Dying on the Vine

by Marla Cooper

  He gave her a patient nod. “It’s okay. It got canceled.”

  Liar, liar, pants on fire.

  “Oh thank God,” she said, urgency tingeing her voice, “because there’s some sort of situation down in the tasting room and they need you right away.”

  “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be down in a couple of minutes.” Lucas didn’t seem particularly motivated to leave his chair, but Laurel didn’t back down. “Okay, but you’d better hurry. One of the guests is really drunk and Zara said he threatened her.”

  Lucas dropped his pen on his desk and stood. “Well, in that case.”

  He ushered Laurel from the room and I willed myself to stay still until he’d had enough time to get down the hall. I was about to emerge from my hiding spot when the door to the office burst open again and I jumped back so fast I almost sent the vacuum cleaner toppling to the floor, cleaning tools and all.

  “Kelsey?” Laurel whispered frantically. “Where are you?”

  I flung the closet door open. “Right here.”

  She offered me a hand and pulled me from my hiding place. “How in the world did you end up in there?”

  “I’ll tell you later. Right now, we have to get out of here.” I closed the closet door and looked around to make sure I hadn’t left any signs of myself behind, then pulled her toward the hall.

  I peeked out to make sure the coast was clear, then motioned for her to follow me. Once we were safely outside, I told her the news. “I think I know who killed Stefan.”

  “Oh my God! Who?” she whispered as we hurried down the hall.

  I jerked my thumb over my shoulder and down the hall behind us. “Your boyfriend.”

  “What?” Laurel stopped in the middle of the hall, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her after me.

  “I’ll tell you in the car.” There was no time to stop and explain. Laurel and I scampered down the stairs and through the tasting room. Zara was at the counter pouring red wine for a middle-aged couple, and she gave us a curious look as we darted toward the front door. “Kelsey! Lucas was looking for you.”

  “Sorry!” I yelled over my shoulder. “Champagne fountain emergency. Gotta run!”

  “Okay, what’s going on?” said Laurel, once we were safely inside my car.

  “I think it might have been Lucas,” I said breathlessly as I threw my car into reverse and pulled out of the spot. “He’s been keeping some pretty major secrets from his brother. I overheard him on the phone, and he’s letting someone tear up the vineyard to put in some sort of pipeline.”

  “Wait, what?” Laurel asked. “What does a pipeline have to do with Babs and Stefan?”

  “Danielle told me Stefan was planning on going public with some sort of secret, but she didn’t know what it was. He and Babs must have found out and threatened to tell.”

  “So?” Laurel said. “Lucas wouldn’t have killed them over that, would he?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. Maybe he was afraid they’d blow the deal. He said some pretty creepy stuff about the problem being taken care of, and the way he said it sounded kind of like the way they say it in mob movies.”

  “So what do we do now?” Laurel asked. “Go to the police?”

  “Yeah, it’s time. My Nancy Drew days are over. The police will have to take it from here.” I peered up at the château. “Might as well get a good look now, because we’re not coming back here anytime soon. They’re just going to have to find another wedding planner.”

  “Wait a minute!” Laurel said. “Danielle! She’s working on Haley and Christopher’s wedding. Don’t you think you’d better warn her?”

  I thought about it for a second. On the one hand, the less she knew, the better. But, then again, it didn’t feel right letting her walk into what could be a dangerous situation. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” I punched in Danielle’s number as I pulled out of the parking lot and started driving down the hill. Pick up, pick up, pick up.

  Relief flooded through me when the line connected and I heard Danielle’s voice. “Hello?”

  “Danielle, it’s Kelsey. Listen, I really need to talk to you.”

  “Hi, Kelsey.” Was it my imagination or did her voice sound strange?

  “Hey, you don’t happen to have any meetings scheduled at Higgins, do you?”

  “I’m supposed to go up tomorrow so they can show me around. Why?”

