“I’m certain. Though find Maisie’s address. Perhaps we can ask her here for a visit.”
Vera nodded. “That sounds lovely. I really liked her.”
“She could have been more than a scream queen if she hadn’t gotten typecast so young. The tea?”
“Coming right up.”
Vera left and Delilah stood, adjusted the tie on her long lavender dressing gown, then sat at the vanity. She hadn’t seen Maisie in years. The woman had taught Delilah the ins and outs of starring in monster movies. She’d even coached her in the creation of her signature scream - the one that had made her a star in the genre.
As she brushed her hair, Delilah realized the headache really was lifting now. It had begun right after that embarrassing fainting spell in the restaurant. At least no one but Holly had seemed to notice. She could tell the girl had questions but she couldn’t face them last night. Nor could she today.
Her head began to throb again. She didn’t need another relationship with a child. I tried so hard the first time and look how badly that turned out.
Delilah looked in the mirror and told herself, “I can’t keep her here. I won’t.”
“You won’t what?”
Delilah turned to Vera. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
Vera set the tea tray on the coffee table and waited for Delilah to join her. “I’m as quiet as a mouse. So, who won’t you keep? Cherry? Can’t say I blame you.”
“Not Charlotte.” Delilah sipped. “Her daughter.”
“Your granddaughter.” Vera spoke firmly.
“Her daughter. I don’t wish to become a grandparent.”
Vera raised an eyebrow. “I have news for you, boss-lady. You already are. And your granddaughter is a charming kid. Smart as a whip, too.” She paused. “So, what’s up? Did Holly ask if she could stay on?”
“She’s hinting.” Delilah looked at her hands. “And I’m afraid that, in a weak moment, I implied it might be possible, at least for a little while.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” Looking up at Vera, she added, “She just looks so much like Carrie.”
“I wish I could’ve met your sister.”
“So do I.”
Vera stirred a lump of sugar into her tea. “Did you feel the quake last night?”
“Very much so,” Delilah admitted. “It was awful and Holly was with me. We were in the restaurant just finishing dinner when it struck.”
Vera looked her in the eye. “Did you pass out?”
“Don’t I always?”
“I’m so sorry. What happened?”
“Fortunately, no one noticed. We’d already hidden under the table and the waitstaff was too busy escorting the diners out to look our way.”
“But Holly noticed. Right?” Vera wouldn’t look away.
Delilah nodded curtly. “I opened my eyes and the girl was staring at me with all this … concern. Sympathy. It was humiliating.”
“Nonsense. It wasn’t humiliating. You have such a hang-up about looking perfect every minute of every day.”
“It’s expected of someone like me. You know that, Vera.”
“I do, of course I do. But not when it comes to me or Frieda. And now your granddaughter. So she’s seen you faint. Get over it. I haven’t seen that much of her yet, but it’s already obvious to me that she loves you, Dee.”
Delilah barked a laugh. “Love? Good God, Vera, you sound like a starry-eyed teenager. You can’t just suddenly love someone. It doesn’t happen that way except in the movies. I’ve met the girl exactly once before when she was half the age she is now. I’m a stranger to her.”
“I’ll say it again. She loves you.”
“She sees me as an opportunity.”
“An opportunity? What do you mean?”
“An opportunity to stop living in a one room apartment with her no-account mother. To have her own room and not have to listen to - well, whatever it is she overhears when Charlotte drags home her boyfriends.”
Vera reached out and touched Delilah’s hand. “Makes sense. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get out of a bad situation. Speaking of which, you’ve never told me about your life here as a child. What was that like?”
“I barely recall it. I was six when I was sent to live with my aunt in Boston.”
“But you remember your sister.”
“A little.”
“What about your mother?”
“She died when I was three. I have a vague memory of a dark-haired lady who smelled good lifting me up and singing to me. That’s about it.”
“What about your father? Did he die right after you lost your sister? Is that how you went to live with your aunt?”
“Oh, heavens, no. He shipped me off to Aunt Beatrice’s weeks after Carrie passed. I never saw him again. When he died, he left me this place. That’s the only nice thing he ever did for me.” She paused. “Besides send me to Boston.”
“Did your aunt love you? Did you love her?”
Delilah smiled. “You’ve always been good at distracting me, Vera.”
“Well?”
“My aunt was very proper and strict, but she was good to me and she loved me. I loved her, too.”
“Well, that’s something. What about your father? When he sent you away, you must have been devastated.”
“Vera, stop playing shrink. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t remember much, but I do know I was anything but devastated.”
“What was he like, your dad?”
“He was … a hard man.” Memories flooded. Bill Delacorte forcing her to stand straighter at her grandfather’s funeral. His eyes boring into hers like knives, his breath smelling of whiskey. And Carrie’s words. “He’s a bad man, Delilah! A bad man!”
But she meant Grandfather, didn’t she? It was all a blur. “Vera, stop grilling me. I can’t recall much about him, but I don’t think I liked him very much. I most certainly didn’t love him.”
Vera nodded. “Okay, but I don’t think you’re seeing yourself clearly in this situation with Holly.”
“That’s quite enough, Vera.”
