“And yet every time I go to a winery that Nico has mentioned might be on the suspect list, I find pictures of you and your girlfriends on the security footage.”
Megan sat down, braced her arm on the table, and rested her chin in her palm. She carefully shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know what to tell you. We love wine tasting.”
“With an eight-months-pregnant woman in tow?”
“She’s the independent type, Drew. You know that.” And I’m definitely not going to tell you about Katherine’s data gathering or soil samples.
“So I’m supposed to believe that all of you just happen to be visiting each and every place that Nico mentioned to me?”
“I mean… it’s Moonstone Cove. There just aren’t that many people to begin with, Drew. And if Nico thinks some of these wineries might have something to do with a theft, that would be worth following up on, right?”
Drew shook his head as he dipped a black tea bag in his mug. “Have you considered that Nico is not the best person to be advising you on any of this? He’s emotional. Desperate even. The man is paranoid and looking for conspiracies everywhere.”
“To be fair,” Megan said, “he did just survive a conspiracy that had him pinned as a murder suspect not long ago. All so someone could try to steal the land his wine caves are situated on.”
“Okay, you’re not wrong, but—”
“And now he and Henry have put years of work into a top secret project that could transform their winery and put it on the map with something completely new. But it was stolen from behind his own house, and he can’t even figure out who knew what they were working on.”
“Now you’re getting somewhere,” Drew said. “Think about that, why don’t you?”
That brought Megan up short. “Think about what? That no one knew what they were working on?”
“Yeah.” Drew shook his head. “It just can’t be right, can it? Someone knew what those vines were and how important they were. Otherwise, why bother? Why the risk?”
His face was too grim to be solely worried about grapevines.
“You said a significant development has occurred in the case.” Megan was starting to get a very bad feeling about that significant development.
Drew nodded.
“Did you find the truck?”
“Yeah, we did. It had been reported stolen in Santa Maria last Monday night. White Chevy extended cab with a toolbox in back, like every other truck on the road around here.”
“The same night the vines went missing? That’s fast.” So they stole the truck and probably drove it straight to Nico’s house. “They knew what they were after.” There had to be something else putting that angry look in Drew’s eye. “What aren’t you telling me about this truck?”
“We found blood,” Drew said. “A lot of it.”
Megan felt like she might throw up. “You found blood in the truck?”
“Not in the truck, in the bed.”
“How much—?”
“Way more than a scratch,” he said quietly. “Put it this way: I have never seen that amount of blood in one place without seeing a dead body very close by.”
“Oh my God.” Megan rose and added a warm-up to her cup. This changed everything. She turned and looked at Drew. “Have you told Nico?”
“I wanted to tell you first, just in case you had any illusions about playing detective on this case.”
She nodded slowly. “I see.”
“And also because I think Nico listens to you. He needs to start looking at his family, Megan. I know he doesn’t want to consider them, but they’re the most likely pool of suspects. All these other wineries are a distraction.”
No.
It was a gut-level reaction, and Megan was surprised by the vehemence. “They’re a close family,” she said. “You think they’d do that to one of their own?”
“They’re a big, complicated family with big, intertwined businesses, and Nico is trying to step out of that shadow with something new. Something that could put him on the map, but something that’s also cost him a great deal of time and attention.”
“And?”
“And as soon as we found that truck, this case got a lot more complicated. Now we’re looking for a victim to go with all that blood, and this is about way more than missing grapevines even if they are superspecial rare vines.” Drew waved a hand.
Megan blinked. “Yes, but the vines are still the motivation. You have to keep looking for them.”
“We’re looking for a possible murderer, Megan. Grapevines are not the priority here.”
“But why was someone killed? Probably, that is. It all comes back to the original crime.”
“You think someone got killed or maimed over grapevines?” Drew was incredulous.
“Why not? President Reagan got shot because a sad, strange man wanted to impress Jodie Foster. People commit murder—or try to—for all sorts of weird slights.”
“Okay, say you’re right. That line of thinking leads right back to Nico’s family,” Drew said.
“How?”
“Let’s just say that a little bird told me some people in the family might not understand why he is so obsessed with this grape. After all, things have been going really well the way they are. You plant an acre or even a partial acre in these experimental vines, that means that land isn’t planted in something that’s a sure moneymaker.”
Megan started to see where Drew was going with this. “You think someone in the family decided that Nico and Henry needed to be spending more time on the proven lines at the winery, not the experimental stuff.”
Drew shrugged. “It makes as much sense as anything else about this case. You know, Poulsard grapes used to be grown in Santa Cruz.”
Megan frowned. “What? I thought Henry said—”
“All the vines were wiped out in the Phylloxera epidemic. Little bug that took out nearly all of California’s wine grapes.”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“Maybe these vines could mean big success,” Drew said. “And maybe they could mean a very expensive failure. Either way, it’s a fair bet that not every Dusi was on board with Nico taking the chance.”
“Which means that someone in the family could also be responsible for all that blood.”
