“Or the ghost could have.” Tinkie met my gaze. She was choosing to believe me and what I’d said I had witnessed.
“I saw Carlita up close. She didn’t have enough meat on her bones to push a pea across the table. She looked awful.” I shook my head. “I had this crazy idea that ghosts got to choose their bodies and how they looked at any time in their life. Poor Carlita. She died a terrible death, and she’s stuck in the phase just before she passed on.”
“Carlita didn’t do this to Estelle,” Tinkie said, “and we have to find out who did.”
“I’m afraid that answer is going to be in Hollywood, not Petaluma.” It had to be someone on the cast and crew. If it wasn’t Daniel, and I believed Tinkie was correct in her assessment, then it had to be a member of her father’s movie ensemble-or someone who’d passed himself off as part of the crew. Each day there were dozens of hangers-on-people who catered or drove cars or cleaned clothes and brought them back or provided some special service like a massage or bottled water of a certain brand. While the core group of the movie was fairly well known to me, there were people coming and going all the time.
“What about the grandfather?” Tinkie asked.
He was an evil and unhappy man, but why would he punish Estelle in this manner? Yet he’d refused to divulge the floor plans of the house even when he knew Estelle was missing. “He’s a possibility.”
We heard the ambulance pull up in the yard and right behind it was a squad car with two police detectives. I ran down to let them in and direct them to Estelle. The paramedics wasted no time putting her on a gurney and moving her into the ambulance. The medical experts gave me and Tinkie the strangest looks, but they said nothing and focused their skills on Estelle.
“I’ll ride with her,” Tinkie said. “Sarah Booth, you can give a statement to the detectives.”
“Please, let me go with Estelle.” Daniel was distraught. “I should never have left. She was obsessed with her father. I knew she was doing things she shouldn’t, but I never dreamed she was lying in that hole, hurt.”
“Go with her,” Tinkie told him. “We’ll be there soon.”
After the ambulance was gone, we told the police officers the sequence of events, showed them the secret passage, and then answered their questions. Before they began the forensics work, they told us we could go.
I turned to Tinkie. She had a huge lump on her forehead. I touched my own head, where the heel of her stiletto had done its work. We looked at each other.
“Frik and Frak.” She shook her head. “Jesus, Sarah Booth, we look like members of some religious cult that batters their foreheads. No wonder the paramedics were giving us the evil eye.”
“The good news is, I can’t work looking like this so I might as well solve this case.”
“Oscar is going to throw a hissy, but that’s too bad.”
“Let’s ride,” I said, though I wasn’t certain which direction we needed to take.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
With Sweetie and Chablis riding shotgun, we drove into Petaluma. I’d left word for Federico to call me, but I felt we needed to tell Estelle’s roommate.
When we got to the cabana-style apartments, we ran into Regena in the courtyard. She took one look at us and winced. “Who whacked you two?” she asked.
“We’re fine,” Tinkie told her. “It’s Estelle you should be worried about. She’s at the hospital.”
We filled her in on what had happened; I watched closely for some sign that she knew more than she was letting on, but she was floored.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“We don’t know.” I glanced at my watch. Time was slipping away from us too fast. “If there’s anything you can tell us about Estelle and who she’s been talking to or seeing, it might help.”
Although Regena was anxious to get to the hospital, she motioned us to a seat in the shade of a big tree.
“When Estelle first heard the movie was going to be filmed in her mother’s house, she was upset. I know she got some calls from someone in the States, and there was one time when I overheard part of her conversation. It was pretty extreme.”
If only Regena had come forward with this information sooner, I thought, but I refrained from saying so.
“What did you hear?” Tinkie prompted.
“She said something like she’d never forgive her father for what he’d done, and that Carlita would not go unavenged.”
This was old hat. “Who was she talking to?”
“It was a woman. That’s all I know. I tried to question her, but she said it would be best if I didn’t know anything about her plans.”
“She was right about that,” Tinkie said, “but it doesn’t much help us figure out who hurt her. Or who was hurting us.”
Regena frowned. “She was so bitter toward her dad. I tried to talk to her about it a couple of times. I mean, what’s the point? Her mom is dead. Her father is all she has. It just seemed senseless to hate him for something from so long ago.”
She was preaching to the choir-unless Estelle knew something we didn’t. Federico had always been a weak suspect, and I couldn’t believe he’d hurt his own daughter in such a way, but it was a lead and I had to follow it.
“Did she say why she hated Federico?”
“She never said specifically.” Her eyes widened. “Except for one comment. She said her dad and his friends used women as brood mares and dropped their sperm and then forgot about them.”
Tinkie and I looked at each other. “Thanks, Regena.”
“I have a dance lesson scheduled, but I’m canceling and going to the hospital.”
“Daniel is there,” Tinkie said.
She smiled, and for the first time I realized she was a lovely young woman in her own right. “He loves Estelle. If she’d only wake up and see that people care about her, she could have a very different life.”
We left her at the parking lot, where she revved the engine of her little car and took off. “Sounds like she has her head on straight.” Tinkie cast a sidelong glance at me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I didn’t want to get into it with you, but I can’t leave Costa Rica without telling you. Coleman loves you, Sarah Booth.”
“And I love him.” I didn’t see any reason to lie. “But that doesn’t mean a thing. Graf loves me, too. And I’m falling deeper in love with him with each passing day.”
She put her arm around my waist. “I can see that. I thought at first he was shallow and a user, but he has depth and strength, and the two of you are wonderful together. That’s why I’ve been quiet about all of this. But I wanted you to know the truth. You can’t make a fair decision unless you know everything. And whatever you decide will be right.”
“Thanks, Tinkie.” I couldn’t give her any more than that, because I didn’t know more myself. I’d spent so long waiting for Coleman, wanting him to be a real partner. But I’d given up hope.
“Where to next, fearless leader?” Tinkie asked and gave my waist a firm squeeze before she let go.
“Maybe we need to consult with Millie?”
“Or that Tor person she told you about.”
“Good idea.” I put a call in to the café and got the answering machine. It was the lunch hour and the place was hopping. Millie was waiting on customers, ringing up tickets, laughing and talking and planning the menu for the next day. And Tor’s number was unlisted; I’d have to wait for Millie to give it to me.
“Let’s grab some lunch,” Tinkie said. “My head throbs and my stomach is growling. And you look like something from a Star Trek episode that involves a brain leech.”
“If I was ever inclined to get the big head, my friends would deflate it instantly.”