Merlot and Murder

by Samantha Silver

  Ken laughed, shaking his head at her. "You two are really something else. What were you doing out there, anyway?"

  I decided to take this one. "Did you hear about the murder? The owner of the Singing Bird Winery was killed yesterday morning. Karen and I were there doing a wine tour, and our guide, who also happened to be the owner’s wife, found his body in front of all of us. It was terrible."

  "That is terrible," Ken agreed. "Right here," he added, pointing to the sensible Toyota Corolla in the front of the parking lot. Humble taste for an attorney, I liked it. That said, I also really liked Barbara’s Lexus.

  "The worst part is that both of his step-daughters saw, too. The oldest is like sixteen or seventeen, I think, but the youngest is only twelve. Her birthday was last Thursday. And they had to deal with seeing that."

  Ken opened the doors for us and Karen naturally shoved me to sit up front in the passenger seat next to him, while quickly grabbing the door handle to the rear passenger seat.

  "Yeah, and we wanted to do something about it. When the police came to investigate, it was like they already had their suspicions or something. They think that someone from the wine tour did it, but neither one of us think that's the case."

  "And when are the two of you going to let the police handle their business?" Ken asked as he slid into the driver seat, an eyebrow raised. Coming from him, it made a lot more sense.

  "When the police sound like they're actually doing their job effectively," I countered, shrugging. After all, it was the reason why we decided to look into things ourselves. We didn’t want to find ourselves on the suspect list for no reason.

  This seemed to placate Ken who nodded, starting the car. "I get it, but maybe next time, try not to commit any crimes in the process? Not that I mind bailing the two of you out, but just to safeguard against something happening to you, I'd be careful."

  "Thank you for that, by the way," I added meekly, feeling like an idiot for not saying anything sooner. "I promise you I'll pay you back as soon as I can. I don't know how much it was or anything but —"

  Ken just laughed. "Nah, you don’t have to pay me back. It wasn't a big deal. In fact, I'm glad that you called, actually."

  I caught Karen's amused look in the rearview and felt like turning around to smack her.

  "Oh, really?" she said, not too innocently.

  He nodded. "Really. It's always a good idea to contact your attorney in these types of situations. The police can be pretty demanding at times. It's always good to have the law on your side if you ever find yourself in the sticky situation again. Which," he said, turning to point at both of us as he buckled up, "I highly suggest you don't."

  Karen sat back, clearly not happy with his less-than-ideal answer. "It's not like we were trying to get arrested. It just sort of happened." Yeah, just sort of happened. She forgot to mention the part where she nearly got us both thrown into the loony bin by suddenly appearing out of thin air.

  "I still want to pay you back, though," I said softly, ignoring her.

  Ken was quiet for a minute as we pulled out of the sheriff’s station. "If you want to pay me back, then do me the honor of coming with me to dinner tomorrow night," he finally said, staring straight out in front of him at the road with the tiniest smile on his face.

  I wasn't even sure I heard him right. "Sorry, go with you to dinner? Tomorrow night?"

  Ken laughed. "Yes, if you want to pay me back, just say yes."

  Karen kicked my seat, urging me on. "Well, don't just leave the man hanging, Taylor."

  It was like I had forgotten how to speak. I licked my lips, still utterly confused. Was he asking me out? On a real date? "Uh, sure," I managed to squeak, quickly clearing my throat so I no longer sounded like a surprised mouse. "I can uh, do that. Thank you for the, uh, invitation."

  I was pretty sure it was impossible to be even more embarrassed than getting bailed out of jail by the hot lawyer in town, but apparently, I was wrong. I didn't even have to look at Karen in the mirror to know she was already shaking her head at my awkwardness.

  I spent the rest of the ride trying to play it off as if our upcoming date was no big deal, but inside was a totally different story. Ken's hazel and green eyes kept darting over to me, and every time they did I found myself blushing even harder. The fact that he had asked me out on an impromptu date when he could've easily asked me to pay our bail money back was still beyond me.

