Granny Apples 05 - Ghost in the Guacamole (20 page)

“Do the police know this?” Rikki asked, still incredulous.

Emma nodded. “We're pretty sure they do. They were at the tour company asking questions before us this morning.”

“There's more,” Phil told her.

Rikki turned to him, the undamaged side of her face pale but steady and serious, ready to take the next onslaught of information like a slap meant to even out her face.

“We saw Steve Bullock hand off an envelope of cash to Carlos Fuentes on Wednesday,” he told her. “Do you know of any reason why he might do that?”

Rikki stood up, her face changing from pale to dark with anger, the bruise coming alive. Emma wondered if she was going to throw them out again. “Carlos? You think Carlos Fuentes might have something to do with all this?” Arms curled around herself again, she paced. “Is that why he called in sick yesterday, because he knew something was going down?”

“We don't know that for sure,” Phil answered. “But he is someone the police are interested in.”

Rikki turned and looked at Phil. “So the police know about the payoff or whatever it was?”

“Yes, they do, and we weren't the only ones who witnessed it,” he told her, not offering any more information on the matter.

Rikki stamped her foot. “And after everything we've done for him!” She pointed a finger at Phil. “Did you know that T.J. helped him wrangle a scholarship? And Roble Foods gave him one, too.” Rikki was incensed and building steam in spite of her exhaustion.

“Do something,” Granny said to Emma. “The child is going to give herself a stroke.”

“Calm down, Rikki,” Emma said to her. “We don't know for sure that Carlos was behind this, or what that money was for. It's just a possibility.”

“Do you think Carlos was the one who set up the tour bus?” Rikki asked, after taking several deep breaths.

“One thing we do know,” Emma said, “is that the promotion . . .” Emma paused, being careful not to label it a payoff. “The promotion,” she continued, “was given to Quickie LA before the cash handoff to Carlos, so they might not have had anything to do with each other.”

“And,” added Phil, “we know that Carlos wasn't the one who shot T.J. If it had been him, people would have seen him at the restaurant. He's a tall, good-looking kid, not easy to miss.”

Rikki shook her head. “Maybe Lucy was right about him being a
cholo
.”

“No,” said Granny, even though only Emma could hear her. “I don't believe that for a minute.” The ghost looked at Emma. “If Carlos is involved, I don't think it was to hurt T.J. Just something about the kid and how he handles himself is telling me that.”

Emma carefully nodded at the ghost, letting her know her opinion was heard and being considered. “Don't be so hasty, Rikki. Until the police talk to Carlos, we won't know what the deal was between him and Steve Bullock.”

There was a knock on the door. Isabel poked her head in. “Your attorney is on the phone,” she told Rikki.

Phil got to his feet. “We should leave you be to take that,” he said to Rikki.

“No, please stay,” Rikki said, holding up a hand to stop him. “At least a little bit longer.” She turned to Isabel. “I'll take it in T.J.'s office.” Isabel left. Rikki turned to them. “There's a minifridge behind one of the doors in the credenza. Please help yourself to something cool to drink. If you'd like coffee, just ask Isabel.”

When she left, Phil went over to the credenza and touched a couple of the lower doors until one popped open to reveal a minifridge stocked with sodas, teas, and water. “There's even beer in here,” he said to Emma. “Do you want a bottle of iced tea?” He held one up in question.

“Sure,” Emma said, leaning back on the sofa.

Phil brought over two and handed one to her. They opened them and took a couple of sips in silence.

“Hold down the fort,” Emma said, “I'm going to find the ladies' room.” She put her tea down on one of the coasters set on the table and picked up her bag. “And I want to speak with Isabel.”

“I could use the facilities myself,” Phil said.

O
UTSIDE
Lucy's office there was no sign of Isabel. Emma stopped another woman and asked for directions to the restrooms. Granny followed her as she often did. “Something's not right here about Carlos,” Granny said.

Emma stopped to listen a few seconds to make sure no one else was in the restroom with them. It was a large bathroom with several stalls. “I heard you in the office back there,” she told Granny in a hushed whisper just in case.

“So what are you going to do about it?” Granny persisted.

Emma started to roll her eyes, then stopped mid-circle. She hated when Kelly and Granny did that to her and tried not to do it herself, even when Granny earned the gesture. “Right now I'm trying to pee and this is a very small stall.”

“I'm a ghost. I don't take up much room.”

“I'd still like some privacy,” Emma said, giving her an eye roll anyway.

Granny disappeared. “I'm out here when you're ready to talk about it,” she called to Emma.

Emma was almost done when she heard the bathroom door open and a couple of women walk in. Emma was about to open the door to her stall when one of them said, “Can you believe Isabel? The way she's carrying on, you'd think T.J. was her fiancé instead of Rikki's.”

“I know,” said the other, who had a more mature voice. “She's almost as bad as Queen Lucy when it comes to being bat-crap crazy.”

“And did you hear,” said the younger voice, “that Lucy was actually aiming at Rikki when she fired the gun?”

