"How did you know about this?" She looked at me, eyes narrowed. "I kept it tucked in a book on my nightstand."

"I found it crumpled on your kitchen floor, where I think Ben must've dropped it. He trashed your house."

"Why?"

"Anger, probably. He was looking for some sign that you really are his mother. Gwyn confirmed my suspicions that you were."

"She would never tell anybody."

"Her world has fallen apart, just like yours. Just like mine, come to think of it."

"My world is intact as long as I can stay in control of the situation. You have to help me, Diana. You have to give it to me."

"Your world isn't intact, Celia. Ben's dead. He hanged himself in your garage." As I told her what had happened, her face crumpled. Her body sagged.

On the other side of the adjoining wall, a toilet flushed.

Celia slumped on the bed.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO.

I listened to her cry and moan, and I wondered who she really was crying for. Then she sat up, wiping her hands across her eyes. "Suicide?"

"Parson said it was."

"You believe him?"

"I believe he can kill someone without laying a hand on them." I thought of Colin. "But he told me that when he arrived at your house, Leo Heath was trying to cut Ben down. He may still have been alive then. But Parson's men stopped Heath."

"Heath?"

"The one you lied about. I think that was your first lie to me, at least that I know about."

"Are you saying Ben wanted to kill himself?"

Not wanting to keep the fury out of my voice, I said "The kid grew up thinking his biological father was a rapist. That his stepfather didn't love him because he loved his mistress more. Then the mistress turned out to be his real mother. Robert didn't even know, for Christ's sake."

"Shut up!"

"And to get back at them, Ben joins Jenny in blackmailing everyone who's important to Robert and Gwyn. Yes, Celia, I think he wanted to kill himself."

She stared at me, shocked at my rage.

The TV turned on in the next room. Its low muttering mixed with the rumbling of the air conditioner.

"I want to know what kind of killer you are," I said. "Are you cold-blooded, or accidental?"

She pushed her ink black hair from her face. "Jenny was an accident."

"Start from the beginning."

"Ben found out I was his father's mistress. I don't know who told him." Her expression hardened. "Was it you?"

"He grew up, Celia. He put the pieces together all by himself. It wasn't difficult for him."

"He wanted to meet me."

"On the night of Jenny's death?"

"No, a few days before. He came to my house. He was drunk or high on something. He wanted to see where Robert slept with me, wanted to see where his family's money was going. He was shocked when I told him I wasn't taking any money from Robert. I told Ben that I loved Robert, but that I also loved my independence. And I never wanted to marry or have children." Her voice broke.

"You said that to your son."

"Ben didn't know that then. He asked if I didn't worry about his mother's feelings. I told him she had her relationship with Robert and I had mine."

The TV grew louder. I could make out two actresses speaking in Spanish.

"He told me he was working in the video business. That his father and mother would be very proud. And then he blurted out what he was really doing. He ranted about how he and Jenny were going to show up all the hypocrites like Robert, like me. Then he tried to kiss me while taking a picture of us on this small video camera. I pushed him away, and he fell on the sofa and pa.s.sed out."

"You checked to see what was on the camera?"

She nodded. "I recognized Bella Casa immediately, Jenny Parson with Ryan, and Jenny taunting Beth Woods while she was having s.e.x with her. G.o.d, it was a Who's Who of Hollywood elite. There was no security protection. No pa.s.sword. Anybody could've seen the videos. What were they thinking?" Furious, she jumped up and pounded the wall. "Keep it down in there!"

The volume on the TV lowered. Celia leaned against the dresser, hands clasped in front of her. Her face was ragged. "In the morning Ben was frantic when I told him that I wouldn't let him have the camera back. He became a little boy again, pleading with me, telling me that Jenny was dangerous. That he didn't want anyone to know what he was doing, that he wanted out. That she and Zackary Logan would kill him if he didn't have the camera."

"So you had Ben set up a meeting with Jenny?"

She nodded. "Ben called me from the club. He said Zackary would be driving her home. Jenny had been drinking and was threatening him. If she didn't get the camera back that night, she would tell Robert. He told me where she lived and to wait in the shadows by the garbage bins in the alley. He would be following them in his car so he could bring Zackary back to the club. When they arrived, Zackary drove Jenny into the garage and parked in her slot. Ben, who had a key, let me in through the side door next to the gates. Keeping us out of view of the security cameras, he guided me to Jenny. She made Zackary get out of her Audi and told me to get in. I slid into the driver's seat." She paused, unclasping her hands, then rubbing them over her forehead and into her hair.

"I thought I could talk her out of what she was doing," she continued. "That was my intention, anyway. But she threatened me. She said if anybody found out about their business, she'd tell them I was a full partner. That I'd let them bring the johns to Bella Casa. She was hysterical, out of control, making all kinds of wild threats, so I shook her. She screamed, and then she started hitting me. That's when my cell must've somehow got turned on."

"It was Jenny I heard screaming, not you."

"Yes. You understand, don't you Diana? I really didn't have a choice. I had to stop her. I shook her harder and harder until her neck snapped back and her head hit the pa.s.senger window. It made an awful sound, a kind of dull crack. I couldn't believe it had gone that far... ." She sat down on the edge of the bed and buried her head in her hands.

"Oh, Celia," I murmured.

"It was Zackary Logan who took charge." She looked up. "He got the key from her purse, and he and Ben went up to her condo and got the bags to put her in. All three of us wrapped her up and carried her out to the bin. Ben kept saying 'You didn't have to kill her.' The boys drove away in Ben's car, and I walked back to mine and went home."

