A Good Day for Chardonnay

by Darynda Jones

Her fingers tightened around her glass. “Someone a lot scarier than you.”

  “You just told me you hadn’t altered any other tests.”

  “I haven’t.” She stepped closer, pleading. “I swear to God, Sun. He just—I just do a couple of side jobs for him from time to time. Off the books. That’s all.”

  What kind of side jobs would a lab rat in forensics do? “Who?”

  Wetness gathered between her lashes. “If I tell you, I’ll be dead by morning.”

  “I can protect you.”

  She scoffed. “You can’t even protect yourself.”

  “Nancy, you’re putting me in a very bad position.”

  She put her glass down. “You do what you have to do, Sunshine.”

  One thing was for certain. She was going to have to look into Nancy’s situation further. But for now … “I want the analysis you falsified destroyed immediately.”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then you and I are going to talk.” Sun walked up to her and lowered her voice, hopefully hampering anyone who might be listening. “And just for the record, I can be scary, too.”

  Nancy nodded again, her hands twisting into knots.

  * * *

  Sun texted her parents to let them know she would be late getting to the hospital the next morning. Auri was getting out and she needed them there. They wanted to keep Cruz another couple of days, much to Auri’s distress.

  She stepped out of her cruiser into the blinding light of the New Mexico sun. She’d gotten exactly three seconds of sleep, which could explain her vampiric aversion to the bright orb in the sky.

  “What’s wrong?” Quincy asked her.

  “It’s daylight.”

  Quincy scanned the blue above them. “I believe this is the kind of daylight they call broad.”

  She ran through every scenario possible last night about why Levi kept the truth from her. The law enforcement officer in her came to one disturbing conclusion: he was in on it from the beginning. But if so, why? And what happened?

  He was just a kid, himself. Well, young anyway. He was only twenty when it happened. Had Kubrick tricked him into helping with the abduction somehow? If so, what event led to their falling out and subsequent fight to the death? And what in the bloody heck did Wynn have to do with any of it? Had he been involved as well? Was it a family affair?

  Her brain had swelled in her skull with all the questions rolling around in there. On a quest for answers, she and Quincy found themselves at the state pen in Santa Fe. The DA had pulled it off. He’d gotten Wynn Ravinder transferred to New Mexico, and he’d done it in record time.

  “I think I should go this one alone,” she said to Quince. “Wynn may talk more openly to me if you aren’t there.”

  “That’s what you get for thinking, boss.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t make me pull rank.”

  “Don’t make me pull hair. It’s not very manly but it’s effective.”

  They were shown to an office with stacks of files as tall as Quincy on the desk.

  “He just came in last night,” an intake specialist said, rifling through the items on his desk for a file. He found what he was looking for and sat at his computer.

  “Yes. Wynn Ravinder. He has quite the record.” He gave them a thorough inspection. “This must be really important to have gotten him transferred this fast,” he said, fishing.

  “It is,” she said, not biting.

  “I’ll have the sergeant bring him up.”

  She tugged at the collar of her uniform as they waited in a small room much like the one in Arizona, only New Mexico clearly didn’t have quite the money they did. The metal table had been painted about a hundred times, each layer showing a different shade of the same neutral colors.

  “Apple,” Wynn said when they brought him in. He eyed Quincy, then returned his attention to Sun. “You got my message.”

  “Nope. No message.”

  He seemed surprised. “Then why are you here so soon?”

  “Questions.”

  “Lots of questions,” Quincy added.

  Suspicion narrowed his lids. “That’s going to have to wait. You have to get to Ravinder.”

  She frowned. “You are Ravinder.”

  “I’m not the Ravinder. I’m not Levi.”

  She’d always found it fascinating how all the other Ravinders called Levi by their last name.

  “Did you get my message or not?”

  “No,” she said. The edge in his voice alarmed her, but she needed to stay focused. “Look, we got you transferred to get answers. It’s time to pay up.”

  “That can wait. You need to get to him immediately. I thought that was why you were here.”

  “I have a feeling you’re going to be getting a message soon, as well. From Nancy Danforth?” She stood and leaned over the table. “You lied.”

  “Nancy?” he asked. He sat back in his chair, his silence confirmation.

  “How did you get her to falsify the DNA test?”

  He licked his lips. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “And why? Why confess to a killing you didn’t do?”

  He worked his scruffy jaw in frustration. “I answer your questions, then you get to Ravinder?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine. Get rid of the hulk.”

  Sun turned to him.

  “This again?” Quincy asked. When she didn’t respond, he made a grand show of standing, his annoyance evident in every sharp move he made. He knocked on the door to be let out and exited with the same enthusiastic performance.

  After the door closed, she refocused on Wynn. “You confessed to a murder you didn’t commit.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “You didn’t do it,” she reiterated.

  “Doesn’t matter who did it, apple blossom. You get to solve the case. I go down for the killing. Everyone is happy.”

  “That’s not how the law works.”

  “Listen. Just because I didn’t kill Brick doesn’t mean I haven’t killed.” He leaned closer. “How did you figure it out?”

  “I remembered.”

