Heard it Through the Grapevine (4 page)

four

“What did she say?”
Kate asked before she sprinted to her sister’s side. “You’re as pale as a ghost, Lainey.” She slapped her hand to her mouth and giggled. “Sorry, Tessa.”

And that’s so damn funny, why?

Lainey bit her lower lip to hide her amusement. At least now she wasn’t the only one who talked to dead people. “She wants us to find her killer.”

“What?” Maddy put both hands on her hips. “How the hell does she expect us to do that? I answer phones at the police station for a living, Deena runs the bingo game at the nursing home, Kate delivers babies, and you look pretty for the cameras. Not great resumes for finding a killer.”

“I beg your pardon, Madelyn. I do more than run bingo at the nursing home. I’m the activities director, for godsakes.” Deena huffed. “You can be such an ass sometimes.”

“That’s for sure,” Kate chimed in. “I can’t believe you think I went to school all those years just so I could deliver babies.” She frowned at her older sister. “And Lainey worked hard to land that position looking pretty in front of the cameras.” She clamped her hand over her mouth a second time. “Oh, sorry, Lainey. That didn’t come out the way it was supposed to.”

Can we cut the crap and get on with finding the son-of-a-bitch who poisoned me?

“Tessa’s right for once,” Lainey said, shaking her head. Hard to believe she actually agreed with her sister.

“What do you mean she’s right?” Deena asked.

Lainey shrugged. “Forgot you can’t hear her. She said to cut the chatter and find out who killed her.”

Not exactly what I said, Lainey, but close enough.

All three sisters turned to the sink.

“She doesn’t know?” Deena finally asked, verbalizing the question on everyone’s face.

Lainey raised her brow. “Doesn’t have a clue.”

“She’s a ghost,” Madelyn shouted. “Aren’t they supposed to know
everything? Walk through walls?”

The others nodded.

For Christ’s sake, Maddy. I’m not fucking Casper
.

“So now what’d she say?” Deena asked when Lainey snorted.

“She has no idea who killed her. As for walking through walls, I don’t think so.”

Again, not exactly what I said
.
Tessa shook her head.
I’m beginning
to get why you were chosen by the powers that be as
the lucky sister I talk to.

Lainey stepped closer to the sink. “Can you help us at all, Tessa?”

Tessa licked her lips.
I would if I could, but I have no idea how someone managed to poison me.

“Think.” Lainey moved closer until she stood directly in front of her dead sister. The others leaned in. “Colt said cyanide works
fast. It had to have been something you breathed or ate right before
you died.”

Hmm. I’d just had this huge argument with Jerry, and he’d stormed out of the house.

“About what?”

About Quinton Porter.

“Who?” Lainey asked as the other sisters leaned closer.

Just some asshole who wants to buy the vineyard and turn it into a bloody oil field.

“What’s she saying?” Kate asked, moving so close behind that Lainey caught a whiff of her day-old perfume.

“Shh,” Lainey commanded before nodding to Tessa. “Go on.”

I ordered take-out from that new Chinese place off the freeway by Target, but by the time it arrived, I wasn’t feeling very hungry. I only picked at it.

“According to Colt, it only takes a little,” Lainey said, mostly to herself. She glanced up at Tessa. “Anybody you know work at the restaurant?”

Not that I know of
.
Tessa pursed her lips.
Besides, who’d want to kill me? Everybody loved me.

Lainey laughed out loud, and before long, even Tessa was grinning.

Okay, maybe not everyone, but who hated me enough to do this?

“You tell me.” Lainey put her finger to her lips to silence Maddy who had joined Kate behind her and was now whispering something in her ear.

Tessa put her hand on her forehead and sighed.
If I was being honest, I’d have to say there are probably a lot of people I’ve run off over the years.

“Ya think?”

For the record, Lainey, I never meant to hurt you.

“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You deliberately went after Colt to spite me.”

“Jeez, Lainey! Now’s not the time to bring that up,” Kate scolded. “Find out what she ate that night.”