  By the time we got back to our house, Karen was practically giddy with glee as we got out of his car. "Thanks again for bailing us out, Ken! I don't know what we would do without you!"

  "Yeah," I agreed, smiling over at him. "Seriously, thank you so much for all of your help tonight."

  He reached over to place his hand on mine as I opened the door. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. How about I pick you up at seven?"

  "Seven sounds great." Was it just me or did our hands look kind of perfect together?

  I tried not to make it so obvious that I was watching the taillights of his car disappear down the road from the sidewalk, so of course Karen pointed it out.

  "You two are so cute together. Both so unassuming and nice. I should make a bet with Mom about which one of you will make that awkward first move toward a kiss. Will it be Ken, the young junior attorney with a heart of gold? Or will it be Taylor, the secret witch who draws little hearts over her 'i's?'" she said as she spread her hands out in the air in front of her. "Oh man, I can see it now."

  "You're insufferable. You know that, right?"

  Karen stuck her tongue out at me before skipping up the steps past me, calling out over her shoulder, "Yep. And you love me for it."

  Chapter 11

  “You girls are back late,” Barbara said suspiciously as we headed inside the house. “Did you go out to dinner or something? If I knew you were going to go out, I would’ve asked you to bring me back some food too. I’ve actually been in the mood for some of that really good eggplant parmigiana from Mercutio Italia’s.”

  If there was any way I could have telepathically told Karen to wipe the dumb, sheepish look off her face, I would have, but unfortunately there wasn’t and Barbara caught on almost immediately as we slunk into the kitchen.

  “Okay. What’s going on? You two look like cat that ate the canary.”

  I sighed. “Should I tell her, or do you want to?”

  Karen groaned, dropping her head down, unable to meet her mom’s gaze. “So, we may have sort of gotten ourselves arrested.”

  Barbara stood very still, obviously letting the words wash over her. “Arrested as in, going to jail, arrested? What do you mean? What in the world happened? And why didn’t you call me?”

  I threw Karen a dirty look. “Well, I wanted to call you.”

  “Hey, now, there’s no need to throw your best friend under the bus so fast,” Karen replied, sticking her tongue out at me. “Both of us got arrested remember? Not just me.” She turned back to face Barbara before continuing. “We went to the winery, we wanted to kind of do some,uh-”

  “Investigating,” I admitted, taking a few steps toward Barbara. “About the murder.”

  Barbara had the decency to look as though she were trying to keep the room as calm as possible. I certainly appreciated it, because I already hated feeling as guilty as I did about the whole situation. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go snooping around somebody else’s private property after all.

  “So, you were investigating the murder. Karen, Taylor, you both know how I feel about that. I don’t think it’s a very good idea to go digging into other people’s business. That is exactly why it’s handled by someone else other than two young girls trying to stave off some boredom.”

  Karen’s mouth dropped open. “Stave off boredom? You know that’s not what we’re doing, Mom. We’re trying to help the family. We’re trying to figure out what happened, and honestly, we were trying to keep ourselves off the suspect list.”

  I winced. Coming out of the fresh stint in jail, the
last part sounded pretty stupid now that I was thinking about it. If anything, we had definitely just jumped up to the top of it.

  “So, it was very smart of us to end up in jail when we were trying to stay out of it in the first place. I already know that’s what you’re going to say,” I said to Barbara, swallowing hard. “But it really isn’t about us getting bored and wanting something to do. We were really trying to help. I promise.”

  Barbara looked between the two of us, drumming her perfectly-manicured nails on top of the counter. After a moment she sighed, nodding. “I know, I know. I shouldn’t have said that. But my point still stands — the two of you shouldn’t be getting in the middle of someone else’s private business. This is how witch-hunts get started, you know?”

  I didn’t think witch-hunts were even really a thing anymore, to be honest,

  “We’ll do better, I promise,” Karen said finally, throwing her arm around my left shoulder. “Right, Taylor?”

