From Barcelona, with Love (9 page)

“I have the replies from our own family lawyers.” Lorenza handed round more papers. “They're not admitting it, but the problem is they think he has a viable claim against the estate, especially if he regains custody of Paloma.”

“Oh, God.” Jassy was crying now, fat tears slid down her face and splashed on the top of Paloma's head. Paloma still had her arms twined round her and her face buried somewhere in Jassy's middle. She covered her ears with her hands, she couldn't bear to hear any more about Peretti taking her away.

Jassy said, “What do we do now?”

“First we must prove his claim is worthless,” Lorenza said. “And there's only one way to do that.” She paused and looked at them.
“We have to find Bibi.”

Even though her hands were over her ears, somehow Paloma heard that. She untwined herself so fast from Jassy, she almost fell on the floor. She wasn't crying but she was breathing fast and her hands trembled, sending the little gold charm bracelet she always wore, clinking. “You mean …
find my mom
?”

“That's exactly what I mean. And it won't be easy. We've already had detectives looking for her, but…” Lorenza clutched at her pearls again, wondering if that poor little Marie Antoinette courtier had felt like this when they came to take her away to the tumbril, because that was exactly the strangled way she felt now. “As you know, they found no trace.”

Antonio said, “It's hard to believe, in this day and electronic age, a woman could disappear so completely. Unless…” Jassy threw him a warning glance and he paused in mid-sentence. The words “dead or alive” hung in the air.

“There's more,” Lorenza said. “The Ravel wine business cannot continue the way it is. To keep up with the world market we must expand. To do that we need money. We need Bibi's permission, in writing, to sell off the less profitable part of the sherry vineyards. This will enable us to buy our neighboring vineyard in Penedès. I'm sure you understand that since the wine is where we are making our money, this is what we ought to do. The owners, the MacGuires, are willing to sell, and since their land is contiguous with ours, it would be a perfect acquisition. They have told no one else that their bodega is for sale yet, and out of respect to Juan Pedro, who was their friend for over fifty years, they've given me first option at a favorable price.”

Shock, then anger, registered on Antonio's face. He'd had no idea Lorenza had meant to sell off some of his sherry vineyards, though of course he knew the Oloroso land at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River had not been producing the way it used to. He suspected Lorenza blamed him. That woman knew too much. He wondered if she'd had detectives tailing him too, catching how little time he actually spent in Jerez, and how much more time in Marbella with an
amiga,
a “friend” who, in fact, he was quite fond of, not the least because she was tall and sun-tanned and had a sexy look always in her eyes when they rested on him. Which they had been doing frequently of late.
More
than of late; for over a year if the truth were known. He got the feeling now that Lorenza knew what was going on.

“The MacGuires' land is more clay than the Ravel,” he reminded her, figuring attack was his best defense. “It's not been profitable for years—which I suppose is why they want to unload it on us. Pass it on at some inflated price giving us first chance, letting us think we're getting a bargain.”

Lorenza threw him a pitying glance. The fool was ruining some of the best vineyards in Jerez and he dared to criticize
her
capability,
her
knowledge of what the land was like. The MacGuires were an old Irish family who had immigrated to Spain two centuries before. They had been the first to welcome Lorenza back to the Ravel bodega after Juan Pedro's death. They were honorable people. No way would they attempt to cheat her, nor she them.

“A fair price has been agreed,” she said, ignoring Antonio and handing round another set of papers. “I intend to buy this vineyard. In order to do it we need money. And to get that we must find Bibi.”

“What if Mom's dead?” Paloma's small voice cut suddenly through all their business talk.

There was a shocked silence, then Jassy said, “Don't talk like that,
chiquita,
it's not true.”

“But how do we
know
?” Paloma persisted. “For
sure,
I mean?”

Lorenza said, “We don't know, but we must be prepared for the truth, whatever it is. It's time. Don't you agree, sweetheart?”

Paloma rubbed her burning cheeks. “Is it the best thing?” she asked, worried. “Best for my mom, I mean.”

