by Laina Turner
She didn't want to be caught eavesdropping, but her curiosity got the best of her and, instead of veering to the right to head to the building where she was supposed to meet Adam, she went toward the noise. She hugged the corner of the building to peer around it, hoping she could see who was talking and doubly hoping no one caught her. That would be so embarrassing.
It was Adam and Tracy! Trixie shook her head in disbelief and looked again. Yep, it was Adam and Tracy. Of course, if Adam stopped at Bramble Patch Winery as much as Deanna said it would make sense that they knew each other. But why was Tracy an hour away arguing with him?
“You told me nothing serious would happen,” Tracy hissed.
“Nothing did happen.”
“Then how did he end up dead? You were only supposed to threaten him. Not kill him. The police are going to consider you a suspect. It’s not secret how much you wanted that place!”
“I didn't kill him! Are you crazy?” Adam said, and while Trixie couldn't see his face, he sounded surprised, and a little indignant, that Tracy would accuse him of it. He didn’t sound like he was lying, but she didn’t know him well enough to really know for sure.
“Then...”
“I don't know,” he interrupted, “But I sure as heck didn't do it. I wanted his winery, sure. It would be the perfect expansion for mine, but I liked the guy. I didn't want his business enough to kill him. I don’t want anyone’s business enough for that.”
“This has turned into a mess. What if the cops find out we've been working together? They might think we both killed him.”
“No, they won’t because neither of us did. You worry too much. Now I have to go. I have a meeting with that nosy Trixie Pristine. Just when I thought we were in the clear and I’d got the sheriff off my back, she calls me.”
Trixie's back stiffened. He seemed more than willing to talk with her when she’d called, and he had the audacity to call her nosy? Though he did have something to hide and the truth was, she was being nosy. She hurried back the way she came and headed over to the building on the right and in through the door, feeling grateful she hadn’t got caught eavesdropping.
There was a reception area just inside the door and a young woman sitting behind a desk greeted her when she walked in.
“Hi there. How can I help you?”
“I'm here to see Adam. My name is Trixie Pristine. We have an appointment.”
“He stepped out for a second, but if you have a seat he will be right back. Can I get you anything?”
“No, I'm good. Thank you.”
Trixie sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting area. This seemed like a bigger operation that Deanna and David’s, but it made sense. Big Oak had been in business a lot longer. She could understand why Adam would want to buy Bramble Patch. It would be a lot easier to expand his wine empire with an already up and running business than to start new.
A few minutes later, as Trixie was looking through a back issue of Wine Midwest Monthly, Adam walked through the door. He looked flushed, but if Trixie hadn't overheard him arguing with Tracy, she wouldn't think anything of it. It was a warm spring day and he’d come from outside.
“I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. I had another meeting that ran a little over. Please forgive me.”
There he was, turning on the charm that previously Trixie didn't think anything of but now she knew; it wasn’t completely sincere.
“No problem. The life of a business owner. I get it,” she returned, deciding to meet his charm with some of her own.
“That's right, you own a bookstore in Romero. Follow me.”
Trixie got up and started following him down the hallway before she responded. “Yep. It's called Read Wine, but spelled R-E-A-D as a play on words. We have a coffee shop with pastries and wines as well.”
“Oh, I will have to make sure you taste some of our wines before you go.”
“Definitely. The more local we can source the better.”
They reached what she presumed was his office and it was very plush. Not at all like Deanna's office. It was very manly, done in dark colors with a large mahogany desk in one corner and a mahogany table in the other. Adam headed over to the table and pulled out a chair, motioning for her to sit, which she did.
“Beautiful office.”
“Thank you. It is a bit extravagant, but I spend a lot of time here. Too much, if you ask my wife. So, I decided I deserved it. What did you want to talk to me about? I assume it's not to sample my wines.”
“No. I'd like to ask you a few questions about David.”
Chapter 15
“Oh. “Adam raised his eyebrows. “What about David? You don't think I killed him, do you?” He chuckled, though it seemed a little forced.
“I don't know. Did you?”
He paused for a second, trying to determine if she was serious or joking. “No. I didn't,” he finally answered, not laughing this time. “I won't deny I wanted his vineyard, but I liked the guy. I certainly didn't kill him.”
Trixie didn't want to believe him. It sure would be nice if he had admitted it and then this would be over. Clive could arrest him, and Deanna would have closure. Wishful thinking, she knew it wouldn't be that easy. Even though she didn’t really want to, she found that she did believe him. Gone was that car salesman tone and in its place was total seriousness. The fact he didn't deny wanting Bramble Patch helped with his credibility also. There were many business owners who coveted other businesses. That was just the nature of business itself. Not something people killed over on a regular basis.
“You look disappointed,” he said, raising his eyebrows when Trixie didn't say anything right away.
She laughed. “No, not at all. I mean sure, it would be great if you would have confessed and I could hand you over to the sheriff, but I wasn't expecting that when I came here.”
Adam smiled before continuing. “Then why did you come?”