“I’m not saying that. Maybe they hired someone to help them. Maybe something went wrong. But if something went wrong and mistakes happened, then it’s more important than ever that whoever is behind the vine theft come forward and clear this all up.”
“But if Katherine and Toni and I were looking into the theft—”
“Which I’m sure you’re not, because I just told you it took a very dangerous turn.”
“Right.” Megan’s mind was racing. “Of course we’re not.”
Drew carefully stirred his tea. “Because you know it’s a police matter.”
“It definitely is.” She sipped her coffee. “I mean, what would we know about unraveling a criminal conspiracy?” It’s not like we haven’t solved two other ones right under your nose or anything. Megan smiled and sipped her coffee.
“It’s way out of your comfort zone. Especially with Toni nearly ready to give birth.”
She stood and reached for his empty mug on the table. “I better get to work. Don’t want to run you off, but—”
“It’s fine. Thank you for the tea.” Drew walked down the entryway but turned just before he reached the door. “Keep in mind what I was saying about the Dusis, will you? We both come from big families, but that clan is on another level.”
“Fair enough.” Megan didn’t even like thinking that one member of Toni and Nico’s family would betray another, but maybe she wasn’t thinking of it the right way. Maybe someone was trying to save face or save Nico and Henry from heartbreak or financial ruin.
A lot of presumptuous decisions throughout history had been made in the name of sparing feelings or knowing better than a loved one.
What that meant for Nico and his fam
ily? She didn’t even want to hazard a guess.
She video-called Toni and Katherine as soon as she got home from work that day.
“What’s up?” Toni looked exhausted.
“Did something violent happen about the vines?” Katherine said. “I had a microvision yesterday, but then it disappeared so abruptly I wasn’t sure I should say anything.”
“What was the vision?”
“A face being covered by dirt. It looked quite dead. The face, not the dirt.”
“Shit.” Well, that definitely meant the blood wasn’t just from an accident. “Uh, yeah. Drew came by this morning. They found the truck that went to the winery, and when they got to the scene, there was a bunch of blood.”
“I’ll write down all the details I can remember about the vision,” Katherine said. “See if I can narrow down where the man might have been buried.”
Toni sighed. “Does this mean Nico’s going to be accused of murder again? Because I’m getting so tired of that.”
“It’s possible that it all happened at the same time the vines were stolen, in which case, he has an alibi,” Megan said. “Drew didn’t mention anything about Nico being a suspect.” The entire rest of your family, however…
“Katherine, can you draw the face?” Toni asked. “Maybe get an idea of who this person is. If someone killed them, it was probably because they know who took Henry and Nico’s vines.”
“Vines are worth killing over?” Katherine said.
Toni said, “Didn’t some mom in Texas kill a teenage girl to get her kid on the cheerleading squad? Something like that?”
“I don’t understand humans.” Katherine frowned. “At all.”
Chapter 11
Two days after Drew’s visit, Megan was sitting in her office, fielding calls from the Harrington bride and the Harrington mother, both of whom were trying to convince Megan that the other one didn’t have the final say on the table arrangements.
“Ashley, I know this is your wedding,” Megan was saying. “But I also know your parents are the ones who actually hired me. Do you think this is something the two of you could work out today? It’s not very effective to have me as your go-between. Your rehearsal is tomorrow, and I’m sure you don’t want this tension hanging over you and your mother when the day comes.”
“I just do not understand why they think all their business friends need to be right in the front instead of our actual friends!”
As long as she could get most of the Harrington guests near the wine cellar to buy extra bottles, Megan couldn’t care less where they sat, but she got both Ashley’s and her mother’s positions.
“Listen—for you, it’s your wedding. For them, it’s a huge celebration of your family, your father’s business, your mother’s charity connections. It’s not all about them, of course, but it is somewhat about them. They’re proud of you; it’s natural to want to show off.”
Framing it that way seemed to mollify Ashley.
“I guess.” She sighed.
“Listen, why don’t I call your mother and work out a compromise where the right side of the banquet space will be your friends and family, and the left side will be your parents’ friends?” The left side was also the one closest to the wine cellar and the store.
Not that she was only thinking about marketing.
“That sounds perfect.” And Ashley sounded near tears. “Are you sure you want to take on my mother?”
She saw Nico lingering in her half-open doorway and waved him in.
“Oh honey, don’t you worry about me.” Megan made a note on her calendar to call Mrs. Harrington and opened the seating chart to tinker with it as Nico sat in the chair across from her. “I’ve been charming mamas into doing things my way since I was old enough to talk. Now that I know that you’re willing to compromise, you leave it to me and try to get some sleep before the big day. You don’t want your makeup artist to have extra work because you’ve put on dark circles, am I right?”
“Thank you, Megan!”
“I’ll send you a text when I have it all worked out,” she said. “I’m already moving things around.” She took the phone from her ear and continued to shuffle the names around the tables. She’d already marked them with different colors for the bride, groom, and parents. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Nico stretched out his legs, brushing her feet with his ankles under her desk.
