She hung up and used her voice command to make the call.
“Calling Nico Dusi,” her car said.
After a few rings, he picked up. “Yeah?” Nico’s voice sounded like he’d just woken from a nap or hadn’t spoken for a few hours.
“Nico?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, it’s me. What’s up?”
“It’s Megan.”
“That explains why Atlanta popped up on my phone just now.”
His voice was low and growly, and Megan really, really wished that it didn’t do things to her, but it really, really did.
“Nice.” She forced herself to keep it cool. “Can you or Henry pick Katherine and Toni up at Baur Cellars and bring them back to the winery?”
“Can I ask why?”
“I was snooping around behind the winery and someone was following me. I managed to confuse him, but then I had to take off. Katherine and Toni are still there.”
“Right.” He took a deep breath, and Megan was halfway sure the man had been taking an afternoon nap.
She pictured him stretched out on the couch in his office, his face relaxed and his gorgeous lips parted just a little as he breathed deeply.
Calm down, Sugar!
“I’ll go pick them up in a minute,” he said. “Meet me at Toni’s house, okay? She probably needs to get home. Henry’s breathing down my neck about her not working too hard.”
“Sounds good, partner. I’ll meet you there.”
Chapter 9
Megan was waiting on the front porch when Nico’s pickup truck pulled into the shaded gravel drive at Toni’s cottage. Katherine’s head popped up from the back seat, and Toni’s head was barely over the dashboard.
As Nico came to a stop, Megan walked over and opened Toni’s door. “Do you need a step stool?”
“Ha ha.” Toni raised an eyebrow. “Thanks for ditching us.”
“I had to make a quick escape.” Megan helped Toni down from the truck and held the door for Katherine as she climbed out. “Did you want some intern at Baur to figure out what we were doing?”
She looked at Nico. It was the first time she’d been in the same place with him since he’d kissed her, and they were far from alone. Nico glanced at her, then quickly looked away.
Good. That was good. They should just pretend that it hadn’t happened. It had just been a slip after all.
“I don’t think anything is going on at Baur,” Megan said. “I didn’t see any facilities that look anything like a greenhouse. Unless they have ranch offices on another site, I think the Baurs are out of the running as vine thieves.”
“That’s a relief.” Nico shoved his hands in his pockets. “Beth would hate my guts if I had to accuse her boyfriend’s family of something like that.”
Toni turned to him. “So does this mean she can finally bring the kid to family dinner?”
“Yeah, no. I still do not approve of this bullshit, so don’t act like it’s cute. She’s going to Berkeley next year. She doesn’t need a boyfriend mucking her life up.”
“Berkeley?” Katherine said. “That’s impressive. Does she know what she wants to study?”
“Prelaw,” Nico said. “She’s been wearing Notorious RBG shirts since she was thirteen. It’s a thing.” He walked up the porch to Toni’s front door. “Henry here?”
“Not yet,” Toni said. “He’s on his way home.” She lowered herself onto a chair and kicked her feet up on the low railing that circled the porch. “Ahhhh, that feels so good. Nico, can you get me a beer?”
He frowned for a second, then nodded. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”
“You can’t have a beer!” Megan said. “How many times do we have to go over this?”
“I feel like I’ve been pregnant for twenty-five years, so I think the baby is actually legal at this point!” Toni leaned back and groaned. “Fine. Ginger ale will do.”
“You got it.” Nico looked relieved. “I mean, I’d get you a beer, but I don’t want to hear a lecture.”
They waited on the porch for Henry to arrive home. All four of them had drinks and were gathered around Toni, whose eyes were drooping in the afternoon sun.
“So where are we?” Nico asked. “Baur is a no. What about Sullivan?”
“They’re tomorrow,” Katherine said. “Today we only got to Fairfield and Baur. Sullivan and Coral Ranch are tomorrow.”
“And what about Fairfield?” Henry asked. “Any leads there?”
