River Road(74)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

It would not be long before she turned the corner and started down the row of casks where Lucy crouched. Just a matter of time.

Time was exactly what she needed. She had to buy some for herself. Sooner or later Mason would realize that she had disappeared. He would find her.

In the shadows she could make out a door set with translucent glass that looked like it opened onto an office or a storage room. She might be able to make it into the space and lock the door behind her, but she doubted it would do her much good. It would be only a matter of seconds before Beth blasted her way through the lock.

Still, there were possibilities, Lucy thought.

She took off her shoes and experimented with a couple of barefoot steps, hoping the background noise of the ventilation equipment would cover the faint sounds she might make.

Luckily, Beth started talking again.

“Everything has gone so wrong,” she wailed. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I was going to be a star in the world of wine.”

Under cover of the chatter, Lucy managed a few more steps. She was almost at the office door.

Beth was very close now, moving steadily along the tank aisle. In a moment she would turn the corner and see the glass-fronted office door.

Lucy got down on her hands and knees and crawled to the door. She reached up and tried the handle, half expecting to find the room locked. But the knob turned easily.

She opened the door. The interior lay in darkness, but light from the main room glanced off what appeared to be a lot of chemistry apparatus.

“My lab,” Beth screamed. “No, don’t go in there.”

She broke into a run. Lucy slammed the door closed and then retreated behind the casks. She gripped the neck of the wine bottle tightly in both hands.

Beth rushed to the door and yanked it open. She fired wildly into the shadows. Glass shattered, popped and exploded.

The shots stopped abruptly just as Lucy swung the bottle of Reserve at Beth’s head.

Beth started to turn, automatically putting up an arm. She managed to deflect some of the force of the blow. But the impact, the breaking glass and the shock of the attack sent her reeling backward into the lab. She lost her balance, bounced off a metal bench laden with what was no doubt state-of-the-art wine-science apparatus and finally went down hard. She did not move. Blood mingled with the wine on the floor.

Lucy struggled to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding. She braced one hand against the doorjamb, transfixed by the pools of blood and wine.

Somewhere a small voice in her head was yelling at her to call Mason—no, 911. She had to get her priorities straight, but it was hard to think. One step at a time. Get out of the damn winery and then call for help.

Okay, I can do this.

Footsteps echoed in the shadows behind her.

Help was already here. Relief washed through her.

She started to push herself away from the doorframe.

“I have to tell you, I didn’t see this coming,” Cecil Dillon said. “But a good CEO is nothing if not adaptable. I can work with this scenario.”

49

Nice work,” Cecil said. He glanced at Beth. “I was going to get rid of her anyway.”

“I don’t think she’s dead,” Lucy said. “Not yet. She’s still bleeding.”

“She’ll be dead soon enough, another victim of the fire that destroyed the Colfax Winery.”

“This would be a really good time to cut your losses and get out of town, Cecil. No one is dead yet.”

“Actually, two people are dead. Sara Sheridan and Mary Colfax.”

“You killed them. When you realized the car was not going to explode in flames, you went down that hillside and used a rock to murder my aunt and her friend.”

“Beth told me about Manzanita Road. We drove there together to check it out. She’s the one who made sure the right bottles of water went into the picnic basket that day, but I’m the one who followed Sara and Mary and sent their car off that particular point on Manzanita Road. I couldn’t trust Beth not to screw up, you see.”

“You’re a monster.”

“Mary was dead by the time I got down to the bottom of the hillside. I’m pretty sure that Sara was dying, but she was still conscious. She couldn’t move, but she watched me with those weird eyes. She watched me pick up the rock. She knew what I was going to do and she just looked at me like she knew everything about me. She smiled.”

“How could you kill her like that?” Lucy whispered.

“She spoke, you know. There at the end. She said, Karma. And then she said, You’re next. It was like the bitch had put a curse on me. After that, everything started to go wrong.”

“You also tried to kill Mason on River Road.”

“No, that was Beth.” Cecil shook his head. “And the stupid woman did, indeed, screw up. I knew going in she was a risk, but I needed her help.”

“Beth was willing to help you because you made her believe that Colfax was plotting to bring in a new winemaker.”

“And also because I told her that I was a long-lost relative of Brinker’s, his half-brother, in fact. Unfortunately, Beth turned out to be something of a loose cannon.”

“You used her, but in the end you couldn’t control her, so now you’re going to kill her.”

“And you as well, I’m afraid. You can blame Beth for that. I never intended to get rid of you. I do realize it will draw Mason Fletcher’s attention.”

“You’ve got a real talent for understatement,” Lucy said. “There was a saying here in Summer River in the old days. Don’t mess with Mason Fletcher.”

“I’d rather not deal with Fletcher, but now that you’re involved, I don’t have any choice. I’m not concerned about him, to tell you the truth. Nothing in this situation connects with me. It will begin and end with Beth. She had motive, opportunity and access to drugs and a firearm. That will be enough.”

“You’re here to clean up all the loose ends, is that it?” Lucy said.

“Five minutes after meeting you I realized that you were going to be a problem. I could see it in those damned eyes of yours. They’re just like Sara Sheridan’s eyes. You’re the one who dragged Fletcher into this. I understand now why my dear, departed half-brother hated him so much.”

A shadow shifted in the gloom that enveloped a row of fermentation tanks behind Cecil. Or maybe it was just her fevered imagination, Lucy thought.

Keep him talking. The bastard has the same character flaws that Brinker had. He thinks he’s the smartest man in the room.