The interior of Celeste Brandon’s home looked like it had been ripped from the pages of Architectural Digest magazine. It was white, from the crisp, clean walls to the furniture. Massive, colorful artwork was depicted on almost every wall, one or two even larger than the picturesque windows overlooking the park.
Celeste craned her neck. “Follow me to the study, please.”
Addison kept pace behind her.
“Are you expecting your husband anytime soon?”
“He’s flying back in tonight. Now—I want to show you something.” She opened the top drawer of a desk and retrieved one item: an album. She licked a finger and flipped through page after page, stopping when she got to the middle. “Ah, here it is.” She turned the album around and curled her finger, motioning Addison to step forward. “This is your grandfather, but I suppose you can tell just by looking at it.”
“Actually, I haven’t seen many photos of him until recently.”
Very recently.
“I was told he ran off, leaving my grandmother to take care of my mother on her own.”
Celeste snapped the book shut and held it to her chest, her arms folded over it. “Yes, he did. Although I never saw it coming. I was as shocked as everyone else when I heard the news.”
“Why?”
“Because I could tell he loved her.”
“My grandmother?”
“Yes,” Celeste replied. “They seemed to get on so well together every time I was around. Though, your grandfather…”
Celeste tapped a finger over her lips as if she wished she could take back her last few words.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, dear. Best to leave the past where it is.”
“You can tell me. Really. I don’t mind.”
“It’s just that your grandfather, kind as he was, had a wandering eye from time to time. I’m not speculating. I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t absolutely sure.”
“How do you know?”
“He admitted it once.”
“To you?”
“To Hugh.”
“Did my grandmother know?”
Celeste nodded. “She stayed, in spite of it. He promised never to do it again. But then he would. He was kind of like a revolving door, if you ask me.”
“Who were the women—did you know any of them?”
“Hugh never told me, and I didn’t ask.”
Addison found Celeste’s statement very odd. It was a rare woman who had no interest in idle gossip. “How well did you know them?”
“We met at Grayson Manor. Your grandparents loved throwing parties. And I loved attending them. Hugh was always away making one movie or another and most of the time I was alone. Your grandmother did her best to make me feel like I was a part of the business, even though I wasn’t. But then again, neither was she. Not really.”
Addison nervously gnawed on the side of her lip.
“Do you want to ask me something?” Celeste asked. “Because you can, you know. You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
“I don’t want to be inconsiderate.”
“Of what—my feelings?” Celeste curled a hand over her mouth, suppressing a laugh. “I doubt there’s anything you could shock me with at my age.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Try me. I’m a lot tougher than this feeble, shell of a body appears to be.”
Addison cleared her throat and tried to control her breathing. “I came here today to ask Hugh about his rumored romance with Roxanne Rafferty.” She stepped back, waiting for the aftershocks from the bomb she’d just exploded all over the room.
None came.
Celeste simply nodded.
“Roxy was one of many girls my husband supposedly slept with. He was a big flirt, my Hugh. Got him into trouble several times. But you know something? I’ve never given much stock to rumors—especially Hollywood ones. You know what they say…if it makes it to the paper, odds are, it isn’t true.”
“Did you ever ask him?”
“Hugh denied he had affairs with all of the women he acted with, and I believed him. Maybe that was naïve of me, I don’t know. Nothing was ever proven, and he’s always treated me like I’m the only thing that matters to him in life. Truth is, I was too smitten with him to ever leave, even if I’d found out he had cheated.”
“Roxanne was friendly with several other men too.”
“Contrary to what you may have read, Roxy was one of the nicest girls I’ve ever met. Men fell all over her, and yes, some of them were married. But I never got the impression that she went after them. They beat down her door and there wasn’t much she could do about it. I suppose she was flattered, just like any woman would be.”
Celeste’s unflappable nature inspired Addison to press on. “Did anyone ever talk to you about the night Roxanne went missing?”
“There were whispers, theories. Some wild, others ridiculous. Leave women alone in a room together for too long, regardless of their age, wild stories are sure to follow. We can’t help ourselves, I suppose.”
“There were suspicions of foul play.”
“Isn’t there always? Tabloids will say anything to sell a story.” Celeste opened the drawer, placed the photo album back inside and slid the drawer shut again. “Now I have a question for you. Why are you worrying your head over all of this?”
Addison plucked a white lie from her mental file cabinet. “I saw some pictures of Roxanne in an old trunk I found. Then someone told me she was dead. And that the last time she was seen was at my grandparents’ house, which is now my house. It made me curious.”
“You came all this way to ask a question because you’re curious?”
“I guess I just can’t stop thinking about what happened to her. I’ve been experiencing some…ahh…nightmares.”
“You’ll forgive me if I have to sit down,” Celeste said, pulling a chair out. She looked as if she was about to faint. “You’re welcome to have a seat yourself.”
“Thank you, I’m fine.”
“Are you?”
“I don’t understand.”
Celeste entwined her fingers, resting them on the edge of the desk. “What is it you really want to ask?”
“What do you think happened to her, Mrs. Brandon?”
Celeste twisted a gold ring in circles around her finger. “You understand if I tell you, it’s only my opinion, right? It doesn’t make it fact.”
Addison nodded and waited, her heart beating wildly inside her chest.
“I mentioned that I had spoken to Roxy right before she died about a role she was auditioning for. During the conversation, she said she was going up against another actress who’d left her threatening phone calls.”
“What kind of threatening phone calls—what was said?”
“Apparently, the other actress said she’d been promised the role until Roxy’s name had been thrown into the mix.”
“Let me guess—my grandfather suggested the director audition Roxanne?”
“He did. This angered the other actress enough for her to make some pretty outrageous phone calls.”
“What was the name of the actress?”
“Dottie Davis.”
Addison thanked Celeste for her time and left with one goal in mind: she needed to find her grandfather.