  “I want you to postpone it. It’s a long story and I can’t really talk right now, but promise me you’ll stay away from there.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. It’s not safe for you there, for any of us. I did some digging and—well, I’ll tell you the whole thing later, but right now I’m heading to the police station to talk to them.”

  There was a pause. “Is this about the letter?” Her voice sounded strained, almost panicky.

  “A letter? No. What are you talking about?”

  “I got a letter in the mail today.” I could hear her breath change to something fast and shallow. “I thought you might have gotten one, too.”

  “What does it say?”

  “It says: ‘You’re next.’”

  CHAPTER 32

  As Laurel and I made the drive to Danielle’s house, my stomach churned with guilt over having gotten her involved with Higgins Estate. Leave it to me to introduce the town busybody to someone who was trying to keep a secret. Did Lucas think she knew about the pipeline, too? Or was he just trying to scare her off to keep her from finding out? After all, she made it her business to know what was going on with pretty much everybody.

  Either way, Laurel and I agreed that it would help to have Danielle with us when we went to the police, and Danielle had been eager to join us after we told her what we’d learned. Half an hour later, we arrived at the address she’d given us on the outskirts of Napa, a restored Victorian home with a wraparound porch. According to the sign out front, it was also home to a law office and was on the National Register of Historic Places.

  “Nice,” Laurel whispered while I texted Danielle to let her know we were downstairs. “We should get a place like this.”

  The sun was starting to set, and I could see a light on in one of the turret rooms. I pulled my cell phone out and dialed her number, but after a few rings it went to voice mail. “That’s weird.”

  I waited a second longer, then tried again. Voice mail.

  “Are you sure she wasn’t going to meet us at the police station?” Laurel asked.

  “I don’t think so. Oh, no, wait. She gave us this address. Duh.” A nervous knot was forming in my stomach. Where was she?

  “Maybe she’s on the phone,” Laurel suggested.

  “Maybe,” I said. “Let’s just go up and get her.”

  “Good idea,” Laurel said, unbuckling her seat belt. “Besides, I want to see her office.”

  “Don’t go getting any ideas,” I said.

  “Hey, yeah! You think she’s hiring?” Laurel gave me mischievous smile as she crawled out of the front seat.

  The lawn was surrounded by a dark wrought-iron fence, and the sidewalk was lined with purple hydrangea bushes that complemented the dark-purple color of the house. We climbed the front stairs and rang the doorbell next to Danielle’s nameplate, and a moment later we heard a loud buzz that let us know the door was unlocked.

  Danielle stood at the top of the stairs holding a phone to one ear. With the other hand, she waved us up as she mouthed the word “sorry.”

  The interior of her office was just as impressive as the outside of the building, with wood paneling, an elegant chandelier, and period furnishings galore. Laurel nodded in silent approval and I resisted the urge to take off my shoes and roll around on the plush carpeting, instead sitting on the edge of the chair and crossing my legs politely at the ankles.

  “Sorry about that,” Danielle said as she hung up the phone. “I wouldn’t have even taken it, but I’ve been waiting on a call from a new client and I thought it might be them.”

  “No worrie
s.” I was just relieved to be far away from Higgins Estate. “We should talk about what we’re going to tell the police. You still have the letter?”

  She reached behind her and picked up a folded piece of paper from the desk. She held it in her hands for a moment and took in a deep breath before passing it over to me.

  Sure enough, printed in big block letters were the words exactly as she’d said them, no more, no less: YOU’RE NEXT.

  A shiver ran down my spine. What had I gotten the three of us into?

  “Who do you think could have sent it?” she said.

  “I hope it’s just someone trying to scare you.” Not that someone wanting to scare her was anything to scoff at, but it was way better than the alternative.

  “I’ve been a nervous wreck all day.” She sat across from us in a tufted wingback chair, took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly. “Can I get you guys anything? Tea? Water?” Despite her attempt at hospitality, I could see that her face was lined with worry.

  “Thanks, we’re good.”