“Chinese food,” Lainey replied, glad for the detour from memory lane. “Apparently, there’s a new place in town, and she had it delivered.”

“That’s it,” Deena shouted. “Carolyn Winters’ son is the delivery boy for East Meets West.” She stepped closer to the sink, visibly excited. “Remember how outraged Carolyn was when she found out you slept with her husband who, by the way, is a jackass. It nearly broke up their marriage, not that I can figure out why she stayed married to that jerk after that.”

“You slept with a married man?” Lainey asked, incredulous that anything Tessa did surprised her.

I did no such thing.
Tessa’s eyes turned defiant before she frowned.
Okay, maybe once. But his son Joey was only nine or ten at the time. Besides, Carolyn stayed married to him for another year or two after that.

“Yeah, but she never forgave you, even after the jerk left her for a girl not much older than Joey. She still calls you the Whore of Vineyard,” Kate commented after Lainey repeated Tessa’s words.

“A married man, Tessa?” Lainey scolded. “Even for you, that’s a new low.”

What can I say? I’ve always been a sucker for a guy who could do the Electric Slide better than me.

Lainey crossed the room to the built-in desk in Maddy’s kitchen, shaking her head. She searched until she came up with a notebook and pencil, then walked back to the sink. “Okay, enough about how easy you were. What about Joey? How old is he now?”

Both Deena and Kate answered. “Sixteen.”

“He’s pretty screwed up, from what I hear,” Maddy added. “I’ve seen him down at the police station several times. He’s never been charged with anything except criminal mischief. He set old man DeLuca’s garbage on fire the night before Halloween, and it got out of hand. Burned down that old shed in the back yard.”

“So he’s got a record.” Deena shook her head. “I knew that kid was a bad seed.”

“Actually, he doesn’t. The charges were dropped when his mother paid off DeLuca. The gossip hot line reported she took casseroles to his house every day for a week after,” Maddy said.

Rumor has it she offered the old fart super sex, and he said, “just soup, please.”
Tessa slapped her thigh and doubled over with laughter.

“You always did like your own jokes.” Lainey turned back to her other sisters. “Okay, we’ve established Joey was not the model child, but jumping from criminal mischief to murder is hardly a plausible leap.”

God! I hate that word. I can’t believe anyone would do this to me.

Lainey turned back to Tessa, noticing the sadness crinkling her nearly flawless face. Could she have been totally unaware of her penchant for pissing people off?

“Okay. I’ll do a little snooping around Joey. He was too young to know who I am, and he might tell me something he wouldn’t tell you guys.” She turned to Tessa. “Who else wanted you dead?”

“If you’re making a list, Lainey, I can promise, you don’t have enough paper,” Maddy interrupted. “It might take less time listing people who didn’t have a motive.”

Both Deena and Kate laughed out loud. “Tessa knew just what to say to get under someone’s skin. It was an art,” Deena finally said when she could.

“People at the hospital can’t believe you and I were sisters, Tessa,”
Kate said. “You made them pay out of the nose for every last cent you donated.”

A bit pissy today, Katie? Anyway, most of the yahoos at County
General eat a bowl of stupid every morning. Someone had to keep them on their toes.

“Okay, enough about Tessa. We are all in agreement the list will be long,” Lainey interjected.

Tessa huffed and crossed her arms.

“Make sure both Jerry and Roxy are at the top of the list.”

“Other than the obvious reason, why do you say that, Deena?”

“Because that porno whore isn’t satisfied with half of Jerry’s money. She wants it all.”

“One might have said the same thing about Tessa,” Kate said.

Aren’t you just a ray of fucking sunshine?

Kate smiled. “I know you probably said something evil, Sis, but you have to know I love you. I’m just trying to stay real.”

If I could, I’d kick your ass like I used to.

“Okay, moving right along,” Lainey said. “Who else needs to be on our potential killer list?”

“PKL. I like that. Makes it sound dangerous,” Maddy said. “What
about Carrie Phillips?”

