Dying on the Vine

by Marla Cooper

  “And so you think it’s okay to go snooping into my private life?”

  “Well, you were pretty angry when I told you about the contracts—”

  “Can you blame me?” he sputtered.

  “I’m truly sorry, Mr. Bennett. Of course I don’t think you killed Babs.” The jury was still out on that one, but placating him seemed like my best option while he was standing in front of me with an expression on his face that looked like a combination of a coronary incident and homicidal rage. “I was just using the board to think things through. I make lists. It’s what I do.”

  “Well, put this on your list: I may have been sleeping with Babs, but I never would have hurt her.”

  “Then why did you fire her?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

  Mr. Bennett seemed to deflate as he sank back against the doorframe. “Yvonne was starting to suspect. Too many late-night ‘planning meetings,’” he said, using air quotes around the last two words. “She insisted that I fire Babs immediately if I wanted to save our marriage, and unfortunately, our prenup has a fidelity clause that was going to cost me a ton.”

  “So you just fired Babs? What about Haley and Christopher?”

  “They don’t know anything about this. I made sure Babs got a big fat check that was way less than my alimony payments would have been, and I figured the wedding would take care of itself. I mean, she’d planned everything already, right?”

  “Well, I mean…” I bit my tongue to keep from explaining the wedding planner’s role beyond the initial planning, as it seemed like the least of our worries in that moment. Maybe I’d send him a few links to some helpful articles from The Knot later.

  “Anyway,” he said, “that’s the whole story. Babs and I parted on good terms.”

  It seemed reasonable. And yet … “What about Stefan?” I asked. Laurel and Brody exchanged uncomfortable glances as I delved further into the questioning that I had sworn I wasn’t going to do. Of course, I hadn’t planned on any of this, but I was emboldened by the fact that we outnumbered him.

  Mr. Bennett’s eyes narrowed to slits. “What about him?”

  “The last time I saw you, you were furious with him, and now he’s lying in a hospital bed. I’m sorry, I have to ask.”

  “If it was my fault?”

  I gulped and nodded. “I mean, you did have plenty of motive to go after him.”

  Mr. Bennett leaned in until his face was close enough for me to smell his aftershave. “No more motive than you had.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  He stared at me intently. “I wasn’t the only one who was upset that he canceled those contracts. You must have been really angry that he sabotaged a wedding you were working on.”

  “Oh, please,” I said, my tone implying a little more eye roll than I’d intended.

  “And then with your history…”

  “What history?” I asked, my voice going into a higher octave.

  “Word gets around, Miss McKenna. I heard that he very publicly accused you of murdering Babs Norton.” He paused for a moment, sizing me up. “Of course I assumed it was all bluster, but now I have to ask myself—”

  “No!” I said. “You don’t have to ask yourself anything, because I had nothing to do with it. What reason could I possibly have had?”

  “Professional jealousy? Who knows? But now that Stefan’s in the hospital, it certainly lends credence to his accusations. You’d better hope he makes it.”

  “Now wait a minute,” Brody said, holding both arms up. “Kelsey didn’t hurt anyone.”

  “How do you know?” Mr. Bennett asked.

  “Because I know her,” Brody said. “Now I’d appreciate it if you could take a step back.” I was glad Brody had kept up his gym membership, because Mr. Bennett relinquished a little bit of my personal space back to me.

  Bennett wasn’t done, though. “When Stefan was found in the wine cave, I was in Toronto on business. Where were you, Kelsey?”

  “I was working!” I put my hands on my hips in a show of defiance.

  “Where? Oh, that’s right! At the wine cave!” Spittle flew from his lips as he exaggerated his words for effect.

  Wait, did he really think I’d had anything to do with what had happened to Babs and Stefan? I was going to have to turn this meeting around, and fast. I put on my most soothing tone, the one I use with hysterical brides when it’s time for them to breathe into a paper bag. “Mr. Bennett, I promise you, I was only there doing my job. In fact, I was the one who found Stefan in the cave and called the ambulance. Now, look, I know we’ve all been under a lot of stress, so why don’t we focus on the wedding?”

  He crossed his arms in front of him and looked me up and down. “You know, I’m meeting with one of the detectives later, because they have some questions for me. Luckily, I have documentation that I was in another country, so it’s just a formality. In fact, I was afraid I wouldn’t be of much help to them, but now…”

  Brody stepped between us, physically separating us this time. “Why don’t we all take a deep breath and go sit in the front office where it’s more comfortable?”

  “There’s no need,” Mr. Bennett said, taking a check out of his pocket. He ripped it in half, then tore the remnants into several smaller pieces to make his point, tossing them in the air in an angry rain of confetti. “We’re through here.”

  CHAPTER 28

  The front door slammed.

  “Coffee, anyone?” Laurel asked, holding out the latte she’d made for our departed guest. Despite her calm tone, her hands were shaking.

  I shook my head. “I’ve got so much adrenaline pumping through my veins, I might not need any for days.”

  I knelt and picked up a couple of pieces of ripped-up paper, then decided to make it official and sank all the way down onto the hardwood floors. I leaned my head back against a cabinet door. “Well, our week just got a little less busy.”