"Did you have to kill her?"

"I didn't mean to. I was trying to protect everyone."

My long-time friend, the girl I had grown up with, had become a woman who could spend most of her adult life living a lie about her child and her lover, and then lose control and kill someone. Another lie, another person I didn't really know. The TV was loud again.

She was peering anxiously at me. "What are you thinking about?"

"Remember the night we sat on the side street and you told me how Ben had attacked you in your car in the vacant lot? You were so believable."

"The essence of what I said about him and me was true. I didn't plan to kill Jenny. I just saw Ben's life being destroyed."

"And yours. And Robert's."

"All right, I felt threatened. Everything I had worked so hard for could have been destroyed by this uncaring b.i.t.c.h. I didn't have a movie star for a mother, Diana. I had to create my own life the way I wanted it, with no help from anybody."

"If you let people cut in front of you in line, you'll never get ahead."

"What?"

"That's what you said to me when we first met. We were waiting to get in to see one of my mother's movies. You're the one who reminded me of it when I was holding frozen peas to your bruised face thinking a man had beat you up."

"Killing Jenny was an accident."

"Was Zackary Logan an accident?"

"I didn't kill him. I swear to G.o.d. He called me and said he wanted to meet me at Bella Casa. But I didn't go."

"Why should I believe you?"

"No reason, except it's true."

"What about Ryan Johns?"

"Robert told me that Parson was a madman. That whoever killed his daughter would face an awful death. He told me he had Leo Heath working on the case, and I remembered him from Bella Casa. I panicked. I a.s.sumed Heath knew what had been going on at the house. So I thought if I sent him and Parson the video of Ryan... ."

"He'd be the perfect scapegoat. Except Ryan turned around and gave Parson your name. That bit of irony must've stung."

"It did."

"How did Ben find out you were his mother?"

"After you called to tell me to leave my house, that I might be in danger, I phoned Ben. If I was going to die, I wanted him to know the truth. And that I killed Jenny for him."

"You left him with the burden of all that?"

Ignoring my question, she asked "What are you going to do?"

Disgusted, I stood and walked to the door. "You can save yourself. I won't stop you. But I'm keeping the memory card."

"You can't." She got her feet. "You can't leave me like this. You know what Parson will do to me. Even if I did mean to kill Jenny, it was to help everyone involved."

"And now you want the card to bargain with Parson. And you don't care if he uses it to continue his daughter's blackmail, even if he hurts everyone you were supposedly trying to help. Christ, Celia. It's over."

We stared at each other. Then the TV in the next room suddenly turned up to full volume, filling the tense silence between us. As we glanced toward the booming noise of the chattering Spanish women, the breathless soft sounds of pop, pop, pop splintered the common wall. I lost sight of Celia as I dove for the floor. My gun flew from my hand. The muted gunfire continued. The TV turned off, and the room was quiet. Neither of us moved.

Seconds later, the motel room door crashed open, and a man stepped over me. My hair had fallen across my face, and I was lying on my right arm. I opened my eyes just enough to see Rubio take the camera from the bed. Rubio ... I had forgotten about the son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h. Then I saw Celia on the floor, blood pumping from her chest. He knelt down next to her.

"Gotcha," he said, like a hunter to a deer.

Then Rubio was beside me. He pushed the hair from my face and we looked at each other. My throat went dry.

He flashed his thick white teeth at me and aimed the gun between my eyes. "Gotcha."

But another gun went off. His grin froze, then vanished, and he fell heavily to the side. I lifted my head to see what had happened. Celia was on her knees, the Glock in her hand. She smiled at me the same way she had when we were young. Then she dropped the gun and collapsed. The room tilted. I laid my head back down.

"What the f.u.c.k?" It was Bruno's voice.

I felt him standing behind me. Tensing, I lay still.

"Parson's not going to like this," Gerald rushed into the room, stopping near Rubio.

I tried not to breathe. I opened my eyes just enough to see him peering inside the camera Rubio had dropped.

Gerald frowned. "There's no memory card. Maybe the actress has it."

My need to survive kicked in, my mind began to work. These two men were my one little area of power. Without trying to show any movement, I edged my right hand up between my b.r.e.a.s.t.s and pulled the card out, holding it in my palm.

"Is she alive?" Bruno kicked my thigh with his foot.

My body recoiled.

"Yeah, she's alive." Now standing in front of me, Bruno grabbed me under my arms. I let myself go limp and heavy as he dragged me up the front of his body to my feet.

His sweat reeked. I went into my madwoman act, except I wasn't acting. I screamed. I punched and kicked. Moving my right hand down his chest, I slipped the memory card into the handkerchief pocket of his suit jacket and shrieked louder.

"Shut up!" Gerald yelled from behind me.

Then something hard slammed into the back of my skull. I fell to my knees.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE.

I opened my eyes. Slumped in a worn maroon-velvet seat, I raised my head, breathing in the odor of dust, mildew, and forlorn emptiness. Putting my hand to my head, I felt a lump. Nausea swept through me as I leaned forward, gripping the back of the seat in front of me, and peering at a movie screen. A velvet curtain draped the proscenium. Light fixtures sculpted like bent arms with hands holding dimly lighted torches lined the walls. I looked up at the ceiling, blinking it into focus. The Hollywood version of the Sistine Chapel mural had been painted on it. The angels, movie-star s.e.xy, had faded and chipped into decay. Gerald and Bruno sat still on either side of me as if we were at a private screening waiting for the movie to begin. I was in Parson's theater.