Granny Apples 05 - Ghost in the Guacamole (15 page)

“S
O
what do you think Jeremiah's real story is?” Phil asked. He was back behind the wheel of Emma's SUV and they were finally heading home.

The detectives had questioned them extensively, mostly separately. Detective Espinoza had taken Emma, and Detective Wu had interviewed Phil. They had wanted to take Phil's phone, but since he was an attorney and his smart phone also contained access to confidential client matters, Phil suggested he send them all the photos he'd taken the day before. The detectives agreed and Phil did it on the spot. As soon as he and Emma returned to their vehicle, they compared notes of their questionings. Between them they had told Wu and Espinoza everything they knew. Emma had even told Espinoza about Felix Ricardo's spirit hinting that his death might not have been accidental. He didn't appear to be either skeptical or accepting of the information, but said they would look into it.

“Hmm,” Emma said, looking out the windshield as they drove along the 110 Freeway toward Pasadena. It was familiar scenery but she wasn't paying attention to it. Instead she was running through her head what she knew of the shooting. She stopped the turbine in her brain and considered Phil's question. “So you picked up on that, too?”

Phil glanced over at her. “I think in some way he's connected to this, and not just because he's good friends with Espinoza.”

“Yes, it's been nagging at me off and on today,” she told him as she dug through her brain to fit together the odds and ends she'd picked up on Jeremiah in all the chaos. “First of all, why did he want to go to Olvera Street with us in the first place? And did you see how easily he moved around the crime scene without anyone challenging him?” She turned away from the windshield and toward Phil. Her seat belt cut across her neck as she twisted and she took a second to fix it. “Maybe he's not a retired cop at all but an active one and working undercover.”

Phil turned on his blinker and made ready to merge into the lane on their left. “I had that thought myself, but I think he may be too old to still be with the department. I believe they have a mandatory retirement age, but I'm not sure.”

“Good point.” Emma pointed a finger at Phil to emphasize her thoughts as she verbalized them. “He told us he went to Santiago's out of curiosity just to see if the people who asked Gino about Steve Bullock showed up. But I'm not so sure he hasn't been staking out the place long before that.”

“Didn't he say that he was a regular at Santiago's or did we assume it because he knew the waitress?” Phil asked, with a cock of his head, as if changing its direction would help him remember.

“He told us he was a regular,” Emma answered. “I'm sure of it. But he still could have been watching Bullock.” She paused, then said, “Okay, so he is a private investigator, as he said, but I'll bet someone hired him to watch Bullock.” She drew out the words slowly as the idea formed for the first time in her mind.

“But he left his surveillance post the minute he heard about the shooting,” Phil pointed out. “I'm thinking he already knew there was a connection between Roble and Bullock and I'm also thinking he knew darn well who Bullock had been lunching with before we told him.”

“Argh,” Emma snapped in frustration. “I think you're right. We've been played.”

“More like used to further his investigation, whatever that is.”

They drove along, starting and stopping with the usual rush hour traffic heading out of Los Angeles toward Pasadena. “Seems like all we've done today is fight traffic,” Phil noted. “Physically and intellectually.”

Emma nodded in agreement, but her mind was still going over all the things she could remember about Jeremiah Jones and his interest in Steve Bullock and the Ricardos.

“Emma,” Phil began. When Emma didn't respond, he said, “Earth to Emma.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, Phil. I'm still trying to piece it all together.”

“I wanted to discuss something else with you before we get home.”

“My parents?” she guessed.

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“That's also heavy on my mind,” she told him. “What in the world were they thinking, Phil? Especially after my mother's lecture about danger and how worried she is about me.” She let out a big puff of air. “I could have strangled them. And I will when we get home.”

“And that's exactly why we need to have this conversation now.” He glanced over at her. “Leave it be, Emma.”

“What?” she stared at him with surprise.

“You heard me, honey. Leave it be, unless they bring it up. They've been through enough today and having you come through the door huffing and puffing and ready to blow the house down isn't going to change anything. It will only make them defensive.”

Emma pursed her lips in annoyance. “I deserve an explanation.”

Phil chuckled, his eyes back on the road. “No, you don't. They are two grown people. They can do as they like just like you and me. Maybe they went there out of curiosity, maybe for the food, maybe to help you. Who knows? I'm just saying you shouldn't come down on them for it. Let them come to you.”

“And what if they don't?”

“Then they don't,” he told her, glancing at her again. “There's no denying it will be a big fat elephant in the room when we get home, but that doesn't mean you need to go poking at the elephant with a stick. Elizabeth and Paul are very reasonable people, and they love you more than anything in the world. Something tells me in time, maybe not right away, but I'm betting sometime tonight or tomorrow they will bring it up. Let them make that first move. I think they will appreciate it.”

Emma ran both of her hands through her short hair and rubbed roughly. Phil laughed. “The idea of sitting on your hands about this must really be bothering you,” he said to her with a grin. “You only do a two-fisted head scratch when you're about to explode from frustration.”

“He's right,” said Granny, popping up in the backseat.

Emma dropped her hands into her lap as if caught stealing. She shot both Phil and Granny a look of annoyance, her brows deep with furrows, her eyes narrowed.

“Want your face to freeze like that?” asked Granny.

“Never mind that, Granny,” Emma said to the spirit. “Did you learn anything?”

“Nothing we didn't already know,” reported Granny. “Problem is Jeremiah can see me. Every time I came close, he'd clam up or give me the stink eye.”

“The stink eye, Granny?” Emma asked with disbelief. “Jeremiah gave you the stink eye?” Next to her, Phil laughed but said nothing.

