by Thea Cambert
“And Forrest Sloan himself is going to talk about the hallmark wines of this region,” added Sam.
“Perfect!” said Alice, nudging Luke.
The horse-drawn wagon meandered through the vineyard, the guide explaining about the varieties of grapes and the richness of the soil and pointing out the cottage where Elizabeth and Oliver had lived when they’d first settled on this piece of land. When they came to the buildings, they were shown where the offices and gift shop were, along with the tasting room and the production area. They talked about presses, pumps, tanks, and barrels. They disembarked from the hayride and met Forrest Sloan, who walked them along through rows of tanks and barrels, talking about the different kinds of wood used to age the wines and which barrel contained what.
Alice inhaled deeply, savoring the scents of oak and grapes and time. She thought that if waiting had a smell, this would be it—waiting for something wonderful to happen.
After Forrest concluded his talk, the visitors were encouraged to look around on their own for a bit before the hayride headed back to the tasting room and gift shop.
“Here’s our chance to talk to Forrest,” whispered Franny.
“As soon as the Youngs are done talking to him,” Alice whispered back.
The group as a whole wandered over near to where Forrest stood talking to the Youngs, but were careful not to appear to be eavesdropping. But the room was fairly quiet, and it wasn’t hard to hear snatches of conversation. The Youngs were asking lots of questions. Forrest politely commented on their obvious passion for winemaking, and they excitedly told him about the land they’d purchased and their plans to start their own vineyard.
Suzie lowered her voice just a bit when she asked Forrest about a trio of particular grapes they were interested in cultivating. Alice couldn’t make out every word, but she definitely heard “Yellow Muscat.”
“That’s one of the three grapes used to make essencia!” said Alice. “George told us about it when we were up in the balloon.”
“So the Youngs might be thinking about creating their own essencia,” said Luke.
“Which would mean they’d be very interested to know how the only Tennessee essencia is formulated,” said Alice.
“Forrest is starting to look a bit hot under the collar,” said Owen. “Look at him. No! Not all at once!”
“He’s turning purple!” whispered Franny.
“He doesn’t like the line of questioning coming from the Youngs,” said Luke. “Look at his body language.”
“Not all at once!” Owen said again. “One of us can look. Everyone else keep acting like we’re fascinated by this barrel here. Ben, you look.”
Ben glanced in the direction of the threesome, then looked down and nodded. “Oh, his body language has changed since that conversation began,” he said. “Forrest’s arms are crossed. He’s red in the face. He keeps looking around like he wants to get away.”
Forrest suddenly said, in a loud and irritated voice, “If you will excuse me,” and stalked out of the room. The Youngs looked after him in stunned silence for a moment, then walked toward the exit themselves. As they passed, Alice heard Suzie muttering to Sam, “It better have been worth the risk. Everything’s riding on this.”
As soon as they’d left the building, the group reviewed what they’d heard.
“So, much for feeling out Forrest,” said Alice. “Who knows where he went after storming off.”
“But wow,” said Owen. “The Youngs are looking all too suspicious. What do you think Suzie meant about it being worth the risk?”
“Exactly what I’m wondering,” said Luke. “Could she mean they took a risk in killing Rupert?”
“We don’t have time to ponder that now,” said Alice, taking Luke’s hand. “We’re due over at the Family Fun Rock Climbing Wall Competition. We’re getting our photo taken climbing the wall together.”
“Oh, boy,” said Owen. “Does the winner get a trophy?”
“I think so,” said Alice.
“And Franny’s still on her competitive streak . . .” said Owen.
“I love rock climbing walls!” said Franny.
“Stand back, everyone. She’s on the rampage!” said Owen.
Chapter 12
Franny smiled at the camera as Forrest Sloan presented her with her Champion Adult Rock Climber trophy—a small brass tower with a large, actual rock glued to the top.
“Could you believe the way she attacked that wall?” Owen said as the gathered crowd applauded. “It was like she was possessed!”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Ben, shaking his head. “My wife, the rock climbing champ. I’m so proud of her.”
