Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (41 page)

“You will not believe this
,
” Chris
Conner
drew up beside me.  She dabbed her forehead with a bright orange cocktail napkin.  I shouldn’t be surprised to see her. I think the media were on the D list for the reception only.

“I found out your Beth Johnson …
”

The name stopped me. 

“Yes,
” Chris
was triumphant.  “Her sister works for you at New Century.”

“
Patricia
’s sister
,
” I repeated
dully
.  I shaded my eyes and scanned the crowd.  Ah, my heart slowed a fraction. Carrie was still on the edges of the crowd with Patrick. 

“T
hanks,” I said automatically. 
“
I’ll talk to you in a minute.”

But
Chris Conner,
in
trepid girl reporter
,
was not willing to be put off that easily.  She
followed me like
she was
a hungry dog and I carried the last bone in the county.

“You seem to find disaster.” She
dogged
my heels.

“Me?” I looked as innocent as I could, which apparently was not
successful
judging from her skeptical
expression
.
I
need
to spend more time
practic
ing
my innocent look
in the mirror. “I’m just in the wrong place at the
wrong
time.”  Often, but I didn’t add that on.

I entered the back door to the dark, damp warehouse.  I knew I shouldn’t, I knew I would be much better off leaving
whoever
was
lurking in the shadows
to their own fate
. I should be
standing in the sunshine drinking sparkling wine and eating
strawberries
and cream.

I pushed open the door, with the reporter breathing
asthmatically
behind me.

“She was suppose to do everything in her power to find out what
Cassandra
was up to
, get all the information on the extra wine, the shipped wine, everything so that Trisha had something to counter with
, Beth Johnson was working for Trisha not
Peter O’Reilly
.” 

I had no reply, a double agent.  Had she killed Cassandra?  Has Trisha Gault asked
her to manage another accident?  Where would the winery go?  Would Trisha take over?
She could, just selling wine under false labeling would destroy Cassandra’s career.
But it was not
worth killing over. There had to be more.
And that more was Kimberly, the wild card,
the
wild woman.

The winery was silent.  Large vats steamed from the
(this time)
fermenting grapes.  The smell was
pungent
with
yeast heavy
with the smell of harvest.

The two of us
, unlikely cohorts,
approached the office from the back way. The light was on and I could hear the voices drifting from the open door.

“
It wasn’t her wine.
” It was Beth. “
Fred was suppose to get some bottles for Trisha,
he had to climb to the top of the cases to get to the bottles.
But then the tremor happened. And I can’t climb, not
when.
. .” she broke off.  

“I
t was an accident
.
” It was our own Patricia, damn more animated than I had ever heard her, if you don’t count her tirade at Paul Christopher. “
You didn’t have to get involved at all.
What were you thinking!
”

“I was suspicious!
  You aren’t the only one who can find things!
Trisha
just
wanted something she could use.
The white wine would have been enough.
Then the red was ruined, no one knew about that.”

“
Did you
sabotage the
scaffolding
?
” 
Patricia
asked f
latly
, all the animation and panic drained from her voice
.

“How did you know she fell from the catwalk?”
Oh please,
Beth knew better than to ask her sister that.

Then Beth went on the offensive.  My guess is Beth is the baby of the family, Patricia the eldest.
 
“
D
o you think I’m actually
capable
of that?  When would I do such a thing?
  How would I do it?
You know I’m no good at mechanical things.”

“
It was
stable one day and the next, not.”
Not an
airtight
conclusion
, but
Patricia hadn’t been thinking as clearly as usual,
but
she was under a lot of pressure.

A cheer went up from the guests.  Carrie and Patrick must have
returned to
the fray.  I should be out there celebrating with her. T
h
is was her
time
.

“
And now it’s over
,
” Beth’s
voice dropped to normal tones. “
Trish
a
can take over the winery
now
.”

Chris Conner had enough
information
to write three articles,
but
I knew perfectly well
she needed this on the record.
She pushed me to one side and barged in, recorder
blinking like an angry eye
.  “Do you think Trisha Gault engineered Cassandra’s death?”

I followed, Beth starte
d at Chris Conner open mouthed.
Patricia stood to one side looking like
an extra in every Twilight sequel ever made. Her hair was
disheveled
her eyes sunk past their normal level
.

“She’s dead?”  Beth clamped her hands over her mouth and looked in horror at the bearer of the bad news.

“Beth
,
”
Patricia
growled
.  “Shut up!”

