Wine and Revenge

by Laina Turner

  Wine and Revenge

  A Read Wine Bookstore Cozy Mystery

  Laina Turner

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  Laina

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Thanks for Reading

  About the Author

  Also by Laina Turner

  Copyright © 2019 by Laina Turner

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1

  “What time is Deanna supposed to stop by?” Sally asked Trixie, who was firing up the coffee machine as she put pastries in the display case for the morning rush.

  “She called me a little while ago and asked if I could come out to her place instead. Said something about being shorthanded and she couldn't leave.”

  Sally grimaced. “The downside of being a business owner. If someone doesn't show up for work, you still have to get the work done. No one tells you that when you’re going around thinking business ownership is all glamorous.”

  “Isn't that the truth. It's not at all glamorous. I’m still waiting for the glamour to hit. Shouldn’t that happen soon?” Trixie popped a mini cupcake in her mouth. “I'm just glad that I was able to tell her I could meet her at her winery. I feel that lately it’s impossible to get away from this place, which I don’t mind. It’s definitely a good thing.”

  Trixie and her friends, Sally and Cora, had opened their coffee shop, bookstore, and wine bar about a year ago and it had quickly become a go-to place in their little town. Business was good and they were finally feeling like they could breathe a little financially.

  “Do you know what it is that she needs? Is something going on?” Cora asked. She'd come in for the afternoon shift, which was usually pretty slow until the happy hour timeframe. Though mostly people took advantage of happy hour half-priced coffee drinks rather than the small wine selection they had. They just hadn’t worked that side of the business much.

  “I have no idea. I know she sounded distraught and made it seem urgent we talk as soon as possible. I’m hoping nothing major is wrong.”

  Sally set a bag on the counter and slid it across to her. “I put a brownie and one of our red velvet cupcakes in the bag for you to take her. Between you and the treats, hopefully she'll feel much better about whatever it is bothering her.”

  “Thanks. That's guaranteed to cheer her up. I'll see you both tomorrow.” Trixie grabbed the bag with one hand and slung her purse over the shoulder with the other.

  Sally and Cora chorused their goodbyes as Trixie walked out of the store that was situated in a prime location on Main Street in the middle of the three blocks that made up Main Street and down a block and around the corner to the parking lot. She got in the car, setting her purse and the bag of goodies on the passenger seat and buckled up, starting the car and heading out to Deanna's.

  Bramble Patch Winery was about twenty-five minutes outside of town and Deanna and her husband, David, lived on the property. It was a nice drive this time of year, late spring, and Trixie had the windows on her SUV rolled partway down to enjoy the fresh air as she sped down the road, quickly arriving at her destination.

  She parked in the guest parking area and wondered, not for the first time, why she'd never been out here before. She felt a small pang of guilt that she hadn’t been more supportive of her friend. Bramble Patch Winery had been open a little over a year, which was about the same amount of time Read Wine had been open so that was probably why. She'd been so busy with her own business that there hadn't been a lot of free time to do anything.

  Now that she was here, she really wanted to sample the wine because it would be great to carry local wines in the store. Up to now, they'd been more focused on their coffee and pastry business, but in a small-town such as Romero there weren't any fancy wine bars. In fact, there weren’t any wine bars, fancy or otherwise. The only place you could get wine, besides a few restaurants, was the couple of bars in town and, while the food at both the bars was good the atmosphere was definitely a different vibe from that of someone just wanting to meet a girlfriend for an after-work drink or a first date.

  Read Wine wasn't fancy, but it was quiet and a little more private than the corner bar.

  Trixie made a mental note to ask Deanna about the possibility of partnering in some way after she found out what it was Deanna needed. She walked into the main building toward the sign that said customer entrance here. It opened into a big space that had tastefully arranged cases of wine stacked up in pyramid shapes with colorful signage talking about the different grapes used in the winemaking. She also caught out of the corner of her eye spices and pasta for sale on the far wall. Ideas started swirling in her head about different ways to work together when she heard someone call her name.

  “Trixie, so glad you made it,” Deanna ran over and gave her a hug, which Trixie returned. She'd known Deanna pretty much all her life; both having grown up in Romero and gone to the only high school in town together. Deanna had moved away for several years, just coming back recently when she and her husband, who wasn't from Romero, decided to settle down and open a winery.

  “Your place is gorgeous. I can't believe this is the first time I've come out here. I’m so sorry for that,” Trixie said.

  Deanna led her through the front of the store, back into her office and motioned for her to have a seat. “You've had your own business to deal with and I know firsthand how busy you are. How's that going, by the way?”

