Mobbed

by Carol Higgins Clark

  “Mom?”

  “Yes.”

  “Everything’s not okay.”

  “Regan, what do you mean?” Nora asked quickly. They were standing on the side of the lawn, talking quietly. Shoppers were milling all around.

  “Didn’t you think there was something odd about Cleo Paradise leaving behind those skulls?” Regan asked. “She’s an actress with a high profile. Why would she leave herself open to criticism about her strange taste?”

  “I did think it odd, but who knows? Some actors would want the publicity. I just saw a picture of an actress happily walking her goat down the street in Los Angeles. I kid you not. No pun intended. And how about the actor who sleeps with his pet pig?”

  Regan shook her head. “I understand, but I don’t think that’s what Cleo wanted. The phone call I answered for Edna? It was Cleo’s best friend …”

  Nora’s face grew concerned as Regan told her about the conversation with Daisy. “Someone left dead flowers in this yard while Cleo was staying here?”

  Regan nodded. “Yes, and that’s what a stalker did in Cleo’s last movie. The movie was a bomb. Cleo didn’t think it was serious enough to report. She must have been scared but she didn’t leave. Something else must have happened that drove her away.”

  “You’re right, Regan. But you said Daisy spoke to her Monday night, and she just left her a message in the last hour. Cleo could be fine. Daisy’s going to call you if she hears from her?”

  “Yes,” Regan answered. “Maybe Cleo just wanted to hide out. She’s obviously avoiding that agent and I don’t blame her for that. But if she were doing a movie, she would have told her best friend. The whole thing doesn’t feel right.”

  “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

  “And remember the blonde we met at the front gate?”

  “Yes. She was very sweet.”

  “She’s Scott Thompson’s fiancée.”

  “What? The one you saw last night?” Nora asked excitedly, trying to keep her voice down.

  “The very one. She didn’t show any sign that she recognized me. No reason she would. Her back was to me in the restaurant and she did get engaged, so her mind was on other things. I guess the ring didn’t fit—she’s not wearing it. Poor Hayley.”

  Jody popped her head out the front door. “Mrs. Frawley!”

  “Yes, Jody,” Edna yelled, waving her arms. She was proudly leading her friends onto the property.

  “There’s a phone call for you. It’s important.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Just come in, please,” Jody ordered, then went back inside.

  “Excuse me, ladies,” Edna said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Regan and Nora looked at each other, then followed Edna up the steps into the house.

  “Who is it?” Edna asked Jody, who was waiting in the vestibule.

  “I didn’t want to shout so everyone would hear,” Jody said quietly, her hand covering the mouthpiece of the wireless phone. “It’s Cleo Paradise’s mother.”

  “Oh my!” Edna exclaimed, feeling a slight pang of guilt. She thought of how Karen wanted to make sure no one went anywhere near her things with a ten-foot pole. Did Cleo Paradise’s mother get wind of the sale? She might be upset for her daughter. “Regan,” Edna whispered. “Would you be a dear and talk to her for me? If it’s really important, let me know.” She dashed back outside without waiting for a response.

  Regan took the receiver from Jody, then motioned to Nora to follow her. Earlier, Regan noticed a laundry room off the kitchen where they could have privacy. “Hello.”

  “Edna Frawley?” a woman asked. She sounded far away.

  God no! Regan thought. “Actually, I’m a friend of Mrs. Frawley’s. She’s tied up at the moment. My name is Regan Reilly. May I help you?” She and Nora reached the laundry room and stepped inside. Regan closed the door and turned the receiver outward so Nora could lean in and listen to the conversation.

  “This is Yaya Paradise. I’m Cleo’s mother. Her father and I are on holiday in Ukraine. The woman who answered the phone told me Cleo isn’t there. She was quite abrupt and said she was running an estate sale.”

  “That woman is running a sale for Mrs. Frawley today,” Regan explained, remembering reading that Cleo’s parents traveled around the world. “She is busy, but I’m sorry if she seemed rude. As for your daughter, Cleo moved out of here last week.”

