Dying on the Vine

by Marla Cooper

  With a few strokes on the keyboard and barely a glance in my direction, the front desk attendant directed me to the fourth floor.

  This was good. He was here, and he wasn’t in the ICU.

  On the way to the elevator, I passed the hospital gift shop, with its window display featuring frilly ladies’ pajamas, stuffed bears, and whimsical coffee mugs. Flowers couldn’t hurt. I hurried inside and searched the refrigerated floral display in the back for something suitable. Roses? Too romantic. Carnations? Too cheap. I was about to grab a handsome display featuring birds-of-paradise, those prickly tropical flowers that look like they could poke an eye out, when I saw the perfect choice: a peace plant. What better way to make a peace offering than that?

  Right as I was reaching toward the potted plant with the broad dark-green leaves, a voice behind me said, “Kelsey?”

  I turned and recognized Corey, the bartender who used to date Stefan, holding a toothbrush and an unopened bottle of Diet Coke. Giving him a quick hug, I said, “Corey! What a surprise!”

  “Sorry, I probably look awful.” He ran his fingers through his hair, self-consciously trying to untangle the mess on top of his head. “I’ve been here all day.”

  “Oh! Who are you—I mean, what are you—?”

  “Doing here? You’re not going to believe this, but…” He smiled sheepishly. “I’m here with Stefan.”

  “But I thought—”

  “I know, I know. He still had me programmed into his phone as his emergency contact, and, well, he doesn’t have anyone else.”

  “How is he?” I asked, ignoring the part of me that wanted to say, Are you kidding me?!?

  “He was injured pretty badly,” Corey said. “And they’ve got him pretty heavily sedated.”

  “Oh, no!” I said. “I knew it was bad, but…”

  “On the plus side, it cuts down on the awkward ex-boyfriend conversations about who did what to whom.”

  I retrieved the peace plant from the shelf and held it up for approval. “I was just going to take this up to him. Are you heading back up?”

  Corey nodded. “Sure. I’ll take you to him.”

  We paid for our purchases and walked toward the elevator. “I know this probably seems super dysfunctional, me being here after everything I told you,” Corey said while we waited. “And just for the record, this does not mean we’re back together. I’m only here as a friend.”

  “I’m not here to judge,” I said. “To be honest, I’m glad you’re here. I wasn’t sure if my visit would be welcome or not, so it’s nice to see a friendly face.”

  Corey punched the Up button a couple more times to hurry things along. “I heard you were the one who found him?”

  “It’s true.” I smiled. “I don’t suppose he knows that, does he?”

  Corey laughed. “I don’t know. He’s been out of it the whole time. He woke up for a bit, but he just kept mumbling ‘Higgins.’ That’s the name of the winery where he was, right?”

  “That’s right. They asked me to come up for an event when he didn’t show up, but it turns out he’d been there the entire time.”

  “Well, I’m just glad you guys got to him in time. If you hadn’t…” A loud ding interrupted us and the elevator doors slid open. As we rode up in silence, I thought how glad I was to have a friendly escort to take me to Stefan. It made it a lot easier—as did the knowledge that Stefan would be asleep. But when I walked into the room, a weird surge of emotion tugged at me. “He looks so peaceful when…” I paused as I considered my word choice.

  “When he’s not yelling at you?”

  I smiled and nodded. “That’s the basic gist.” I set the plant on the bedside table. The room was dark and quiet, except for the occasional blip of the heart rate monitor. Corey sat on the edge of the empty second bed and motioned toward the taupe guest chair.

  “Have the doctors been able to tell you anything?” I asked.

  Corey shook his head. “Not much, since I’m not next of kin. But I called his sister and she’s flying up tonight. I’m hoping she can find out more.”

  “That’s good. I don’t suppose you’ve talked to the police, have you? I’d really like to know what happened to him.”

  “You and me both. One of the nurses told me the police had been here, but she didn’t tell me much more than that. You think they’re investigating?”

  I shuddered. “I don’t know. It looked like an accident, but after what happened to Babs…”

  “I know,” said Corey. “I thought the same thing.”

  I looked over at Stefan, frail and motionless. “Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt him?”

  Corey shook his head. “I don’t know. He could be a handful, and it’s impossible to say who he might have pushed too far.”

  We both sat in silence for a moment, listening to the heart rate monitor and Stefan’s shallow breathing. They always say people can hear you even when they’re unconscious, and I wondered if Stefan could hear us talking. If so, he was probably having a fit. Not because of the subject matter, but because I was hanging out in his hospital room and he was helpless to do anything about it.

  How had we gotten off on the wrong foot, anyway? It wasn’t like we were bitter rivals or anything. I barely knew the guy. I shook my head. It didn’t have to be that way.

  I stood and gestured for Corey to follow me out into the hallway. Once we were outside, I closed the door behind us. “So, do you remember that night at your restaurant when we talked?”

  He nodded. “Yeah?”

  “It sounded like you’d heard Stefan mention me before. I was just curious. Did he ever say anything about why he has it out for me?” Corey seemed taken aback by my question, so I quickly added, “Don’t worry. I know he hates me. I just want to know why.”

