River Road(58)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“And all the while Brinker’s body was hidden inside Sara’s fireplace. We—her family—never had a clue, you know. She kept the secret to the end.”

“I expect there was at least one other person who knew that body was in the fireplace.”

“Mary?” Lucy nodded. “I’ve wondered about that. She and Sara were very close. But if that’s true, Mary kept the secret as well.”

“They were more than close friends. They were family, too.”

“Yes.”

“One more thing you should know about what happened thirteen years ago,” Deke said.

“What?”

“Everything settled down here in Summer River. Aaron went off to college that fall. Mason sold the fixer-upper he had been working on. Did all right with it, too. The market was just starting to heat up around here. He socked away some of the cash to pay for Aaron’s tuition and bought himself a new car. But then he went over to the community college and enrolled in some classes. Started working on his degree in criminal justice.”

Lucy smiled. “I knew he’d end up in law enforcement. If ever someone was born to catch bad guys, it was Mason.”

“Here’s the thing,” Deke said. “I always figured he was cut out for business. That first fixer-upper wasn’t his last. He’s made good money in real estate over the years. But it’s not his first love. When I asked him why he wanted to become a cop, he said it was all your idea.”

“Good grief.” Lucy started to laugh, and then she shook her head. “It was a passing comment that I made to him the night he yanked me out of Brinker’s party. At the time, I didn’t think he was even paying attention. He was too busy lecturing me about not getting involved with Brinker and his crowd. I seem to remember telling him that I didn’t need a professional guardian angel and that if he was going to insist on saving people he ought to go into law enforcement.”

“Seems to me everyone could use a guardian angel at some point in their lives. Or maybe someone who just happens along at the right time and aims you in the right direction.”

“I won’t argue with that,” Lucy said. “Mason certainly came along when I needed someone to rescue me that night thirteen years ago. I never realized the danger I was in until I returned to Summer River. What about you, Deke? You survived in several war zones. You must have had some people looking out for you.”

“Over there I had my buddies to watch my back. But I had a couple of guardian angels back here, too—Mason and Aaron.”

“How did they save you?”

“Let’s just say they pointed me in the right direction. They gave me a reason to come home.”

36

There was a single long black limousine with the words Summer River Winery Tours parked in the otherwise empty lot at the Colfax Winery. It was still early in the day for wine tasting.

Mason left his car at the foot of the terraced steps and started toward the tasting room’s entrance.

Beth Crosby emerged from the large building that housed the fermentation tanks and bottling room. When she saw him, she waved. She was dressed in jeans and a denim shirt. Sunlight glinted on the lenses of her serious black-framed glasses. She changed direction and walked toward him. He stopped.

“Don’t tell me you decided to drop by for a tasting,” she said. “I thought you said you were a beer man.”

Mason smiled. “I’m here to talk to Quinn. Is he around?”

“Oh, sure. I saw him a few minutes ago.” She gestured toward the building where the tasting room, souvenir shop and the offices of Colfax Winery were located. “He was headed for his office, I think. It’s a couple of doors down from the tasting room. Keep to the right after you go through the entrance. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks.”

“Is it true they found Nolan Kelly’s body in Sara’s old house?” Beth squinted against the sun. “They’re saying he torched the place and got caught in the fire.”

“That’s how it looks,” Mason said. “But there are still some questions about his motives.”

“Know what I think?” Beth lowered her voice to a conspiratorial tone. “I’ll bet he wanted to force Lucy’s hand. She was telling everyone that she intended to do some upgrades before she put the house on the market. Kelly probably got impatient. Everyone knows that the land is a lot more valuable than the house. Prime vineyard property.”

“I’ve been hearing that theory a lot today. You went to high school with Kelly. Do you think he would commit arson just to get a listing?”

“Maybe. If he was desperate. I mean, he was the main pot dealer back in high school. Why would he hesitate to commit arson if there was money in it?”

“Any reason to think he might have been that desperate for money recently?”

“Who knows?” Beth sighed. “It’s true, I knew Nolan for years. We were the same age, but we were never close. He ran with a different crowd back in high school. I was with the nerds, remember? But Nolan was always trying to get into the A-list circle. I think that’s why he set himself up in the drug business. He was the dealer of choice that year here in Summer River. The A-list kids let him into their gang because they wanted what he could supply.”

“So he had the connections to do some high-end drug deals?”

“I guess so. All I know is that he seemed to be able to supply whatever the A-list crowd wanted.”

“And what Tristan Brinker wanted.”

Beth grimaced. “Yeah, everyone said that Nolan was the one who brought in the drugs for Brinker’s parties that summer.”

“Where did Kelly get them?”

“Who knows? The city, I suppose. They say you can get anything you want in San Francisco. Listen, it’s none of my business, but you might want to be careful when you talk to Quinn.”

“Why?”

Beth hesitated and then let out a long sigh. “In case you haven’t heard, things are more than a little tense in the Colfax family at the moment. I’m just the winemaker, so I don’t know much about business. But in my position working here at the winery, I hear things. I can tell you that there’s a lot of friction.”

“What’s your take on the feud?”

Beth shrugged. “It’s simple enough. Everyone in the family except Warner wants to take the merger offer. But Warner didn’t realize that until recently. He’s been paying more attention to the winery than he has to Colfax Inc. Now that he knows the family is ganging up against him, he’s furious. He blames Quinn, I think.”