“I didn’t get the feeling that they were hiding anything,” Toni said. “But then again, I didn’t spend much time talking with anyone who might be involved.”
“That’s the problem with visiting wineries.” Megan sipped the glass of pinot grigio Katherine had poured for her. “Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against wine tasting, but we can only visit as guests. So unless I sneak back to the offices like I did with Baur today, we’re not going to find any secret stashes of grapevines.”
Toni said, “And I haven’t been able to question anyone who would really know something. All we’re really meeting are tasting-room employees, and they don’t know much. If I’d been able to question the owner—”
“I don’t think she’s involved,” Megan said. “Do you?”
Nico asked, “Fairfield’s fiancée was there?”
The conversation stopped as Henry pulled up in his truck and got out, all in one fluid movement. “Frost is officially over.” He walked over and kissed Toni. “Hey, sexy.”
“Hey yourself.” She brushed a hand over his cheek. “How was work?”
Nico was frowning. “What did you say about frost?”
“I was looking at the forecast and they’re saying last frost is officially past.” Henry straightened and ran a hand through his hair. “Which means that whoever stole our vines can plant them anytime they want. And once they get into a vineyard…”
“There’s no way of telling what they are or who cloned them,” Megan said. “Not until they start producing fruit.”
Nico drummed his fingers on his knee a second before he burst to his feet and started pacing up and down the porch. “Fuck. You guys need to be moving faster. Toni, can’t you just do the brain… truth-serum thing you do?”
“It’s not that simple,” Toni said. “I have to make sure my abilities are working right. And I have to get close enough to a subject that they’ll let me touch them.”
Katherine said, “Do you have any remnants from the vines? Any leaves or branches left? I was going to try to focus my visions and see if I could do anything closer to what our friend Monica does in Glimmer Lake.”
“I can get you some branches,” Nico said. “Megan, what about you?”
She swallowed her mouthful of wine. “What about me? You have something you want me to destroy? Someone’s tasting room you want me to demolish? I might be willing to mess up Fairfield.”
Nico was frowning. “What? Why?”
Had she said that out loud? Oops. “Oh, just… ’cause.”
Katherine tapped Nico’s arm. “Megan found out today that her ex-husband is dating the woman who owns Fairfield Family Wines now. Her name is Angela—”
“Calvo,” Henry said. “Yeah, we know. Your ex is dating that lady?” Henry appeared to shiver. “Good luck with that one.”
“What do you think is wrong with her?” Katherine said. “She reminded me very much of Megan. Of course, she could be a sociopath.”
Megan blinked. “Excuse me?”
Katherine said, “Angela Calvo, I mean. She reminds me of you because she came across as very polite but business focused. I don’t think you’re a sociopath, Megan.”
“Thanks?” Megan wavered between amused and insulted, but it was Katherine, so she landed on amused.
The professor continued. “Calvo is traditionally beautiful and quite tall. I don’t know what the statistics are regarding traditional beauty and sociopathy. But it appears Rodney has a type.” She frowned. “I generally believe that romantic types are just a way of micro
targeting attraction that our brain does subconsciously.”
Nico was staring at Katherine with an expression halfway between confusion and amusement. “Trust me, I’ve met Angela Calvo, and Megan is nothing like her,” he said. “Megan is smart but not conniving; she’s a great mom and looks out for the people she cares about. She’s loyal as hell and genuinely cares about serving her clients. Other than a few superficial things, they’re nothing alike. And I’m pretty sure Calvo’s had a nose job. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I guess. I’m just saying she’s not…” He looked around the group at everyone staring. “She’s just not much like Megan. That’s all.”
For the second time that night, Megan was feeling a little awkward. “Thanks?”
Katherine leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand. “You think very highly of Megan.”
Nico glanced at Megan, then pointed at Toni. “Everything I hear from people who’ve dealt with the Calvo woman tells me she’s not a good person, and Megan is. That’s all I’m saying.”
