Out of nowhere it seemed, Cody took a shortcut directly to where Kay and Gloria sat bypassing the slate walkway.
“Cody’s back that means Gavin is too.”
“Kay!” Gavin shouted at the backdoor waving several copies of Wine Cellars Digest.
“Kay the article came out today of Max Berkin. Your photos are perfect! Where are you?” Cody began barking which helped Gavin locate Kay.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had company. Hello Gloria,” he said and kissed her cheek.
“I was about to leave,” Gloria quickly announced.
“Oh don’t leave just because I’m here. I’m just excited about the article of Max Berkin. Here, take a copy to read with Norman.”
“Congratulations to both of you!” Gloria cheered while squeezing each of their arms.
She began to walk away when Gavin stopped her, “Say, how is the sale of my home going? Tell Norman to give me a call.”
Gloria signaled with her hands as if to say the sale was proceeding so-so, but assured Gavin she would nudge Norman.
Gavin and Kay sat together on the garden bench in awe of their partnered accomplishment. Kay leaned her head on his chest with a dreamy look in her eyes. Life doesn’t get better than this, she thought and mentally made a list of all her blessings: Our first anniversary will be in 1 week; Gavin is finally selling his Pearl River home; this amazing article; my photograph was on the postcard invitation. What could possible go wrong?
***
Gavin decided to visit Max Berkin later in that afternoon to hand-deliver copies of the magazine. Besides, Kay had invited Peggy to drop-by. They would rummage through Kay’s closet to help Kay find an outfit to wear for the event.
‘How’s this?” Kay asked holding an olive green business suit that screamed retired school teacher.
“You‘ll look like a flower pot in that,” Peggy replied laughing. “Something more subtle, but sexy. You’re not going to church, you’ll be out on the town!”
“I don’t know if I have sexy,” Kay lamented. “What are you going to wear?”
“Well, I’m not wearing a business suit that’s for sure,” Peggy remarked. “I have an eggshell white sleeveless dress that I wore at a friend’s wedding last year. That may work.”
“That sounds perfect, can I borrow it? Kay joked. They both laughed and continued to search through Kay’s closet. “Oh this is lovely, why don’t you wear this?” Peggy suggested, and held it up to Kay. It was a pale sea-blue dress with flowing sleeves, bodice and hem. “I don’t think I ever saw this on you?”
“That was a dress I bought just before Robert died. It’s cursed.”
“Bull-dinkies! Wear it,” Peggy insisted. “Gavin will love it.”
Kay looked at her reflection. She stuck out her tongue and made funny faces. “You’re right it is beautiful and brand new!”
The two friends descended to the kitchen for a spot of tea and some chick-chat.
Peggy started to complain about the sale of her Harmony Tea Shoppe that she felt was mishandled by Norman from start to finish. Her rant continued with a laundry list of aches and pains. She was still feeling betrayed by her ex-boyfriend even though she was heavily involved with the new guy, Josh. Kay began to regret asking her over. The doorbell rang twice followed by a forceful knock just when Peggy was in mid-sentence whining about the new church choir director. It was a welcome intrusion for Kay until she saw who was at the door. It was Lana.
***
With wings on his heels Gavin raced to Max Berkin’s to show him the article. He felt so confident that he didn’t worry about arriving in his red truck. He felt like he was king of road and on his way to bigger assignments the kind he dreamed of all his life. May be some day there would be a Pulitzer in his future. Gavin chuckled to himself with that thought. He buzzed at the gate to enter and was buzzed back immediately to proceed.
But when the door opened, he wasn’t greeted by Max, but a man whom he never met before.
“Is Max here?” Gavin asked.
“He’s away on business,” the man said. “Are you the writer who did the article?” The man started to take the copies out of Gavin’s hands. Gavin tugged back.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ll give these to Max.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name?” Gavin hissed.
“I’m Barnaby, a good friend of the Berkins.”
“Whose there?” A woman’s voice called from upstairs.
