Fate Interrupted: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Moonstone Cove Book 3)

by Elizabeth Hunter

  Chapter 22

  They gathered at Katherine and Baxter’s house while Adam retreated to the couch in the guest room, exhausted by his confession.

  Nico and Henry exchanged a look. “Do you remember seeing him that night?”

  “Vaguely,” Henry said. “We’d been talking about him maybe working at the vineyard this summer and what that would mean if he was interested. I was messing with him a little bit, trying to make it sound worse than it was, but I could tell he was serious, you know?” Henry looked at Megan.

  “Adam’s a good kid. If he told his dad about the vines, he didn’t mean any harm by it.”

  “Fuck,” Nico said. “When I was that age, if I’d heard a secret from one of my parents or their friends that sounded even vaguely exciting, I’d have told everyone.” Nico waved a hand. “He’s a kid, Megan.”

  “He feels responsible, and he doesn’t know what to think about his dad. Add that to hearing about the two of us—”

  “Finally!” Toni said. “It’s about time. Megan, I’ll get details later.”

  “No, you won’t.” Nico’s eyes were flat and humorless. “There will be no details.”

  “Details.” Toni stared at her cousin and didn’t give an inch. “So many details. I will have blackmail material for yeeeeears.”

  “As I was saying.” Megan tried to distract them. “Adam felt guilty and confused about his dad; then he felt like Nico was going to be angry at him if he found out and that might ruin Nico’s and my thing—”

  “Thing?” he muttered. “What does that even mean?”

  “Can we talk about that later?” Megan spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to explain why my son ran away.”

  “He didn’t really run away; he came here,” Katherine said. “I’m glad he felt safe to do that.”

  Baxter sat back in his armchair with his chin propped on his hand. “And this answers one very large and lingering question: Who knew about the vines and their importance? We’ve never been able to figure that out.”

  “But what would Rodney do with grapevines?” Megan asked. “And there’s no way he would kill someone. Not even if he was desperate. He couldn’t hold his stomach if the kids got a cut when they were little. Completely freaked out by blood.”

  Toni looked uncomfortable, but then, over the past week she always looked uncomfortable. “Megan, you have to see the connection.”

  Maybe Megan was tired, but none of this was making sense. Rodney might work in agriculture, but he wasn’t a farmer, and no one he worked with— Ooooh.

  “Angela Calvo?” Megan asked. “I admit I was suspicious before, but Katherine and her geologist friend confirmed her acreage isn’t the best for growing Poulsard.”

  “The acreage we know about.” Nico shrugged. “Who’s to say she doesn’t have more we don’t know about? Calvo has bought up land all over the coast. We have to take a second look.”

  “How are we supposed to do that?” Megan was thinking about her kids. Yet another one of Dad’s girlfriends ended up being a bust. This time for criminal reasons. “And do you really think the woman I met for lunch a couple of weeks ago is capable of murder?”

  “The second voice Val heard when she was examining the truck was a woman,” Katherine said. “There was a woman and a man before the victim was shot.”

  “And you think that was Angela?” She turned to Katherine. “Angela that we had lunch with and talked about the kids and she ordered a fish salad?”

  Katherine pursed her lips. “I never ruled out the possibility that she had sociopathic tendencies.”

  “A recent study estimated that three to four percent of senior business leaders have sociopathic or psychopathic traits,” Baxter said. “Personally, I believe that’s low, but I don’t have data to back it up.”

  “The woman is rich, beautiful, has real estate holdings and resorts,” Megan said. “Why on earth would she endanger all that to steal some rare grapevines?”

  “Angela Calvo was engaged to Whit Fairfield, who we know was willing to murder to get Nico’s wine caves,” Toni said. “Even though he could easily afford to build his own. Some people just think the world is theirs for the taking.” She shifted and leaned forward. “Kid, I’m about done with your kicking. Get your butt out of there if you’re that cramped up.”