  “It's a lot of work, but things are going great. Much better than I would've expected. Though every single time we have some slow sales, I freak out thinking we may never sell another thing.”

  Deanna laughed. “Isn't that the truth. I wonder if that feeling will ever go away or if twenty years from now, we’ll feel the same? I'm being a rude host; can I get you something to drink?”

  “It's a bit early for wine,” Trixie said with a smile, knowing that probably wasn't what she meant.

  Deanna laughed again. “Hey, it's never too early for wine, not in my line of business. Seriously though, I was thinking more coffee or iced tea. We also have sodas.”

  “Iced tea would be great.”

  “Give me just a second, let me run out front,” Deanna said and left the office, walking back through the double doors separating the backroom from the front. This was such a cute setup, Trixie thought. The scenery was beautiful, and Trixie bet fall was even more gorgeous when the trees were turning colors. When she'd pulled in, she saw the wine store and, next to it, a covered area with picnic tables. Deanna and her husband, David, should be so proud of what they had accomplished. Trixie knew all too well how hard it was to build a successful business and they seemed to be doing a fantastic job.

  Deanna came back, setting two tall glasses of iced tea on the side table in her
office before taking a seat opposite Trixie. “It’s been such hard work and there are times when I severely regretted that we took this on because I’m so exhausted, I can’t see straight, but it's been worth it. I never thought about owning a business, much less a winery until David started talking about it, but I love it. I love the industry and the business part.”

  Deanna stopped talking as she opened a packet of sweetener, pouring it in her drink and stirring it with her straw. There was definitely something on her mind as she looked very pensive and it couldn't just be focusing on sugar crystals dissolving in her tea.

  “So, I'm dying of anticipation. What did you want to talk to me about? I hope it's about us partnering. I need to carry your wine at our place. I'm sorry I didn't think of it until now, but we haven't paid much attention to the wine aspect of the business. I think we're finally in a place we can afford to expand our focus though.”

  “That's a great idea and let's definitely talk about that, but it's not why I wanted to talk to you. It's my sister. She's in trouble.”

  Chapter 2

  Trixie waited for Deanna to collect her thoughts as she continued to silently sit there, and Trixie didn't want to push her. Though she was starting to get worried this was more serious than she’d thought before coming here. “Are you okay, Deanna?”

  Deanna shook her head and Trixie could see she was holding back tears. “No. Not when I know what Deborah is going through.”

  Trixie nodded in sympathy, feeling badly for Deanna. Deborah was four years younger than them and Trixie didn't know her that well. She hadn't talked to her in years even though Deborah stayed in town, marrying her high school sweetheart. Trixie had seen her around town and. of course. exchanged the occasional small talk, but they weren't what you would call friends.

  “What's going on with Deborah?” Trixie asked gently, not sure why Deanna came to her for help, but willing to do whatever she could.

  “You do work with the women's shelter, right?”

  Trixie nodded, now more worried about what Deanna was going to say. Was Deborah in danger?

  “I need your help to get her away from her husband.”

  “Greg?” Trixie didn't know him well either since he was also younger. He owned one of the two car dealerships in town that he had taken over when his dad retired, and she'd bought a car from him before. That had been her only interaction with him and he seemed perfectly nice. Though you never knew what happened behind closed doors. “Is she okay? Is this an immediate need? She can go anytime; she doesn't need a recommendation from me. They never turn anyone away.”

  “If only it were that easy. I need your help convincing her to go. She still thinks she can change him and doesn’t clearly see how toxic this relationship is. She finally broke down and told me he's been abusive their entire relationship, but it was more mental and emotional in the past. Recently it's become more than that. Business hasn't been good at the dealership, and I think he's taking his stress out on Deborah. She doesn't want to break up her family and won’t leave him. I don't know what to do, but she has to get away from him before he seriously hurts her.”

  Trixie felt bad for Deborah. She’d worked at the shelter long enough to know that so many women felt the same way. They didn’t want to break up their family. They thought they could get him to change and stop abusing. Love wasn’t always rational, and it was so hard to get away from the abuser. But she also knew, as Deanna said, bad behavior left unchecked often escalated.”

  “Whatever you want or need me to do, I will. I'll do whatever I can.”

  Deanna shot her a grateful look. “I was hoping you'd say that. I asked Deborah to come meet me today and I was hoping we could talk to her.” She flipped over her wrist to look at her watch. “She should be here in about forty-five minutes. I hope you don't mind waiting. I didn't mean to take up your entire afternoon. I guess I should have better prepared you. I just preferred to tell you face to face.”

  “Don’t even worry about it,” Trixie waved away her concerns. “Of course, I'll wait. I don't mind at all.”

  Deanna sighed in relief. “While you're waiting would you like a tour?”