“Just the guy who did Max’s article. Lana there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Lana!” Gavin called. “Maybe you’d like to read it now. There’s a picture of you and Max” Gavin heard a cell phone ring, footsteps walking away and a door close. Lana didn’t answer.
Barnaby took hold of the magazines and stepped outside the front door signaling for Gavin to leave.
***
Kay let Lana inside and introduced her to Peggy. Peggy’s greeting was cool. This didn’t ruffle Kay in the least because she understood this was Peggy’s way of not letting new people into her circle, not trusting too easily, and a tad of jealousy how easily Kay made friends.
“Kay, I better go now. Josh and I are going out to dinner with Gloria and Norman this evening, and then catching a movie.” They kissed and Peggy turned to Lana and smiled. “See you next week,” Peggy said to Lana before she left.
The instant she and Kay were alone, Lana threw her arms around Kay and declared “You look great, Kay!” Lana held Kay just long enough to start sobbing.
“I’m sorry I never called you back, Lana. I didn’t know what to think after the luncheon.”
“It’s my fault. But I’m in a mess all because I wanted to save what my father had worked so hard to achieve. I don’t know what to do. I’m a wreck over this.”
“What’s going on? Let’s sit down and you can tell me from the beginning,” Kay offered. She led her to sit on a red velvet loveseat.
“Max took over my father’s business, but I’m certain that he or someone is trying to squeeze me out of it entirely. I’m being crushed like a grape.”
Kay grimaced, the image Lana conjured was unspeakable.
“Did you really have a fall a few weeks ago?” Kay asked Lana.
‘No.” Lana confessed and held a tissue to her eyes.
“Did Max hit you or throw you down?”
“No.” Lana repeated and shook her head. “I can’t talk about it.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Kay pressed her.
They were interrupted when Gavin came screeching into the driveway and burst through the back door rather agitated. He spoke from the kitchen while making his way into the living room.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on at the Berkin’s but Max wasn’t there, some slippery type greeted me at the door and Lana didn’t come down to speak to me or see the article!”
As Gavin entered the living room, Lana stood up to face him.
“Lana?” Gavin’s jaw dropped.
“That wasn’t me, I would have come down to thank you and read about my husband.”
“Then who was it? And Max wasn’t there either.”
“It had to be Barnaby and that bitch, Potterbottom,” Lana replied angrily.
***
For a change Gloria and Norman suggested fine dining and wanted to skip the Ridge Diner or Murty’s. So they met Josh and Peggy at Esty Street, an America bistro.
“I was at Peggy’s this morning admiring her roses,” Gloria began. “Did you see the article that Gavin wrote?”
“Yes, Kay gave a copy to me this afternoon when I was there helping her pick out something to wear for Saturday.
“You mean, Uncle Gavin,” Josh teased her. “You still haven’t told me how a man who is about the same age can be your uncle?”
“Josh, I explained it to you twice. Gavin’s brother was my father, but they were about 14 years apart.”
Josh stared out the window pondering this and finally connected the dots.
&
nbsp; “So you mean that your father was 14 when you were born, and Gavin was his younger brother, which makes you Gavin’s niece.”
“Yes, and I’ll explain the rest another time.”
There was an awkward silence. Norman and Gloria sat stone faced wanting to hear more from Peggy. It was if everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Josh didn’t like to be the company of others with little or no conversation. He shifted in his seat. Finally, Josh fueled the conversation.
“About that cover story of Max Berkin,” Josh opened for discussion. “That’s not the man who I met in New York at an antique expo. He looked nothing like that. Is Gavin sure he interviewed Max Berkin?”
“Well of course that’s Max Berkin,” Norman argued. “You think a respectable magazine would have a cover story on some bogus person!”
“May be the man you met wasn’t Max and only said he was,” Peggy suggested gently.
“Or may be the man said he worked for Max Berkin,” Norman added with a tone of one-upmanship.
