Grapes of Death

by Joni Folger

  “I think Mom is, but the last I saw of Maddy she still had her cell phone glued to her ear.” He shook his head. “I’m telling you, I don’t know how she does it without going postal. And I definitely would have sent the mayor and her precious daughter packing weeks ago.”

  “I know what you mean.” Elise had to laugh at the crabby look on his face. “We should count ourselves lucky that our baby sister loves what she does; neither one of us has the patience to deal with it. More than likely I would have burned the lodge to the ground by now.”

  “Man, isn’t that the truth?”

  Just as he acknowledged her statement, Madison and Laura came out of the house and headed toward the vehicle. Laura looked preoccupied, and Madison—who was still on the phone—was sporting a terrible frown.

  “More wedding troubles?” Elise asked as her sister hung up and stalked over to the SUV.

  “I can’t wait until tomorrow is over. It never ceases to amaze and baffle me how a normal, rational individual can become so unrecognizable when they’re planning a wedding.”

  Ross smiled. “The mayor again?”

  With a roll of her eyes, Madison growled. “Charlotte Wilkinson is just as calm and steady as she can be as mayor. I’ve never even heard her raise her voice. Yet in the last couple of weeks she’s become a train wreck over the smallest details. Now she wants to move the cake and buffet tables out onto the veranda next to the bride and groom.”

  Elise giggled. “Uh … and you said … ?”

  “Well, for the love of God! What could I say? I had to put my foot down and give her a reality check. All that food out in the Texas sun for hours? Seriously? She’s completely lost her mind.”

  Laura ran a calming hand over her daughter’s shoulder. “And from what I heard, you handled the situation with your usual tact and diplomacy. Now turn off your phone and put it out of your mind for a while. You’ve done all you can do. This afternoon is for your uncle, may he finally rest in peace.”

  They all climbed into their respective vehicles, with Laura riding with Ross, Caroline, and the boys, and Madison riding with Elise. Once they arrived at the mortuary, Laura went in to talk with Greta, the director.

  “Mom looks tired,” Madison said as they unloaded the flower arrangements from the SUV. “She’s taking Uncle Edmond’s death a lot harder than she lets on.”

  “I know.” Ross frowned. “She’s blaming herself for not trying harder to find a solution or some sort of compromise with him. But the truth is his demands had become totally unreasonable; nothing she did would have been good enough for him.”

  “I wish someone could have talked some sense into him,” Elise said with a sigh.

  Ross gave a snort as he closed the SUV’s hatch. “I tried, but it didn’t get me very far. Like I said, he was completely unreasonable.”

  Something in his frigid tone had her putting down the basket and facing him. “You talked to Uncle Edmond?”

  “Damn straight. Somebody had to. His behavior toward Mom had become abusive, and she continued to ignore the situation.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Madison asked.

  “I didn’t tell anyone. Mom thought he’d get over it—that he’d eventually focus on something else—but his tantrums just kept escalating. Somebody had to do something.”

  An uneasy feeling spread through Elise. “When did you talk to him?”

  He shrugged. “What difference does it make now? He wouldn’t listen; told me to butt out and mind my own business. It was a very short, unpleasant conversation. End of story.”

  “Ross, don’t be an idiot. The man was murdered. When you met with Uncle Edmond makes a huge difference! Jackson’s already looking closely at all of us. If you didn’t tell him about this unpleasant conversation and he finds out on his own, it will look like you were hiding something.”

  “And that’s precisely why I didn’t tell anyone, El! Nobody saw or heard the confrontation, so as long as you two keep it to yourselves, I’m not too worried about Jackson. It has no bearing anyway. I certainly didn’t kill him.”

  “Geez, Ross, that’s not what she meant,” Madison said. “Nobody thinks you had anything to do with Uncle Edmond’s death, but Elise is right. It would probably be prudent to talk to Jax about it before he—”

  “For crying out loud, would you both just give it a rest? It wasn’t a big deal, so don’t make it into one.”

  As if the tense conversation had conjured him up, Jackson arrived at that moment, pulling his cruiser in next to the SUV. Ross gave them both a keep-your-mouth-shut look before closing the hatch and heading toward the building with an armload of flowers.

  “Hey, Jax. Thanks for coming,” he muttered as he passed.

  Jackson watched Ross walk away with a frown on his face, and then he turned to Elise. “What’s up with the attitude?”

  “Don’t mind him. Grumpy McGrumperson is having a bad day.” Elise picked up a basket arrangement and, slipping an arm through his, pulled him toward the building. “Come on, you can sit by me during the service.”

  “You sure you want to do that? We haven’t had our anticipated conversation yet.” He shook his finger at her. “Don’t think I don’t know that you’ve been dodging me.”

  She aimed the full wattage of her smile at him. “Why Deputy Landry, I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  A little over an hour later, Elise stood next to Jackson at the cemetery. To say that she was surprised at the turnout for Edmond’s funeral would have been an understatement. Although she understood that most were in attendance out of respect for the family, it was still impressive.

  Henry Kohler stood directly across from the family with his arm around a tearful Pam Dawson, which Elise found interesting. He’d told her that he barely knew Pam, but this wasn’t the first time she’d seen them together in a way that suggested otherwise.