“I'm not surprised,” responded the second one, her voice more somber and halting like she wasn't sure she wanted to continue the conversation. “She probably flipped out when she found out about the engagement, just like Isabel.”

Emma couldn't wait any longer. She had to let her presence be known or it would look like she was spying, which she was. She flushed, opened the door, and proceeded to the sink to wash her hands. There were two women—one was about her daughter's age; the other was Christina, the haggard receptionist. Both gave her a plastic smile and clammed up. Emma took her time reapplying lipstick, but the two weren't talking in front of her. Christina went into a stall and the other fussed with her hair.

“Don't worry,” said Granny to Emma, “when you leave, I'll stick around.”

When Emma returned to Lucy's office, Isabel was back at her desk. She didn't look at Emma but turned away, whispering something into her phone. Emma paused at her desk until it became clear Isabel had no intention of acknowledging her.

“More drama,” Emma said to Phil after she entered the office and closed the door.

“Another shooting?” Phil asked without looking up. He'd returned before her and was reading e-mails on his smart phone.

“Thankfully not,” Emma said, taking her seat again. “A couple of employees were gabbing in the ladies' room, gossiping about Isabel and Lucy.”

Phil raised his eyebrows. “About them together or individually?”

“If these two are to be believed, it seems both Lucy and Isabel were carrying a torch for T.J. Mendoza, a big Olympic-size torch.” Emma took a sip of her tea. “Granny's still there trying to get more information.”

“Jeremiah's right,” Phil said with a grin, “we do use Granny as our own personal bugging device. It's scary to think if that kind of power got into the wrong hands.”

“Shh,” Emma said. “Don't give Granny any ideas or she'll be off looking for work with the FBI or CIA.” She picked up her tea and took a drink. “I tried to speak to Isabel but she was absorbed in a private phone call.”

Phil chuckled, leaned against the back of the sofa, and looked up at the ceiling. “I'm really liking the theory that Rikki was the intended target and not T.J. Maybe Lucy set up the diversion and sent someone to kill her sister. Then when Lucy showed up at Roble after the shooting and saw Rikki still alive and T.J. the victim, she lost it?”

“I'm liking that theory more and more myself,” Emma told him. “Lucy could certainly have set up the fake promotion and she'd have an alibi by having lunch with Steve Bullock. She and Bullock could have been in this together. That money could have been paid to Carlos to find a hit man. If he has any ties to gangs, as Lucy thinks, he'd be able to find someone.” Emma stopped to consider something. “Although Granny's gut is telling her that Carlos isn't part of this.”

“Granny's gut, huh?” Phil snorted. “And when was the last time her gut digested anything?”

“I heard that!” Granny materialized and glared at Phil.

“Granny heard that and is pretty angry with you right now,” Emma told him.

“Sorry, Granny,” Phil apologized, aiming his words to where Emma pointed. “Just cracking a joke.”

“He's getting as disrespectful as you,” Granny said to Emma. “When he starts giving me the stink eye, too, I'm outta here.”

“No one is giving anyone the stink eye, Granny,” Emma told the touchy ghost. “So did you hear anything else in the ladies' room?”

“Those two were pretty chatty after you left,” Granny said with satisfaction. “At least the young one was. The older one grunted and nodded mostly. The younger one, the one with the long hair, was complaining about how Isabel disappears sometimes for long lunches and fake doctor's appointments. She even suggested that Isabel and T.J. were seeing each other on the sly, but the one with the short hair, the older one, shut her down on that, saying there was no way T.J. would do that to Rikki.” Emma gave Granny's report to Phil.

“And the plot thickens,” said Phil with amusement. “Sex, money, and power, the three reasons people kill and this has them all.”

“Anything else, Granny,” Emma asked, “or was that it?”

Granny screwed up her face in concentration. “Oh yeah, the girl who thought Isabel was tramping around with T.J., the younger one, said something about Isabel wanting to trade up from some loser named Peter.”

Emma straightened. “Are you sure that's what she said?”

She paused and reconsidered her words. “Yep, I'm pretty sure that's what she said.”

Emma repeated Granny's report for Phil. “Peter?” he asked when she'd finished. “Isn't that the name of the guy who owns the tour company?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. She pulled the brochure out of her purse and studied the number Nancy had scrawled across it. Pulling her phone out of her purse, she called the number but it went straight to voice mail. The message informed her that she had reached Peter Bradford of Quickie LA tours. She ended the call without leaving a message. “I'd like to talk to this guy.”

“Just say when,” Phil said with enthusiasm. “But I'll need to stop at an ATM first, just in case he needs to be encouraged like his grandmother.”

Emma stared at her phone. “I missed a text from Jeremiah. He says Elena Ricardo is in Mexico with Ramon Santiago.” She stared a long time at the text, hardly believing it.

“Isn't that the guy who owns Fiesta Time?” asked Phil.

“He took the question right out of my mouth,” added Granny.

