Free Ghost in the Polka Dot Bikini: A Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery by Sue Ann Jaffarian Page A

Grant’s not exactly a favorite topic with them.” After patting the old man’s arm, she sat back down on the sofa. “And how is Deirdre?” she asked, referencing Grant’s older sister.
    “Fine as ever. We all went up to their home in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. Celeste and I stayed the weekend. Grant and his brood returned to LA Thursday evening.” His final words drifted off, as if he wished he hadn’t said them.
    “Sounds lovely.” Emma tried to keep her voice even to assure George that whatever Grant did, it didn’t matter to her anymore.
    “Very tiring for me, but worth it to see everyone together, even if Grant and Deirdre don’t get along that well. Deirdre’s family asked after you and Kelly. Celeste happily filled them in on Kelly’s schooling and your show.” He paused to take a breath.
    “I’m tiring you.”
    “Nonsense.” He waved off her concern. “Most days I sit here alone. Feels good to have an intelligent conversation with someone I care about.” He took another deep breath, this time keeping the cough at bay. “You still seeing that guy from Julian?”
    “Yes, I am. In fact, Phil and I went to Catalina over the holiday.”
    “Catalina.” George said the word softly, tasting it like a long- forgotten favorite food.
    He closed his eyes and leaned his head, with its thinning white hair and translucent skin, back against the fine grain of the leather—his skull a pale yolk in a pool of dried blood. For one startling moment, Emma thought he’d died. Then he smiled and opened his eyes.
    “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Catalina. Used to go there on fishing trips with buddies, mostly from the industry. Decades ago, it was the scene of many wild parties.” George gave a little cough into the handkerchief before continuing. “Later, we went there as a family. With you and Kelly, too. Remember that?” Emma nodded. George closed his eyes again. “Happier times, that’s for sure. Or at least healthier ones.”
    After giving George a moment to rest, Emma opened up the topic of Tessa North. “George, do you remember a young actress from years ago named Tessa North?”
    George remained still. Emma wondered if he’d heard her. She was about to repeat the question when he asked, “Should I?”
    “She was in one of your movies from the sixties. A film called Beach Party Prom .”
    The mention of the film’s title caused George Whitecastle to give off a strong but short laugh, followed by more coughing. “Now there’s a title I’d hoped never to hear again.” He looked at Emma, his tired eyes circled with mirth. “Where in the hell did you ever uncover that asinine thing?”
    “When I was on Catalina Island, the name Tessa North came up. Research on her connected me to that movie, then to you.”
    George adjusted himself in his chair before answering. “Everyone was doing those awful teen beach movies back then. They were moneymakers, no matter how bad they were.”
    “Do you remember Tessa? Her real name was Theresa Nowicki. She was a bit player in the movie—one of the beach bunnies.”
    He knitted his brows and thought a minute before answering. “Sorry, neither name sounds familiar. But then I never remember extras from current films, let alone…damn, what was that…thirty-five, forty years ago?”
    “Just over forty.”
    George fixed his aging eyes on his former daughter-in-law and studied her. “Why the interest in a nobody from the sixties?”
    Emma wasn’t sure what to tell George. She didn’t know how much he knew, if anything, about her clairvoyant activities. Grant and his family might not know at all, unless Kelly told them, but she doubted her daughter would do that. Kelly had been on vacation with her father when Emma initially came face to face with the spirit world, but when her daughter returned home, Emma had sat her down and explained the situation. At first shrouded in disbelief, Kelly eventually came to understand that her mother had