“He'd just look at me and slightly shake his head as if warning me to mind my own business,” the ghost said. She leaned forward. “Something's up with him.”

“We were just discussing that,” Emma told her. She gave Phil an update.

“Couldn't you go invisible, Granny?” Phil asked. “I thought ghosts were only seen when they wanted to be or when they were caught off guard.”

“I tried that,” Granny replied, “but he always knew when I was around. The Force is strong with him, Obi Wan.”

Emma was drinking from a water bottle stored in the console and started coughing. The
Star Wars
reference was new for Granny. It took her a few seconds before Emma could relay the comment to Phil, who nearly choked with laughter upon hearing it.

“What do you know about Obi Wan, Granny?” Phil asked. “Not that calling me that isn't flattering.”

“Kelly and some of her friends were watching the movie last week,” the ghost answered. “She told me there are a whole bunch of movies just like it. Do we have them at home?” The ghost leaned forward with childlike eagerness. “Can we watch them sometime?”

“I'm going to kill Kelly,” Emma said quietly as she stared out the window at the traffic ahead of them. “Right after I kill my parents.”

Fortunately, Emma didn't have to hold her tongue for long. When she and Phil got back to the Miller house, they found Emma's parents where they'd found them the day before—on the back patio enjoying chilly gin and tonics. Without waiting for them to ask, Elizabeth poured one for her and Phil.

“Seems this family might have a problem with the drink,” quipped Granny. “I never partook, so you must have gotten that from Jacob's side.”

“We just started, Granny,” Elizabeth told the ghost, nearly snapping at her. “So don't be so quick to judge.”

Phil and Emma exchanged glances. It wasn't like Elizabeth to be so testy. Emma stuck her nose in her glass and took a long drink. It tasted wonderful and refreshing and kept her from saying something she might regret.

Emma was halfway through her drink, determined not to say anything, when her mother trotted out the elephant. “You don't have anything to say about today, Emma? About our being at the restaurant?”

Emma put her glass down on the patio table with a fair to medium thud. Phil shot her a look of warning. She played with the glass a few seconds before answering. “Yes, I do, Mother, plenty, but I'm not going to say a word. You and Dad are free to go wherever you like. You're not children.”

“No, we're not,” added Paul. “But we're sorry we gave you a scare. We really did want to try the restaurant, and we thought maybe we would notice something while there.”

“It didn't look to me like you got anything to eat,” Emma said.

Both her parents shook their heads. “We'd only been at our table a few minutes when the commotion started,” Elizabeth told them. “There was a bus of tourists ahead of us so we had to wait to be seated.” Elizabeth took a drink from her glass. “I made us a nice chicken salad when we got home. We weren't very hungry after what happened.”

Emma paused, started to take another drink, but took a few deep breaths instead. “Rikki wanted me to thank you both for caring. And Dad, your being there may have saved Lupe Lopez's life.”

“That woman was very lucky,” Paul said. “Too bad we didn't know what had happened upstairs. I might have been able to help him before the ambulance arrived.”

“So you didn't know about the shooting upstairs?” Granny asked. Elizabeth repeated the question for Phil and Paul.

Archie was nudging Granny so the ghost went off to play with him. “Don't worry,” she told everyone. “I'll still be able to hear ya.”

Emma snorted. “She has ears like satellite dishes.”

“I heard that!” the ghost yelled from the back of the yard. “And I'm taking it as a compliment.”

Both Paul and Elizabeth shook their heads at Granny's question. Paul answered, “No, Granny, we didn't. The first we knew of any problem was when those officers wearing shorts came flying through the door.”

“I was told the bike cops were just across the street having lunch when the call came through,” Emma said. “That's why they showed up so quickly.”

“There was a scream first, Paul,” Elizabeth said. “Remember?”

Paul nodded slightly. “That's right. There was a scream and a woman yelling for help. It was coming from elsewhere in the building. It was difficult to tell. Everyone in the dining room stopped what they were doing and just looked at each other. The one waiter, the middle-aged man with the ponytail?”

“That would have been Hector,” Emma noted. “He manages the place with Rikki.”

“Well, he took off toward the back at a run and disappeared down the hallway.”

Emma nodded, taking in the sequence of events. This was information the police hadn't given her. “There's a staircase in the back leading upstairs to the offices,” she told them.

“Very soon after, the bike cops showed up, then the paramedics, along with other police, and we were all told we couldn't leave,” added Paul. “Then they wheeled that poor man out on a stretcher.” He shook his head. “I wish I'd known earlier.”

“But you didn't, Dad,” Emma told him, giving him a weak smile. “T.J. was still in surgery when we left. Rikki and his family are at the hospital.”

“So you didn't actually see T.J. Mendoza arrive or speak to Rikki?” Phil asked.

The Millers looked at each other, then shook their heads. “Not that we know of,” Paul answered for them both. “We got seated near the end of that huge rush of tourists, then not more than ten minutes later all the panic started.”

Elizabeth left the table and went into the house. She came out a few minutes later with a snack platter of hummus, vegetables, and crackers and placed them on the table along with napkins. The men fell on the food immediately.

“I could have gotten that for you, Mother,” Emma protested before her mother could sit down.

“Nonsense, it was leftover from last night. All I had to do was open a box of crackers.” Elizabeth started to return to her chair then stopped and came back to Emma. She threw her arms around her daughter and gave her a tight hug. “I'm sorry if we worried you. Thank you for coming to the restaurant so quickly.”