“It sure is,” Emma answered, reading another text from Jeremiah. She looked from Phil to Granny. “Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?”

Phil shrugged, too stunned to speak.

“I'll bet he's Lucy's daddy,” Granny said. “That would explain a lot.”

“Yes, Granny,” Emma agreed. “Ramon being Lucy's father would explain a lot. Rikki told me that there was bad blood between Fiesta Time and her father but never said why. Maybe this was it and maybe Rikki thought it was just business competition.”

“If Lucy found out after all those years that her father was Ramon Santiago and not Felix,” said Phil, finding his voice, “she might have been angry enough to push the sale and take down Roble Foods, especially if she had a vindictive personally already.”

“Didn't Lucy say she found out Felix wasn't her father about the time Felix died?” asked Granny. “Maybe she's the one who killed Felix.”

“No,” came a voice out of the blue. The ghost of Felix materialized but didn't fully form.

Emma squinted at a cloud forming near the window. It didn't look like much more than a convention of dust mites. “Felix, is that you?” she asked the shimmery cluster.

“It's him,” confirmed Granny.

“Please, Felix,” coaxed Emma. “We need you to answer some questions. The future of your daughters depends on it.”

“My daughters,” said the ghost with heavy sadness as his image began to take sharper form. “I loved Lucinda like my own,” he explained. “She wanted for nothing, but it was never enough.”

“She said she didn't know about her father until last year, shortly before you died,” Emma said.

Felix nodded. “That's true. Elena and I were having troubles shortly after we married. She was complaining about the hours I kept at the restaurant. She couldn't understand that my father and I were building a business to last for many generations. She found comfort in the arms of another man.”

“Ramon Santiago?” Granny asked.

Felix nodded. “At first I thought it was Hector. He wasn't married yet, and he and Elena got along quite well. I confronted him when I found out that Elena was pregnant. I was so hurt because Hector was like a brother to me. We actually came to blows. But he said it wasn't him and my father confirmed that, saying he'd seen Elena out with Ramon Santiago, a man of questionable ethics, both personally and in business. When I questioned Elena, she didn't deny it and said she was going leave me for Ramon, who had told her he was going to leave his wife for her and the baby. Before that happened, Ramon dumped her and Elena came to me begging for mercy. My father and Hector both told me to throw her out into the street, but I couldn't. I loved Elena. She was so beautiful and lively, I fell in love the first time I laid eyes on her. I was surprised when she seemed to love me back, but she didn't really. She was drawn to our family's wealth and position.”

It was the most Emma had ever heard the ghost of Felix Ricardo speak. In spite of his sadness, his words were clear and spoken with a determination to do the right thing.

“So you took her back,” Emma said, “stayed together, and raised Lucy as your own.”

He nodded. “I love Lucinda very much, but I did a very bad thing all those years ago and now my bad deeds are coming back to ruin my family.”

“What did you do?” asked Granny with great interest.

Felix drifted back and forth then said, “Ramon wanted children badly and he had every intention of starting over with Elena and their child, but I paid him off.” As he spoke, Felix came more into focus. “When Ramon and Elena were seeing each other, his company was small and not well established. They had one really good restaurant and were trying to break into the commercial food business, as we had done, but didn't have the capital. I made a deal with Ramon that if he ended it with Elena and relinquished all rights to the child, I would give him the money to expand his business. I took a gamble that Ramon Santiago wanted power more than he wanted a family, and I won. After that he became one of our biggest rivals in the food business, especially here in California, but I didn't mind. I had Elena and my girls.”

“So it didn't surprise you that Lucy threw in with Steve Bullock after she found out about her paternity?” Phil asked.

“No, it didn't. Not one bit,” Felix said with a sad shake of his head. “I'm sure as soon as the cat was out of the bag, they courted her support and won her over easily. Lucinda is not a forgiving woman. She has the same cutthroat drive as her real father.”

Emma got up and went to Felix, looking him straight in the eye. “Did Lucy find out about Ramon and kill you?”

The ghost shook his head, this time with energy. “No one killed me, not directly. I did have a heart attack and crack my head on my desk, just as everyone believes. That day, the day I died, Elena called and said she had to speak with me immediately. I took the call in my office. She told me that she was going away with Ramon and I would not be able to stop her this time. She said Ramon had cancer and was going to go to Mexico to live out the rest of his days and he wanted her with him.” He looked away. “She told me that she was going to tell Lucinda the truth. I begged her not to tell Lucinda. I told her to go, that I wouldn't stop her, but not to tell Lucinda the truth. We got into a huge fight.”

“Is that when you had the heart attack and fell?” asked Granny.

“No. After I hung up with Elena, I called Ramon and told him if he or Elena told Lucinda the truth that I would bury him. You see, I didn't exactly give him the money. It was set up as a loan that I could call in on demand at any time with interest, and the payback also included stock in his company. He was to keep his distance from Elena and Lucinda or I'd demand payment. With years of interest, that loan and those stock options would be worth a bundle today.”