“He told her that he would talk to you. She wants a prenuptial agreement signed.”
“Oh, no. No. I’m sorry, but first off, where does your mother get off asking for that, and what is the big deal if she has no stake in any of this anyway once she’s bought out? Does she hate me that much?”
Simon didn’t reply.
“Stupid question. Of course she hates me that much. Huh. In fact, she might hate me so much that she could have wanted me dead.”
“No, Nikki. I’ll admit my mother is as cuckoo as ‘one flew over the nest’ cuckoo, but she’s not a killer. I just can’t believe that.”
“Really? I can.” She shut the car door and headed to the back entrance of the winery, angry and frustrated. Why hadn’t Derek discussed any of this with her? Was he seriously contemplating asking her to sign a prenup now? That just went against her grain, and not because she was afraid of divorce but because, to her, a prenup was a precursor that said that the possibility was there, and frankly, once married, she wouldn’t even allow that possibility. Maybe she was old-fashioned. Maybe she was ridiculous, but those were her feelings and beliefs and she was sticking to them.
She located the cases of wine that Simon had promised Max and went into the office to sign them out in order to keep their inventory straight. Alyssa was busy inputting orders. “Hi,” Nikki said.
“Hey. How are you?”
“I’m hanging in there. How about you? The other day wasn’t easy on any of us.”
“Good, but yeah it was really scary when Simon went down. It was surreal,” Alyssa replied. “I was happy to see Jonah come home.”
“I’m sure.”
Nikki pulled up a chair. Simon could wait; he was in the air-conditioned car after all. “Maybe you can help me with something.”
“I can try. What’s up?”
“I thought that maybe you could help me compose a theory because of your psychology courses.”
Alyssa crossed her arms and leaned forward in her chair. “I’m no psychologist yet, but like I said, I can try.”
Nikki explained to her about the notes and how the killer had signed the notes.
Alyssa thought for a moment. “It’s interesting. If I had to guess from what I know, I would say you’re dealing with someone who possibly has an identity problem or has suffered a setback in regards to their identity. Maybe something happened that caused him or her to shake the perception of who they thought they were.”
Nikki thought about what Simon had said about his spirit guide. As hokey as it was, Alyssa’s points ran along the same lines as “what looks clear isn’t always, and what is clear to the eye may not be as clear as it seems.” A puzzle within itself.
“Taking it a little further though, gods and Greek mythology represent power. Right? It’s possible that this person feels powerless and out of control by their shaken identity so they cling to the god persona to compensate for their perceived inadequacy. In this case, you’re talking about two gods and a goddess, and each one of them is dark. It’s not as if you’re dealing with someone who calls himself Venus.”
“Would you say then that he or she is now perceiving themselves as these three gods? That they have actually attached to the idea that they are doom, deceit, and death?”
“Exactly. You know how overly confident people, people with huge egos, go around talking about all that they do and accomplish, but on the inside they’re very little? The substance isn’t there at all. They tend to act authoritative and controlling when, in reality, it’s a defense mechanism. It’s a way to take on an identity as well as a certain set of skills. It gives this person a justification to kill.”
“Yoo-hoo, Tink?”
“Simon,” Nikki said, smiling at Alyssa. “I left him in the car. We’re in here,” she yelled out of the office.
“I don’t have all day, Tink,” he said peering into the office.
“Tink?” Alyssa asked, amused.
“Don’t ask,” Nikki replied.
“Can we get that vino and hop to?” he asked. He leaned over Alyssa and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Hi, doll. You look smashing as always.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes at him and looked at Nikki. “I know why you hang out with him. I look like hell—no makeup, T-shirt, and jeans—not exactly model material.”
“You could wear a bag and look divine,” Simon said. “Now Tink here . . .”
“Watch it. I might accidentally bump into that bad arm,” Nikki said. “Come on, let’s get the wine.”
Alyssa helped Nikki carry the wine out, with Simon barking orders at the two of them on how to do it correctly. Of course they ignored him.