Franny jogged over and joined them. “Wow, that was fun!” She sniffed the air. “Mmm. Someone’s fired up the grill. All that climbing made me hungry.”
“Good, because it’s time for the dinner portion of Clear Creek’s Family Fest.” Alice glanced at her schedule. “And it’s called Kebab Fest. They sure do like fests around here.”
“Makes me homesick for Blue Valley,” said Owen. And he was right. Blue Valley was a festival town.
“Me too,” said Alice. “But the beauty of being here is that I’m not the one in charge of the event.”
“That’s right,” said Luke, putting an arm around Alice. “You can just relax and enjoy yourself.”
“And nab the killer,” added Owen.
“Well, yeah. There’s that, too,” said Luke. “Let’s go see about those kebabs. Franny’s right. It smells amazing.”
They followed their noses—and the rest of the fest-goers—to a wide, open grassy area, where wooden tables were scattered about, along with large baskets filled with picnic blankets. Families were choosing tables and spreading blankets and helping themselves to glasses of fresh lemonade or wine. A long table was being filled with good things as they came off the grill. There were fun hot dog and French fry kebabs with mini ears of corn for the kids; and kebabs laden with everything from juicy steak to buttery shrimp and colorful vegetables for the adults. A second table was heaped with dessert kebabs—skewers of cubed cakes, candies, chocolate-dipped berries and a selection of sauces and frostings to dip them in. Alice and Luke posed for the magazine, feeding each other and laughing while holding their kebabs, and then everyone settled in to enjoy the feast. Owen spread a huge blanket out for them and Franny and Ben brought glasses and a bottle of beautiful pink Clear Creek Rosé.
Alice saw the Youngs choosing a picnic blanket from one of the baskets.
“Suzie! Sam! Come sit over here!” she called, waving at them.
“Good thinking, Alice,” whispered Owen. “We can find out what all that talk earlier in the barrel room was about.”
“Because something they said definitely made Forrest very angry,” said Franny.
Luke chuckled and nudged Ben. “It’s kind of fun to see their crime-solving process up close, isn’t it?”
“From the inside,” agreed Ben.
Usually, back in Blue Valley when a crime happened, Ben and Luke got busy investigating in the official way—as police captain and head detective. So they never really saw firsthand how Alice, Owen, and Franny worked a case—oftentimes using their own unique, sometimes downright strange, methods.
Sam and Suzie spread their blanket, got their food, and finally came and sat down.
“You two look glum—and you never look glum,” Alice said, noting the troubled looks on their faces. “Everything okay?”
Suzie looked at Sam, whose eyes glistened with tears. “Don’t cry, Sam. It’ll all work out,” she said, pressing Sam’s hand with her own. Then she turned to Alice. “He’s the most sensitive man in the world, and it just breaks my heart when he’s sad.”
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Alice, smiling gently. “I mean, why are you sad?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear Forrest Sloan’s little tirade earlier in the barrel room,” said Suzie.
Sam sniffled. “I me
an, I get that he didn’t want to talk to us about making an essencia, but did he have to be so rude about it?”
Alice looked from Sam to Suzie. “But what would Forrest know about essencias? Clear Creek doesn’t make that wine, do they?”
“But everyone knows they’d like to,” said Suzie. “They’ve tried through the years—ever since Elizabeth Emmerson-Sloan came up with the idea.”
“We overstepped . . . we shouldn’t have asked him about that,” said Sam, looking at his wife. “It’s a sore subject around here.”
“So you want to formulate an essencia at your own vineyard?” Owen asked.
Suzie looked ashamed. “We did,” she finally said. “And we—well, we let things get out of hand on that quest. The thing is, our land is at the right altitude. We have the right soil, the right climate . . .”
“But we don’t have eight years to turn a profit,” said Sam. “It just takes too long. And we still don’t know the exact ingredients or the secrets to the fermentation process.”