  Henry rubbed her back. “It’s late. We should head home.”

  “I want to get my hands on that woman,” Toni said. “I’d make her talk, and I wouldn’t be subtle about it.”

  Katherine said, “I would bet Angela Calvo has some pretty impressive internal shields.”

  “Can we bring Val along to her winery and have her read stuff there?” Megan asked.

  “I think Sully said that he and Val were heading home tomorrow,” Henry said. “They’ve got to get back to Glimmer Lake.”

  “Dammit.” Megan looked at Katherine. “Still nothing on your end?”

  “I’ve been trying to focus on the victim’s face to see if I could discern any more details, but so far that hasn’t been successful. I spoke to Drew about where the truck was found, but nothing is coming to me.”

  “And I’m shaking my walls and uprooting trees, but none of that is very helpful right now.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I called Rodney when we found Adam. I don’t think I want to call him again tonight. I want to think about all this first.”

  “Agreed.” Nico put a hand on Megan’s shoulder. “You should take Adam home.”

  “If I can wake him up.”

  Katherine put her hand on Megan’s arm. “He can stay here tonight if he’d rather. He’s always welcome.”

  Megan was at the end of her rope and overwhelmed by the love and generosity in Katherine’s calm gaze. She felt her internal walls start to crumple under the weight of the day, and tears came to her eyes.

  Katherine quickly jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Megan as the tears came falling down. “Oh Megan.”

  She clutched her friend hard and only started crying harder when she felt Toni’s arms and belly join the crowd. “I couldn’t do this without you girls.”

  “Of course you can’t,” Toni said. “You let yourself be outnumbered by children, Atlanta. Rookie move. You need backup.”

  Megan laughed through her tears, pulled away, and looked at the two best friends she’d ever had. “I’m serious. I love you girls so much. I cannot imagine my life without you.”

  Katherine smiled. “My life is so much more interesting with you and Toni in it,” she said. “Friendship is the best experiment ever.”

  “The guys are staring at us,” Toni said.

  “Let them stare,” Megan said. “They’re just jealous.”

  “That’s quite likely,” Katherine said. “Masculine displays of affection are often maligned or misunderstood in American culture.”

  Nico was leaning against a wall, smiling at the three of them. “Shows what you know.” He waved at Henry. “Get over here, asshole.” Nico motioned toward Baxter. “You too, Professor. Bring it in.”

  Smiling, Henry put one arm around Nico and the other around Baxter. “Welcome to the Significant Others of Psychic Women Club, Nico.”

  Nico squeezed the other men tightly. “I’m struggling, guys. I don’t even know if I’m her significant other. She said we have a ‘thing.’ What the hell does that mean?”

  “Very imprecise labeling.” Baxter straightened his glasses, which had been jostled. “I understand your confusion.”

  “If the girls get Wine Wednesdays,” Nico said, “I’m calling for Scotch Sunday.”

  “I can get behind that.”

  “I do enjoy scotch.”

  Megan shook her head. “You three are ridiculous.”

  “And cute,” Toni said. “Very cute.” She waddled over to Henry. “Okay, handsome, take me home. I’m about to fall over.”

  “That’s because you’re off-balance.” He put a hand under her belly. “You need something here that rolls. Maybe a
wheelbarrow.”

  Toni walked up the stairs and toward the front door. “A wheelbarrow? Really?”

  “It’s just an idea.”

  Nico looked at Megan. “You going to let the kid sleep here or take him home?”

  “I’ll wake him up and ask what he wants to do.” She nodded toward the door. “Want me to walk you to your car?”

  “Hell yeah. We need to sort out this thing thing.” He winked at Katherine and reached for Baxter’s hand. “You two are great. I’m sending both my kids to you when they annoy me.”

  Katherine smiled. “Please don’t do that.”

  Megan walked with Nico out the front door and toward the faded brown pickup he’d parked on the corner. He unlocked the truck, opened the driver’s door, and turned to her. “So what’s our thing?”