  “Oh, son of a bitch. That must’ve sucked.”

  “You have no idea.” Her exhaustion, her devastation, was catching up to her. She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t want to play games anymore.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  She had to be honest with him. There was a part of Wynn Ravinder that was noble. She could tell by the way he reacted to her. He tried to put up a front, but for some reason a part of him truly cared for her. Now to find out how much sway that part had.

  She studied her hands, and said, “I’m in love with him.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and watched her.

  “I’ve been in love with him since I was a kid. I’m pretty sure my very first memory is of Levi Ravinder doing jumps on a Huffy. I think the fireworks bursting and sparkling around him were my imagination, but the rest was all him. And then last night, it all came back to me in a rush.” She blinked through the tears, unable to believe she was losing it like that in front of an inmate. “It was him.”

  “Finally,” he said, tilting his head to one side. “I thought you’d never show yourself.”

  “Wynn, why was he there? Why do you know so much about what happened that night?”

  He released a heavy sigh, resigned to telling her the truth. He put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands. “When I heard what Brick was up to, I was working a job in Colorado.”

  She sniffed, and asked, “Hitman?”

  “Close. Logger.”

  “Ah.”

  “It was over and done by the time I got to town. When I found him that night, he was delirious. Bleeding to death in his bed. Refusing to tell me what happened. Swearing he’d be fine. He just needed to sleep it off.” He chuckled softly.

  It took her a moment to realize he was talking about Levi. She stilled, hanging on his every word.

  “His sheets
were soaked with blood, and this was hours after he got you to the hospital.”

  His words crushed her and it took everything in her to maintain her composure. “Why didn’t he go to a hospital?”

  “Too many questions, apple. But I had no choice. I had to risk it. I wrapped him up the best I could and took him to an emergency room.”

  “But there were no stabbing victims admitted into any of the local hospitals.”

  “I drove him into Albuquerque. That was the biggest risk. I was scared shitless he was going to bleed to death on the way there. Took him to Southside. Admitted him under a false name. Then I whisked him out of there as soon as I could after surgery.”

  The image of Levi almost bleeding to death made her queasy.

  He saddened as he thought back. “He was in a bad way. Told me everything in his drugged state. Well, most everything.” He grinned up at her. “There were never any ropes, were there?”

  Her test. She shook her head. “No. Chains. I only remember chains. And possibly duct tape.”

  “Clever girl.”

  She shrugged. “Hardly. It took me fifteen years to figure this out.”

  “Brain injuries tend to do that. I went back and buried the body in a shallow grave, but I figure the animals got to him anyway.”

  “They did. Not all of him, of course. And the knife?”

  “I have it. Like I said.”

  “Are you going to tell me where?”

  “In due time.”

  “Was he—” She could hardly believe she was asking this. Did she really want the truth? “Was he a part of it?”

  The look he gave her was filled with almost as much sympathy as dubiousness. “You know the answer to that as well as I do.”

  “No, I know. I just thought maybe Kubrick had coerced him or forced him somehow.”

  “Apple, when have you ever known Levi Ravinder to be forced into anything he didn’t want to do?”

  “Then why not just tell me? After all these years, why keep it a secret?”

  “Who the hell knows?” He raked a hand through his shoulder-length blond hair. “Pride? Self-preservation?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “He could’ve died saving my life and I would never have known.”

  He studied her a long moment. “Do you have any idea what it would’ve done to him if you’d died?”

  His question surprised her.

  “He would’ve never gotten over it. He would not be the same man you see today. Besides, you helped.”

  “I helped what?”

  “You helped him win the fight that night.”

  The snort that escaped her expressed her feelings on the subject beautifully, but she elaborated anyway. “Wynn, I literally lay there and watched as Levi was stabbed over and over. I couldn’t have been more useless if I were made of hair gel.”

  “When Brick was abducting you, I guess he’d drugged you, but you fought back regardless. You bit his hand. That’s how Levi figured it out. He knew you were missing, saw Brick’s hand, and put two and two together. In a way, apple, you aided in your own rescue.”

  She remembered Brick’s yell when he was taking her from her truck. Blood on his hand. But she didn’t remember biting him. “I thought he hurt it on the truck somehow.”

  “You bit him. You clamped down so hard, you literally took a chunk out it. It weakened him. Made it possible for Levi to wrest the knife away.”

  “He told you that?”

  “He did. Again, he was high as a kite, but he rarely lies either way.”

  “Wait a minute,” she said, when it dawned on her. “All those confessions muddying the waters. That was you.”

  “A few, yeah. Not all. What can I say? The man is loved.”

  “The man is almost worshiped, truth be known. And why do you keep calling me apple?”

  He laughed softly. “You don’t remember? You stole apples out of my tree one summer. I chased your ass for a half a mile, at which point you turned and threw a half-eaten Granny Smith at me.”

  “That was you?”

  “God, you could run. I’ve called you apple blossom ever since. Just not to your face.”

  “When are you going to tell me where the knife is?”

  “When I see the girl.”

  Her lids slammed shut. She had put it off long enough. Time for the ten-thousand-dollar question. “Why do you want to see her?”