“Honestly? To see if you had any idea who may have killed him. Deanna told me you were very interested in buying Bramble Patch so I thought you might know if anyone else might want the winery bad enough to kill for it. You know, if you weren’t the one who did it.”
“You're right, it's no secret that I wanted the place and I did hound them a little. I can even admit maybe I was a little too aggressive. When there’s something I want, I am very focused on getting it, sometimes to the extreme, but once the property went into foreclosure, I thought it would be a win-win. I backed off and waited for them to come to me. I knew it was inevitable.”
Trixie's eyes popped open. Foreclosure? So, he knew the rumor Helen had told her and that Deanna had denied? To her that made it a little more likely that it was true, but why would Deanna lie?
“I take it by your expression you didn't know.”
“No, but it's not like it is something she would advertise.” Trixie wasn’t going to let on that she’d heard it. Just not from Deanna and she definitely wasn’t going to let on Deanna denied it. Trixie could see why Deanna might lie about it. It would be hard to face that kind of truth.
“Guess not. But hopefully knowing that you can see why there would be no reason to kill for it.”
“If you did happen to buy Bramble Patch, would you keep on the staff?”
He shrugged. “I don't know them so I couldn't say, but I would hope to. They know the place and it would make sense.”
It would make sense from a business standpoint, but what didn't make sense is why he was lying. He obviously knew Tracy, or she wouldn't be at his place arguing with him, making reference to them working together. What did the two of them have going on?
Chapter 16
A couple days later, Trixie and Sally were in Monroe. They'd made the drive to check out an estate sale that was reported to have an extensive book collection.
They'd started their used bookstore with quite a selection gained from the local area but now ventured further afield to look for more expensive hardback books and collectors’ items. Rare, or at le
ast not easy to find, collectors’ editions of books weren't at all what they thought they'd be carrying when they’d first envisioned Read Wine, but came to find out they had a lot of people who were looking for those things. They’d started searching for them and bringing them into the store to great success.
“I think you want to turn up at that stop sign ahead,” Sally said to Trixie as Trixie was driving and Sally was the official GPS reader.
Trixie slowed her SUV, turned her turn signal on, and pulled to a stop. After looking both ways she made her turn and saw a sign that said, ‘Estate Sale’ and an arrow pointing to the north.
“I'm assuming it's that way?” Trixie motioned to the sign and Sally nodded.
“If the sign didn't give it away the row of parked cars up there would.” Sally grinned.
Trixie pulled off on the shoulder, behind a red Acura and shut the engine off, and they got out of the car.
“Now remember, we are not spending more than our budget!” Trixie said strongly to Sally.
Sally rolled her eyes. “You have to spend money to make money, you know.”
“But if you're not making it you shouldn't spend it.”
“We're making money. You’re acting like we’re a dollar away from financial ruin.”
“Most businesses fail in the first five years and we've only been open barely one. We have to be careful about every penny we spend.”
“You really need to lighten up. Read Wine is doing fine and we're going to keep doing fine.”
“Only because I make you watch how much you're spending,” Trixie grinned.
“Whatever,” Sally waved her hand around, dismissing Trixie's concerns.
Trixie was the conservative one of the group, but neither Sally nor Cora were crazy spenders. Trixie just worried more than the others; she couldn't help it. It was who she was. The three of them were very good about making decisions as a group.
They reached the home the estate sale was on and there were many tables of items packing the yard. If there was this much outside Trixie couldn’t fathom how much there must be inside.
“Welcome to Arthur and Sons estate sale. As you can see, we have things out here priced to sell and the house is open and you're free to look around there as well.”
“Thank you. Can you point us in the direction of the books?” Trixie asked.
“Sure. They're inside, down the main hallway in one of the rooms to the left. The third, I think.”
“Thanks,” Trixie said, and they walked to the house and through the front door.
“It's not very crowded. I expected it to be busier,” Sally mused.
“Probably was yesterday. Today's the second day and all the hard-core estate sale buyers have already been here. Let's just hope they didn't buy all the good books.”
As they walked into the foyer, they were taken off guard by the beautiful marble entryway.
“Wow,” Trixie whispered to Sally. “Whoever lived here sure had a lot of money. This marble floor had to cost a fortune. It’s probably worth what my entire house is.”
“Yes, it did. Genuine Italian hand cut marble,” a gentleman from behind Trixie whispered, causing her and Sally to jump. “Cost a lot, I mean. Not trying to insult your house.”
They turned quickly to see who was talking to them and initially Trixie was embarrassed to be caught gawking at the floor, but surprise overtook that feeling when she realized the guy standing in front of them was the man she saw Tracy arguing with at the winery the day after David's murder. Who was he and why was he here?
“My name's Danny, Danny Murdock,” he said, holding out his hand to shake theirs.
“I’m Trixie and this is my friend, Sally.”
“Nice to meet you ladies. Like I was saying, the marble is top of the line, over fifty years old, and guaranteed to last another fifty. Minimum. It should last four times that unless they tear the house down.”