Are you freakin’ kidding me?
Tessa asked.
Carrie’s my best friend
. Besides, she isn’t smart enough to pull it off.

“She said no way to Carrie,” Lainey explained to her sisters. “Then
who, Tessa?”

Hmm! For starters, I’d check out Quinton Porter.

“You’ve mentioned Porter before,” Lainey said, scratching her forehead with the eraser.

Kate moved closer to Lainey and peeked over her shoulder to see what she had written. “Who’s that?”

“An oilman from Houston who wants to turn the winery into a drilling mess,” Lainey responded, remembering her earlier conversation with Tessa.

“No kidding. You think he’d kill to get what he wants?” Maddy asked, taking a step closer to Lainey and Kate.

He probably already has.

“Tessa thinks it’s a possibility. We definitely need to
check him out.” She turned to her dead sister. “Anyone else you can think of?”

Let me toss it around in my head for a while.

Lainey slammed the notebook closed. “Okay, let’s get back to Joey Winters. Maddy, can you get a look at his file without Colt knowing?”

“Oh, hell yes.” Maddy straightened up. “When Colt hired me, he made sure I had access to all the files. Said I needed to pull things from them when he asked.” She turned to the sink. “He said I was the total opposite of you, Tessa.”

Never believe anyone who slept with your sister, Maddy
,
Tessa blurted.

And don’t forget, I’m the one who walked out. That doesn’t make for cozy warm feelings
.
She made a face.
Total opposites, my ass!

“What’d she say to that?” Maddy asked, the smirk still covering her face.

“She was the one who walked, so naturally, Colt would be a little ticked still,” Lainey explained.

“Yeah, you’re the one who walked out, all right,” Kate said. “But only after he caught you screwing around with about three different guys.”

Tessa glared at her youngest sister, who was now high-fiving with Maddy. Despite the frown, she couldn’t hide the twinkle in her eyes.
Whatever!

The last thing Lainey wanted to hear about was Colt and Tessa’s marriage. “Okay, let’s move on. We’ve got a lot to do in a short time. My agent rescheduled my interview in Florida for next Friday. No way I’m missing it again.”

“You’re not still thinking about that, are you, Lainey?” Kate asked. “I was hoping you’d hang around for a while to keep Jerry from putting the screws to Gracie.”

Lainey sighed. “I can’t. This job is too important to me.”

And the fact that some dickhead poisoned me isn’t?

Lainey ignored the sarcasm. “You have me for four days. Five, max. Then I’m gone. I have a life of my own, you know. So, let’s quit wasting time and get on with this.” She re-opened the notebook. “Tessa, do you remember who delivered the Chinese food that night?”

A full minute passed before Tessa finally spoke, her eyes wide.
Son of a—

“Was it Joey Winters?” Lainey interrupted.

Tessa pursed her lips, her eyes now narrowed
. I tipped that little bastard ten bucks.

_____

The sun was just setting out the back window of the car as it rolled to a stop in front of the Shady City Motel. A glance at the neon sign, way overdue for a makeover, flashed SH ITY MOTEL.

No shit, Sherlock!
God only knows how many different specimens of body fluids still lingered in the sheets.

But none of that mattered. Tessa was dead, although she hadn’t exited without her usual drama queen performance.

Damn it!
She’d screwed everything up, like always.

The good news was Colt and the rest of the Barney Fifes under
him assumed the explosion was an accident. Setting the timer on the living room lamp had been brilliant, but after counting on there
not being enough of Tessa to autopsy, finding her in her front yard against the tree was a real shocker. Still, even that wouldn’t give the police much to go on.

And now, with Tessa out of the way for good, there was only one reason for the trip to this shitty motel.

Someone is about to get screwed, and it’s not gonna be me!

_____

Colt opened the car door for his mother and watched as she drove off. He had no idea how he would have been able to make it the past couple of years without her help. After he and Tessa divorced and he was awarded full custody of Gracie, his mother had stepped in and taken over until he’d gotten the hang of taking care of a two-year-old on his own.

Had it really been six years since he and Tessa went their separate ways?