Megan felt forced to speak. “I keep hearing all this negative stuff about her too, but the woman I met mostly seems accomplished and educated. Maybe a little reserved? Some people probably find that intimidating. Her marketing for the winery is spot-on, even if it’s not the most ethical representation of the past.” She took a deep breath. “And she seems very nice too.” It was going to be weird not to have to make snarky jokes about her ex’s merry-go-round girlfriends. “She introduced herself to me, and I have to say I think people might be misjudging her.” The words nearly stuck in her throat, but what else could she say? Angela Calvo seemed perfectly nice. She couldn’t justify hating her just because she was dating Rodney. Besides, Angela had been engaged to Whit Fairfield. Maybe she had a blind spot when it came to love.
“Okay, sure.” Henry and Nico exchanged a look, and Nico shrugged.
“Getting back to our grapes,” Nico said, “did you get in touch with that friend of yours who can do the hand stuff?”
Megan looked at Toni. “Translation?”
“Okay. One, Nico you walked into so many jokes with that one. You’re lucky I’m not fifteen anymore. And two, I think he’s talking about Val.” Toni wiggled her fingers. “You know, touchy-touchy-feely stuff?”
“Oh right.” Megan looked at Nico. “I’m waiting to hear back from her. She’s got two kids and a business, so she’s pretty busy.”
“It’s been three days” —Nico leaned on a corner of the porch railing and braced his arms behind him— “and we officially have nothing? No suspects? No locations? Not even any hints?”
“We’ve eliminated a couple of people,” Toni said. “Which is more than you had before.”
“We’re not the police,” Megan said. “We told you this already. Didn’t you say that Detective Bisset is trying to track down what kind of truck it might have been? They got some tire tracks or something; is there any news on that?”
Henry said, “Not to be a pessimist, but chances are it was a regular old Chevy pickup. Probably a white extended cab with a toolbox and a trailer hitch.”
Megan frowned. “Like yours?”
“Like Henry’s and literally every other farmer between here and Santa Barbara,” Toni said. “Everyone has that truck.”
“Fine.” Megan threw up her hands. “We’ll keep visiting wineries, I guess. Hopefully Val can come down here before whatever trace energy left in the greenhouse is gone.”
“Stop acting like visiting wineries is a chore,” Nico said. “People go on vacation to do that shit.”
“It’s a chore when I can’t drink,” Toni muttered. “And I think I better stick to one winery a day, ladies.” Henry sat next to her and rubbed Toni’s hand. “I’m not feeling great tonight. I think doing a visit in the morning is about all I can manage.”
“Okay.” Megan and Katherine exchanged glances. “We can look into some other ones on our own too.”
“I put a graduate student on tracking down geological survey maps for all the growers we’re visiting,” Katherine said. “I’m trying to pinpoint which vineyards have the best soil for Poulsard grapes. I’ve eliminated quite a few possibilities already and identified others. For the record, the Fairfield winery has very little acreage that would be suitable for Poulsard grapes. Nico, would you like me to email the results so far?”
“Yeah,” he said. “That sounds great. Thank you.”
“It could be seeing a list of land owners might jog your memory too,” Megan said. “Help you think of other people who might have taken the vines. It occurred to me yesterday that there is no reason that a grower wouldn’t have taken them. It might be someone who sells their fruit to other wineries.”
Nico looked exhausted. “I hadn’t even thought about that part. You’re right. It might be someone completely on the production end.”
Most wineries didn’t use all their own grapes to produce wine. Nico bought from between three and five different growers every season, farmers who produced excellent wine grapes but didn’t want to get into the winemaking and marketing business.
If a grower had stolen Nico’s vines, it might be completely impossible to find them. Heck, they might not even know what they had.
“I keep coming back to why,” Megan said. “Why these vines? Why go to all the bother? Take all the risk? We’re talking about two dozen grapevines, for Pete’s sake.”