Josh looked at all of them with a blank stare. It wouldn’t have been the first time that he attended an expo where someone misrepresented themselves nor had someone else represent the owner of a company.
“I have a good memory, that guy told me he was Max Berkin, he even handed me his card,” Josh replied with assurance. Peggy placed her hand on Josh’s arm, she knew how friendships cold easily go south over such a trifle disagreement.
“Let’s have a toast!” Gloria announced and raised her wine glass to the others.
“What a great idea,” Peggy agreed.
“To good friends and friendship!” Gloria declared glancing at each of the others one at a time.
***
Lana returned to her Upper Saddle River home where Max greeted her quickly informing her they had company. From out of the shadows stepped Barnaby and Gail, each holding a glass of wine.
“Come join us, darling,” Max said.
“I’m tired,” Lana declined.
“Party pooper!” Barnaby called out.
“Where have you been? You know that writer came by today while you were out,” Barnaby said walking within inches of Lana’s face. “I had to lie to him and pretend that you were upstairs.”
“I know,” Lana replied.
“What?” Barnaby questioned her, his face flushed.
“You heard me,” she said in a low voice and went upstairs to rest.
***
Gavin was still riled about how he hadn’t connected with Max. “It was almost like he was avoiding me, or something.”
“Oh Gavin, don’t be silly. I even bought a bottle of his wine with me as a kind of a joke. I was going to ask him to open it. I left it in the car; it’s still in the backseat.”
“Well, you and I can have a toast to your article and my photography,” Kay coaxed.
With that Gavin rushed back and forth to the car while Kay gathered the cork screw and two wine glasses. Gavin uncorked the wine, placed a towel over his forearm and began to pour a splash into Kay’s glass.
“Madam, you may have the pleasure of tasting the wine first,” Gavin affected a French accent. He waited quietly as Kay raised the wine glass to her lips. She immediately spit it back into the glass and began to cough
“Kay! What’s wrong?” He slammed the bottle to the table and kneeled at Kay’s side.
“Gavin, I’m fine, but this wine is…well you taste it.”
Gavin poured some into his glass to taste. He sprayed it out of his mouth into the kitchen sink.
“Bloody awful!” Gavin said. “How could Max Berkin sell this and be known as a wine expert of the world?”
“Let me see that bottle, and where did you buy it?” Kay demanded grabbing it from the table. She searched for her magnifying glass in the kitchen junk drawer then began to read the label aloud, “Chateau Fine Finish by Max Berkin, Cabernet Sauvignon France 2012, vinted by Fine Finish Winery, bottled and distributed by Galaxy Distributors.”
“Well?” Gavin asked glad to take a backseat for a change.
“This means that Galaxy, aka Barnaby, was the last person to handle the wine.”
“I’m missing a piece of information. Is he the same Barnaby that I just met? So what?”
Kay closed her eyes to collect her thoughts. She realized that she forgot to mention what she had read on the Internet about Barnaby. Like many things these days, it slipped her stream of consciousness.
“Gavin, I forgot to tell you about Barnaby’s previous fraud in the wine industry. I read it on the Internet.”
“You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet,” Gavin scoffed. “I’m going to call Max right now and tell him about this bottle of wine. It’s probably the fault of the liquor store.”
“Don’t call Max, he may take it out on Lana,” Kay pleaded. “Let’s put our heads together and figure it out. There are a few things on the computer I want to show you.”
Gavin cooled and became receptive to the deductive reasoning of his amateur sleuth Kay. They sat together on the sofa, Cody slept comfortably in the wing chair, while Kay balanced her laptop across her knees.
“First I want to show you some of the photos I took when we went to the Berkins together. I’m always intrigued by backgrounds in photographs. Sometimes there’s a clock in the photo, or someone is in the photo that wasn’t supposed to be, and sometimes there are other photographs displayed on walls.”
Kay flipped through thumbnails of the digital images and found the one she was looking for. It was one with Max by himself. But behind Max on the wall was a photo. Kay magnified the image as much as she could on the computer screen.