  “Last week? I thought she was extending her stay until her friend Daisy could meet up with her,” Yaya said anxiously. “Where did she go?”

  “She left a note saying she was off to do a movie.”

  “Why wouldn’t she tell us in an e-mail? Or call us with that kind of news? I couldn’t reach Cleo on her cell phone. I’ll try and get in touch with Daisy. They were planning to drive back to California together …”

  I have to tell her, Regan thought. If Daisy tells her that she also spoke to me, Mrs. Paradise will think I’m trying to cover up something. And I’m concerned myself. “Mrs. Paradise,” Regan said, “Daisy called a little while ago. She doesn’t know where Cleo is, either.”

  “What?” Yaya asked, clearly alarmed. “Daisy doesn’t know where Cleo is?”

  “Apparently not. But they just spoke Monday night.” Regan then explained to Yaya that Daisy was concerned because Cleo didn’t tell her about any film or that she’d moved out. Hesitantly, Regan told Yaya about Cleo’s belongings being sold at the garage sale. May as well, Regan thought. It’s on the Internet.

  “What did Cleo leave behind?” Yaya asked, her voice sharp.

  “She left clothes in the washer and dryer, some odds and ends, and a collection of skulls …”

  “Our skulls?” Yaya screamed.

  “They’re your skulls?”

  “Yes! Cleo’s father and I sent them in a trunk to the house. Cleo was going to bring them back to our storage unit in California. For years we’ve collected artifacts from around the world. Our dream is to open a museum. Cleo knows how much every item we collect means to us. She would never have willingly left that trunk behind! Never!” Yaya started to cry. “Cleo said in an e-mail that Frawley woman could be exasperating. She’s worse! She couldn’t wait to have her little sale and make a dime off my daughter. What happened to my Cleo?”

  “I understand how upset you must be,” Regan said.

  Cliff was standing close to Yaya, listening to the conversation, just as Nora was with Regan. He grabbed the phone.

  “This is Cleo’s father. She said she left to do a movie? Maybe we should call that crazy agent of hers.”

  “He was just here,” Regan said. “He doesn’t know where she is, either.”

  “Call the police!” Yaya screamed.

  “I’m a private investigator,” Regan said. “Cleo wouldn’t be classified as a missing person yet. You and Daisy both just tried Cleo’s cell phone in the last few hours. It’s not as if she hasn’t returned calls for days. You haven’t been waiting long to hear back from her.”

  “I don’t care if it’s been five minutes or five days. Something’s wrong!” Yaya insisted. “I just know it. It’s not like Cleo to go off and not tell anyone. We’ll get back to the States as fast as we can. Please look for our daughter! Please find her! We’ll pay you whatever you want. It won’t be a wild-goose chase, I promise you!”

  “Let me get your information,” Regan said as Nora dug a piece of paper and a pen out of her purse. Leaning on the washing machine, Regan took down the Paradises’ worldwide cell number and Cleo’s cell phone number and address. “What about her car?” Regan asked. “Do you have the make and model or possibly the license plate number?”

  “Oh no, we don’t! It’s one of those big SUV type of things. She just got it to drive cross-country.” Yaya sounded on the verge of hysteria.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll ask Mrs. Frawley,” Regan said. “Maybe she has some of that information. Please try not to get too upset. There could be a simple explanation. Hopefully you’ll hear from Cleo very soo
n.”

  Yaya whimpered. “Call us when you hear anything. We’re on our way.”

  When Regan hung up the phone, she and Nora were silent for a moment. “And I didn’t even tell them about the dead flowers,” Regan said.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t want to make phone calls from here. I’ll go out to the car.”

  They walked out of the laundry room. Regan replaced the receiver in the kitchen while Nora went to find Edna. In the living room, Jody had just completed a sale. “Pull up your truck to the front,” she said to an older woman accompanied by two muscular young men. “Then come in and get the couch.”

  “Jody?” Regan asked after the threesome were out of earshot.

  “Yes,” Jody answered, giving the clear impression she didn’t want to waste time talking.