“Okay. Okay. But, Dee, just look to your own past and I think you’ll understand your feelings better.” Vera rose, smoothed her skirt. “I’d better get back on that fan mail.”
“Indeed. And I need to get dressed. The day is slipping away.”
Delilah waited until Vera returned to her office, then took her tea out on the balcony overlooking the Brimstone Valley. Below, she saw the oldest Granger boy parking a bicycle at the close edge of the parking lot. A moment later Holly came out with Meredith. She could hear the girl’s clear voice thanking mother and son before she climbed on the bike and started pedaling down the road, legs pumping, ponytail flying.
Delilah sat down with her tea. What she’d seen last night after the quake disturbed her and it was something she couldn’t tell Vera. She couldn’t tell anyone.
She remembered how the gold mark in her older sister’s right eye seemed to shimmer and pulse when Carrie was upset, but Delilah had long assumed the image was a product of her imagination - but last night, while recovering from her faint, she saw Holly’s blue eyes become swirling gold pools when the girl told the waiters not to call an ambulance, and to go away.
“Nonsense. I must have imagined it.”
32
Secrets
The Humble Station came into view after only a few short minutes and Holly, already sweating, parked her bike by the newspaper rack. After patting her pocket to make sure her change was still there, she opened the door to a jangling of tiny bells.
“Holly! How are you, dear?” Adeline Chance, feather duster in hand, smiled.
“I’m fine. I've been reading the Brimstone books you gave me.”
Adeline smiled and opened the soda pop cooler. “It’s so hot this morning that I think I’ll have a ginger ale. Care to join me?”
Holly dug a dime out of her pocket. “A Dr. Pepper, please.”
The old lady pulled the bottle out and snapped the lid off in the opener, quick as a wink. “Here you go.” She waved the money away. “You’re my guest.” She extracted a ginger ale, opened it and took a long pull. “Mmm, good. Holly, come sit with me behind the register.”
“I’m glad you came to visit. I’ve been thinking about you.” Adeline sipped her soda and smiled at the little girl beside her. “Tell me, what do you think of the hotel?”
“It’s pretty interesting.” Holly stared up at her with those bright blue eyes. The gold fleck, the fleck that was so much like her own and Carrie Delacorte’s, was what had originally drawn her attention, but now she marveled at the tiny sparkles throughout Holly’s irises.
“Interesting?” Addie asked. “When I say something is ‘interesting’ the way you just did, it usually means I don’t much care for it.”
“The hotel - I’m not sure about it yet. I mean, on one hand, I love it! I have my own room and Miss Delilah pays me five dollars a week to water all the plants.” Finally, Holly smiled.
“That’s a well-paying job!”
“And there are nice people there like Meredith and Steve.”
“I’m acquainted with them both. Lovely folks.”
Holly nodded. “Miss Delilah’s going to give me piano lessons. And she took me to Sedona and bought me new clothes. I really like her but I’m not sure if she likes me. Sometimes, I think she does, but other times, not so much. She said she might ask if I could stay on and go to school here if Cherry goes back to Van Nuys, but then she pretended she didn’t say it.”
“She runs a little hot and cold, doesn’t she?” Adeline patted Holly’s hand.
The girl nodded. “Like last night, we had dinner at the restaurant and it was so great! And then the earthquake happened and she fainted and then would barely talk to me.”
“She fainted?”
Holly nodded. “We got under the table and then she fainted. For less than a minute. A waiter wanted to call an ambulance, and I said no.” She shook her head, bafflement evident. “I don’t know why I did that exactly.” Holly’s eyes searched Adeline’s.
“I think you probably just sensed it was the best thing to do.”
“Maybe. Anyway, Miss Delilah woke up before I said no. And then…” Her words trailed off.
“And then?”
“Well, another waiter came and they said they were going to help Miss Delilah out from under the table and I said no again.” Bafflement flitted across her face. “I knew I could help her…” She gazed at the slowly-circling ceiling fan.
“And?” Adeline finally prompted.
“That’s all.”
“No, it’s not.” She smiled gently.
Holly studied her. “How do you know there’s more?”
“The gold fleck in our eyes, Holly. It helps us with things like that.”
Holly looked relieved. “The waiters kept staring so I told them to go away and not look at us while we left. And I thought it really hard at them, too.”
“What happened?”
“They did.”
“Do you think you made them do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Holly launched into a hurried story about a pair of playground bullies who’d picked on Abner Hala’s grandson, Keith. “I got really mad,” she finished, “and I told them to go away, and they did. Then Keith asked me if I’d ever gotten that mad before and I didn’t think so. And you know what Keith told me?”
“What, honey?”
“He told me my eyes turned gold! Like bright gold! Just for a minute.”
Adeline managed not to gasp. She and Carrie had, at Henry Hank Barrow’s insistence, learned to push people, but it took years and barely worked. The old man had frightened them into doing it.
Holly, oblivious, continued talking. “So, anyway, last night when I thought at those waiters to go away, I made myself mad at them before I told them not to look at Miss Delilah. That’s how I did it, I think.”
“Holly, did your grandmother see your eyes?”