“How do you know, are you a real estate agent?” Trixie asked. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way. Knowing how he acted toward Tracy was a complete contradiction to how he was acting now, making her wonder even more what the issue was between him and Tracy.
“Close. A real estate developer. Well, I’m also an agent, but I don’t sell houses. I buy things up for development.”
“Don't tell me you're going to tear down this gorgeous place and put up a boring strip mall,” Sally exclaimed.
“Oh no, nothing like that. I would never do that to these floors. No, I'm just a friend of the person running the sale and stopped by to say hi.”
“Know anything about the books they have for sale here?” Sally asked him.
“I'm afraid not.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you, but we want to get to those books before someone buys all the good ones,” Trixie said trying to end the conversation, getting an odd look from Sally.
“Nice meeting you too. Here's my card. You know, in case you have any good real estate deals come your way then give me a call. Give me a call anyway,” he said, handing his card to Sally, definitely giving her an interested look and Trixie didn’t think it was about real estate.
As he walked away Trixie said, “Can you believe him? Coming on to you here?”
“Why not. It's better than a bar and it’s not like I go to bars trolling for men. Meeting one here is just fine with me. I am single, you know. Besides, he's kind of cute even if he is a little older than what I’d like to date.”
“I thought you said you weren't ready to date.”
“I'm not, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a good-looking man and I’m going to date at some point. What's gotten into you?”
“I'm sorry. That's the guy I saw arguing with Tracy, so I guess I’m just suspicious of his motives.”
Chapter 17
“What do you mean?” Sally asked.
“Remember I told you I saw Tracy arguing with some guy after I visited Deanna and I asked Tracy who he was? She just changed the subject. She never answered and I could tell she didn’t want to either. I felt there was something odd about it. If she wasn’t trying to hide something, she would have told me.”
“Seeing him here doesn't mean anything, Trixie. Are you sure you're not just being paranoid? Making something out of nothing? Maybe it was just an argument. Doesn't have to have anything to do with David’s murder.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t, but Tracy avoided any questions I asked her about him so I can’t help but think there’s something there. I think Tracy and David had something going on.”
At that comment Sally looked at Trixie, hands on hips. “What are you saying? That David was cheating on Deanna with Tracy?”
Trixie shook her head. ”Sh, someone might hear you,” she said, looking around to make sure the Danny guy was no longer in earshot.
“Well, do you?”
“No, I didn’t mean like that. I think it was business related. That Tracy handled more of the business than Deanna knew she did.”
“What does that have to do with murdering David?”
“It doesn’t,” Trixie said exasperatedly. “My point is, I think Tracy has something going on behind Deanna’s back and if the property is already in foreclosure, what if Tracy has some plan to take it from her?”
“If it’s in foreclosure, that’s going to happen anyway, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
“Worry less about Tracy and that Danny guy and let’s find those books.”
As Sally dragged Trixie off to look at what they came for, Trixie couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about Tracy.
Chapter 18
“How's Deanna doing?” Cora asked when Trixie arrived at Read Wine the next day.
“We briefly chatted yesterday, and she seems okay. I mean as okay as someone can be considering,” Trixie said. “I'm not sure I'd be as okay as she is if I were in her shoes.”
“Just think if someone murdered your husband. That's so much worse than him just dropping dead of a h
eart attack.”
“Sally!” Trixie and Cora chorused in astonishment.
“What? I'm not trying to be callous about his death. I'm just saying there's so many more emotions to go along with your husband being the victim of murder versus dying of natural causes.”
“That's true. It's just hard to think of death to begin with,” Trixie said.
“I just remember Tom dealing with Sylvia's murder. I'm still not sure he is over it.”
“Is that why he rebounded so fast and already has a girlfriend?” Trixie said skeptically.
Sally rolled her eyes. Her ex-husband, Tom, wasn't trustworthy from a relationship standpoint hence why he was her ex-husband, but she knew him almost as well as she knew herself and he had cared about Sylvia.
“I know, I know. I hope one of these days he grows out of his womanizing ways before he ends up eighty and alone. But in his own way, he really did care about Sylvia and he still talks about her.”
“You two have a strange relationship.” Cora shook her head.
“Well, we can't all be newlyweds like you and Jonathan, and it's taken a long time for Tom and me to get to this place. We have kids so we don't have a choice but to try and get along.”
“That makes it even worse,” Trixie said. “Kids losing their father. Deanna and David didn’t have kids of their own, but he had a son from previous relationship and, even though he's grown it's still not easy. Kids aren’t supposed to lose their parents.”
“I heard Helen saying something about him yesterday when she stopped in to get coffee,” Sally said. “You weren't here, it was just Allison and me.”
Allison was a high school girl who came in after school to help out.
“How is she working out, by the way?” Cora asked.
“Who cares about that, what was Helen saying about Dean?” Trixie demanded.
Sally shrugged. “She was spouting some nonsense about Dean being the black sheep of the family and David had pressed charges against him for stealing and assault.”