by Cat Chandler
A little put off by Jane’s attack on Matt, Nicki dug in her heels. “He knows I have guests here all the time. One more wouldn’t have bothered me at all.”
“And where are the little tokens of affection that are so important in a new relationship? Flowers? Cards?”
Now completely exasperated, Nicki blew out a loud breath of air. “He bought me a car for goodness’ sake, Jane. A car. I think that pretty much trumps any flowers, cards, or candy.”
“Because you needed one?”
Nicki blinked. “Well, yes. But he didn’t have to do that.”
Jane smiled. “Of course he did, just like he needs someone who loves him in spite of all his little quirky engineer traits.”
“Like taking a half hour to pick out a flavor of ice cream?” Nicki grinned. She could still see Matt pacing up and down in front of the ice cream case, carefully considering every flavor in it.
“Exactly. And he loves you too. The only thing Matt wants in his life is to know that you’ve decided he’s the one.” Jane’s smile softened as she pushed her glasses higher up her nose. “I just thought that you might need to be reminded of that. He’s definitely spending more time at work than he should, but you are still his first priority. I hope you won’t let his tendency to have a single-minded focus at work sometimes make you rethink your relationship. Because you are absolutely perfect for him.”
“I won’t,” Nicki said softly. “And thank you, Jane.” Nicki felt moisture start to gather at the corners of her eyes, so she quickly turned away and put out her briskest no-nonsense voice, which of course was no comparison to Jane’s, but it would have to do. “Shall we get to work?”
Three hours later, the sound of the front door of the townhouse opening had Nicki looking over her shoulder. She really should get into the habit of locking it. At least until Viola’s killer was caught.
“Yoo hoo. Ladies?” Maxie walked into the office and shook her head at them. “Do the two of you intend to work the entire day away?”
Jane stood up and put her hands on the small of her back. “A break would be nice. Nicki is a very hard taskmaster.”
Nicki returned her attention to her screen. “I made the coffee.”
The admin laughed. “Yes, you did.”
“Your two best friends sent me with a message, Nicki Connors. They said that they’re willing to forgive you for deserting them for the entire afternoon, provided you get yourself to my house immediately and help them with an alfredo sauce. Theirs keeps breaking.”
Nicki shook her head. Two of the smartest people she knew, and they couldn’t make a decent sauce. She frowned at the screen as a thought struck her. Turning in her chair she looked at Maxie. “When we went to visit Charlie, he told us that his family all came from Ireland, and you didn’t say a word about it. Do you know if that’s true or not?
Maxie drew up to her full height. “Of course I do. It’s absolutely true, and I should know. I did the research on Charlie’s ancestry myself quite a few years ago. So, of course he had no need for Viola’s services.” She pursed her lips into a thin line. “I have no idea why she would have thought any part of Charlie’s line came from England or France. What was left of them after the potato famine in the 1850s all migrated to America, and they’ve been here ever since.”
Nicki frowned. “Then it is rather strange she had Charlie on her calendar to visit. The other two families have a clear connection in Nuits-Saint-Georges, but not Charlie.”
“Or Sam,” Jane chimed in. “He told me that most of his family came from the Nordic countries.”
“If he knows that, why did he agree to hire Viola?” Nicki asked.
“He just knows about his mother’s side, and didn’t know how to say ‘no’ at first, and then he got swept away in the whole idea. By the time he’d thought it through properly, Viola Richards had already taken his money and refused to give it back.” Jane shook her head. “Poor man.”
“Then why on earth did he tell Nicki he’d only given Viola half the fee instead of all of it?” Maxie frowned. “There was no reason for him to lie about it.”
“He was simply embarrassed about the whole thing, nothing more than that,” Jane insisted. “It isn’t good reason for the town to skewer Sam just because he was trying to keep his pride.”
Nicki could believe that. Sam had the same old-world charm that Charlie had, and she suspected it could be dented pretty easily.
“Maybe we should set this aside for a while and start again tomorrow with fresh eyes.” Jane smiled at Maxie. “And beg a certain expert at research to help us out.”
“I know a certain expert who’d be happy to help,” Maxie declared. “But right now, we need to go rescue a sauce.”
Jane made a few taps on her keyboard. “I’ve been emailing you the information I’ve found, Nicki. Your email should be bursting with all of it by now. Maybe when you sift through them in the morning, something will jump out at you.”
“That sounds good.” Nicki closed the file she’d been working on and shut her computer down. So far nothing had looked out of the ordinary to her, but tomorrow was another day, and she’d have all Jane’s emails to go through. Crossing her fingers that something would show up soon, Nicki stood up and stretched.
“Shall we go and save an alfredo sauce from cruel and unusual punishment?”
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five
“What’s our resident chef and author going to be doing while the rest of us common folks are sweating away at setting up all the booths and cooking stations for the LIW charity event?” Jenna lifted her first cup of coffee for the morning in Nicki’s general direction.
Nicki rubbed a hand across the back of her neck. “I’m sorry? You can’t be referring to yourself as common folk when you had a teenage boy practically worshiping at your feet over your incredible programming skills.”
“A junior criminal who hacks into the school database doesn’t count.”