“
But she’s dead, oh my
G
od
!
”

“
That’s
quite enough.”  Patricia grabbed her sister’s arm.  “No more.”
  She pulled her sibling from her desk perch and pulled her towards the door.

“But I’m responsible.  I’m
supposed
to get the
answers. I’m suppose to tell Ms. Gault what,”

“What nothing
, we’re
finding
your pretend boss right now.
”

We heard a wail and a hard slap.  A car motor started up.  Another cheer
floated up
from the guests outside.

“What was that?  Can she do that?”  Chris Conner demanded.
  “We were just getting to the best part!”

“Grab Beth before a dramatic confession?”  I smoothed my skirt and rubbed my hands to get the circulation back.  “I don’t think there are rules
. Accidents maybe, not
rules.”  The pirate code certainly,
and one of the tenants of that code was,
thou shalt not spoil a friend’s wedding.

“You people make me crazy!”  Chris flounced back outside, which, with her
heavy
ass, was not an easy movement
to pull off
.

I breathed easier knowing Beth was under the
belligerent
care of her sister.  I must have always known. But, like most people, I only make
sanctimonious
proclamations after the danger has passed.

How Beth knew where the action was, at all times, was amazing. 
But I was
often
privy to amazing things.  I was relieved Beth was off the premise. 
Out of the corner of my eye I spied something that was unpleasant in the extreme.

“Oh no
,
”  I
breathed.

How could
Mark
still
be
here
?
Beth had been hauled off
against her will
for a bout of familial retaliation, leaving Mark high and dry. But I knew Ma
rk, he’d be with a n
ew girl in, I checked my watch,
I’d give him at least seven minutes.

He appeared in the door of the wine tasting room, his eyes swept over me as if I wasn’t wearing a huge fire engine red dress.
He ducked back outside
without a word
.
I
waited for Mark to clear the area,
and then
slipped to the sunny patio.

“There you are!
”
  Ben rumbled up, grabbed me and crushed me to him in a big bear hug. “
Y
ou may never let me do that again.”

“Wh
y
?”  I was still reeling from the Mark
close
encounter
,
and the Beth
full
encounter.

“Something terrible
,
”
h
e intoned.

My heart fluttered.  What else?  Carrie?  I looked quickly around but didn’t see her.
  Ben did not know the danger, and I didn’t bring it up.

“They’re cutting the cake, she’s fine.  Sorry I didn’t mean to alarm you.”

“What’s so terrible?”

“Our mothers are talking.”

He let that sink in.  “Crap.”

“Exactly.” 

“What are we going to do?”  I asked just as
I saw Mark head around to the back of the
warehouse.  Why?  What was lurking
back there that was so enticing? It
was
decidedly
odd
behavior
, even for Mark.

“Can you stop them? I’m going to see what Mark is doing.” 

“Wh
y
, you think my mother will start doing the math?”

I shook my head.  “No, Mom and Dad married in November, Richard was born in February
so the years always work out in polite company
.”
  My mother gave birth to a
nine pound
pre-mature baby.  No one cares about that kind of thing anymore, but at the time, in the sixties, it mattered a great deal. At least
it mattered
to my mother.

“Clever.  I’ll check it out.”

He touched my arm,
and then
kissed me.  “Be careful, he already broke your heart, don’t let him break anything else.”

“I’ll be careful.”  I lied.  He knew I lied. 
And he knew he couldn’t stop me.  Should we put that in the vows?  I promise to love, trust and let everyone
in the marriage
make
their
own crazy mistakes. 

I
walked slowly
in the direction of
the warehouse trying to appear as if I was just checking out the place.
The
interior was as
dark as the first time I saw it.  I stepped gingerly, but found no tubes or buckets in my path.  At least Jose cleaned up, that was a blessing.

Mark
was indeed inside, and facing
Kimberly
.
I recognized her long braid
. They were surround by the shelves of what we knew
now
were empty barrels.
I
hid from view
behind the row
s
and peeked around the corner.

Kimberly wore
a black dress covered in sequins, not exactly afternoon garden attire
but a close approximation of formal.  In
stark contrast to the elegant dress and shoes
, her face was
contorted and ugly as she
confronted
Mark.

“Really, Kimberly, I was just Beth’s date and she dumped me, happy?”

I winced on his behalf, that probably wasn’t the best approach, but then Mark wasn’t strategic when it came to women. A better term was
gluttonous
.