  Danielle gestured toward a glass of wine sitting on a side table. “I actually opened a really nice bottle of wine earlier if you’d care to join me.” I started to decline, but she interrupted me. “C’mon. I insist. Like I said, it’s been a day.”

  She got up and went to the kitchen and returned a moment later with two full glasses of red. Laurel and I each took a glass, and Danielle returned to her seat. “It’s the Higgins Estate Zinfandel. Lucas had a couple of bottles sent over. Cheers,” she said flatly.

  Laurel and I both raised our glasses, but the thought of anything related to Higgins Estate was more than I could stomach, so I set the glass aside.

  Danielle leaned forward, took the letter, and folded it back up again. “I can hardly stand to look at it.” She took a swig of wine. “Do you really think I’m in danger?”

  “I hope not, but I do think we need to take it seriously, just in case.” I looked at Laurel, not knowing what to say. “Danielle, you know how you said you thought Lucas might have been responsible for what happened to Stefan?”

  Danielle nodded, her eyes wide.

  “I think you might have been right. Lucas did have a secret all right, and Stefan found out about it.”

  “Oh my God, what was it?”

  I told her about the natural gas pipeline and how Lucas had been signing agreements behind his brother’s back.

  She took another sip of wine and topped off her glass. “How did you learn this?”

  “I was up there today and I overheard Lucas talking to someone on the phone.”

  “Oh, no,” Danielle said. “And here I thought he was such an upstanding guy.”

  Laurel nodded sympathetically. “I thought so, too.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m so sorry I got you involved in this mess. I don’t know if you’re really in danger or not, but we have to show that letter to the police. If all three of us go in and tell them what we know, at least we might be able to get justice for Babs and Stefan.”

  Danielle’s eyes teared up. “I just can’t believe it. What a monster.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but her phone rang again.

  “Excuse me one moment.” Danielle took the phone into the other room.

  “Man,” said Laurel, “this really is a great office. Check out the fireplace.” She got up and walked over to inspect it more closely. “I bet you can actually burn wood in here.”

  In the meantime, my phone chimed to let me know I’d received a text. I reached into my bag to turn my ringer to silent and saw a text from Brody.

  What time are we heading up to Higgins tomorrow?

  Oh, yeah, he still didn’t know that we’d checked that little item off our list without him. I started to type a response, then paused as I decided what to say.

  “Kelsey, look at this!” Laurel waved some papers in my general direction.

  “What is that? And why are you snooping?”

  “It looks like the layout for a brochure. But look what it says!”

  On the top page was a picture of a smiling Danielle along with the words “Danielle Turpin. The Queen of Wine Country Weddings.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I looked up at Laurel and her shocked face mirrored my own. “Man, she didn’t waste any time stealing Babs’ tagline.”

  “That’s so rude!” Laurel said. “I mean, right?”

  Beneath the picture, a paragraph of flowery prose reiterated Danielle’s credentials as the Queen of Wine Country Weddings and went on to explain why she was so deserving of the title.

  I clenched my teeth in irritation.

  On the next page was a picture of Danielle standing in front of the Higgins Estate château. The very one I’d been standing in front of earlier today. The one Danielle said she hadn’t visited in years.

  “Laurel,” I whispered, “when I had lunch with Danielle yesterday, she claimed she hadn’t been up to Higgins in a really long time.”

  “Well, that can’t be right. Didn’t you say they just put in those orange umbrellas that are in the background?”

  “Yeah, like a week ago.” A week ago. When Stefan was locked in the wine cave.

  I quickly counted backwards to see how many days it had been, and my eyes landed on Danielle’s antique desk.

  Her antique desk!

  On a hunch, I grabbed my bag and dug the keys I’d found in the wine cave out of the bottom. Laurel looked up at me questioningly and I laid my finger on my lips, then crept closer to the door Danielle had exited through to make sure she was still on the phone. I heard the low murmur of her voice from the other room and darted to the desk.

