Grapes of Death Read online

  “Are you kidding me? You think snoopin’ around and taking stuff from Edmond’s house on the day he’s murdered will go unnoticed? Geez, El, wake up. Your family will be the first to be scrutinized, and I mean each and every one of you.”

  “My family?” She blinked several times and her mouth dropped open. “Why would my family be scrutinized over a robbery gone bad?”

  “First of all, you can’t assume this was a robbery simply because his wallet was missing. The killer could have just been trying to make it look that way. And second, I’m gonna have to look at this crime from all angles.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m serious as a heart attack, darlin’. Stop and think about it for a minute,” he insisted. “Your mom has had several very public arguments with Edmond over recent months. Ross and your vineyard foreman, Neil, have both had confrontations with him and made threatening comments. In front of witnesses, I might add.”

  “Mom? Ross? Don’t tell me you suspect either of them of killing Uncle Edmond.”

  “And then there’s your little pilfering excursion to his house when he wasn’t even home,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “This kind of behavior will only serve to make my job that much harder.”

  “My excur—” she sputtered. “Jackson, are you insane? Have you fallen down recently and smacked your pointy little head? That’s just ridiculous and you know it! How can you even think that, let alone say it out loud?”

  “You really don’t get it, do you?” He shoved Chunk aside and scrubbed his hands over his face before explaining. “I was first on the scene. It’s my job to ask the tough questions—before someone else does. If there’s even a whiff of impropriety with this investigation, the sheriff could replace me with someone else.”

  “You don’t really think that could happen, do you?”

  “I don’t think it, I know it. There are folks who will say I should step down simply because of my relationship with your family. And mark my words, Darrell Yancy will be one of them. He would do a friggin’ happy dance up Main Street to get his hands on this case. And just think about how much fun that would be for everyone involved, especially Ross.”

  “Oh God, it would be horrible, Jax. He doesn’t know my family like you do, and he’s never gotten over Caroline choosing Ross over him. Plus, he’s a small-minded idiot.”

  Jackson smiled at that. “You won’t get an argument from me on that front.” Then he sobered. “But that’s why it’s so important that you tell me this stuff before someone else does. Or better still, don’t do something stupid like this in the first place.” He finished by waving the paystubs and gambling markers in front of her again.

  She narrowed her eyes at him but bit back the snarky remark on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she nodded at the documents and countered with a thought of her own. “You know, those bring up a good point.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  “Well, that there are others besides my family who may have had motive for wanting Uncle Edmond dead.”

  “Like Henry Kohler? What would be his motive?”

  “For crying in a bucket, Jackson, I don’t know. That’s your job, isn’t it?” Elise got up and threw her hands in the air. “But I find it odd that my uncle was secretly working for a rival vineyard, don’t you? I mean, why would he? He’d been offered a position at River Bend on several occasions.”

  “True, but giving Edmond a job doesn’t make Henry Kohler a murderer.”

  “No, but there’s the security factor to think about.”

  “What do you mean? Don’t all wineries operate pretty much the same? What would you need to keep secure?”

  “Well, there’s my hybridization process, for starters. And here’s one more thing: I happen to know that Uncle Edmond had heavy gambling debts. You have proof of that right there in your hand. Maybe someone killed him when he couldn’t pay up.”

  “Wow. You’ve been watching a lot of TV lately, haven’t you?”

  Elise let his comment go but glared at him and jabbed a finger in his direction. “Another person you should talk to is Pam Dawson. She loaned him a bunch of money, and I think she may have even taken out a loan against the restaurant to do it. Plus the woman is crazy as a loon. I think she’d bash in his head in a minute if she thought he was trying to weasel out of repaying her.”

  “Uh-huh. And how is it you know she loaned Edmond all this money?”

  “She told me,” she blurted out before she thought.

  “I see.” Jackson paused and ran his tongue over his teeth. “And when did this incredible, information-packed conversation take place?”