“Oh?” Alex lifted her own coffee mug toward Jenna. “Like you didn’t do the same thing when you were in high school?”
Jenna grinned. “I plead the Fifth.” She jerked her head toward Nicki. “Does our doctor have something to help said resident chef with that headache she’s obviously nursing?”
Frowning, Nicki immediately dropped her hand back to the countertop. The three friends were waiting for Jane to return. The admin had taken Nicki’s SUV to pick up Maxie, and several boxes the genealogist said were needed to put the finishing touches on the event space.
Alex shook her head. “There isn’t anything to cure a tall-dark-and-cute-editor-who’s-acting-like-a pill.”
“Except maybe a good smack on the back of the head.” Jenna quickly held up a hand when Nicki opened her mouth to protest. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Matt, and will forgive him for giving you that headache, just as soon as he explains why he’s suddenly too busy at work to show up for your phone-call dates.”
“Phone-call dates?” Nicki smiled at the description Jenna had pegged for her daily calls on Skype. Except recently, they hadn’t been quite so daily. But after their talk yesterday, she’d thought they had sorted everything out.
Until she got his text last night saying he couldn’t make their nine o’clock call because he had to make a short business trip, but he’d explain everything in a couple of days. It felt to Nicki like nothing had changed and they were back to square one.
“What else would you call them?” Jenna said. She stared into her coffee cup for a moment before looking up with a smirk. “The coo-and-calls?”
While Alex laughed, Nicki put her hand to her forehead and groaned. “You’re making it worse.”
“Since you and Doctor Healthy over there didn’t go running this morning, what were you doing up so early? I heard your printer whirring away.”
Trying to ignore that headache, Nicki thought. “Printing off the research material that Jane sent to me yesterday. There’s quite a bit of it, and I thought I it would be easier goi
ng through it with a printed copy.” She smiled when Jenna made a face. “What can I say? Sometimes a piece of paper is easier to deal with than a computer screen.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jenna declared. “Not ever.”
“And on that note, I think I heard a car pull up.” Alex took one last quick sip of her coffee before setting the mug aside and getting to her feet. She glanced at Nicki. “You are going to join us at the Events Center, aren’t you?”
Nodding, Nicki stood up and carried her mug to the sink. “I’m just going to make a quick stop at the Historical Society to take a scan of an article on some of the local wineries that Maxie and I came across.” She wrinkled her nose at Jenna. “So I can print it out and add it to the rest of my research papers.”
“Don’t blame me for climate change then,” Jenna stated. “I’m not the one killing trees.”
Alex latched on to the self-proclaimed geek’s arm. “Come on. Let’s leave her to her research.”
“You have my keys?” Jenna yelled out as Alex dragged her along.
Nicki reached over to the counter and lifted a set of keys dangling from a key chain sporting a tiny keyboard. She jingled them back and forth. “Right here. I’ll get your baby there in one piece.”
Jenna grinned. “If you don’t, then the SUV is mine.”
It was another thirty minutes before Nicki pulled Jenna’s ancient car into an empty spot in front of Madge’s shop. Turning off the engine, she waited a good five seconds until the car stopped sputtering. It reminded her of her little blue Toyota that had been just as old and just as touchy.
Deciding she didn’t miss the thing one bit, Nicki pushed her way out of Jenna’s car and stepped onto the curb without bothering to lock it. Jenna never did either, going on the theory that she might get lucky and someone would steal it. So far, Jenna’s theory hadn’t worked out.
Pocketing the key, along with its bulky key chain, Nicki automatically grabbed her file folder and headed for the front door, waving cheerfully at Madge as she walked into the shop.
The shop owner tilted her head down and looked at Nicki over the top of her reading glasses. “Back already? Run short on wine glasses?”
“How did you know?”
Madge pointed at the shelf across from the cash register. “Well, grab another one on your way over.”
Picking up the closest one, Nicki went directly to the cashier’s counter and set the glass down. “While you’re ringing this up, I think I’ll run to the back and take a picture of something I read the other day.”
Madge bobbed her head. “That’s fine. Just leave your things here. I’ll keep an eye on them.”
Since she was the only customer in the store, Nicki had no problem with that. It only took her a few minutes to locate the book she needed and then use the scan application on her phone to get a clear picture of the article. She finished her errand off by sending it to her printer at home.
Tucking her phone into the back pocket of her jeans, Nicki crossed over the orange-lined step and was already standing back in front of Madge before she noticed the shop owner browsing through the papers in her folder.
Small town. Sighing, Nicki leaned against the counter and smiled when Madge looked up. “It’s for an article I’m writing.”
“Oh.” Madge looked down at the sheet of paper she had in her hand. “I thought you wanted to ask about this.” She held the paper up. “Since it’s the same picture that other lady asked about.”
Nicki craned her neck to get a look at what Madge was holding. “Which lady?”
“The bottle-blond,” Madge clarified. “This is the same picture she had. Or set of pictures I guess since there’s more than one on here.” Madge laid the sheet down and pointed at a small photograph in the center. “But this is the one she asked about. See right there? I told you Charlie was in the picture.”