  Shockingly, Denny Rodriguez also made an appearance, though he hung back and seemed to be waiting for something. No doubt both he and Pam were looking to see who they could hit up for the money Edmond had owed at the time of his death. If they thought they could squeeze the vineyard for compensation, they would both be disappointed.

  As fascinating as suspect-watching was, with the mugginess of the day and the threat of thunderstorms, Elise was relieved that the graveside service was brief and to the point.

  “Give me a ride back to the house?” she asked Jackson as they walked away toward the vehicles.

  “Why? You drove. Or did you forget that?”

  “I know. I’ll have Maddy drive my car back. We need to talk. Or did you forget that?”

  Jackson gave her a narrow glance. “What are you up to?”

  “I thought I’d take my lumps like a big girl and let you chastise me for snooping on Monday, but if you’re going to be like that, then just forget it.”

  She started to turn away and pretended to dig in her purse for her keys. Jackson didn’t let her get far before taking her arm and steering her toward the cruiser.

  Lord, he is so easy, she thought as she hid her smile. “So, I take it you want me to ride with you?”

  “Don’t push it, El. What’s that phrase? Oh yeah, be careful what you wish for.”

  She didn’t wait for him to change his mind. Flagging down Madison, she handed over her keys and high-tailed it back to the cruiser.

  “Interesting turnout, don’t you think?” she asked as they turned onto the dirt road leading out of the cemetery.

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “I saw you talking to Denny Rodriguez.”

  “Yep.”

  “I couldn’t believe he’d show up like that. It’s not like he and Uncle Edmond were friends or anything.”

  “Nope.”

  “He and Pam both were probably looking to see if they could worm some of the money Uncle Edmond owed out of t
he family.”

  “That’s a possibility.”

  “For crying out loud, Jackson,” she said in frustration at his noncommittal answers. “Are you going to tell me what you said to him? Or how the interview with him on Monday went?”

  He slid a brief, knowing look her way. “I figured this was the reason you wanted to ride home with me. Taking your lumps has nothing to do with it. You just want to pump me for information.”

  “That’s not true.” At his doubtful look, she amended her answer. “Well, not completely true. I also wanted to pass on what Henry told me before you and Jim showed up on Monday. And, yes, I am dying to hear what Denny said when you and Jim went out to El Diablo.”

  Jackson heaved a beleaguered sigh. “Elise, you have got to step back from this investigation. All your meddling and interference will only hinder my inquiries.”

  “Oh, posh. I’ve been very discreet.”

  Jackson burst out laughing. “Yeah, that’s you, all right. Like that little fiasco out at Edmond’s house. Very discreet, my ass.”

  “Okay, so that wasn’t as prudent as I’d have hoped, but you would never have found his journal without me and my indiscretion.”

  “Please. C.C. found that journal, not you.”

  She ignored his dig and continued to plead her case. “And I might remind you that had we not been there, Pam Dawson may have expired in that closet by the time someone found her.”

  “Oh, for the love of—” Jackson burst into laughter. “I highly doubt that.”

  She turned to face him. “Come on, Jax. Give. Denny’s initials were in the notebook. So were Pam’s and Henry’s. And Henry point-blank lied to me several times before you and Jim got there. Any one of them could have killed Uncle Edmond. Or maybe it was a conspiracy!”

  “I don’t think Denny had—wait, how do you know who was listed in the journal? It took me half the night to decipher some of those codes, and you didn’t have it long enough to study.”

  Crap. She knew better than to look at him but couldn’t help herself. She saw it in his face the moment he put together what she’d done.

  “Oh … my … God! You little sneak. You had it copied when you left Edmond’s, didn’t you? You knew I’d come for it and copied it before I could get there!”

  “Don’t be so dramatic. This isn’t a covert operation we’re talking about, and it’s a stupid notebook, not microfilm or a secret computer chip.”

  Jackson pulled off the highway into the H-E-B grocery store parking lot and turned off the engine. He shifted to face her. “Look me in the eye and tell me that’s not exactly what you did.”

  “Jax—”

  “You can’t do it, can you?”

  Throwing up her hands, she confessed. “Okay, you got me. I had it photocopied on my way home. So what? It’s not a crime.”

  “Geez, El.” He shook his head. “Between your inability to butt out and Ross’s reluctance to tell me the truth … don’t you get that it makes my job that much harder?”

  After her earlier conversation with her brother, Elise didn’t want to go down that road with Jackson for fear of spilling her guts. So with a guilty twinge, she changed the subject.

  “Do you want to know what I found out from Henry or not?” When he just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, she dove in. “For one thing, he told me he hadn’t seen or spoken to Uncle Edmond for several days leading up to his death. But I ran into Boyd Cox in town—he works in the vat room out at Kohler’s—and he said they were both out there the day before having a very heated argument.”

  “An argument about what?”

  “Boyd didn’t know, but he said he clearly heard Uncle Edmond say that he ‘wasn’t going to do it anymore’ and that he ‘wanted out.’ And that wasn’t the only thing Henry lied about.”