  And of course, she was very subtly trying to wink at me. So, this wasn’t over, after all. She just didn’t want her mom worrying over us as she always did.

  “Right,” I agreed.

  “Well, in that case, I just found out that they’re holding a celebration of life for Nick Stowe tomorrow afternoon. Not that I want to encourage it or anything, but if you’re wanting to help the family, the least you could do would be to show your condolences for their loss. But that’s just my opinion, and I know the two of you aren’t always thrilled with my humble opinions.”

  “After the funeral?” Karen asked. We had already heard that there would be a funeral for Nick the following day.

  Barbara nodded, taking a sip of her tea. “Yes, right after the funeral. And if you’d like, Taylor, I can handle your shift tomorrow. But please, you two be careful.”

  I would have said Barbara was just a worrywart, but I knew she only cared about us and wanted to make sure we were safe. It was one of my favorite things about her, especially not having my own mom around anymore.

  “Listen, if anyone ever tries to hurt us, we’ll just use magic and bingo, no problem. Taylor’s even getting better at her spells,” Karen replied.

  Neither Barbara nor I decided to mention the earlier mishap at Creekside Trinkets, and Barbara took out two more teacups, offering us some.

  “Whatever you say, dear.”

  I adjusted my black tights, already knowing that as soon as I walked out into the August heat I would be sweltering in them. “I’m gonna look like a giant tomato wearing a dress,” I muttered to no one in particular, smoothing out the hem of my dress.

  Karen’s low heels click across the floor of our apartment. “At least you look cute. Remind me that the next time we have to go to a funeral, I should really pick out something less matronly.” She was wearing a black pantsuit that was clearly far too big for her small frame.

  “Will do.” There was no point in denying it. Anyone with eyes could see Taylor’s choice wasn’t the best.

  Neither one of us had wanted to sit through yet another funeral, but I agreed with Barbara that it would be best to show up at the memorial that took place afterwards. In the car, we had both agreed that we were going to get in, do a little bit of chitchatting with the family, and see if we could find any other information out about Janice, the office manager. Even though Karen was now adamant that Alicia was our main suspect, I still wasn’t so sure.

  I also wasn’t sure whether or not showing up to the Singing Bird Winery was such a good idea when we didn’t know if Deputy Ratface had mentioned to Alicia Stowe that we had trespassed on her property the night before. His round face was the one I was keeping a lookout for.

  We entered a small banquet room we hadn’t been inside during the tour. It looked like plenty of people knew Nick Stowe, because the place was packed to the gills; not just the banquet hall, but the winery itself. People were not only coming to pay their respects, they were also coming to pay for their booze, it seemed.

  Well, at least the family would hit their sales goals for the week, I assumed.

  “Oh look, more death cheese,” Karen said, pointing to a long buffet table full of different finger foods. At one end was the same homemade cheese Alicia had offered to us during the wine tour.

  Rolling my eyes, I nudged Karen in the ribs. “Stop. If someone overhears you, you’re going to make me look bad,” I hissed at her under my breath.

  “Don’t be so serious.”

  “We are at a memorial service, so yes, I’m going to be pretty serious. Let’s just grab some food and walk around a little. Maybe we’ll spot the Stowes around here somewhere.”

  Karen and I got in line for the buffet, and I absentmindedly slopped some food onto my Styrofoam plate, barely paying any attention to whatever I was about to eat.

  I thanked the caterer who poured me a glass of lemonade, and I waited for Karen to finish up behind me. There wasn’t anywhere to really sit, so we stood around closer to the front doors of the banquet hall, scoping out everyone as they came in, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

  After a few minutes, I spotted Amanda and Kirsten filing in, Kirsten’s arm around her younger sister’s shoulder. They were wearing matching black sundresses, and each wore a set of pretty pearls around their neck. It was quite tragic how simple and lovely they looked standing there, both wearing the same frown on their face.