Nicki picked the printed sheet up and held it closer to get a better look at it. The pictures and accompanying article were from the local paper that came out once a week. From the date printed across the top, it was from an edition printed several years ago. And like most of the articles in The Weekly Chat that a group of volunteers put together, none of the accompanying pictures had any captions.
Nicki’s eyes narrowed as she studied the small picture in the center of the photo collection taken at what the article identified as a local winery event. It was grainy, and the photographer clearly needed a few lessons on how to use a camera properly, but it was clear enough that she could make out Charlie, Adam Ingram, and Christophe Fabron, standing side by side next to the head of a row of grapevines.
Nicki quickly scanned the article. It was talking about wineries that were featured at the event that could also trace some of their history back to the vineyards in France. The write-up concluded with the author asking, “Wasn’t that interesting?”
“It certainly is,” Nicki said under her breath before she looked up at Madge and smiled. “Yes, I found it. But I don’t think the picture is good enough to use for the piece I’m working on.”
“Probably not,” Madge agreed. She shut the folder and handed it over the counter, along with the bag holding Nicki’s newest wine glass.
“Thank you, Madge.” Nicki gathered her things and put on a friendly smile. “Will we be seeing you at the Books for Every Child event tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t miss it. Anyone who does can count on a personal visit from Maxie that’ll cost them a lot more in a private donation than the price of the event ticket.” Madge slapped her hand against the counter and laughed at her own joke.
Grinning, Nicki waved a goodbye and did her best not to run out the door. She’d barely finished sliding into the driver’s seat when her phone pinged with an incoming text message from Alex.
Hurry up. Jenna is giving decorating tips!
Have one more stop to make. Will be there soon, Nicki sent back. Setting the wine glass and her folder onto the floor in front of the passenger seat, Nicki climbed back out of the car, and this time made a point of locking it.
Waiting impatiently for several vehicles to pass by, she sprinted across the street and cut through the square, heading for the opening of the tourist-oriented alley that she’d visited a few days earlier. Since she’d already gotten quite a bit of family history from Allie Ingram, she passed by the blue-and-white shop and headed further down the alley, not stopping until she reached the more rustic-looking space that belonged to Enfui.
Slowing her step so she could get a look through the front window first, Nicki gave a nod of satisfaction before opening the double door and making her way inside. Emma Fabron’s face lit up as Nicki approached the counter in the back of the shop.
“Hello.” The apron-clad Emma held out a slender hand. “You’re Nicki Connors. We met at one of the “Books for Every Child” events the LIW Society held last year. I’m very much looking forward to attending it again tomorrow. Will you be there?”
Nicki smiled at the very English accent in Emma’s voice, instantly liking the very open and friendly feeling she got from Emma. She certainly was different from her husband in that respect. “I’ll be there in the afternoon. I have about three hundred cookies to hand out.”
“Made by you?”
“Absolutely,” Nicki laughed. She looked around the shop that was empty except for a lone couple at a table near the front window. “Christophe isn’t here to help you today?”
Emma shook her head, sending her short light-brown curls bouncing around. “He was called in to his other job, checking out security cameras. He works part-time for a local company. Wineries aren’t always great at generating income. Sometimes we need a little extra help, and Chris’s outside job gives us that peace of mind. Mother Fabron has also had a few health issues lately, and is somewhat fragile, so the bills can add up quickly.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nicki said quietly. “I’d be happy to put a little cookie basket together for her if you think she’d like that.” She paused. �
�She could enjoy them with her afternoon tea.”
“She’d love it, I’m sure. And we both still enjoy a cuppa in the afternoon. Your cookies will make it that much better. Thank you so much! I’ll be happy to pick it up at the event tomorrow, if that’s convenient.”
“Of course. I’ll send it over with my friends who will be manning a few of the booths in the morning, so you can grab it any time.”
Smiling her gratitude, Emma set a wine glass down in front of Nicki and poured a healthy amount of a golden-colored chardonnay into it. “We usually only pour this for our most expensive flight for tasting. This is our best white. The rumor around town is that you prefer the whites.”
Picking up the glass, Nicki twirled it around a few times and admired the rich color. “It looks wonderful.”
“And tastes as good as it looks,” Emma assured her with a wink. “Which is why I gave you such a big pour. As a thank you for the cookies, and because Chris told me you’re writing an article about the smaller wineries in the area.”
Nicki took a slow sip and savored it for a long moment. “I am. And this is certainly worth a mention.”
“Thank you.” Emma beamed at her and reached behind her for a bottle of Merlot. “I think you’ll like this full-bodied red that we produce too.”
It was still a little early, but keeping her goal in mind, Nicki smiled along with a nod. “I’d like that.”
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six
“I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with the police chief since Viola Richards was staying right across the street from me.” Nicki watched Emma’s reaction to her bald statement, but didn’t pick up anything other than genuine surprise.
“Really? I mean I knew she was a guest of Maxie’s, but I assumed she’d been staying at her house.” She leaned over the counter and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Mostly because I’ve noticed myMason spending more time gardening in the square, so I thought having two women in the house had driven him out. I saw him almost every day when I went to pick up my lunch at Sally’s Restaurant.”