  “Yeah, we weren’t buying that crap he was selling about how he was just trying to help out an old friend, either. He and Edmond were never friends.”

  “So what did Denny have to say?”

  “El.”

  “Jax.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face, and then relented. “Denny has an alibi for the night Edmond was killed. He was at El Diablo and has a room full of people who will attest to it.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. He could’ve had a couple of his goons do it while he sat in the bar and held court. Good way to give himself a solid-looking alibi.”

  “True, but from what he told us, he didn’t have a reason for killing your uncle.”

  Elise frowned. “But what about the money he owed Denny?”

  Jackson finally broke down and replayed the conversation for her.

  “Uncle Edmond paid him off in full and then ran up another tab?” she asked when he’d finished. “No wonder Pam was angry. Especially if she forked over close to ten grand and he only owed Denny half of that.”

  “Yeah. And Edmond was also bragging about a big payoff he’d be getting, but when Denny questioned him about it, he got really jumpy and clammed up. Told Denny to forget he’d said anything.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Yes, unfortunately, I do. And I’m gonna have another conversation with Pam Dawson. Seems she conveniently left out the fact that she dropped by El Diablo the night after Edmond was there and that’s when Denny told her everything.”

  “Speaking of Pam, did you notice her and Henry today? The other day, he tried to tell me that he hardly knew her, but he’d obviously forgotten that I found them all huddled up together at the Pit the day I went to see her. And then there he is today, drying her crocodile tears and murmuring words of comfort in her ear.” When Jackson raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged. “Okay, so maybe that’s a bit over the top, but not by much. I’m telling you: conspiracy.”

  “There’s nothing at this point to support that theory, and so far I’ve got more questions than answers.” He stared out the windshield for a moment before starting the car. “Like, where’s the rest of the money that Pam gave Edmond? That’s been really bugging me. And the biggest question of all, who was Edmond getting a payoff from and for what?”

  Fifteen

  Saturday turned out to be a perfect day for a wedding and just the ticket to brighten the somber mood at the vineyard after Edmond’s funeral services the day before. The gray skies of Friday night’s thunderstorms had given way to the softest pastel blue Elise had ever seen, and the sun warmed the Hill Country air without the terrible humidity they’d endured for weeks.

  Women roamed the Great Lawn of Lodge Merlot in dresses of every hue, some with matching summer hats adorning their heads. Men dressed in warm-weather attire strolled with them or stood talking in groups.

  Elise loved weddings and the way they made her heart grow light and put a smile on her face. This one would hopefully scrub away—at least in the short term—the dark cloud that had begun with Edmond’s murder. Not that Jackson’s investigation would magically disappear, but it wasn’t something she even wanted to think about today. Today was for hearts and flowers, joy and celebration.

  Madison had outdone herself this time.

  The vows would take place on the back lawn under an arbor bursting with wisteria blooms. Rows of white wicker chairs lined the flagstone walkway the bride would take to greet her groom under fragrant blossoms.

  The reception would follow on the Great Lawn at the far side of the lodge with a stunning view of the vineyard as a backdrop.

  Elise had to admit she was crazy for the way her sister had set up the area. Pristine white linen covered the round tables that would seat five each. At the center of each was a miniature ice bucket filled with trailing ivy, aromatic narcissus in full bloom, and perky Texas bluebonnets.

  The bride and groom would sit at a similarly adorned table on the side veranda, overlooking the spread of guest tables that were situated under hug
e canopies to shield them from the worst heat of the afternoon sun. The bandstand and flagstone dance area were off to one side within view, but out of the main pattern of foot traffic.

  The wedding cake—an incredible four-tiered display of decadence—held court inside Lodge Merlot. Colorful sugar paste flowers matching the bride’s bouquet swirled around the top tier and then poured cheerfully down the sides. The artful cascade ended by wrapping halfway around the bottom tier. It was truly spectacular.

  The mayor had spared no expense for her only daughter’s wedding, and Maddy had delivered in masterful style. The effect was elaborate without being over the top, with a light, summery ambiance. The pride Elise felt for her sister swelled in her chest as she watched the proceedings from the lodge’s wraparound porch.

  Fortunately, the ceremony itself was mercifully short. Upon its conclusion, the guests strolled around the building to the reception area while the bride and groom, along with family members from both sides, had their photo session under the colorful arbor.

  Though Deana Wilkinson wasn’t the prettiest woman in Bastrop County, today Elise thought she was radiant. The new bride’s face was drenched in joy, and love shone in her eyes each and every time she looked up at the man standing next to her. And Peter Adams, her groom, was all smiles and looked about ready to pop.

  I would love to have that someday, Elise thought as she walked around the lodge to the reception area. To have so much love for one person—someone you could count on to know exactly what you needed and when you needed it—would be wonderful.

  However, it was a bit troubling that instead of thinking of Stuart, her thoughts seemed to naturally gravitate toward Jackson before she could redirect them. She’d felt herself drawing back, pulling away from Stuart for weeks now. If she were honest, she would have to admit that C.C. may have been right when she’d said he wasn’t the man for her. And she wasn’t doing either of them any favors by dragging out the inevitable.