  He paused while he considered his answer. “Well, ‘hate’ is a strong word, but he was certainly jealous of you.”

  “Jealous?” I asked. “Of me? Why?”

  Corey looked around as if to make sure Stefan hadn’t snuck up behind him. “You really don’t know?”

  I shook my head. “I barely know him.”

  “Well, I told you he wanted to be a destination wedding planner.”

  “You mentioned that, but it’s not like I’m stopping him.”

  “He said when he applied for a job as your assistant, you blew him off.”

  “What?!” This was news to me. “I don’t even remember seeing his résumé!”

  “There’s no reason you would have recognized his name at the time. Apparently, he met you at a party once and he thought you’d remember him. Besides, you did send him a polite form letter, but he said you’d snubbed him.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t mean to. I got literally hundreds of applications. There’s no way I could have personally responded to every one of them.” I didn’t feel bad that I didn’t hire him, because I’d clearly dodged a bullet, but I did feel a little bad that he’d felt slighted.

  “I know; that’s what I told him,” Corey said, his tone reassuring. He paused. “But it was more than just that.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay, what else?”

  Corey shrugged. “Oh, it was lots of little things. Someone brought him pictures from a wedding you’d done and asked if he could do something like that. He saw that feature Bride’s Life Magazine did on you. And then there was Babs.…”

  “Babs? What did she have to do with it?”

  He shook his head and laughed. “I suppose she thought it would motivate him, but she used you as an example on more than one occasion. In fact, one time he got mad and said if you were so great, maybe she should go hire you instead.”

  “Yikes,” I said, feeling both flattered and embarrassed by the praise. “What did Babs say to that?”

  “She said she would if she thought you’d accept.”

  Ouch. It didn’t totally make up for the way Stefan had treated me, but it certainly helped explain it. Maybe once he regained cons
ciousness, we could put this all behind us. “Thanks for telling me,” I said. “I had no idea.”

  A voice over the intercom let us know that visiting hours were almost over, so we went back into the room and I gathered my things. Corey promised to call me when Stefan was awake and able to talk, and also to let him know that I’d been to visit.

  “Let me know if you need anything,” I said, giving him a hug. “And try to get some rest, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  I crept up beside Stefan and leaned down toward his ear. “Stefan, I don’t know if you can hear me, but this is Kelsey. I want you to get better so we can find out who did this to you. Meanwhile, Corey is here with you, and when you wake up I want you to be really nice to him, because he’s a great guy, okay?”

  Stefan’s lip twitched a little, but his eyes remained closed.

  I smiled over at Corey and gave him a wink. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  CHAPTER 21

  The next morning, Laurel and I had an appointment with Lucas Higgins to talk about how we could help with their upcoming weddings—or at least, that was the official plan. Off the record? We were there to snoop.

  When I got to the turnoff to the parking lot, I slowed down until the car rolled to a stop, influenced by a strong pull toward the top of the hill.

  “What are you doing?” Laurel asked.

  “I think we should go up to the wine cave.”

  Laurel bit her lip. “I don’t know, Kelsey. It’s one thing to be in the château, since we’re meeting with Lucas, but we have no excuse to be up there.”

  “Come on. I never even got a chance to look around that night, everything happened so fast.”

  “What if we get caught?”

  “We’ll just say I was showing you the view. Haven’t you always been curious about the view from up there?”

  Laurel looked unconvinced, but she didn’t jump out of the car in protest or anything, so I kept driving.

  As we pulled up to the entrance, I breathed a sigh of relief. No cars, no police officers, no sign of what had taken place inside except for the pile of shattered wood stacked outside the door, waiting to be hauled off.

  “Let’s just see if they changed the door code,” I said.

  “Kelsey! What if it’s a crime scene?”

  “There’d be yellow tape up. I just want to peek.”

  Laurel crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I want no part of this. I’m staying here.”

  “I thought you were Laurel Quinn, Private Eye.”

  “You need a lookout, don’t you? That seems like a highly valuable role in this operation.”

  “Okay, fine. I’ll only be a minute.”

  I dug into the side pocket of my purse, where I still had the key code scribbled on a piece of paper, then climbed out of the car and approached the entrance. I punched in the number, and the light on the keypad flashed green. I was in.

  As I swung open the door, I was struck by the dueling odors of wine, bleach, and Mop & Glo. The concrete floors gleamed beneath my feet as if to say, What mess? Someone had certainly been on top of things. I stepped inside and turned on the lights. It was as quiet as—well, as quiet as a cave. No metaphor needed.

  Along the walls were racks full of wine barrels stacked on their sides, reaching almost to the ceiling. The only thing that seemed out of place was the rack nearest the front door. It was broken at the top and appeared to be two barrels short of a full load. Just out of reach, there was a vent to the outside that a reasonable-sized person might be able to wiggle their way through, provided they could kick it out of its casing.

  Maybe Lucas was right. Maybe Stefan had climbed up, tried to dislodge the vent, and fallen, breaking the rack and taking a couple of wine barrels with him.

  That still didn’t explain how he’d gotten locked in in the first place.