Alice nodded. “I imagine there are people who would do just about anything to lay their hands on those secrets.”
That was when Suzie burst into tears. “Oh, Alice! We were those people!”
“Confession alert!” Owen whispered into Alice’s ear.
“What do you mean?” asked Alice, elbowing Owen.
They all leaned forward just a hair, waiting for Suzie’s response.
“We might as well tell all,” said Sam. “We came on this trip to learn the secrets of the essencia.” He bit his lower lip. “We’re not even really newlyweds!”
There was a collective gasp from the group.
“It’s true!” said Suzie. “We’ve been married for five years. We had to say we were newlyweds to get the honeymoon package discount. Emmerson is the only vineyard in the state that makes an essencia, and we were determined to crack that code. Oh, how foolish we were!” she wailed.
“So what did you do?” asked Alice. “I mean, did you get any information at all?”
“We snooped around a little,” said Suzie with a nod. “But then we stumbled upon that Rupert Billings, talking on the phone about the formula and how he’d managed to steal it.”
“It really was a bizarre coincidence,” said Sam. “And it’s all because there’s no phone reception at the Emmerson Estate. We were headed to that little rise to call home to check on our daughter—she’s with Suzie’s parents for the week.”
“She’s three,” said Suzie.
“So, we were walking over to make the call on Thursday evening.”
“It was after dark,” added Suzie. “We call every night to say goodnight.”
“Anyway,” Sam went on, “Rupert was already at the rise, but his back was turned to us, so he didn’t see us walking up. He was talking in a hushed voice, but we got an earful anyway. He was telling someone that he’d stolen the formula for the Emmersons’ essencia.”
“He told them he’d meet them Friday evening around sunset, at the usual meeting place out in the vineyard,” said Suzie. “Gosh, I’m so ashamed of this now. We canceled our hot air balloon ride and waited around until we saw Rupert, sneaking out among the rows of vines. We almost didn’t recognize him, because he was wearing an Emmerson uniform, and as you know, he worked at Waxing Moon as their sommelier. We saw him well before sunset, going out to the vineyard. We waited a while, then snuck out there ourselves. We saw Helena Emmerson walking back toward the inn, but luckily, she was too upset to notice us.”
“Was she with Rupert?” asked Alice, trying to keep her voice even and calm.
“It looked like she had been,” said Suzie. “She was walking out of the vineyard at breakneck speed, looking very worried. We hid behind a bush like two evil spies. I still can’t believe we did it!”
“Then what happened?” asked Franny.
Alice looked and saw that the whole group was listening with rapt attention now, kebabs frozen in mid-air.
“We found where Rupert was, toward the back of the vineyard,” said Sam. “He was talking to some guy we couldn’t see. Rupert talked about the grapes used for the essencia, then he said he had the formula and process memorized, thanks to Helena trusting him. But he said he wasn’t willing to share it unless he got more money.”
“That was when the other person started to express doubt that Rupert had actually gotten the real formula,” said Suzie. “And then Rupert said, ‘Here’s proof,’ and held out the Emmerson crest.”
“Helena’s missing pendant,” said Owen.
“And then the other guy grabbed the crest and threw it on the ground,” said Sam. “Can you believe that?”
“That made Rupert furious,” said Suzie. “The other guy took out his wallet and said, ‘What’s this going to cost me?’ and Rupert yelled, ‘Too late now!’ and grabbed the wallet and threw it far off into the trees. I mean, that thing must’ve flown a mile! Rupert could’ve been a great quarterback.”
“At that point, could you see the person Rupert was talking to?” asked Luke.
“No. We never did,” Sam said, shaking his head sadly. “You could cut the sense of danger with a knife at that point.”
“We knew we were in over our heads,” said Suzie.
“So what did you do?” asked Ben.
“We snuck back a few yards, then ran like the wind back to the inn. Next thing we know, Rupert’s being carried away in a body bag,” said Sam.