  “Kelsey, I’m so sorry about the murder board,” Laurel said. “I was thinking about it all night after you called and told me what happened, and I guess I was just excited to update it. But I swear I closed the door behind me.”

  “I’m sorry I even gave you the damn thing.” Brody looked at me with concern. “You going to be okay?”

  “I think so,” I said as I finished picking the rest of the scraps of paper as well as myself up off the floor. “Mostly I feel really bad for Haley and Christopher being out a wedding planner—again.”

  Laurel nodded solemnly. “First Babs, now us.”

  “In the meantime, I’d better go call Lucas and tell him to expect an angry phone call.” I tossed the ripped-up check into the trash. “Thanks for coming over.”

  “I’m glad I was here,” Brody said. “I thought I was going to get to use all that kung fu training I got back in fifth grade.”

  I laughed at the image. “You have a bright future as a security guard if that whole photography thing doesn’t work out.”

  “All right,” he said. We walked back down the hall to the front office and he packed up his bag. “Call me if you need me.”

  “You know I will.” We hugged goodbye, and he gently pulled the door shut behind him on his way out.

  I dreaded telling Lucas that I’d been relieved of my duties on the Bennett-Riegert wedding. Should I try to explain or just keep my mouth shut? There was still the matter of the other weddings we said we’d help with, but I was worried that we’d suddenly find ourselves uninvited. Maybe “worried” wasn’t the word for it; after all, we’d only agreed to do them as a favor. Besides, with Miles being one of the most prominent entries on my murder board, maybe it would be wise to walk away.

  The only problem with that plan was that my professional pride wouldn’t let me.

  I dialed Lucas’ number but didn’t get an answer, so I quickly hung up before it went to voice mail rather than babbling some poorly thought-out soliloquy. Then I felt silly and dialed him back, leaving a short and sweet, “Th
is is Kelsey. Call me back.”

  I just hoped I’d catch him before he talked to Mr. Bennett.

  When Lucas finally did call me back, I was right at that point in the day between “I just had lunch” and “I need a nap.” I’d stepped out to get some fresh air and found myself standing in line at Blue Bottle Coffee, because it was the kind of occasion when only coffee made by somebody else would do. The line was long, as usual, and I’d already been waiting seven or eight minutes when I felt the buzz from my back pocket.

  We said our hellos and I jumped right in. “I just wanted to update you on, um…” I glanced around furtively to make sure the bearded dude in front of me and the girl in ironic knee socks behind me weren’t listening.

  “No need. I talked to Stanley already.” Lucas’s office chair squeaked loudly in the background, and I could picture him sitting at his desk.

  Great. “So he told you…?” I hated to use the word “fired,” but it was apt.

  “He did. In fact, he said you accused him of murdering Babs Norton.”

  I tried to keep my voice low as I abandoned my place in line and stepped outside. “No! It wasn’t like that! He came into the office and he went to wash his hands and—”

  “Kelsey, that’s really serious.” If his face matched his voice, he was furrowing his eyebrows into a disappointed expression.

  I mentally counted to ten before I spoke. Okay, it was probably only five, but at least I paused. “I didn’t accuse him; I just suspected him. And I had my reasons.”

  “Well, you can’t just go around making outrageous statements like that. It’s a bad reflection on all of us.”

  A bad reflection? I was a bad reflection? After Stanley Bennett and Babs had besmirched both the institution of marriage and the entire wedding-planning profession? I did my best to stay calm, but I wasn’t going to take the fall for Mr. Bennett’s behavior. “I didn’t say anything to him.”

  “Then how did he know you suspected him?”

  I didn’t want to have to explain why I had a murder board in our spare office, so I steered the conversation in a different direction. “I don’t suppose he mentioned that he and Babs were having an affair, did he?”

  A pause. “No, but that doesn’t seem like it should be any of your concern.”

  “It’s not just that! He acted like he didn’t know her! Then, after what happened to Stefan in the wine cave—”

  “That was an accident.” His abrupt tone signaled that I was crossing a line. I would have to proceed with caution.

  “I’m sure it was. It’s just, he was really angry with Stefan, and I thought—well, it seemed like maybe there was more to it.”

  Lucas didn’t jump right in with assurances that he understood, but he did seem to soften his tone ever so slightly. “The only saving grace is that they brought you in on their own and we weren’t the ones who recommended you. So as far as Mr. Bennett is concerned, you’re just some nut his daughter hired.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “I’m not saying I agree. I’m just saying that as far as he’s concerned, it’s no reflection on us.”

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  “But if you’re going to be working here, I need to know that I can trust you in front of our clients.”

  I was tempted to say that as long as their clients weren’t psycho, lying cheaters it wouldn’t be a problem, but I didn’t think that would be a good way to prove my trustworthiness.

  “I’m sorry. You can trust me. This was a unique situation.”

  “Apology accepted,” he said. “But in the future, it would be best if you focus on your work and leave the investigating up to the police.”

  I almost gave Lucas a rude gesture and told him he could focus on this, but I figured over the phone the message would get lost. Instead, I swallowed my pride and apologized again. After all, he was only looking out for the winery’s best interests. And maybe I had overstepped a little bit.