“They knew what they were.” Nico rose to his feet and stuck his hands in worn pockets. “They had to. Otherwise, there’s no point. There’s no reason to risk it for two dozen run-of-the-mill grapevines.”
Megan looked up. “Then we come back to the first question: Who knew about the vines? Who knew what they were? Who figured out why they were so important?”
Nico and Henry looked at each other, then looked away.
“I guess it all comes down to trust,” Nico said. “Unfortunately, I’m a little low on that at the moment.”
Chapter 10
Megan was sitting at her kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee and looking at the local paper the next morning when she heard the knock at the door. She quickly checked her hair in the mirror. She needed a haircut, but she hadn’t made an appointment yet.
A tall figure stood beyond the door, his broad shoulders creating a distinctive silhouette. Megan opened the door and smiled at Drew Bisset.
“Hey, Drew! It’s been a minute.”
“Yeah, it has.”
The police detective leaned on her doorjamb with the easy confidence of a man with purpose. His close-cropped curly black hair looked like it had been trimmed recently, and while his dark eyes were wise, his deep brown complexion showed not a hint of age.
Drew Bisset was one of those irritatingly handsome men who would look like he was in the prime of his life until he was seventy.
“How you been?”
“Hummin’ along,” she said. “Come on in for coffee?”
“If you’ve got time.”
“I got time for friends.”
“I got a few questions for you too.”
“About?”
“Nico’s vines.”
“Ah.” She turned and ushered him through the entryway and into the kitchen breakfast area where a view of the Santa Lucia Mountains rose in the distance.
Despite his being a police detective, Drew was one of the people in Moonstone Cove Megan felt most comfortable with. He was a newcomer to the town like she was, having moved to California from Chicago with his wife and two daughters. He also had relatives in Georgia, so his manners were more familiar to Megan than most people’s in town.
“Now, I offered coffee, but I know you prefer tea,” Megan said. “I’ll put some water on.”
“If it’s no trouble.” Drew sat at the table and looked around. “I don’t know that I’ve been to your place before.”
“Now that I think of it, I don’t think you have.” Megan pushed the button on the electric kettle and brought out a small basket of tea she kep
t in the cupboard. “We usually go to Katherine’s or Toni’s place. Rodney picked this place out before the kids and I moved.”
Drew was looking around with narrowed eyes. “It’s very… large.”
She tried not to snort over the packets of tea. “You could say that. And kind of soulless, to be honest. Our house in Atlanta was much older, and it had a lot of personality.”
“Old houses do.”
“Of course, they have a lot of repairs too,” Megan said. “With it being just me now, probably better that I don’t have that many home-improvement projects going on, right?”
“That’s a good point.” He relaxed back in his chair. “We bought an older place close to downtown a year after we moved here. Liked the neighborhood, you know? Nice big trees. Porches on the front of houses, original flooring, all that jazz.”
Megan shook her head. “And there’s a new project every month.”
He shook his head. “Try every week.”
“Sorry. But also not sorry. I’d love to get a place close to downtown even if I did have projects.”
He drummed his fingers on the table. “Like I said, I didn’t come here to talk about home improvement.”
“What’s up?” She sipped her coffee and listened for the teakettle in the background.
“Have you and the girls been poking around about the theft at Nico’s place earlier this week?”
Megan kept her eyes wide and guileless. “The grapevines they were working on? It just makes me sick, thinking about it. So much time and energy put in for things to just go poof! Have you made any progress finding out who did it?”
“There’s been a significant development, and you didn’t answer my question.”
The teakettle whistled and Megan stood. “What’s the development?”
“Are you and your friends looking into who took Nico’s vines?”
“What would we know about that?” She poured some steaming water into a large mug and brought that and the basket of tea to the table. “I mean, maybe Toni would have some knowledge about all that, but she’s about ready to pop, and we both know Katherine and I are far more about drinking wine than analyzing it.”
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