“It's the
only
thing, child,” Lorenza said quietly. “The time has come when we must know the truth and whatever it is, we will deal with it.”

Antonio folded his arms across his chest. “I want no part of it. And no part of selling off any of my vineyards either.”

“I'll remind you those vineyards are
not
yours, Antonio. The major share belongs to me and to Bibi, in trust for Paloma. You were given and accepted your separate inheritance by your father when you were twenty-five. The vineyards, in which you then had no interest and no desire or will to run, were excluded for exactly that reason. You are only employed in Jerez in your capacity as manager of the estates. Floradelisa, you are in a similar position. You wanted to have your own life, to own your own restaurant. Your father saw to it that you were amply taken care of. As for you, Jassy, you took your share of stock and money and chose to live your life as you pleased. I'll remind you all of something else. That if it were not for me, by now there would be
no
Ravel family vineyards.
No
Marqués de Ravel wines. And certainly no more Ravel sherries. Without me, everything would have had to be sold off by now, exorbitant taxes would have had to be paid, and your lives would have gone on without any of this. Without this house and without the bodegas.”

“And without
you,
” Floradelisa said.

Lorenza inspected their cold faces closely. “That's true, too. I must admit, though, I've always wondered what all of you really knew about Bibi,” she added shrewdly, and saw Floradelisa blush, while Antonio stared at the ceiling again, and Jassy hid her face in her hands.

“Listen carefully now,” she added. “I'm prepared to make you a deal. I am ready to make over
half
of my own personal stock in the Marqués de Ravel wineries to be shared by the three of you. The condition is you have to find Bibi. Whichever one of you finds her will get the major share.”

They were silent, but she knew she had their full attention.

“It's my belief one of you knows where Bibi is,” she added. “Now, we'll find out.”

Lorenza didn't know this, she just
thought
one of them did, and in order to find out she would put the pressure on.

No one said anything and Lorenza guessed why. No one wanted the scandal of the double murders to come back again. No one believed Bibi was innocent. To them Bibi was a lost soul and they did not want to see her again. Except, of course, for Paloma, whose love and belief in her mother had never failed, even though Bibi had abandoned her.

“And how do you propose we do that?” Antonio put the responsibility squarely back on Lorenza's shoulders. He certainly wasn't going to do anything about Bibi, because anyway now he intended to get his hands on his stepmother's shares just as soon as he could prove her incompetent. She had
told
them the business needed money, and it wasn't just because of his sherry. Lorenza might think she had her hands full with Peretti's claim but just wait till he got his claim in.
Then
she'd have something to keep her busy. In fact she might just be forced to look for another rich husband.

Lorenza said, “As I mentioned earlier, I employed detectives to look for her, with no result. Now, it's up to you three to figure out how to find her.”

“I know someone who can find her,” Paloma said.

They turned, astonished, to look at her.

“I met him in Malibu. I wanted to ask him to help me then but I just couldn't. I thought he would laugh at me, but now I know he won't.”

“And who exactly is that?” Jassy asked, wondering who Paloma could have met in Malibu that she didn't know.

“Why, Mac Reilly, of course. The famous TV private investigator.”

Lorenza sat up straighter. She looked thoughtfully at Paloma. “You know,” she said after a while, “the child might have a point.”

 

Chapter 12

Lorenza patted Paloma's
hand. “I believe we've probably all seen Mac Reilly's TV program,” she said.

“What program?” Antonio only watched TV for horse racing or golf.

Floradelisa shrugged. “I don't have time for TV. I'm always at the restaurant.”

“She's just too
busy
in that kitchen,” Jassy said. She was getting a bit sick of Floradelisa's work ethic, and maybe a bit jealous of her success. “I've seen Mac Reilly's show,” she said. “I know who he is, but what I want to know is how Paloma met him.”

Paloma blushed to the roots of her red hair. “He lives near where we were staying, in Malibu. I'd pass his house all the time when I walked on the beach.”