“Thanks for your input,” Nikki told her. “I’m going to think about what you said and see if I can come up with anything.”
“Anytime. I’m looking forward to seeing whoever did this in jail. Poor Kenny.”
Nikki nodded and got into the car, pondering who might be just enough of a control freak or egomaniac to have pulled this off. She had some ideas.
Thirty-three
DRIVING out of the winery, Nikki spotted Zach and Tristan taking a walk. She stopped and rolled down the window. “Hi, guys. How are you?”
Tristan mustered a smile. “Taking a walk. It’s beautiful out. My wife is sleeping in, and Zach was having lunch on the patio, so I asked him to join me.”
Zach nodded. “How are you? Things okay? I know this has got to be really difficult on you.”
“Things are okay. We’ll get through this. We really appreciate you hanging around until Detective Robinson has a chance to clear everyone,” Nikki said.
“Of course,” Zach said. “Hey, Simon, how about you? How’s the arm?”
“Hurts. But I’m alive. Thanks for asking,” Simon replied.
“We have a delivery to make, so enjoy your walk. I think Derek is probably in the tasting room.”
“We need to go see him then,” Tristan said. “Take care.”
Nikki pulled away. “It’s after noon, and Savannah is still in bed? Not surprising after the way she tied one on last night at my place. She’s an interesting one. You kind of knew these guys, at least through your brother, what do you know about Zach’s wife?”
“Nancy?”
“Yes. I guess they’re getting a divorce.” Nikki turned the car back onto the highway.
Simon laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“It just doesn’t surprise me at all.”
“Really? Why?”
“Nancy was nice enough I guess, but just sort of crazy.”
“Crazy how?”
“Oh, you know, Tink.”
Nikki waved a finger at him. “No, I don’t know.”
“She was always an obsessive type, a little controlling. Artsy-fartsy chick, so the OCD crap really didn’t make sense to me, but any time I was around those guys, she was a cling-on to Zach. He’d try to relax, hang out, but she wasn’t having any of it. She was always around. Never gave the guy any space.”
“Really? Savannah gave me a different picture. She made it sound like Nancy left Zach because he was a workaholic and didn’t pay any attention to her.”
“Maybe he didn’t after being forced to for so many years. I’m just telling you what I remember of Nancy, and she was insanely jealous of Zach and his friends.”
“What about Derek?” Nikki asked.
“What about him?”
“Savannah indicated that Nancy had a thing for Derek. That all of the women did back in college. However, Lily contradicted that statement,” Nikki said.
“I would tend to listen to Lily. Now there’s a gal with a head on her shoulders. I don’t think Nancy had anything for my brother. I know Savannah did because we talked about that, and Savannah had a thing for anyone with a certain, uh, appendage, shall we say.”
“Ooh.”
“Yeah. Anyhoo, Lily, on the other hand, I always thought had a little crush on my big bro.”
“No,” Nikki said, g
lancing at Simon who arched his eyebrows. “Really?”
“I think so, but that is obviously so over. They have a slew of kids now and Jackson is a good guy.”
Nikki parked in front of Maximilian’s. “Here we are at the hair designer extraordinaire.”
“Thank you, Tink.” He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
“Sure, Peter Pan. At your service.”
“Oh, I like that. I do. You are on to something there. I’ll run on ahead and let him know we’re here while you get out the wine.”
“You do that.” Nikki carried in each case one at a time. Twelve bottles of wine certainly wasn’t a light load. When finished, she spotted Simon seated in Max’s chair getting a haircut, bleaching his already white blond hair, and sipping champagne. “Simon,” Nikki said walking over to him, “what’s going on?”
“I see her intellect hasn’t changed since our last encounter.” Max tossed his hand around in the air, scissors waving. “But she is a divine looking creature. Really, darling, who does your hair?” He laughed.
“Funny.” Nikki eyed Simon who smiled.