  “Cleo’s parents sent her that trunk with the skulls from Europe because they’re planning to open a museum. They’re sure Cleo didn’t mean to leave it behind. Is there any way we’d be able to get the skulls back from that couple and refund them the money?”

  Jody tried to smile. “Oh, Regan. You saw how crazy those two were. Did they really look to you like they would ever give back anything associated with Cleo Paradise?”

  42

  On the 747 headed from San Diego to Newark, Karen Fulton was restless. After sitting on the tarmac for what seemed like forever, they’d finally taken off. She was checking her watch every two seconds. A watched pot never boils, she thought. But a watched watch is even worse.

  She sighed. When I think of all the days I don’t have enough time. I rush around but still can’t get everything done. And here I am stuck in a middle seat for another four hours with nothing to do but worry. My computer is dead, I’ve already seen the movie they’re showing and didn’t like it, and the book I was reading is inside my bag that’s crammed into the overhead bin. I didn’t have time to dig it out when I boarded the plane and I don’t dare try and retrieve it now. Maybe when the movie is over I’ll get up my courage. But the flight attendants already can’t stand me.

  I probably should have called Frankie and told him what’s going on, she thought. But it’s so hard to reach him on the cruise ship. He’s in and out of his room, and the time difference between us is always changing. Not that he’ll care about the house being sold. He’s been away for so long. But once the house is gone, things will never be the same. Tears welled in Karen’s eyes. It’s where Daddy breathed his last. All those memories. My boys got up on surfboards for the first time at the Jersey shore.

  Karen’s twins, now in their twenties, lived in San Diego and were trying to find themselves. You should look someplace besides the beach, Grandma Edna had told them more than once. They’d gotten such a kick out of Cleo Paradise renting the house and were hoping to meet her one day. Too late now, Karen thought. Something tells me the last thing Cleo Paradise will ever want is to have anything to do with our family.

  I’ll get out my sleeping mask, Karen decided, as she reached underneath the seat in front of her for her purse. Not that I’ll sleep, but maybe I’ll relax. I hate these day flights. Better to get on a flight in the evening, have a cocktail, and nod off.

  A moment later Karen pulled the elastic band of the mask over her head, arranged the pale blue protective covering around her eyes, and leaned back. Immediately she felt a tap on her shoulder.

  “Excuse me, Miss,” the man next to her said. “Before you fall asleep, I’d better go to the bathroom.”

  “Sure,” Karen said, trying to sound patient, as she pulled down her mask.

  “You look like you’re heading to a Halloween party.”

  Karen smiled. “No, actually I’m going to a garage sale,” she said, her tone wry.

  “That’s a long trip for a garage sale,” he said as they both started to get up. “But my wife loves them. Years ago, she bought a painting that was worth so much more than what she paid for it. Since then, she can’t pass a garage sale without slamming on the brakes. That painting was a steal!” He smacked the top of the seat in front of him. “A real steal! And she’s found tons of steals ever since!”

  43

  Outside Redman’s, Hayley and Laurinda were air kissing good-bye.

  “Mmmmwa,” Laurinda said as their cheeks brushed. “Thanks for lunch, Hayley. Mmmmwa.”

  The producer who had been dining with April Dockton came out the door and rushed past them.

  “Oh,” Laurinda said. “I want to get out of here before April emerges. Talk soon.” She turned and hurried down the block to the theater.

  Hayley stood for a moment on the sidewalk. She’d had to push the thought of Scott to the back of her mind and act like a professional who was at the top of her game while she was with Laurinda. Now, left alone, her thoughts returned full force to her own problems. A sick feeling came over her.

  Turning on her heel, she started toward Broadway. Even though the air was hot and sticky, she felt the need to walk a few blocks before she found a cab. Images of Scott came rushing back to her. He got engaged last night, then asks me out Saturday? What is going on? Will his fiancée be out of town?

  I have to call Regan and tell her. Hayley reached in her purse for her BlackBerry. She checked her e-mails and saw that her assistant had sent several messages that were marked as urgent.

  Hayley dialed her office. “Angie, what’s going on?”

