You Really Got Me (24 page)

Michael hadn’t heard the news, so she filled him in and explained why she’d closed the tasting room.

“Oh Jesus,” he said, placing his hand over his heart. “Oh Kendall, I’m so sorry.”

She nodded. “Me too.”

“Do they know anything? What happened?”

She told him what little she knew, that the autopsy results wouldn’t likely be known until Monday.

“How’s Kevin?” Michael asked, genuine concern deepening the grooves on either side of his mouth.

Her throat clogged up again with tears. “He’s not doing so well.”

“What can I do? Name it, Kendall. You know I’ll do anything for you.”

“Thank you.” She blinked at him and gave a small shaky smile. God, she was lucky to have such good people around her. “I don’t know what, at the moment.”

“I’ll be here all day if you need anything.”

“Okay, good. I know we have to get going with the crush.” It seemed wrong to care about anything but Natalia, but harvesting the grapes at the right time was so critical to the winery’s success.

“We’re working on it.” He squeezed her hand.

“I’ll come help later.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. But keeping busy will help. Right now I’m going to call Arman and see if he can deal with the media hanging around.”

She returned to the house through the back exit, hoping to avoid the media. But they’d made their way around the winery and down the short driveway to the house. She sighed in frustration and pushed her hair off her face. Maybe if Arman made a statement to them on behalf of the family, they’d go away. Or maybe he could threaten them with trespassing if they didn’t leave. Yeah.

In the house, she made the call and had just hung up with Arman’s promise to be there as soon as he could when Mr. Debarros came downstairs. His face pale, almost gray, eyes red-rimmed, he said, “I’m going to the sheriff’s office now. To—” He choked up. “To identify the body.”

“Maria’s not going with you?” she asked, moving toward him and putting a hand on his arm.

“No. She can’t.”

“Is she sure? She might want to do it so she has…closure. So she knows for sure.”

He compressed his lips. “She can’t.”

“Do you want someone to come with you? Kevin should go with you.”

He nodded, eyes somber, and she climbed the stairs to Kevin’s room and knocked on his door. She heard a noise from inside that might have been an invitation to enter, and opened the door. Inside she spotted him sprawled in an armchair in the corner near the window.

“Kevin. Are you okay?”

“No. No, I’m not okay.” He raised haunted eyes to look at her.

“I know. That was a stupid question. Of course you’re not okay.” She crossed the room to stand in front of him, put out a hand to touch his hair. “I’m so, so sorry, Kevin.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“This is a nightmare.”

“I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe I was pissed off at her for disappearing like that just because…” His voice trailed off and he swallowed. “I was mad at her. And she was dead.” His voice cracked on the last word and he bent forward and buried his face in his hands. Kendall let her hand rest on the back of his head, her throat tight and aching too.

“Mr. Debarros is going to the coroner’s office,” she told him softly. “You need to go with him.”

Kevin slowly straightened. His mouth a tight line, he gave a short nod. “Yeah. I want to go. I have to see her.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Their eyes met and she waited for his response, expecting him to agree. To her surprise, he straightened his shoulders. “No. I can do it.” He rose to his feet, pushed both hands back over his hair, dragged his hands across his eyes. “I’ll do it.”

She followed him downstairs and watched as he and Juan Debarros left in Kevin’s Porsche, making their way through the vehicles parked in the driveway, men with cameras, women with microphones, watched how they avoided talking to anyone, avoided even making eye contact.

Arman and Erin both arrived a short time later. Arman agreed to make a statement to the media.

“Maybe then they’ll leave,” Erin said.

Arman made a face. “Not likely. I don’t know what we can do short of closing the gates at the front.”

“I haven’t done that since…since Mom and Dad died,” Kendall said.

“I know.” He regarded her somberly. “Are you okay, Kendall?”

“I’m okay. Don’t worry about me. I’m not the one who just lost my fiancée. Or my daughter, for that matter.” She rubbed her forehead and Erin squeezed her shoulders.

“I know, I just meant…this must be bringing back a lot of memories.”

She blew out a gust of air. “Oh yeah. That it is.” She straightened her shoulders. “I’m older and wiser now. And I want to close the gates.”

Arman grimaced. “I’ll ask them to leave when I give them a statement. No guarantees though.”

Erin and Arman sat down and came up with the statement Arman would read to the media, and he went outside later to let them know he’d be giving a statement at two o’clock. When he came back in, they turned on the television to watch the press conference Jason had scheduled.

“Chief Holloway,” began the news reporter from ABC news. “Natalia Debarros’s roommate contacted us today. She says that a few days before Ms. Debarros disappeared, she and her fiancé had an argument.”

Jason’s face stayed neutral.

Kendall glanced at Erin and Arman. Where was this going?

“Apparently they argued over a prenuptial agreement.”

Kendall gasped and bolted out of her chair to stand in front of the television. She stared as Jason gave his response.

“I can’t make any comment on that,” he replied coolly.

“She claims Kevin Vioget wanted Debarros to sign the prenup and she didn’t want to.”

Jason shifted slightly, standing at the small podium, but his expression didn’t change.

“Was that what the argument was about the day she disappeared?” the reporter persisted.

“No comment on that,” Jason replied again. “That’s all I have for you today, folks. We’ll keep you informed of any developments we can.”

And he walked out of the room.

“What the…?” Kendall muttered, hands curled into fists. She turned to Arman and Erin. “Did you hear that?”

He groaned. “Yeah. Shit. Where’s Kevin?”

“He went with Mr. Debarros to the coroner’s office in Santa Barbara.”

“Did they really argue over that?” Erin asked.

