Ripe for Murder

by Carlene O'Neil

  She nodded. “Jim is convinced that investing in the trains is a good idea. He might be right. Apparently there are setbacks on both sides of the train tracks where you can’t build, anywhere from fifty to more than a hundred feet in spots. The train line owns all of this extra land.”

  “And?”

  “And, my dear Penny, that doesn’t mean you can’t plant grapes there.”

  I stopped. “He’s right. There aren’t any vines along the tracks.”

  She nodded. “I’ve heard the land here is worth upward of a million dollars an acre along the valley floor. If that’s the case then . . .”

  “Investors in the train line could be sitting on a fortune in land that isn’t being used. Does Kim agree with Jim?”

  Antonia shrugged. “She’s the more cautious of the two. Jim’s more willing to take risks. I like Kim. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Not that Jim is wrong. There may be a real opportunity here.”

  “Antonia, wait.” Olympio hurried down the walk to us. “I was wondering if you would permit me to show you my rose garden by night, and then I will gladly drive you back to the hotel.”

  She arched her brow. “It’s too dark to see anything.”

  He took her arm. “That’s why I had lighting installed. Perfect for special guests and special nights, such as this.”

  She arched her brow even higher. “Exactly how many times have you used that line?”

  Olympio answered in a solemn voice. “You are the first one I’ve asked to share it with me.”

  Antonia must have heard his sincerity. She glanced over her shoulder. “See you back at the hotel.”

  I smiled and caught up with the rest of the group. It was dark on the path, the steps dimly lit. Afraid of tripping, I moved carefully, but it was Chantal who hit the ground. One minute she was standing there, and the next she was sitting in a hydrangea.

  “I can’t believe I did that.” She giggled.

  “Well, look at those shoes,” I said. “Who wears those?”

  Chantal lifted her leg in the air and wiggled her ankle. “Just those of us that want to be stylish.” She glanced at my flats. “I don’t see you taking a tumble anytime soon.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Can you stand?”

  “Of course I can.” She put her weight on the leg and promptly fell right into Connor’s arms. Convenient.

  “Oops,” she said. “I guess not. Funny thing is, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

  “It will tomorrow,” I said. With any luck.

  “Why am I so cold?” She looked around on the ground. “Wait, I forgot my pashmina. My cover. I forgot my cover.” She looked over at me. “Penny, will you go get it?”

  “I can go back,” Bill said.

  “No, you go ahead and bring the car around,” I said.

  “I’ll go back for it,” Connor said.

  “No, that won’t work,” I said. “You need to help Chantal get to the car.”

  Big Dave turned to me. “Would you like for me to go with you?”

  “They’re fine, Dad. Let’s go,” Vance said.

  As rude as Vance was, I couldn’t help but agree. “He’s right. This isn’t a problem.”

  Chantal sighed and pulled at Connor’s arm. “My ankle really hurts. I think I need to get ice on it as soon as possible.”

  Oh, please. “Everyone just go. I can get a ride with Antonia and Olympio.”

  “Well, if you’re sure,” Chantal called back over her shoulder.

  Connor studied me over Chantal’s head, but I waved him on. “It won’t take any time. Don’t worry.”

  Kim and Jim headed toward the main winery, while Big Dave and Vance turned to the parking lot.

  Bright lights glowed as I stepped back into the cave’s entrance. Even well-lit, the walk was tricky down the main passageway back to the cave where we’d eaten. All the tunnels looked the same, every one stacked to the ceiling with barrels.

  There wasn’t any sign of Seth or Barb, and when I reached the enclosure, the dining table was still littered with empty dessert plates and coffee cups. I walked by the canaries, who fluttered in their cage at my passing. The pashmina rested on the floor under Chantal’s seat. I grabbed it and smelled the faint scent of Obsession perfume.

  I’d just walked back past the birdcage when the lights went out. All of them.

  Sixteen

  THE sudden darkness caught me by surprise. I dropped the wrap and stumbled into a chair in front of me. Backing up, I hit the corner of the table and tipped to the side, falling flat on the rough floor. I sat straight up and smacked my forehead right into the edge of the table.

  “Stop moving.” My voice echoed around me as I reached out to find the rough surface of the wall. I tried not to panic, but my mouth went dry and my palms were damp. It was so black I couldn’t see anything, and the darkness pressed heavy against my face. Olympio’s comment that we were seventy feet underground now came back to haunt me. He’d also said it was soundproof. How many side tunnels had I passed getting here? In this total darkness I could easily take a wrong turn. My only real option was to wait until someone came to look for me, a difficult thing to do when every instinct urged me to find the way out.

  The cave felt warmer than at dinner, and my throat tightened. I listened for a moment before I realized the hum of the exhaust fans was missing. That might explain why it felt so stuffy, the air so still.

  I took a deep breath to try to calm myself and instead remembered Olympio’s words. No fans. Without them, carbon dioxide was building up around me. In these caves, deep in the mountainside, there was absolutely nowhere for it to go. But not enough to kill me before someone found me.

  Surely not.