“Look, this is a photo of Max in the wine cellar. See the photo behind him, it is of Max and Lana with this man. They’re together smiling, probably at a party of something.”
“That’s the same guy who I met at the Berkins today!”
Kay quickly went online where she bookmarked the article about Barnaby Bishoff.
“And here he is again,” Kay said emphatically pointing to the screen.
“You never mentioned this man before? How do you know him?”
“I don’t. I’ve never met him, but the day I met Lana for lunch both she and Gail Potter took off together to meet Barnaby at his Connecticut office.”
“You don’t suppose we’ve been conned or something?” Gavin asked with concern. “My integrity as a journalist is at stake.”
Kay took a deep breath unsure how to respond to Gavin. I can’t sweep it under the rug, she thought. But I can reassure him while I go about uncovering more information.
“No, Max Berkin is the real deal otherwise the magazine would have never published your article,” Kay stated firmly while thinking, but he may be involved in something illegal.
8
The next day, Gavin’s attention turned to the sale of his former Pearl River residence. Norman had advised him to empty the remaining contents because the old furnishings detracted from the sale. Several buyers had come and gone without any further interest. Norman was certain it had to do with Gavin’s beat-up wing chair and sofa. Gavin begrudgingly agreed.
“I’m taking these boxes you had in the basement with me to the house,” Gavin called to Kay upstairs.
She popped her head from the bathroom and cautioned, “Please don’t bring back a lot of stuff!” She really wanted to say junk, but her better judgment held her tongue. Then added, “And take Cody with you.”
Gavin piled the boxes into his truck and had Cody sit in the front seat next to him.
“We’re going to see your old home, but Paulie isn’t there anymore, old boy.”
Just the sound of Paul’s name made Cody whine a bit. When the two arrived, Norman was there with a young couple showing the house.
“And here’s the owner now,” Norman announced as Gavin pulled up. “Perfect timing.” Except the couple’s arrival wasn’t perfect timing for Gavin who as a writer somehow perversely reveled in melancholy memo
ries as if he were writing a story.
He and Cody remained in the truck, and Gavin rolled down his window.
“Norman, can I talk to you alone for a moment,” Gavin asked Norman and waved him over.
“Sure,” Norman said walking briskly toward the truck.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone this morning. This is something I have to do alone.”
“Do you want to sell this house or not?” Norman asked impatiently.
“Not as much as you do,” Gavin neered. Cody barked.
Norman rolled his eyes and turned around to speak to the couple who waited by the front door. “The owner asked if he could clean up a bit before I show you the house. We can go back to the office and discuss the mortgage.”
The couple agreed and smiled. Then the young man walked up to Gavin to talk.
“My parents just sold their home after 45 years, it’s hard.” Gavin offered the young man a handshake and watched the couple leave with Norman.
Though he had visited the house countless times over the months, this time was different. This was the home where his two sons visited for several summers; it was where his ailing brother, Paul, stayed several months before he died; it was where Cody bonded to Gavin as his new master; it was where Peggy was reunited with Paul, a father that she had never known; and now it symbolized the closing of a chapter and the beginning of his life with Kay. Gavin and Cody left the truck and stepped into the past for one last farewell.
***
Just over the New Jersey-New York State border, Barnaby and Gail were careening on the New York Thruway toward the Tappan Zee Bridge. Gail was driving her sports car with the radio blaring, and was speeding with abandonment. Barnaby, a man in his sixties gripped the handle of the passenger’s side.
“Slow down, Calamity Jane! You’ll get us in an accident or ticketed for speeding. What’s your hurry? The event isn’t for another 2 days.”
“Relax, Barnaby. I have everything under control.” She gave him a quick glance and pushed harder and faster. Sure enough, an unmarked police car jetted from the shoulder, tailing her until Gail finally stopped. Barnaby started to pound his fist on the dashboard.
Wine, Roses & Cheats (Gold Trotter Mystery Series Book 5) Page 5