  After we hung up, I went back inside and took my place at the end of the line, trying not to grumble out loud about the fact that the girl with the knee socks was walking away from the counter with her coffee. I did grumble silently, though, about the call with Lucas.

  I couldn’t believe he wasn’t more interested in finding out what happened. I mean, he’d lost his main wedding planner under suspicious circumstances, and then another one was injured on their property, which could open them up to a lawsuit. From where I was sitting, I was the least of their worries.

  Twenty minutes later, I finally got my pour-over and pulled up a chair at one of the café tables outside. It was one of those rare spring days in San Francisco when the sky is blue and the temperature is just right, and it seemed a shame to be stuck indoors. There’d be plenty of time for that come summer when thick fog blanketed the city and you couldn’t go outside without a jacket.

  Poor Haley. What was she going to do? I knew what I needed to do, and that was call her and apologize. I pulled up her contact info and dialed her number.

  “Hey, Kelsey,” Haley said on the other end of the line. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I had to let her know I was sorry for what had gone down with her dad.

  “Hi there. I just wanted to call and—well, say I’m sorry, I guess.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. Would she accept my apology? Would she be mad that I’d put her dad on the murder board?

  “Sorry,” she said. “What for?”

  I smacked my head in a perfectly executed facepalm. She didn’t know yet. “Um, have you talked to your dad recently?”

  “No, he left me a voice mail, but I haven’t listened to it. I wish I could talk him into texting when he needs something. Why? What’s up?”

  I took a deep breath. “Your dad came by the office earlier, and there was a little misunderstanding, and well, he let us go.”

  “He what?!” She covered the phone and said something to someone on her end, then came back on the line. “Kelsey, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m so sorry. I just assumed he would have—well, anyway, I won’t be able to help you with your wedding.”

  “I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.…” She tried to keep her tone light and breezy, but I could hear the desperation in her voice.

  “No, he seemed pretty clear about it.”

  “Hold on a second, okay? I want to listen to his message. I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

  Massaging my temples, I waited while she put me on hold. After a few moments, she was back. “So, yeah,” she said, resignation heavy in her voice. Whatever her dad had said in the message, it seemed like my interpretation of his ripped-up check and storming out of our office was, in fact, accurate.

  “But can I ask—what happened?”

  My brain went through a quick slide show that included the murder board, the rose-strewn bathtubs at the Willows, and Mr. Bennett’s face, livid with rage.

  “Creative differences?”

  “Come on, Kelsey, I know my dad, and I know he has a temper. First he fired Babs out of nowhere, and now you. What gives?”

  I paused. There was no way to explain it that didn’t make things worse. “Look, Haley, you’re going to have to talk to your dad about it, okay?”

  “All right,” she said with a doleful voice that didn’t sound very all right to me.

  “And I’m really, really sorry. I really wanted to be there on your big day.”

  There was a pause. “Maybe I could get him to change his mind!” she said, her voice bright and hopeful.

  “I don’t think so,” I said gently. “He didn’t seem open to suggestions.”

  Haley sighed into the phone. “I can’t believe he’d do this to me. Twice! I know we’ll probably get through it okay, but this was supposed to be his present to us. A big, fancy wedding that we didn’t even really want, just to impress all his friends, but it was okay, he said, because we wouldn’t have to lift a finger. ‘Just show up and enjoy!’ he said. Well,
fat chance of that happening now.”

  The despondent tone in her voice was killing me. “Look, I’ll do whatever I can to help you. I can send you the names of a couple of wedding planners who might be able to help out!”

  “It’s too late to start over with someone new.”

  “Not necessarily. We’ll find you someone who can pull it off, and I’ll make sure they have everything they need so that it goes perfectly.”

  “I guess that would work,” she said, a tremor in her voice.

  “I’ll make it work. I owe you that much.”

  “But if you change your mind…”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s not my mind that needs changing.” There was silence on the other end of the line. “Listen, I have to run. You hang in there, okay?”

  “Okay. Thanks for everything. And I’m sorry about my—well, I’m just sorry, that’s all.”

  Poor Haley and Christopher. This whole thing had gotten out of hand. Now I really wished I could go back in time and do it all over again. I wouldn’t have been so quick to suspect Mr. Bennett. I would have minded my own business—although, to be fair, Stefan had made it my business. I wouldn’t have been so worried about what Babs would think that I took her those damned pastries. Heck, I wouldn’t have even said yes to doing this wedding in the first place, because now Haley and Christopher were no better off than they were before.

  But I’d just had to be a helper, had to try to fix everything for everybody, and look where we’d ended up.

  Haley was without a planner, Stefan was in the hospital, and I was a police suspect.

  Oh, yeah, and there was still a murderer on the loose.

  CHAPTER 29

  The next morning, I arrived at work early—even though Haley’s dad had abruptly taken my most urgent assignment off my plate. “The gift of time,” as one of my former employers used to call it.

  First stop? Erase the murder board before it could cause any more problems. As much as I love a good organizational tool, it was time to release it back into the wild—or at least into our meeting room, where it could go on to a productive second career as a seating-chart planner.