“I have no idea.” Kendall sank back down onto the chair in the kitchen. “Kevin’s not telling me anything about what went on.” But the fact that Laurel had mentioned the prenuptial agreement carried some credibility. Because in the weeks before the wedding, Kendall and Kevin had argued about that very thing.

“I wanted Kevin to have you draw up an agreement to protect them,” she said, looking at Arman. “Half the vineyard belongs to Kevin, and if his marriage broke up, half of everything he owned would become Natalia’s.”

“Well, it’s not that straightforward,” Erin murmured. “Because Kevin owned half of the vineyard
before
the marriage it wouldn’t automatically become half Natalia’s. The laws are complicated.”

“I hated to think about a marriage breaking up before it had even begun,” Kendall said. “But I wasn’t prepared to risk ownership of the vineyard, especially since I had concerns about their relationship to begin with.” Concerns about their young age and Kevin’s relative immaturity. Not to mention her worries about Natalia’s expensive wedding tastes and what that all meant. God. Kendall closed her eyes, hating to even think such thoughts about Natalia when she was gone.

“Kevin disagreed with me, as usual,” she continued. “He got all annoyed and defensive that I even thought a prenuptial agreement was necessary. As far as I know, he hadn’t even discussed it with Natalia, but…maybe he did.”

She couldn’t stop a small groan from escaping her lips.

Arman and Erin exchanged worried glances. “It could be Laurel just looking for attention,” Arman said. “That happens. People want their moment of fame.”

“Maybe.” A dull throbbing had started at the base of Kendall’s skull. She dropped her arms wearily onto the table. “We’ll have to ask him when he gets back.” Oh yeah, like he’d be wanting to talk about that after identifying the body of his fiancée to the police. “You can bet the police will be asking him about it.”

“He doesn’t have to answer any questions,” Arman reminded her. “Unless they’re going to arrest him. In the meantime though, I’m going to have to speak to that as well. Or they’ll ask.”

They discussed how Arman should handle it, and at two o’clock he stepped outside to address the crowd of media that had grown since he’d let them know the statement was forthcoming.

“The Debarros and Vioget families want to express their appreciation for all the support they’ve been given by the community. This would have been so much more difficult without it. They especially want to thank all the members of the Las Colinas Police Department, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI for their tireless investigation.” He went on to say how the families trusted the authorities as they continued to investigate, and that they would soon have answers about what had happened. Arman then requested the media give the family privacy to grieve and leave the property.

“What else can I do, hon?” Erin asked.

Kendall tried to smile at her friend. “Nothing. But thank you for being here. It means a lot to me.”

“Do you want me to stay in town? I could call the office and take a day off.”

“No. That’s okay. You need to get back to work. And I have grapes to crush.” She made a face.

“Call me. Any time.”

“I will.” They hugged goodbye, Kendall’s throat squeezing. “Thank you.”

An hour later when Kevin and Juan returned from Santa Barbara, media vehicles and reporters still lingered outside. Once again, Kevin and Juan ignored them, Kevin parking his car in the garage and entering the house through there.

They both looked pale and shaken, though both were resolute in their control. Kendall met Kevin’s eyes, a question in hers, not even daring to speak the words, and Kevin nodded. She dropped her gaze. She’d known there really was no chance that the body wasn’t Natalia’s, of course, but she had to make sure. The last faint flicker of hope was extinguished inside her.

It was over. Natalia was gone. Now they had to find out who had done it and why.

She had to wait until Juan had gone upstairs to check on his wife to tell Kevin about Laurel’s claim that he and Natalia had argued over the prenuptial agreement, carefully choosing her words so as not to put him on the defensive, hoping he might share with her what had really happened.

“I didn’t think you were going to talk to Natalia about that,” she said cautiously, eyeing him.

“Yeah. Well.” Kevin swallowed. “Who says I did?”

“Laurel wouldn’t make that up,” she replied, still watching him. “Or if she did, it’s a pretty big coincidence.”

He walked over to the window and looked out, saying nothing. She longed to press him for more, but held her tongue, since that strategy hadn’t been working all that well.
Please, please tell me. Tell me what happened, Kevin.

But all he said was, “Those reporters still aren’t gone.”

She sighed. Irritation rose in her, not just at him, but at the media, at the police, at every damn thing. She left the kitchen and trudged up to her bedroom. She sat on the window seat in her room, gazing out at the vineyard, the afternoon sun saturating the green hues of the vines and grass and oak and olive trees.

Yesterday should have been the wedding. She pictured the big white tent that should have been sitting outside the house, filled with laughing happy people there to celebrate Kevin and Natalia’s marriage. Instead the winery sat quiet and empty except for the swallows soaring above the vines. And the hordes of reporters. Now instead of a wedding they were going to be planning a funeral.

She sighed at the thought of that undertaking, then realized that it wasn’t really hers to take on. Certainly the Debarros family would want to plan their daughter’s funeral, and in fact they probably would want to do it back in Pine Creek, their hometown. Mrs. Debarros didn’t seem capable of doing much right now, but she would pull herself together.

The noise of car doors closing aroused her ire again. Damn those reporters, invading their privacy like that, digging into things that weren’t their business, then spreading it all over the news. She knew they were implying that Kevin had something to do with Natalia’s disappearance. Once before they’d almost ruined their business, and the reputation of their family, and now they were trying to do it again. Only now, there was much more at stake. Her body went rigid, remembering Jason’s face at the press conference. How grim and serious he’d been. This was important to him.

He’d come here to Las Colinas to start over. He’d felt like a failure after the death of his sister, and this job was important to him. He hadn’t said it in as many words, but she knew how important it was for him to succeed at this, to build a new career, a new life. Her stomach churned. She covered her mouth with her hands. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest at the thought of him feeling like a failure again, and especially if it was because of her. She could not be responsible for that.