  Realizing the quagmire she’d babbled herself into, Elise tried unsuccessfully to backpedal. “Oh, you know, awhile ago,” she replied vaguely, waving a hand in the air.

  He gave her a speculative stare. “Pam was in a talkative mood, was she? Awhile ago? When you happened to run into her?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “Ha! Have you met Pam Dawson?”

  “Oh, shut up,” she grumbled.

  “Lord love a goose, you are the most pathetic liar I think I have ever seen in my entire life. We both know Pam’s so tight she squeaks and wouldn’t just volunteer anything, let alone information like that. Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

  Elise flopped back down in the chair and pouted. “Okay. But you have to promise not to yell at me, and I mean it, Jackson.”

  “I’m not promisin’ anything. Spill it.”

  Elise heaved a sigh and began to fill him in on her visit to the Pit Barbeque.

  “Let me get this straight. You did this on the very same day you went poking around at Edmond’s?” As Jackson’s voice rose, Chunk scampered back to his Papasan chair and began to bathe himself.

  “I said no yelling!” she hollered back at him.

  “And I didn’t promise!” Jackson answered in kind, and then pinched the bridge of his nose. She could almost hear him counting to ten in his head.

  “For the love of God, woman,” he said when he finally looked up. “You wear me out.”

  “Oh, quit your bitchin’. Do you want to hear the rest or not?”

  “Might as well. How much worse can it get?”

  She finished up by telling him about finding Pam and Henry Kohler cozied up in a booth when she’d arrived and her crazed conversation with Pam after the vintner left. “The whole thing was very strange. And for a minute, I thought Pam might have a meltdown right there in front of God and everyone.”

  Jackson sighed. “Didn’t your mama teach you not to go poking at crazy people? It’s dangerous and it never ends well.”

  “Jackson.” She uttered his name in a warning tone.

  “All right, I admit it does sound odd, and I’ll check it out, but you have to promise me you’ll butt out. I can’t have you stickin’ your nose into police business, El, especially when you could end up on my suspect list.”

  “Stop sayin’ that.” She picked up one of Chunk’s stuffed toys and threw it at him. He caught it left handed and nailed her with a narrowed gaze. “I didn’t kill Uncle Edmond, and you know it.”

  “Makes no difference what I think, sweetheart. I’m going to have to follow the evidence—no matter where it leads.” He looked at his watch and got to his feet. “It’s almost eleven. I should get going. I want to be out at the vineyard early.”

  “Of course you do,” she muttered as she rose and followed him to the door. “I don’t know what everyone thinks is so fabulous about the crack of friggin’ dawn. I say if God wanted me to be up at that hour, he’d have made it light out.”

  Grumbling about the time, she was following him too closely and not paying particular attention. She ran right into him when he stopped and turned, and he took her by the elbows to steady her. When she looked up into those brilliant, green ey
es, and then down at his full lips hovering so close, she thought her heart might literally have skipped a beat.

  And she couldn’t think of a single coherent thing to say.

  Jackson seemed to be as discombobulated as she was. And Lord above, doesn’t he just smell good enough to eat? Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to melt against him and feel his lips pressed to her own.

  Then the stupid cat rubbed up against their legs and the feeling passed. She was left wondering what in the world she’d been thinking and how her thoughts had gotten so out of control in a matter of moments.

  “I guess I’ll see you at the vineyard tomorrow,” he mumbled, setting her away from him. Opening the door, he stepped out onto the landing and then turned back. “Lock this behind me.”

  “Uh, Jax, this is Delphine,” she reminded him with a smirk. “Nothing ever happens here.”

  “Don’t suppose I need to remind you that your uncle was murdered a short fifteen miles up the road, right? Just lock the damn door, El.”

  Jackson sat in his truck for a good long time looking up at Elise’s window and thinking. For a brief moment there, when he all but had her in his arms, his mind had gone haywire. That was the only explanation for what he’d felt.