“And exactly
how
did you know it was Mac Reilly's house?” Jassy asked.

Paloma fingered the bunny charm her mother had placed on the gold bracelet on her first birthday. It was an Easter bunny because Paloma's birthday was around Easter time. One floppy ear was pinned down with a tiny diamond. Bibi had told her it looked as though he was begging for a treat and his treat was that now he knew he belonged to her. Paloma had made Bibi repeat that story a hundred times, she'd even named the bunny Treat. She rubbed him now, for good luck, knowing she was in trouble because she was going to have to tell the whole story, about almost drowning, before they heard it from Mac Reilly. Which they would if they talked to him.

She said, “I got caught in this big wave on Malibu beach. Mac's dog came running to help me and Mac swam out and got me out of the riptide.” She looked apologetically at Jassy. “That's when I lost my iPhone. It got swept away. I'm sorry.”

Horrified, Jassy thought of what might have happened if it were not for the unknown Mac Reilly. “
Oh my God,
Paloma, why didn't you tell me?”

“I was scared, I thought you'd be angry.”

Jassy rolled her eyes, spilling coffee and tears again as she hastily got up and grabbed hold of Paloma. “
Chiquita, why
would I be
angry
?”

“Because you didn't know I went walking on the beach alone.” Paloma took a deep breath. “And anyhow because I was really stalking Mac Reilly.”

“
Stalking
him? Whatever for? We could have just invited him over for dinner.”

“I wanted to talk to him alone.”

“About Bibi.” Lorenza understood, immediately.

“Has the kid gone crazy too, like her fuckin' crazy mother,” Antonio said. Floradelisa gave him a hard nudge with her elbow that sent him gasping for air. “
Bitch,
” he whispered.

“No more bitch than the one you keep in Marbella,” she whispered back.

Antonio rubbed his sore ribs. It seemed he had no secrets anymore. Everybody knew his business. Little Paloma was a dark horse though, stalking a TV detective. Like mother like daughter, he thought.

“Nobody's mad at you, Paloma,” Lorenza said quietly.

“Did you tell him Bibi was your mother?” Floradelisa asked.

“I didn't have to. He knew.”

“The resemblance is there,” Lorenza said. “Anyone can see whose daughter she is.”

Floradelisa glared at Antonio, she knew he was choking back the words “what a pity.” Sometimes her brother was such a bastard she wondered how he could be Juan Pedro's son. Wouldn't that be funny, she thought, as the idea took hold in her mind. What if Antonio was really
not
Juan Pedro's son? What if their mother had had a little fling, or maybe more than one? After all there were three of them, and each one looked completely different. And none of them looked like either parent, apart from Antonio's beaky nose, but that was typically Spanish. You only had to look at the court portraits in the Prado Museum to see that. And just
perhaps
that was the reason their father had not left any of them the Ravel estates, and had been able, legally, to leave everything to Lorenza and Bibi.

Weary, Floradelisa pushed back her heavy dark hair;
she
was getting crazy now;
things
were getting crazy. “Are we all going nuts?” she asked, biting into another biscuit and daring Lorenza with her eyes to say something about it. “Are we seriously considering asking some American TV detective Paloma met on Malibu beach to find Bibi for us?”

Lorenza said firmly, “If you have any other suggestions I would be delighted to hear them. This concerns
all
of you, I'm asking for your help and so far all I'm getting is objections. Or silence.”

“Speak now or forever hold your peace,” Jassy quoted from the marriage ceremony, glaring at her siblings. “At least Paloma tried to do something about it, and I think hiring Mac Reilly's a great idea, especially since it almost cost her her life.”

“Saved, of course, by the
famous
Mr. Reilly.” Antonio heaved himself up from the depths of the overstuffed sofa, looking round at them as he buttoned his jacket. “Of course Lorenza will do whatever she wants, as always. All I ask is that you let me and my lawyers know what that is, so I know exactly what action to take.”