“Tea, coffee, champagne?” Max asked.
“No, thank you. Simon!”
“I needed a touch-up. The roots are growing back.”
Nikki huffed, “Impossible. I’ll go sit down and wait.”
Stewing at Simon, Nikki took a seat at the front of the salon. She thumbed mindlessly through a couple of magazines. She picked up one titled CA. It was a new magazine all about the happenings and goings on in California with a focus on the glitz and glamorous.
While reading through it, she hit a section on socialites. Her stomach sank and her breath caught when she spotted a picture of Patrice and Adonis. The caption beneath it read, “Mother and son at opening for Hypnos Club in Hollywood? No! That’s Patrice Malveaux of the Malveaux Wines Dynasty and her much younger new husband, Greek god Adonis Diodorus. Hmmm . . . wonder what he might be after?” Nikki couldn’t help snickering. Wow. Whoever had written that caption hadn’t been too kind to Patrice. Whatever. The woman deserved it, trying to call all the shots. Nikki flipped to the front of the magazine and about dropped it when she read who the editor as well as the publisher for it was. None other than Kenny.
Thirty-four
“SO Kenny knew Patrice and Adonis. Well, he didn’t know them per se,” Nikki said. She was seated across from Derek at the wine bar having a glass of Merlot and eating a beef tip salad. They were waiting for Simon and Marco to bring Violet by. They planned to take her for a walk and head down to the house. They had finally had a chance to meet up after the crazy day. “But he knew of them and look what he or his writer wrote. Did you know he published this magazine?” Nikki asked.
Derek set down his wine and took a look at the magazine. “I knew he was starting some new ventures. He did mention the CA magazine because he said that he wanted to talk to us about doing something with the Malveaux Winery and possibly the wedding in the ‘Happenings’ page.”
“Well, he got Patrice and Adonis in the ‘Happenings’ page, and I can only imagine her reaction upon seeing it.”
He shook his head. “Yeah. I’m sure she wasn’t too thrilled with this, if she even saw it.”
Nikki took a sip of her wine. “Of course she saw it. I’m sure she did. Do you know what this means? It means that Patrice, who we know has no love for me and wouldn’t likely think twice if I was six feet under, could have a reason to want Kenny dead. It’s why she came back here and brought her thug with her. What do we know about this guy? Look, it makes sense. He’s Greek. They met at a Greek mythology class. He’s strong enough to hit Kenny over the head and drag him into the tank. Plus, Patrice would have known to tell him to put on the mask before dragging Kenny in there. She had to have thrown a fit when she saw this.” She pointed at the photo. “Plus the notes are all signed with the names of gods of fate. Weird. And I talked to Alyssa about that whole thing with the gods of fate. She says it’s likely someone with some control and ego issues. That fits Patrice to a tee.”
“You could have something, but I have a question.”
“What?”
“Why would this Adonis be so forthright in telling you that he and Patrice had met at a Greek mythology course? Doesn’t that seem strange? If they were the ones sending us those messages, that’s a tip-off.”
“Not all criminals are smart, honey. In fact, most aren’t. Most screw up somewhere. I have a feeling that Adonis is simply a trophy for Patrice.”
“You’re right there, I’m sure. I don’t know, though.”
Nikki took a bite of her salad. “What about you? This morning you left me that note about checking into a hunch. What was your hunch?”
“Oh, nothing. It didn’t pan out anyway.”
“Well what was it?”
“I was just trying to make some connection between you and Kenny. The only connection is me, so I was trying to figure out who might have some type of vendetta against me.”
“Okay. And did you?”
“Not really.”
“Must be nice not to have any enemies.” Nikki laughed. “Lord knows I have plenty.”
“I’m sure I have them. I do think your ideas about Patrice and Adonis are good. Did you tell Jonah about them yet?”
“No. He was supposed to stop by the house so we could talk, but I haven’t seen him. I left him a message when I was stuck at that salon with Simon.”