  And he wanted a taste of her in a big, bad way.

  Fortunately, her cat had snapped him out of it in the nick of time. He may be a free agent now, but Elise was in a relationship with … crap, what was the guy’s name? Stephen? Anyway, he had no business panting after her when she was unavailable.

  No matter how much he’d like to.

  Add in the fact that this investigation was going to get downright messy before it was all said and done. He could feel it in his bones. That said, he would be smart to put a little distance between them now.

  He drove home with a jumble of information playing over in his mind. He’d need to hit the ground running with this case, be on top of every facet and not give anyone a reason to think about taking it away from him. Because no matter what Elise said, just about every member of the Beckett family had a reason to want Edmond Beckett out of the way.

  What he’d told her earlier had been true; he was going to have to follow the evidence and go wherever it led him. He could only hope and pray that it didn’t point him toward anyone at River Bend.

  Seven

  “Oh, my gosh! Uncle Edmond was murdered?” Madison sat down hard on the dining room chair. The color drained from her face and her soft, blue eyes filled with tears. “Are they sure?”

  “Yes, sweetheart.” Laura went to her daughter and rubbed her shoulders. “Jackson says there’s no doubt.”

  “Good Lord! Who would do something like that? And then leave him to be found right here on River Bend land.” Abigail shook her head. “I don’t know what the world is coming to. Bunch of crazy people out there, if you ask me.”

  “Although, when it comes to Uncle Edmond, I have to say, I’m not all that surprised,” Ross muttered.

  “Ross Alexander! What a thing to say,” Laura admonished in a shocked voice.

  “I’m sorry, Mom, but I’m just saying what everyone else in this room is probably thinking. Uncle Edmond pissed off a lot of people.”

  “Well, you can keep those kinds of comments to yourself, please. Edmond may have been many things, but he didn’t deserve this.”

  “You’re right. He didn’t, but who knows what Uncle Edmond was into recently that might have gotten him killed.”

  Jackson stood in the doorway of the dining room, where Laura had called the family meeting, as he’d requested. Studying their faces now, he watched how each of them in turn responded to the news. These were people who were as close to him as his own family, yet he was unable to predict just what their reactions would be, particularly Ross.

  Upon hearing that Edmond’s death had been ruled a homicide, most folks had been under the impression that it had simply been a random act of violence or perhaps a robbery gone wrong. Elise had thought the same thing the previous evening. Obviously, Ross had at least considered the possibility that Edmond may have known his killer. Nevertheless, the next step in the investigation was going to be touchy.

  “Poor Uncle Edmond,” Madison murmured as she swiped at the tears tracking down her cheeks. “And like Gram said, right here, so close to home. That’s really scary. I mean, we don’t even lock our doors at night.”

  “It’s all going to be fine, sweetie. Jackson will figure this out.” Laura looked up at him, and when their eyes met, hers pleaded for him to calm her family’s fears. Her voice, on the other hand, didn’t plead so much as demand. “Isn’t that right, Jackson?”

  When he and Laura had met earlier that morning, they’d discussed some of the issues the family was sure to face once the report of the murder got out. The next few weeks would not be easy. And he had no illusions that the path his inquiries would take would be welcomed by the community, least of all by the people sitting around this dining room table.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he finally answered. “I’m going to do my level best to clear this up as quickly as possible.”

  Sliding a quick glance in Elise’s direction, he pulled a small notepad out of his pocket and then turned to the family, taking in the anticipation on their faces. “Which brings me to the next step. I’m going to need to know the whereabouts of each of you last Monday night between six and seven p.m.”

  In much the same way as the day the vineyard workers had found Edmond, the room erupted into chaos and outrage.

  “What the hell are you saying, Jackson?” Ross shouted over everyone else. “That we’re all suspects? You seriously think someone in this room is capable of robbing and killing a family member?”