  “Because I’ve heard she looks like her grandmother.”

  Her lungs seized and turned to cement. “You aren’t talking about my mother, are you?”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled as he studied her. “She was a lot like you, apple. Strong. Beautiful. Fiercely protective of her family.”

  “You were in love with her.”

  “Body and soul.”

  She sobered with the knowledge that Wynn had been in love with his sister-in-law. With Levi’s mother. “You’re telling me Levi is Auri’s father.”

  “You know he is,” he said, his voice dripping with sympathy.

  She took a long moment to process his words. To let them and their implications sink in. “You just said he wasn’t a part of it.”

  “I don’t understand. What does your abduction have to do with Levi being Auri’s father?”

  “Because that’s when it happened. I woke up pregnant.”

  “You woke up with retrograde amnesia.”

  “True, but I’ve remembered a lot since then. Almost everything.”

  “Clearly, you haven’t. That could explain why Levi hasn’t told you the truth. Maybe he’s waiting for you to remember. And a little sad you haven’t. According to him, that night was everything. His word. One night you’re underneath him with skin as soft as an ocean breeze—again, his words—and the next you’re gone.”

  The emotion simmering beneath the surface bubbled up and boiled over. All these years, the answer was right in front of her. How did she not guess the truth? Was it denial? Or just sheer stupidity?

  She’d gone for so long believing she’d been violated. Raped by a monster. And she’d never wanted Auri to feel less-than because of it. Because of something beyond her control.

  “Does he know?” she asked, her chin trembling. “That he’s Auri’s father?” The words seemed foreign. Surreal. Before Wynn could answer, however, she did it for him. “Of course, he knows. He loves her so much.”

  “She’s yours, apple.” He reached up and brushed the wetness off her cheek. “He would love her either way.”

  That wrenched the sob building inside her chest right out of it. She didn’t care. Screw policy. Screw procedure. Screw the rules. She stood, walked around the table, and threw her arms around him. He’d stood as well, anticipating her break from reality, and hugged her right back. Astonishingly, he let her cry and slobber on him like a lost puppy and didn’t seem to care in the least.

  After another eon of emotional instability, she stood at arm’s length, and said, “Wait, what did you mean I have to get to Ravinder? What message were you talking about?”

  Humor sparkled in his eyes. “Oh, now you want to know?”

  A sheepish smile crept across her face. “Yes.”

  He waited a beat, looked down into her eyes, and said, “Clay is going to take him out.”

  30

  Celebrating the fact that you don’t

  have enough friends for an intervention?

  First drink is on the house!

  —SIGN AT THE ROADHOUSE BAR AND GRILL

  They sat at the table again, one on each side, genuine worry lining Wynn’s rugged face. “He’s working with a man named Redding.”

  She took out a notepad. “Yes. Del Sol’s former sheriff. How do you know these things from prison?” she asked, amazed.

  “Connections.”

  “Names?”

  “Not on your life.”

  “Okay then. Well, I’ve been aware of Clay and Redding for a while. They’re planning something.”

  Wynn nodded. “Clay wants the busi
ness Ravinder spent the last fifteen years building from the ground up. He brought our family out of the dark ages, and Clay can’t stand it.”

  “From what I hear, he also wants to be inducted into the Southern Mafia again.”

  “The Southern Mafia isn’t quite the well-oiled machine you might think it is. It’s basically a few pockets of the criminally clueless, and half of those are now beholden to crime families a little farther south.”

  “Tucson?”

  “Mexico,” he said with a smile. “Among others.”

  “Okay. But what does Redding hope to get out of it? What’s his endgame? Besides my badge.”

  “Your badge?” he asked, surprised.

  “Yes. He very much wants this badge back.”

  A darkness came over him at the thought. “That would make trafficking easier.”

  “So, for his influence as an officer of the law? To make it easier to move drugs?”

  “Maybe. I’ll have to look into it.”

  “And Nancy Danforth?”

  “Hey,” he said, showing his palms, “she came to me.”

  “Really?” Sun said, doubt in every drawn-out syllable.

  “I’m not quite the evil ne’er-do-well you imagine me to be, apple.”

  She kind of believed him. Kind of. And Nancy always was a bit of a sheep. “Someone else is pulling her strings. Someone powerful. She’s afraid of him.”

  “Who?”

  “I’d love the answer to that as well.” She closed her notepad. “You look into Redding. I’ll look into Danforth. Does Levi know he’s in danger?”

  “That kid.” He stood and checked out his reflection in the observation mirror. Smoothed his blond goatee. “Still thinks he’s invincible. You just need to buy me some time. A week. Two at the most.”

  “What does that mean? How am I going to buy you time?”

  “Get him into hiding. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  She stood and walked to him. “Wynn, I can’t condone violence, even for a good cause.”

  He turned to her. “And you don’t have to, apple. I’ll get you the evidence to arrest Clay on the spot. I just need two weeks to do it. In the meantime, you have to get my nephew to safety.”

  “And just how am I going to do that? You know he’s not just going to lay low because I ask him to.”