  The main hall of the cave stretched far back under the ground, with additional passageways branching off from it. I peeked down one of the hallways and saw that it was lined with dozens of barrels, stretching back into the darkness.

  Off to the right of the hall was an actual door that was partially open, so I poked my head in to see what was inside. Although it was dark, I found a dimmer switch right inside and slid it upward, revealing the event room. I gasped—but in a good way. The switch had illuminated thousands of twinkle lights woven through a canopy of grapevines. Too bad I hadn’t been able to have the dinner in here; I would have loved to have seen it fully decked out. If Zara was right and Miles got his way, this room would never see another wine dinner again. Too bad.

  I walked around the room, soaking it all in, and as I rounded the table my foot hit something and sent it skittering across the floor. I knelt down to see what it was. A set of keys. Whoever had cleaned up must have missed them since all the action had happened in the main room. Were they Stefan’s? I scooped them up and dropped them into my purse. Maybe they’d come in handy, but at the very least I could take them to the lost and found.

  Suddenly, I heard a sound from the front door. Actually, I realized, the sound was the front door. Laurel?

  “Who’s in here?” a masculine voice bellowed from the front of the cave.

  Definitely not Laurel.

  I looked around frantically, trying to decide between fight, flight, or the seldom-mentioned third option: diving under the table and hoping whoever it was would give up and go away. It would never work. Whoever it was already knew I was here. Hiding would just make me look suspicious.

  “Hello?” I called. I exited the room, prepared to explain that I was taking measurements for some wedding-related something or other, which, by the way, is totally a thing that wedding planners do all the time in the real world. Too bad I didn’t have a tape measure on me to back up my story.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Miles. My heart sank. I had hoped it would be, well, pretty much anyone else in the world, but there he was, the decidedly less friendly of the Higgins brothers.

  “I was just making sure there were enough chairs for the Maxwell wedding!” I said brightly, relying heavily on the assumption that Miles wouldn’t be up to date on the wedding happenings since he didn’t want anything to do with them.

  “I told Lucas, no more dinners. Not in my cave!” Miles’ face turned red as he reached past me to close the door to the dining room. His gruff voice boomed off the cave walls, creating an intimidating echo.

  “My mistake. I should have checked with Lucas first. I’ll go get this straightened out right now.” I racewalked for the door, not daring to look back to see Miles’ response.

  “You’re not allowed in my cave,” Miles bellowed after me. “You hear me?”

  “Got it!” I called over my shoulder.

  “I’m changing the code,” he yelled.

  “That would probably be for the best,” I replied, trying to keep my voice light as I scooted out the door, almost knocking Laurel over on my way out. She was crouched down, cell phone in hand, finger poised over the 9 button.

  We dashed to the car, and I didn’t even bother putting my seat belt on before practically peeling out. I sped down the hill, slowing down only when we hit the parking lot. I wish I could say my heart did the same, but it was still thumping wildly in my chest. “Why didn’t you honk or something?”

  “I didn’t want him to see me!” Laurel’s voice sounded contrite.

  “Making you officially the worst lookout ever.”

  “I’m so sorry, Kelsey! I panicked. I didn’t want it to look like I was warning you.”

  “Which is exactly what you were supposed to be doing!”

  “Well, sure, but then he’d know that you were snooping instead of taking measurements.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out, counting to ten. “I guess you’re right.”

  “You did great,” she said. “And for what it’s worth, I had your back. I was listening through the door and ready to call 911 if he made a move.”

  “That�
�s great, except for one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If he’d made a move, 911 wouldn’t have gotten here in time.”

  * * *

  As tempting as it was to abandon our plan, we still had work to do. Surely we’d be safe down in the château. Almost definitely. Or at least probably.

  I pulled into a spot and we went inside and found Lucas in the tasting room. Even though I was still shaking, I tried not to let my nerves show as I greeted him.

  “Thanks for coming up,” he said.

  “Happy to help out. You remember my assistant Laurel?”

  “Hi, good to see you again.” He smiled broadly and held out his hand, and I swear Laurel blushed a little as she took it.

  “Good to see you.” She bobbed her head and dipped at the knees a little, and I made a mental note to tease her later for what had almost become a curtsy.

  “Let’s meet down here,” he said, leading the way down the hall. “We’ve got an office that Babs uses to meet with couples when she’s here.” He paused for a second, then corrected himself: “Used. Sorry, I hope that isn’t weird for you.”

  No weirder than anything else that’s happened the last couple of weeks.

  He opened the door to reveal a room that was the perfect blend of form and function. Decorated in French-provincial-meets-wine-country chic, it was anchored at one end with a large mahogany desk and at the other with a cozy seating area.

  “Wow, nice setup.”

  “Thanks. You’re free to use it whenever you’re up here. We set it aside specifically for wedding consultations.” Lucas gestured for us to take a seat and slid a slim black spiral-bound book across the desk. “Here’s the calendar we use for events. I thought we could start by seeing which dates you’re free.”

  Flipping the book open, I scanned through the upcoming events. “It’s hard to say until I know what we’re dealing with. How many people, that sort of thing.”