  “Our thing?” Megan shook her head. “Maybe we ought to put all this on pause in the middle of a—”

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “Don’t agree. If you wait for the perfect time to go after the things you want, you’ll never get anywhere.”

  “I just think there’s a lot going on right now, and I need to prioritize my kids.”

  “Okay.” Nico nodded slowly. “And what about you?”

  Megan put her hands on her hips and huffed out a sigh. “What about me?”

  He swept his eyes over her, letting her feel the heat of his gaze. “You heard what Adam and Ethan both said earlier today. They think we’re cool.”

  “They’re fifteen and seventeen,” Megan said. “I think we can both agree that teenage boys don’t always know what’s best for them.”

  “And apparently you don’t always know what’s good for you either.” Nico leaned down, his lips hovering over hers. “When was the last time you did a purely selfish thing, Megan Alston-Carpenter?”

  “Last night,” she whispered. “Staying with you all night was selfish.”

  “Wrong. That was good, Atlanta. We’re good.” He pressed his lips to hers, gently but firmly. “I’m fine with going slow, but I don’t want to go backward. I finally found someone I can be real with. I found someone I admire. Not just how fantastic your ass is—which is very fantastic, by the way—but the kind of person you are. You’re the kind of woman I want my daughter and son to look up to. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. And yeah, I know that’s pretty sad.”

  “Then I’m sad too,” she blurted out. “Even when I was trying to make things work with Rodney, I knew he wasn’t the best person. I knew I didn’t want Adam to grow up to be like him. I knew I didn’t want my girls to marry anyone like him. He was… arrogant and boastful and selfish.”

  Nico bit his lip. “I can be an arrogant ass sometimes. I need to work on that.”

  “One, you admit it and yes, you do need to work on that. Two—and I am only going to say this once—if you’re arrogant, then you at least have something to back it up.”

  The corner of Nico’s mouth turned up. “Say it again.”

  “Never. I will never say that again.” She pressed her lips into a firm line. “Be grateful I said it once.”

  Nico stared at her. “Careful, Atlanta. When you put on that attitude, it just pushes me closer to falling in love with you.”

  Megan put a hand on his chest, felt his heart beating into her palm. “Slow down.” She met his eyes. “I’m telling you I need to go slow. We don’t need to go backward, but I gotta keep my head clear. You get me?”

  Nico took her hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed her palm. “Didn’t I tell you last night? I know how to take my time.”

  Chapter 23

  Katherine and Megan were downtown, sitting across Drew Bisset’s desk in his small office at the back of the Moonstone Cove Police Department.

  “Angela Calvo.” Drew pursed his lips. “I can’t lie—I looked at that woman top to bottom when her fiancé was murdered. There was something about her that rubbed me wrong, but I couldn’t find any connection between her and Whit Fairfield’s actions. As far as I could find out, she had no knowledge of the caves at the Dusi winery or Fairfield’s attempts to sabotage Toni’s cousin. She had no motive to want the man dead.”

  “But she inherited most of his estate,” Megan said.

  “Not most. Not even the majority. Just what they’d invested in together. In fact, the way his estate was planned, she would have gotten a much bigger portion if she’d killed him after they married and not before. Trust me, I looked at her hard. She just wasn’t the killer. Plus she had an ironclad alibi.”

  “What about now? What about the current case?”

  Drew’s eyebrows went up. “Now? You think she’s the one behind the vine theft?” He sat back in his chair. “I’m listening.”

  “My son found out about the Poulsard vines because he was eavesdropping at a family dinner at Nico’s one Sunday. The next day, he tells his father about the vines. Rodney, he doesn’t have land or any reason to steal grapevines other than maybe just messing with Nico.”

  “Which is a possibility,” Katherine said. “Even before Nico and Megan started seeing each other, she was working for him. Rodney might have wanted to hurt that relationship.”

  “What does your ex have to do with Angela Calvo?”