  If someone was trying to scare me, they could consider this a success. The silence was oppressive, not that I could have heard anything over the pounding of my heart. I reached for my phone, which, of course, had no signal, but the small light was enough to give me some comfort. Using the glow of my screen, I crept down the center aisle. The fear of taking a wrong turn made progress slow. It seemed I’d walked for hours just to cover the short distance to the main door. Finally, as I neared the entrance, the lights came on. I was standing only a few yards away as Olympio and Connor pushed through the door, Antonia right behind them.

  “I leave you alone for five minutes and you get locked in?” Connor’s harsh words were tempered by the way he grabbed my arms and gave me a gentle hug.

  “I’m fine.” I wasn’t. Not really. “The lights went off.” My voice sounded hollow. “So did the exhaust fans. That’s what scared me the most, you know. Not hearing those fans.”

  “You should be okay. We found you in plenty of time,” Connor said.

  Olympio walked to the control panel and examined the settings. “That is so very odd,” his eyes were dark with alarm. “See here. The light switch was off. Sometimes it happens.”

  “Then what’s odd?” I said.

  “Both the lights and fans were off. The light switch can get flipped, maybe. But look.” He pointed to the control panel. The exhaust fan lever was bright red and clearly marked. “Someone hit both. That never happens. This red lever is never turned off. The exhaust fans go all the time.”

  Antonia pushed past Connor and scrutinized my face. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

  I tipped my hand back and forth. “A little light-headed.”

  “Did you see or hear anyone?”

  “Nothing. I’m pretty sure I was alone in there.” I took a deep breath. “Look, it turned out okay. Nothing happened.”

  “Only because we found you in time,” Connor said.

  “Yes, that’s true. I suppose if I’d spent the night in there . . .” I said it lightly, but Olympio looked grave, his lips tight.

  “If we hadn’t found you when we did, well, we would be
having a very different conversation, if at all. After a full night without the fans on, the gases would have built up.” He shook his head. “It would not have ended well.”

  My mouth went dry and I swallowed with effort.

  Olympio shook his head, as though the matter was settled for him. “It simply must have been an accident.”

  “Maybe.” I took several deep breaths. “Why did you even think to come back? How did you know I was in trouble?”

  “It took forever to get Chantal to the car. She kept stumbling, and I practically had to carry her,” Connor said.

  Big surprise.

  “By the time we were ready to leave, Olympio and Antonia were in the parking lot getting ready to drive back to the hotel. When they said they hadn’t seen you, I knew something was wrong.” His voice cracked at the end. “I grabbed Olympio and we headed back here.”

  “I’m so glad you did.” I took another deep breath. “I’m sure it was an accident.” I wasn’t nearly as convinced as I tried to sound. “Olympio, I don’t suppose you know where Seth and Barb are. The table hasn’t been cleared yet.”

  “I just saw them both in the winery. They are finishing up the bar now.”

  Where had they both been fifteen minutes earlier? “There wouldn’t be any reason for them to turn off the lights, would there? Maybe they accidentally hit both the lights and the fans.”

  “No, especially because they still needed to bring the birdcage and the last of the dishes up to the winery. Either way, that main exhaust is never off.”

  Connor caught that I was trying to pinpoint how many people from dinner had time to circle back to the electrical panel. “Big Dave stopped to talk to us for a minute while Vance got the car. Vance had time before he brought the car around.”

  Olympio frowned. “Time for what?”

  I didn’t respond. “For that matter, Big Dave could have circled back around before he joined Vance at the car.”

  Connor glanced at his watch. “They left not five minutes ago. Then there’s Bill. He was waiting in the car when we got to the parking lot with Chantal, but it took so long he had plenty of time.”

  Olympio shook his hands in the air. “This is crazy talk. Next thing I know you will be accusing that lovely woman from Chicago, Kim, of this terrible thing, and I know she couldn’t have.”

  “Why?”

  “She is a nice girl. From the Midwest. They don’t do things like this in the Midwest.”

  “You need to give me a better reason than that,” I said.

  “She was with us in the garden, discussing roses,” he said. “Tell them, Antonia.”

  “That’s true. She did join us for a short time.”

  “Was she with you when I headed back into the cave?”

  Olympio squirmed. “Well, not right at first. Just a few moments later, when her husband went to check on the carriage.”

  He wrung his hands and frowned. “It cannot be anything more than a terrible accident.”

  “I’m sure you’re right.” He wasn’t. “Someone just pulled the wrong lever. Things like that happen all the time.”

  We said good-night to Olympio, leaving him inspecting the electrical panel.

  “So,” I said as Connor, Antonia and I walked to the parking area. “Kim had enough time before she joined you and Olympio in the garden, and Jim was alone when he went to check on the carriage. In other words, either one of them had time to walk back fifty steps and throw the switches.” I groaned. “Olympio showed us the electrical panel right before dinner, remember? It could have been any of them.”

  “You know there’s an outside chance it actually was an accident,” Connor said.

  “It wasn’t any accident. At the very least, someone was trying to scare me.”

  “The police aren’t going to be that easy to convince.”

  “Forget even telling Chief Harding anything.”