“He came by. I was there.”
“Oh. Good.”
“He said that he was going to get some photos that you said Renee Rothschild had taken from the wedding. I didn’t know where they were, so I told him you’d be in touch. When did this all come about? How is it that Renee was taking pictures of you at our wedding?”
Nikki clucked her tongue, and gave him the need to know information that Renee had taken the photos and that Nikki had gone to see her that morning and now she’d flown the coop.
“Interesting. How long did you know about the pictures?”
“Oh, I had them for a day.” She reached across the bar and poured herself another glass of wine and refilled his glass.
“We talked about all of this last night in bed. Why didn’t you mention it to me?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe because she was an ex-girlfriend.”
“Nikki, we’re questioning friends of mine that I’ve had since college. I think I could get over the fact that you might have some suspicions about Renee.”
“Right.” She smiled.
“What are you hiding from me?”
“Nothing. I’m not.”
Simon and Marco walked up, saving the day for Nikki. “Hi, love bugs. Here’s our doll baby.”
“Thank you for taking care of her. We are going into town for some dinner, but we won’t be late.” Marco handed Violet over to Nikki and kissed both of her cheeks.
“Hair!” Violet shrieked and then laughed.
“Yes, baby, my hair is all gone,” Nikki said.
“Did we interrupt something?” Simon asked eyeing Derek.
“No. Nikki was just telling me about the photos that Renee Rothschild had.”
“Oh, yeah. Thank God Andrés gave them to Nikki, otherwise we’d never have known about that. Good thing the guy still has it bad for Tink. Those photos might lead us to the killer.”
Nikki shot Simon a look that could kill. Simon frowned, realizing what he’d done.
Derek looked at Nikki. “Andrés?”
She closed her eyes. “Yes.”
Asian Beef Tip Salad
with Bonterra Merlot
That Simon can’t keep his mouth shut if his life depends on it. Nikki’s in a pickle now. Probably won’t be able to eat for a while with all of this upsetting and stressful turmoil. Good thing she’d shared that Asian beef tip salad with Derek and had a glass of Merlot, before Simon opened up the flood gates.
This recipe is tasty, easy and makes an excellent summer dinner meal. Pair
it with Bonterra’s Merlot and it’s a match made in heaven, or at least by the gods of fate—the nice ones that is . . .
Biodynamic Merlot from Bonterra’s estate McNab Ranch comprises a little more than a third of this vintage blend, with good representation from dependable Mendocino vineyards. McNab exists deep in a valley that’s a bit off the beaten path, and it was first certified for biodynamic farming by the Demeter Association in 1996. The vines in many blocks are relatively young, in loamy soils that are well drained. Averaging 800 feet in elevation, most blocks are high enough to experience the wonder of a Mendocino day, where temperature swings can vary by 50 degrees. Rootstocks vary by block, and Merlot clones 3 and 181 dominant, providing a real focus to the wine. Fruit from this ranch makes it easy to defend the notion that organic farming makes for better tasting wines. Bonterra’s blend for the vintage layers Merlot with Zinfandel and touches of Syrah and Petite bringing complexity and a slight smoked herb aroma to the wine. The heritage of Bordeaux is evident here. Aromas of black plums and dark cherries alongside cranberry, and cola spice adds to the somewhat old-world style. Medium full, even a bit creamy in the mouth, the evident ripeness of the fruit is somewhat restrained, leading to an unexpected elegant style.
1 head of red leaf lettuce
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
½ red pepper, thinly sliced
½ green pepper, thinly sliced
½ small container (or more) of grape tomatoes, cut
in half
1 pickling cucumber, peel on, chopped
1 big handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lb beef tenderloin tips
Season the beef tips generously with salt and pepper, and either grill or cook in a skillet over med-high heat until medium rare.
Mix vegetables together with the beef and then toss with dressing (recipe below.)
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves chopped garlic
A Toast to Murder Page 16