  “I would love that.”

  Deanna stood up. “Follow me and I’ll take you out to where all the magic happens.” They went out the back door and walked across a small, grassy patch with picnic tables where a couple people were enjoying a glass of wine, even though it was definitely before five.

  “This is awesome people come to hang out and relax out here,” Trixie said.

  Deanna nodded. “We do great on the weekends as a date destination. It was David's idea. I didn't want to deal with a retail side of the business. I felt it was too much, but he said we'd be silly not to as we would gain loyal customers if they could come and have a good experience, have a glass of wine and then they take home a bottle. And he was absolutely right. I’m not sure we’d be doing nearly as well without it being an experience.”

  “Is he here? I'd love to say hi. I only met him that one time and didn't really get a chance to talk, but he seems like a great guy.”

  “He is. He's amazing. I didn't think I would find that. I'd given up finding Mr. Right and then, a few years ago, he walked into my life and I can’t remember how my life was before him. However, he left yesterday to go to California for a conference so he's not here. He must be having a great time, because I haven't heard from either. The time change is a pain.”

  They walked out into another big building, a basic pole barn, and stepped inside. There were these huge stainless-steel vats lining the walls and there was another row down the center. Trixie had never been to a winery before, but it was quite an impressive operation.

  “Wow. This is really high tech,” she said, touching one of the stainless-steel vats. Everything was so clean.

  Deanna beamed and Trixie could tell she was very proud. She was happy her friend had found love and success.

  “This is the new area we built and where we turn grapes into the finished product.”

  “Do you have more than just what I'm seeing here?”

  “Yes, and it's so cool. You're going to love it.”

  Deanna quickly walked through the rest of the building and reached a door that opened into a smaller room which wasn’t part of the new pole barn. It looked like one of the original buildings. At least it looked old and was made of brick and wood, not prefab metal.

  “I take it this building was here when you guys bought the place?” Trixie said, looking around the small area, appreciating the original brickwork.

  “Yup. This building was part of the original farm buildings and was the only one in good enough shape structurally that we could keep and use. It’s a shame really. I convinced David to keep it and we built the pole barn right up next to it so we could go back and forth without going outside.”

  “What is all this?” Trixie looked around the room, which wasn't big, maybe 20 x 20, and had a sitting area with the wood stove in one corner. One wall was line with humongous terra cotta pots. The pots were almost as tall as she was, she guessed about five feet tall, and almost as wide at the widest part.

  “These pots are gorgeous. Were they here when you bought the place?” Trixie said, walking over and running her hand over one.

  Deanna laughed. “No. They were shipped from Italy. It cost a fortune and I told David he was insane, but he said he wanted some authentic winemaking equipment for ambiance. Which is silly, since we are the only ones who come in here. This area isn’t open to the public. This is what they stored wine in while it was fermenting many, many years ago before things like the health code. Once they got here and I saw how gorgeous they were I couldn't stay mad at the expense. We often come here after a long day and relax.”

  “They're gorgeous. Almost works of art. How did you even get them in this building?”

  “This used to be a shed and the whole back wall opens up.”

  Trixie looked to the back where Deanna was pointing and couldn't
see a door.

  “Once we got the pots in here, we sealed it off, so it wasn't so drafty. We keep our personal stash in those pots. Since we're not selling it the health department doesn't care if our wine ferments in non-hygienic pots.”

  Trixie's face crinkled as Deanna said that and she rushed to add, “I know, I know. Sounds a little gross. But keep in mind it's alcohol so it kills all the bacteria.”

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  “There's a spout here that we use to fill our bottles. But if you want to see more wine than you’ve ever seen go up that stepstool and take the lid off. It holds over a hundred gallons. It’s quite impressive. You have to turn it counterclockwise because it is sealed with a rubber seal.”

  “They had rubber seals way back when?” Trixie joked.

  “Funny. They just don't seal like they used to, so we added the rubber seal when they came in. Just so things couldn't crawl in there.”

  Trixie shuddered thinking about that, but she was very curious so pulled the stepstool closer to the pot and went up the three steps so she could easily reach the lid, which was about a foot in diameter. She put both hands on the handle and turned it counterclockwise or Lefty Lucy, as her dad had always said. The lid gave a soft pop like the sound when you open a jar of pickles for the first time. As she started to lift the lid the overpowering aroma of wine hit her, and it did smell good. It was cool they had these old pots brought in from Italy and were actually making wine the old-fashioned way.

  “This is really cool, Deanna.” She peered into the pot expecting to see the wine in all its glory, but what she did see made her want to throw up. She quickly set the lid back on and turned toward Deanna.