  “Ross, honey, that’s not what Jackson is saying,” Laura answered for Jackson before he could form a response of his own. “You need to hear him out.”

  It was an obvious attempt to defuse the tension, but Ross ignored her. “For the love of God, Jax, you practically grew up here at the vineyard,” he said, and Jackson could almost feel the waves of fury radiating off his friend. “How can you even suggest that? Where’s your loyalty, bro?”

  “Ross, you need to think about this rationally.” Laura made a second attempt to calm her son down. “It’s important that the entire family be excluded from the process as soon as possible. Jackson is just doing his job.”

  “That’s exactly right, Miss Laura. The family needs to be cleared first, preferably before the news breaks.” Jackson met Ross’s heated gaze with an icy one of his own, and he tried with limited success to beat back his own temper. “I’m going to have to walk very close to the line with this investigation, and I don’t want any surprises down the road, bro.”

  Being an only child and spending so much of his youth at River Bend, Jackson thought of Ross as the brother he never had. At the moment, however, it was all he could do not to give his brother a damn good thumping.

  “And as for loyalty? Half the folks in this county know that I consider River Bend my second home.” In an attempt to stay as objective as possible, Jackson took a deep breath and made the extra effort to rein in his emotions. “That’s what makes this situation so dicey. There can’t be so much as a whiff of partiality in the air. Each step I take will have to be strictly by the book. I’m sorry if you have a problem with that, Ross, but you’d better get on board.”

  “Yeah? Or what, Deputy Landry?”

  Jackson shook his head. “What the hell’s the matter with you? I would think you’d want to cooperate in any way you could, would want the family cleared as quickly as possible so the spotlight could move on. Instead, here you are, throwing up road blocks right out of the gate.”

  “Jax, please—” Elise began, but he put up a hand in her direction, effectively cutting her off in mid-sentence.

  “You got something to say to me, Ross? Or maybe something to hide, something
you don’t want me to know about?”

  Ross frowned at him from across the table and folded his arms over his chest. “Not a thing. I just don’t care for someone who should be protecting this family—someone who should know better, I might add—insinuating that one of us could be a killer, that’s all.”

  “Ross, that’s not fair and you know it,” Elise said quietly. “You need to cut Jackson some slack. This isn’t going to be easy on any of us, least of all him.”

  Ross sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands before looking up and pinning Jackson with a glare. “You want to know where I was Monday night? I was at home with my wife and kids while someone was out there killing my uncle. Anything else I can help you with?”

  Jackson stared at Ross for a moment longer before pointedly looking to Caroline. “Caro?”

  Ross’s wife looked up at him with brown eyes that had grown big and round. Her mouth opened and closed several times, yet she didn’t confirm or deny her husband’s alibi.

  Ross’s caustic laugh cut through the silence. “That’s awesome, Jax. Very nice. Now my word isn’t even good enough for you.”

  “That is enough!” Laura snapped out the three words rapid-fire before skewering each one of her family members in turn with a look that conveyed her displeasure. “Listen up, all of you. This is an ugly business, there’s no way around that. But from here on out, we’re all going to cooperate fully with Jackson’s investigation—right up to the moment he catches your uncle’s killer.”

  She flung a hard stare back at Ross when he started to speak, and he clammed up in a hurry. “I’ll be damned if this family will behave like a bunch of spoiled ingrates and give half the county something to gossip about. We are going to work together and assist Jackson with whatever he needs or asks of us. Do I make myself clear?”

  When nobody spoke, she turned back to Jackson with a beleaguered sigh. “And having said that, I suppose I should lead by example. Neil Paige and I spent most of Monday out at the north end of the vineyard working on fencing with several other employees. I can give you their names if you need them.” She paused and ran a hand through her short, dark cap of hair. “I came back to the house covered in grime sometime around five and spent about an hour soaking in a hot tub. We sat down to a late supper just before seven. Isn’t that about right, Mom?”