  “Why are you so certain it was intentional?”

  “Because it would be too much of a coincidence after what happened this morning,” Antonia spoke up.

  “Why, what happened this morning?” Connor looked at me.

  I bit my lip. “Someone was following me. On the bike path. I’d pretty much convinced myself it was just my imagination.”

  “I certainly thought she had imagined it,” Antonia said. “Now I’m certain both events were intentional.”

  Connor stopped and turned to me. “You were scared enough to tell Antonia about this, but you didn’t think to tell me?”

  Antonia kept walking down the path. “I’ll give you two a moment.”

  “When would I have had a chance to tell you anything? Out by the pool when you and every other man in the hotel were fluttering around Chantal in the hot tub?”

  “I don’t flutter. I’m not even sure what that means. If something has you scared, tell me. You find me and you tell me.”

  A warm glow travelled through me. “Okay. I don’t know what you could have done, though.”

  “Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out together. Now that I know about this morning, I’m more inclined to agree with you. One incident, maybe. Not two. You need to watch what you’re doing, Penny. Someone else certainly is.”

  “Terrific.”

  When we reached the car, Chantal eyed me. “Where’s my cover?”

  Damn. “I couldn’t find it. We can get it tomorrow.”

  Bill kept a flow of chatter going until we reached the hotel. Antonia refrained from asking any questions until we were alone in the hotel corridor. “My room or yours?”

  I opened the door and ushered her into my room, hitting the gas starter to the fireplace as she poured two glasses of the house wine.

  “Now, I want you to tell me once again what happened in there.” She stared into the flames, turning to me only when I recounted hearing the exhaust fans go off.

  “That was a tough moment. There in the dark, knowing the air was slowly going bad.”

  Antonia gripped her wineglass, the faint tremor in her hand the only sign of her distress. “Have you thought of how easily you could have been left there overnight? I didn’t know you were planning on coming back with me. Everyone else would have assumed you’d arrived back at the hotel.”

  The room started to tilt a bit. I took some deep breaths. “Now that you put it that way . . .”

  “This is getting much too dangerous. We must think of something else.”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t work like that. How do you suggest I let the killer know we’ve decided to back off? Not that I have.”

  She started to speak and I held up my hand.

  “We started this, so we need to see it through. We need to get to whoever is responsible before they get to me.”

  Antonia polished off her glass in one gulp and held it out for a refill. “I concede your point. If I could somehow get you out of this, I would, but I think you’re right. They won’t stop, and neither can we.”

  * * *

  I slept little, and when the pink dawn rolled over the horizon, I gathered up the comforter and moved out onto the veranda. I waved to George as he returned from his morning walk on the bike path. He moved across the patio, looking stylish, even at this early hour, in his Armani suit and spiffy white walking shoes. When I got a knock on my door a short while later, I wasn’t surprised to see him standing there with a pot of strong coffee and a basket of bagels and spread.

  “I love this hotel. Honestly, George, keep treating me this way, and you’ll never get rid of me.”

  He smiled and moved to the table, setting the tray down. “I like seeing people enjoy the hotel. It’s quite romantic. Of course, like in any hotel, you get to see a bit of everything. Believe me, I’ve seen it all in the years I’ve worked here. Take last night. There was a terrible row from some couple from the Midwest.”

>   My ears perked up. “From the Midwest?”

  George poured a cup of the dark brew. “So I gather. Cream?”

  “Black. Where in the Midwest?”

  “Chicago, I believe. Now that I think about it, they’re part of the group invited by the train line. You probably know them.”

  Kim and Jim? Fighting? I didn’t believe it. “What were they fighting about?”

  “I shouldn’t say more. It really isn’t very professional.” George leaned in, a gleam in his eye. “From what I could gather, however, she has quite the colorful vocabulary.”

  “I wonder what the problem was.” I watched his face.

  George rocked back and forth for a moment, his hands held in front of him, fingertips tapping together as he mulled over how to answer. Satisfied, he leaned in. “Apparently there was mention of how much, um, her husband had to drink at dinner. Apparently he let the horses run, which must be jargon for something.”

  “They rented a horse-drawn carriage to go to dinner at Berninni’s last night.”

  “Ah, that might explain it.” George gave a conspiratorial nod.

  “Did you hear anything specific?”

  George coughed discreetly. “I believe I did hear something along the lines of, ‘Dammit, Jim! It’s wine tasting, not wine swigging.’ She then went on to accuse him of slugging it back, in language most inventive.”

  So, Kim had a temper. I thanked George, refilled my coffee and returned to my spot outside. Shortly after sunrise, Antonia stepped out onto her adjoining veranda. She sipped from a cup as she studied me.

  “What?”

  “You look absolutely exhausted. Did you get any rest at all?”

  “I’ve had better nights. Someone trying to kill you tends to set your nerves on edge.”

  “I was thinking about it,” she said. “Someone took a risk going to the control panel and throwing those switches while you were in the cave. Someone willing to chance being seen for the opportunity to frighten you, or worse.”

  I swallowed, my mouth dry. Then my stomach growled.

  “Was that you?”