
“Sounds like someone else’s boyfriend,” Mina muttered.
Cami shot her a reproachful eye. He watched the interplay between the two and knew better than to ask her what that had been about even before she shook her head. He’d really need to pry into her past relationship with the abusive asshole if she was willing to talk.
Surely, the guy wasn’t still a threat. She would’ve told him, right? He lost the thread of conversation as he considered that and only picked back up when she told the sisters Paul Price was married to former silent film star Coral Elton, born Flora Wright.
“At the same time he had an affair with Sunny?” Ruby sneered. “Did Coral know?”
They both nodded.
Ruby let out an indignant noise and swallowed a mouthful. “If Mina senses foul play, then my money’s on the jilted wife.”
“Marriage wasn’t the same then,” Cami argued. “Especially not in the movie business. It was considered acceptable for married men to have a girl or two on the side. I’m not saying it was right.”
Ama clicked her tongue. “That’s not a generational dilemma, mija. That’s been going on as long as there’s been marriage.”
Sam heard the teasing but warning nature of Ama’s tone to her daughter. Maybe Cami had good reason for not wanting to talk about her father. He looked at Ruby and Delia. They were both tall, thin blondes. Not his type, as apparently his type was all bossy, curvy witch, but those two were knockouts. He’d bet their mother was gorgeous as well.
Cami plunged ahead with the story. “Sunny Sol and Paul Price had their affair. The movie flopped. Price left with his wife on a cruise to forget Sunny, and she married a wannabe mobster.” She paused, thanking Ama for a refill.
“The two separated within months from an abusive marriage by all accounts. They divorced after two years. Sunny hooked up with Price again when she joined him and his wife in their restaurant business. They changed the business name to Sunny Sol’s Seabreeze Café.”
“Wait.” Ruby put her hand up. “Sunny went from an abusive marriage to own a business with the ex-lover and his wife? Some women can really pick them.”
Cami stopped in the middle of a bite to stare at her sister.
“Not you, kiddo,” Ruby clarified and gestured toward Sam with a spoon. “We haven’t found anything wrong with this one. Yet.”
He didn’t know who’d been more insulted—him or Cami. He seriously needed to have a conversation with her about the ex-boyfriend they all hated. She looked at her lap. He could tell she was either hurt or embarrassed or both. Screw that. Nobody picked on his woman. Not even her sisters.
“Hey, Ruby,” he said. “You can let me know if I pass or fail inspection. I really could care less, but leave Cami out of it.”
The table went silent. Cami blinked at him. Well, hell. They might be leaving early. He squeezed her hand.
Mina grinned. “Good to know.”
Delia nodded. “Very interesting.”
Even Ruby seemed to realize she’d stepped out of line. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I might need some sleep.”
“Sam, why don’t you continue?” Ama suggested. She passed a bowl of fruit and spoke softly in Spanish. Sam didn’t know what she’d said, but the mood at the table immediately mellowed.
He tipped his head in her direction. Ama was a force. He’d do well to remember that. “Sunny’s café sat straight down the hill from the not-so-happy Price couple’s mansion, Casa Oceana.”
Mina frowned. “But Paul lived in a second-floor apartment with Sunny above the café. I’ve seen him there.”
Sam paused. She’d seen Paul Price there with Sunny Sol? He shook his head as if to clear it. “Mina, I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to your unique perspective on history.”
“Join the club,” Delia said. “It grows on you. Doesn’t mean it won’t still shock the shit out of you now and then.”
“As Mina said, Sunny Sol and Paul Price continued to live and work together until her death in December 1933. Sol attended a party at The Frontero. We know some things about the party from the coroner’s inquest transcript and grand jury leaks.”
“Why only leaks?” Ama asked. “Where’s that transcript?”
Everyone looked to Delia, who sighed. “Because the grand jury would’ve been investigatory. There wouldn’t have been a court reporter. No official documentation. No transcript.” She reached for her glass and looked at Cami. “I’m assuming witnesses talked after the fact even with an admonition not to.”
Cami nodded. “Witnesses and grand jurors talked to reporters. There were so many contradictory statements.” She pushed her food across the plate. “There’s a lot of misinformation published about Sunny’s death. Getting to the truth of it won’t be easy.”
“We know she went to The Front Saturday night,” he said. “She left there about 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.”
Cami put down her fork. “Her chauffeur dropped her off in front of the restaurant. He saw her going up the stairs to the apartment she shared with Price. We don’t know anything else until she was found dead Monday morning in the garage by her maid.”
“Mabel,” Mina said. “Mabel was her maid’s name.”
He realized Mina had seen that discovery by the sorrowful tone of her voice. He cleared his throat to break the sad silence. “The coroner said she died of carbon monoxide poisoning.”
Delia interrupted. “Listed as accidental, suicide, or homicide by the coroner?”
“Why does it have to be one of those three?” Ama asked.
“It does.” Both Delia and Ruby agreed.
Cami looked at Sam with large worried eyes. She must have still been upset over Ruby’s earlier comment. Or maybe she was nervous he’d be creeped out by her older sisters’ easy handle on death and murder. He wasn’t. It was part of their jobs. He winked at her and was rewarded with a shy smile.
“The death certificate lists it as accidental,” she told them.
Delia frowned. “So what’s the problem, Mina?”
“They’re wrong.” Mina might be the baby, but he was happy to see she held her own. She didn’t question her powers. He sure as hell w
ouldn’t doubt it, though he wondered what else she could see. Cami said she could see the future. Had Mina seen his future? His and Cami’s?
Mina never looked up from her food. “I’ve been to the garage. There’s something wrong there. A dark, bad feeling. It’s been blocking my vision.”
“The speculation about Sunny’s death started right away,” Cami assured her sister. “Her body was cremated soon after. The coroner’s inquest wrapped within four days of her death.”
“Quickest damn work I’ve ever heard from the coroner’s office,” Delia said. Her fork and knife stilled. “Testimony too?”
“Yes.”
Delia shook her head and continued cutting. “Apparently medical examiners had a lot less work then. Trying to get one to testify in four months now is difficult with tox screens and all. Four days? Impossible.”
“The press and her fans screamed murder,” Sam told her. “That sped up the process.”
“But who could’ve done it? Who were the suspects?” Delia asked.
“The controlling lover who told her to be home on time from the party and locked her out when she wasn’t,” Sam offered. “Or the wannabe mobster ex-husband who may or may not have gotten into a fight with her at the Frontero party.”
“Don’t forget the jilted wife,” Ruby added with her mouth full. “I’d resent some young thing shacked up with my husband in my restaurant if I’d been Coral.”
“Not likely,” Sam argued.
“Why do men never expect it to be the women?” she countered.
“I’ve seen plenty of violent women. Stone cold killers,” Delia said and tipped back her almost empty glass.
“Coral Elton gave odd statements about seeing Sol around the estimated time of death,” Cami said.
“When was that?” Delia asked.
“Twelve to thirty hours before discovery Monday morning about half past ten,” Cami told them.
“That’s overbroad and not helpful. What else did they find? Drugs? Alcohol?” Delia had clearly lapsed into prosecutor brain. Sam would bet she was intimidating in the courtroom.