“We never saw the other guy’s face, but we know it was a man, based on his voice,” said Suzie. “Do you think the person Rupert was talking to was the killer?”
“Well, of course there’s a very good chance of that,” said Luke. “But since you didn’t actually see him pull a gun or anything, we can’t be certain. Someone else could’ve come out after that . . .”
“Did you happen to look up and see us in a balloon?” asked Alice. “Because I never saw the two of you down on the ground.”
“We didn’t see you,” said Suzie, shaking her head. “But we were pretty focused on what was happening on the ground.”
“We were incredibly stupid,” said Sam. “To think, we put ourselves in that kind of danger—all over wine.” He looked at Suzie and took her hand. “And you know what? We don’t need to steal anyone else’s formulas anyway. We’ll come up with our own brilliant wines. We never should’ve thought otherwise.”
Suzie leaned over and kissed her husband. “You’re absolutely right.”
After that, everyone enjoyed the meal and the sunset. A few hours later, they climbed into their shuttle back to the Emmerson Estate. The Youngs, who had driven over in their own car, waved goodbye and drove out of the parking lot ahead of them.
“So it wasn’t the Youngs,” said Owen, taking his seat.
“Nope, doesn’t look like it,” said Alice.
“My money’s on Forrest Sloan or Maximilian Emmerson,” said Franny.
“You know what I can’t stop thinking about?” said Alice, looking out the window as the shuttle moved down the road. “That flying wallet.”
Chapter 13
“Think about it,” said Alice as they disembarked from the shuttle back at the Emmerson Estate. “Rupert flung the killer’s wallet into the trees. Would the guy really have taken the time to go look for it—between shooting Rupert and burying him and running away before we got to the area? I mean, I know Luke, George, and I ran to the wrong set of vines, but we were within earshot of where they found Rupert’s body. Surely he didn’t hang around to look for his wallet for too long.”
“So maybe it’s still there,” said Owen, looking out over the vines.
“We need to go look,” said Franny.
“But it’s already dark,” said Ben. “We’re unlikely to find anything tonight.”
“I agree,” said Luke. “Maybe we should go out and check in the morning.”
“And give the killer time to sneak out there and find it before we do?” said Alice. “I think not. Owen, show them your flashlight.”
“The flashlight on your phone?” asked Ben, curiously looking over Owen’s shoulder as he took out his phone.
“Yes,” said Owen. “But not the flashlight that came with the phone. This,” he said snapping on a blinding white light, “is my Super-Bright Wilderness Emergency Signal app.” He cast the light around, illuminating the darkness. “Three bucks.”
“Impressive,” said Luke.
They ventured into the vines, now knowing exactly where they needed to go. They passed over the cell phone-reception rise, along the gravel path that ran between two different varieties of grapes, past the first giant rock—which Owen had dubbed “The Wrong Rock,” and toward the sets of vines that bumped up against the tree line.
“Owen! Douse the light! Fast!” said Luke, putting a hand on Owen’s shoulder. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.
Everyone froze. Voices could be heard up ahead in the distance.
“Someone’s very angry from the sound of it,” said Franny.
“And if my guess is right, they’re arguing right around the scene of the crime,” said Luke.
“For crying out loud! Can’t these people pick a new meeting place?” whispered Owen.
“Let’s get closer. But be careful,” warned Luke.
They all moved together in one clump. Owen had linked arms with Alice and Franny.
“I don’t like this,” Alice whispered. “A chill just ran up and down my spine.”
“Maybe we should call the police,” said Ben.
“There’s no reception here,” said Luke. “And by the time we get back to the rise, someone could be in trouble. Let’s go a little further and see if there’s any actual danger.”
They came to a row of tall bushes that separated one grouping of vines from another and ducked into the bushes. From there, they could see the two men standing in the moonlight.
“Forrest Sloan!” whispered Alice.
“And Maximillian Emmerson,” said Luke. “Listen. They’re talking about Rupert.”