  There, smack dab in the center of the middle drawer, was a tiny brass circle with a keyhole in the middle of it. Heart pounding, I selected the small key and slipped it into the hole.

  It was a perfect match.

  The lock turned with a click, and I tugged the drawer just enough to make sure it was unlocked. The drawer slid out effortlessly, and I closed it again quickly. “Oh my God,” I whispered. I stared at the desk, momentarily frozen. The keys were Danielle’s. It was officially time to freak out.

  My mind was spinning as I quickly reviewed the facts. I’d found the keys at the crime scene. Ergo—and I didn’t think this was too much of a stretch—Danielle had been at the crime scene. That didn’t necessarily make her a killer, but it definitely made her a liar, and I wasn’t prepared to stick around and find out exactly which charges she was guilty of. I quickly shut the drawer and yanked the key from the lock. “We have to get out of here.”

  “It fits?” Laurel whispered frantically as she grabbed her bag from the floor.

  “Yep.” I ran back to my chair and collected my own bag from underneath it.

  “Where are you going?” Danielle said from the doorway. How long had she been standing there?

  “Sorry, we have to go!” I blurted as we raced toward the door.

  Danielle looked surprised by our hasty exit. “Aren’t we going to the police?”

  I gripped the doorknob and said, “Yeah, we’re going to the police all right.”

  Which would have been a really dramatic exit line had the door not been locked.

  In the split second it took me to slide the ancient dead bolt open—a little WD-40 would have come in really handy right about then—Danielle darted across the room to her desk drawer that I’d so helpfully left unlocked for her, and a moment later I heard a distinctive click.

  I froze, my hand still on the doorknob.

  “Let’s sit and finish our wine, shall we?” Danielle gestured to the two chairs with the small revolver she’d retrieved from the drawer. Her voice was cool and steady, and if I didn’t know any better I would have thought she just really didn’t want our evening to end.

  Laurel and I turned around slowly, our hands out in front of us, palms facing forward. The international signal for you now officially have all the power.

  “Sit,” she said, pointing the gun at us all willy-ni
lly. It was obvious that she hadn’t brushed up on responsible gun ownership protocols.

  Laurel and I returned to our chairs, but the newly self-crowned Queen of Wine Country Weddings stayed standing, the gun shaking unsteadily in her hand.

  “Danielle, you don’t want to do this,” I said. “We’re all friends here. Why don’t you just put the gun down and we’ll talk?”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  “It’s not too late!” Laurel said, her voice anxious. “Maybe we can help you.”

  Danielle let out a bitter little laugh. “Is that what you came here for? To help me?”

  “Well, yeah.” I reached over and picked up the threatening letter she’d received and held it aloft. “That’s exactly why we came here.”

  “And you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”

  “You were in trouble!” Laurel said. “And Kelsey felt guilty for putting you in danger.”

  Danielle crossed toward us and snatched the letter out of my hand. She wadded it up into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder. “I suppose you think I should be grateful? Well, thanks.”

  I opened my mouth to speak but then thought better of it. Danielle was in a much better position to be sarcastic than I was, what with the gun and all.

  Danielle held her hand out, palm first. “Now hand over the keys.”

  The keys cut into my palm as I gripped them tighter. She’d lied about being in the wine cave, and the keys were the only proof I had. Still, it’s not like she was asking. Grudgingly, I released them into Danielle’s outstretched hand.

  “Where did you find them?” Danielle asked, her eyes steely.

  “Lost and found,” I said, hoping she’d believe me.

  She kept her expression neutral. “Thanks for getting them back to me. I didn’t like having them out there floating around.”

  “Of course not!” I said as breezily as I possibly could under the circumstances. “So you see? There’s no problem here. You got your keys back, and now we’ll be on our way.”

  “Oh, cut the crap,” Danielle said. “You don’t think I’m standing here holding a gun on you because I wanted my keys back?”