  “Super news, Hayley! A big television producer from L.A. just got to town. He wants to create a buzz for a new reality show he’s doing about celebrity therapists and heard what a great party you organized last night. He’d like to meet with you right away.”

  “Define ‘right away.’”

  “He’s sitting by the pool on the rooftop of his hotel in SoHo. Isn’t that cool? Can you join him now?”

  “Of course.” Hayley walked to the curb and hailed a cab. Better to focus on work, she thought. I’ll call Regan after my meeting.

  While the cab rattled downtown, Hayley searched her BlackBerry for all the background information she could find on her prospective client. When she stepped onto the rooftop of his hotel, the producer was easy to spot. Deeply tanned, he was sipping champagne and surrounded by half a dozen young assistants.

  “Hayley, darling, is that you?” the producer asked, raising his designer sunglasses.

  Here we go. “Yes, it is,” Hayley said with a big smile. “I am so thrilled that you called….”

  44

  Cleo Paradise is a goner.

  I wish I didn’t have to wait until tonight.

  45

  Regan started out to her mother’s car, then decided to talk to Edna first. It wouldn’t be easy to hold her attention for too long with everything going on, but Regan had a few quick questions. She found the self-described garage sale hostess in the backyard, standing near the pool with her friends. Edna was introducing Nora while one of the security guards swept up the broken glass inside the gazebo.

  “And this is Nora’s daughter, Regan,” Edna beamed. “Say hello, Regan.”

  “Hello, everyone. Edna, could I speak to you a moment? It’s about the phone call.”

  “Certainly. Excuse me, ladies. As soon as that gentleman is finished, we’ll have lemonade in the gazebo.”

  Regan led Edna to a corner of the backyard. “Edna, Cleo’s mother is very concerned. So is Cleo’s best friend, who called earlier. They don’t know where Cleo went.”

  “Neither does that creepy agent,” Edna pointed out, her eyes blinking repeatedly. “Wasn’t he the worst? And that son of his? If I were Mr. Flake, I’d keep him under wraps.”

  “They were a pair,” Regan agreed. “Edna, please think for a minute. Is there anything Cleo said to you that might give an indication of where she may have gone?”

  “Honestly, Regan, there isn’t. Clearly she wanted to be left in peace and quiet. Privacy was paramount to her.” Edna shrugged. “She didn’t welcome my overtures of hospitality. I was living nearby and told her if sh
e needed anything to please call. The only time I heard from her was last week when she called and asked if it might be possible to extend her stay for a week or so if need be. I told her that would be fine, just let me know. Then I never heard back. I left messages over the weekend, but nothing. Then I came home Sunday, the day she was originally supposed to leave, and found the note. It would have been nice if she called, one way or the other.”

  “Do you have any idea how she spent her time when she was here?”

  Edna shook her head. “Not really. But I heard she’d gone into town and talked to people. This was after she made me promise not to tell anyone that she was here. I know word got around. I had to tell my maid to take the month off. With pay, I might add. But the young man who takes care of my pool had to come by twice a week. He also cuts the grass and tends to the flowers. That has to be done regularly. The inside of your house can hide a lot of sins, but not the outside. Before I left I told him a young lady would be renting the house for the month of July. But my lips were sealed as to her identity.”

  “Have you spoken to him at all lately?”

  “No, he doesn’t call unless there’s a problem. His bills always arrive in a jiffy, I’ll tell you that much.”

  “So you don’t know if he ever actually met Cleo?”

  “No.”

  “Can I have his number?”

  “Of course. I have it memorized. He’s been with me for several years now.”

  Regan copied the number down on the piece of paper she’d used to write Cleo’s information.

  “Judson mows the lawn every Friday. The sound his mower makes could wake the dead. What a racket. But he’s got a green thumb and is a hard worker. As you can see”—Edna pointed around her yard—“he does a lovely job.”

  “He does,” Regan agreed. “Thanks, Edna. One more question. What kind of car did Cleo drive?”

  “It was white, one of those big SUV-type cars. I noticed it had California plates.”