Megan froze and glanced up.
“Sorry,” he said. “I forget how small your office is.”
“I am going double-time to fix this and then call Judy Harrington to convince her that this is the best setup for seating, so I don’t have a ton of time. What’s up?”
“That wedding is this weekend?”
“Yes.” She kept shifting names that were nearly as familiar to her as her own Thanksgiving table. “Your cousin is going to this wedding.”
“Frank?” Nico nodded. “Yeah, he and Harrington did some business together a while back. Land development of some kind.”
“So they’re friendly?”
“About as friendly as you can get with someone who tried to stab your cousin in the back on another deal. It’s a wary partnership from what Frank says.”
Keeping her mind on the idea Drew had presented, Megan asked, “So I know you and Frank are close. Did he know about the Poulsard grapes?”
“Frank?” Nico shook his head. “I probably could have used his greenhouses if I wanted to, and I might if we get everything back and then go into major production. But I didn’t talk to him about it before.” He frowned, then looked out the window.
“So no one from your family knew about it except Henry?”
“I mean… my dad and my uncle knew. I send them quarterly reports for the estate, and I had to account for the extra pay I was sending Henry’s way for all the extra work the past couple of years.”
“Oh.” Well… shit. That changed everything. “So your dad and your uncle knew about the vines? It wasn’t just you and Henry?”
“Yeah, but my dad and uncle aren’t going to say jack shit about our stuff. They trust me on knowing what to do with the wine, so no one outside the family would have any reason to know what we were doing.”
But what if someone other than Nico’s father and uncle got curious? What if someone in the Dusi clan decided that the decision to diversify into new varietals wasn’t a decision Nico should be making for the family winery?
She glanced up at Nico. “Hey! I was thinking I might bring the girls to Sunday dinner this weekend if that’s okay. Adam has been hanging out a lot, but the girls haven’t said hello to everyone in a while.”
“Yeah.” Nico smiled. “That would be great.”
She made it home that night after multiple back-and-forth conversations with the mother of the bride. God help her if she ever was so much of a bridezilla over either of her daughters’ weddings.
Adam was in the kitchen, heating a pot of ramen on the stove.
“Hey!” She walked over and slid an arm around his waist, hugging him from the side, which was about all she could manage to get from him most days. “How are you? How was your day at school?”
Adam gave her a quick squeeze and then shrugged her off. “Okay.”
Moody. So moody.
“You didn’t have basketball practice tonight?”
“Short one. We have a game tomorrow.”
“Right.” She nodded. “So I was thinking I’d take you and the girls up to the Dusis’ for Sunday dinner this week. What do you think?”
Adam shrugged. “Sure. I’ll be there anyway with the guys.”
“You know Nico’s boy, Ethan, right?”
“Of course. He’s on the JV team but he’s good, so they pull him up for varsity sometimes. He practices with us.”
“Right.” She nodded. “And the other Dusi cousins?”
He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Why do you care?”
Gone were the days when her little man would talk her ear off about any
thing and everything. Gone were the days of sharing his excitements with her along with his fears.
“I just want to know your friends, honey. Isn’t that pretty normal for a mom?”
“It’s fine.” He stirred the pot of ramen and added some green onions he’d chopped himself. “They’re all on the basketball team, which means their grades are good and they’re, like, well-behaved and stuff.”
“It’s not about that.” It was kinda about that. “I just want to know the boys you’re spending time with. Want to know who their parents are. Their families.”
“Well, like half of them are related to Toni and Nico, so you know a bunch of them.”
“And the other half?”
Adam looked as if he were being tortured or interrogated in a darkened room or something. “Mom, it’s not a big deal.”
“It is to me.” She put her fists on her hips. “What is up with you lately?”
“Nothing!” He took the pot of ramen, poured it into a serving bowl, and carried the whole thing toward the hallway leading back to the bedrooms.
“Young man, we are not done speaking.”
He turned, a pained expression on his face. “What?”
Adam was dancing right on the edge. He knew that out-and-out disrespect would make his life a world of hurt, so he was juuuuuuust skating to the edge, pretending like she was the unreasonable one for asking so many questions.
It was a technique his father had used many, many times, a way of minimizing her concerns and insinuating that she was overreacting even when she wasn’t.
Oh no, Adam Conroy Carpenter. We are not repeating this pattern. Not even a little bit.
Megan walked over, her arms crossed over her a chest. She stood in front of Adam and looked up. “Young man, you better be real careful right now with how you’re addressing your mother.”
“What?”
She raised an eyebrow and saw his haughty expression fall. “What is going on with you lately?”
There was a flash of something small and sad and needy before he hid it with adolescent bravado. “It’s just stuff with Dad and this new woman. I didn’t want to say anything to you because… it’s, like, embarrassing.”
Fate Interrupted: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Moonstone Cove Book 3) Page 9