  Alicia Stowe came in not long after, catching up with her two daughters and putting on her best attempt at a smile as she started thanking those who had come to pay their respects to her husband.

  Somewhere overhead, the screeching noise of microphone feedback halted the conversation in the room, most of us quickly grabbing our ears to protect them from the hideous noise. I nearly dropped my plate, looking around to see what in the world was going on.

  At the front of the room, a man was trying to get control of the microphone. His intense resemblance to the victim gave away his identity immediately: this had to be Kevin, Nick Stowe’s brother. Kirsten had mentioned to us that Kevin was staying with the Stowe family while he was visiting, and I had almost completely forgotten about him.

  “That’s Nick Stowe’s brother, right?” Karen asked me close by my ear. “He’s kind of cute in a ‘I-need-to-take-about-a-weeks’-worth-of-showers-after-sleeping-with-him kind of way.”

  “Ew. I really did not need to have that image stuck in my head, but yes, that’s his brother, I think.”

  Kevin Stowe cleared his throat, apologizing for the shriek of noise. He tapped his finger onto the microphone in his hand, causing even more noise. “Sorry about that, folks. I’m Kevin, Nick’s brother, and on behalf of his family I’d like to thank you all for coming here today to honor my brother.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd as they nodded, listening closely.

  Kevin went on to describe Nick and Alicia’s fairytale relationship. If I hadn’t known any better, it seemed like they had the perfect kind of life, having gotten married right as Alicia was pregnant with Amanda from a previous relationship. Someone who could take on the children of a previous man didn’t sound like someone who deserved to die, if you asked me.

  Once Kevin had finished up, he thanked everybody for coming by, and implored everyone to finish as much of the food as they could, pointing out the catering company with the big smile on his face.

  Alicia led the crowd in clapping for him, and before long she had stood up from one of the few chairs that was placed by the podium in the front of the banquet room and made to speak to the crowd of people. Sniffling, she dabbed her eyes carefully with a handkerchief, and tried to give her best watery smile. “This would’ve been one of the moments where my husband would have laughed and said, ‘wow, I can’t believe this many people actually care about me,’” she said with a little laugh. Many others chuckled softly.

  “But of course, everyone cared about him, he was a great guy. A hard worker, a loving husband, and a doting father. He hadn’t always had the easiest time, and thoug
h we’ve had our differences before, I know he loved me as much as I loved him.” Her eyes moved to her daughters, who were standing close by, Amanda’s face buried against Kirsten’s shoulder. “I just wanted to thank you all for coming. It really does mean a lot to me and my family. Thank you.”

  Chapter 12

  The room buzzed with conversation once more when Alicia finished her short speech, and Karen and I exchanged a look.

  “Is it just me, or does this seem kind of surreal? Like, he wasn’t just murdered, and this was just some sort of natural death? It almost feels like maybe he wasn’t murdered after all. I mean I know that’s not true, because obviously they’re investigating it as one, but still,” Karen said, dumping the rest of her nearly empty plate into the nearby trashcan. “It’s just weird. No one’s really talking about the fact that he was actually killed.”

  I nodded, having picked up on that too. “Yeah. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s talking about it, now. What did you think of his brother’s speech?”

  She just shrugged. “A normal speech, I guess. Why, did you think something was weird about it?”

  Maybe it was just the way he had mentioned the catering service with a huge smile, or maybe it was just the fact that he didn’t seem to be quite as upset as the rest of the family, I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. I guess it seemed normal.”

  “Maybe we should go talk to the girls. What do you think?”

  I honestly didn’t like the idea of approaching the Stowe daughters, simply because of the timing. They were pretty, well, upset, understandably. And I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to say anything to Alicia, since neither one of us knew if she was aware of us being arrested on her property yet. But, since I hadn’t seen Deputy Ratface anywhere in the crowd of people, or outside, I supposed I could always hope for the best.