“Probably.” She hesitated. “Do you think she’s mad at me?”
“No, honey, I think maybe you startled her. Maybe even scared her a little.”
Holly looked worried. “She won’t want me if I scare her.”
“That’s not true, Holly. It’s not you that scares Delilah. It’s complicated, but your grandmother went through something horrible when she was young - much younger than you are now. Nobody knows everything about what happened the day her sister and grandfather died - I was there and I don’t know everything. The point is, she lost her sister, whom she loved dearly, and she was frightened out of her wits. She wouldn’t speak after Carrie died. Not a word. A few months later, her father sent her to Boston to live with her aunt.”
“It seems mean that he’d send her away.”
“Holly, we have an awful lot to talk about, but I’ll tell you two things right now. I grew up with Carrie, and you look exactly like her; I’m sure your grandmother has noticed that - it probably troubles her as much as it delights her.”
Holly nodded. “She told me I look like Carrie. I think she really loved her. What’s the other thing?”
Adeline leaned closer. “It’s simply that Delilah’s father wasn’t a nice man. Oh, nothing like her grandfather, Henry Hank Barrow - that man was downright evil - but Bill Delacorte wasn’t terribly pleasant. Leaving here was the best thing that ever happened to your grandmother.” She paused. “She might never have spoken again if she hadn’t gone to live with her aunt. I wrote to Aunt Beatrice regularly in the early days to find out how Dee was doing.” She smiled fondly. “Before Carrie’s death, your grandmother used to tag along with Carrie and me on adventures - we’d hike up Mt. Brimstone to look at the petroglyphs or go pick wildflowers. She was such a sweet little thing.”
Holly smiled. “It’s hard to picture my grandmother as a little girl. She’s so … grown-up.”
Nodding, Adeline rose. “Wait there a moment. I have something to show you.”
She went into the back office and picked the copper-framed photo off the desk. It showed herself, Carrie, and little Dee, taken in town not a month before the tragedy. She brought it back and handed it to Holly, then sat down, watching the girl’s face.
“Which one is you?” was her first question.
Adeline chuckled. “I’m the tall one.”
Holly smiled. “And so this is Carrie? And I look like her? Really?”
“Right now, you look like her at age eleven. She’s just shy of sixteen in the photo - and I guarantee you, you’ll look just like her. If the photo was in color, I think you’d see it yourself.”
“She’s pretty. So are you.” Holly glanced up. “Delilah is so cute.”
“She was. She was a dark-haired beauty.”
“When did Delilah start talking again?”
“About six months after going to live with Aunt Beatrice. Up until then, she was as somber and silent as a judge, but Beatrice said that once she got her words back, she became quite a chatterbox. She said it was as if she’d flipped a switch.”
“Did Miss Delilah remember what happened to her?”
Adeline shook her head. “No. It was Beatrice’s opinion that she began talking again after she’d buried the memories so deeply that they were lost to her. I think she’s right.”
“Why doesn’t she like you, I mean, if she can’t remember anything?”
“She blames me for Carrie’s death, but I seriously doubt she knows why. I certainly don’t know.”
“Were you there when she died?”
“I was.”
“How did she die?”
“I’ll tell you what I know one day, but not right now.” Adeline smiled gently. “We need to talk about our eyes today.”
“Okay. Miss Delilah told me that Carrie said she could see ghosts.”
Adeline was suddenly full of questions of her own.
“Could she?” Holly asked.
“I think she remembers because Carrie told her she could.”
“I see. And why do you think she told you?”
“Because I asked.”
Adeline nodded patiently. Getting anything out of this little girl took work. “What exactly did you ask your grandmother?”
“If she’d ever seen Jack Purdy. She said no.”
“The elevator ghost. Did you see him, Holly?”
“No.” The girl drew the word out.
“But?” prompted Adeline.
“I saw a different ghost in the elevator. Steve was with me but he couldn’t see it.”
“He doesn’t have your eyes, sweetheart. What did you see?”
“Who. Steve got out an old picture album and she was in it. Do you know who Pearl Abbott was?”
A wave of dizziness swept over Adeline. Pinching Pearl. Unbidden, the name filled her memory.
“Are you going to faint?” Holly peered at her.
“No, dear. I’m just surprised. I haven’t heard of anyone seeing her since … well, since she died. All the kids were afraid of her.” She finished her ginger ale. “Now tell me about Pearl Abbott. What did you see?”
“She had a long black old-fashioned dress, and a white apron with a little red cross pin and she was really mean looking. I’ve seen ghosts before and they never scared me. She did.”
“Why?”
“Because she saw me. She stared at me. The other ghosts never saw me. They were just there, in their own worlds, but Pearl Abbott was in my world.”
“Stay away from her.” Adeline didn’t want to say it, but she had to. “Stay far away. She’s dangerous.”
“I already thought so because I saw her in a dream before that.”
“You did? Tell me about it.”
“There was like a dragon, a big blue and black one with fiery eyes and a man’s voice was telling me to ride it with him. He knew my name. It was right outside the balcony of my room. I didn’t want to so I started to go back inside and she grabbed me from behind really hard and tried to make me get on. Adeline, are you okay?”
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