  “They’re dating,” Megan said. “He calls her his girlfriend. I even had lunch with her one time because she said she wanted to meet the kids.”

  Drew was nodding. “Okay, so your son told his dad about the grapevines. And you think his dad told his supposed new girlfriend—”

  “Why do you say ‘supposed’?” Megan asked.

  Drew shrugged one shoulder. “I just remember interviewing that woman and feeling cold all over. You say she was friendly with you, but I can’t see it. Now maybe she was just defensive when I spoke to her. Maybe she doesn’t like cops. Maybe she was in shock. But there was something very clinical in how she reacted to Fairfield’s death.”

  “You think her relationship with Rodney is fake?” Katherine asked.

  “Fake would be too far,” Drew said. “Maybe… opportunistic?”

  “Interesting.” Katherine tapped her thumb against her chin. “I wonder what a psychologist would say about her relationships with men.”

  “Whether she likes him or not,” Megan said, “she does seem interested in his happiness.”

  “Why do you say that?” Drew asked.

  “Because of the kids. That’s the first thing I picked up at our lunch when she was trying to get me to encourage a meeting with her and Rodney and the kids. She kept talking about how happy Rodney would be. How satisfied it would make him if the kids were willing to repair the relationship. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but in retrospect…”

  “She didn’t have any interest in the kids themselves?”

  Megan thought hard. “No. I’d say all her interest was directed toward making Rodney happy. Or content, I guess. Giving him what he wanted.”

  “Maybe that’s how she views relationships,” Katherine said. “Sociopaths generally view relationships as transactional. I give you this and you give me that. She wants Rodney happy for whatever reason, and she sees your children as a way to give him something he didn’t have before.”

  “But why would she want Rodney happy?” Megan asked. “I mean, I get that they’re dating, but the woman is beautiful and rich. She could likely have any single man in Moonstone Cove. Why Rodney?” She turned to Katherine. “If we’re thinking along your lines, that she’s a sociopath and all her relationships are transactional, what does he give her?”

  “Access to the country club,” Katherine said. “Access to his business.”

  “What is that going to do for her?” Megan asked. “Really?”

  Drew’s eyes were boring into Megan, and his chin was resting on a fist. “You.”

  Megan frowned. “Me what?”

  “Dating Rodney,” Drew said, “gives Angela Calvo access to you.” His eyes moved to Katherine. “And you. And Toni. The three women who were inv
olved in solving her fiancé’s murder. The three women who kept those wine caves from being acquired by Fairfield Family Wines.”

  Drew cautioned both Katherine and Megan to proceed cautiously with Angela Calvo while he did some background checking on her movements in the previous few weeks. Since Megan was still in shock over Adam’s brief disappearance and the idea that her previous sleuthing might have brought dangerous attention to her family, she was happy to comply.

  Megan spent Saturday catching up with clients.

  “If you’re dead set on Saturday, the soonest I can get you in at the Dusi winery is February of next year.” She listened as the bride completely lost it, then waited for the mother to take the phone. “Good morning, Ms. Harris, how are you? I know she’s disappointed, but I will tell you, I have planned some sunset weddings in the fall—when all the colors are changing in the vineyards and the weather is cooling down—that are absolutely stunning. Don’t think spring surprise, think fall sophistication.”

  She coaxed the mother and daughter into rethinking a Friday-night wedding and managed to book them—with a healthy deposit—for mid-October, which gave Megan a healthy eight-month window to plan a gorgeous fall wedding.

  Her next call was to a woman planning a golden anniversary party for her parents. Megan tried not to let her voice betray her.

  “Oh, Evelyn, I remember planning my folks’ golden too. I think what they’re going to appreciate most is the people. So if you have to cut one budget item, I’d find a slightly less fancy venue and trade off with the bigger guest list. The friends are going to create the memories, if you know what I mean. I think going more rustic instead of country club might be a lot of fun, and I have two venues in mind right off the top of my head.”