by Diana DuMont
“Sorry, boy. I would give you something if I had it. But you know I’ve been running around the last few days and haven’t baked anything. I promise I’ll give you some pie tomorrow.”
With a long sigh, Sprinkles flopped on the ground by my feet, resigned to his pie-less fate.
I sat down and looked around at the group seated at the table with me. Scott and Molly looked eager, while Todd looked slightly skeptical. I couldn’t blame him. I was asking a lot of him by asking him to trust me. Then again, he was asking a lot of me by expecting me to trust him. We were both just going to have to deal with the uncertainties we felt and press forward.
“Does anyone have a suggestion on where we should start?” I began. “As I told you all on the phone, Theo asked me to prove his innocence. He swears to me that he didn’t commit the murder, and I’m inclined to believe him. But that leaves us at a complete dead end. If he’s innocent, and Josie’s innocent as Mitch seems to think now, then who killed Caitlin?”
Molly frowned as she lifted her wine glass to her face. “Look, you know that I’m not one to point fingers at Theo. But things aren’t looking good for him. The emails do implicate his winery. Besides, remember that he was meeting with the mayor? We still haven’t figured out what that was all about. I hate to say it, but is it possible it was him? I mean, I hope it’s not. But we have to explore all angles here.”
I had almost forgotten about the meeting with the mayor at this point. I’d become so convinced of Theo’s innocence before he was arrested that I hadn’t thought about it for a while. It certainly hadn’t been on my mind when I’d been about to kiss Theo under the orange tree. I blushed at the thought, and looked down at my wine glass in hopes that no one else would notice my cheeks turning pink. I took a deep breath to steady my emotions, and considered whether I thought a meeting with the mayor played into this at all.
“I did think that meeting was strange at the time I saw it,” I said. “But now I have to think that it wasn’t anything shady. After all, Mitch was part of that meeting, too. If they were meeting about something related to the murder, or to stealing the city’s money, then Mitch would have already known Theo was involved. Why would he suddenly arrest him today? And why would he look completely shell shocked while arresting him? It was like he’d never expected this in a million years.”
Scott shrugged. “Maybe Theo had been trying to buy Mitch into the scheme to protect himself. Mitch could have refused, and that’s how he knew about Theo’s guilt.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t really make sense either. I’m telling you, Mitch really looked blindsided by Theo’s guilt when he made the arrest. If he did know beforehand, and wasn’t going to join Theo in some sort of pilfering scheme, then why would he have waited so long to arrest him?”
Scott shrugged again. “You’ve got me there. This whole thing is so confusing. I’m not really sure how to solve this.”
“We should focus on what we do know,” Todd said, speaking up for the first time. “Rehashing dead clues is only going to waste time and frustrate us all.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
“Well,” Todd said. “We do know that an employee at the tasting room was involved. Or at least it’s very likely. It seems that whoever committed Caitlin’s murder had paid off an employee to be involved and to somehow give her poisoned wine. Perhaps we should see if we can figure out which employee seems suspicious, and then work backwards from there.”
This seemed like as good a plan as any to me. “Okay. Let’s do that then. All of us here have been to the tasting room before. Can anyone remember off the top of their head whether any of the employees seemed especially suspicious?”
We all thought for a few moments, but in the end no one could remember seeing anything that struck them as out of the ordinary.
“Well then,” I said. “I guess we’ll have to figure out a way to investigate the tasting room employees further.” I turned to look at Todd. “Todd, didn’t you say that you had a lot more photos of the tasting room from the day Caitlin died?”
“Yeah, I’ve got hundreds more photos. When I was trying to put together evidence, I only printed out the ones with Caitlin in them. But there are a lot more. The day we visited the winery, I was trying to take photos of every aspect of the tasting room. I figured it would be good to have some photos of what the place looked like if we did publish an article about it.”
I nodded. “Okay, good. Why don’t we all look through the digital files together? Maybe if we review everything, there will be something in one of those photos that gives us a clue. Maybe an employee in the background doing something that looks suspicious?”
Everyone agreed, and we reviewed photos for the next two hours. We went through three bottles of wine and about a thousand photos, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The photos showed scenes that seemed typical for any tasting room in wine country. There were employees passing out wine and smiling at customers. There were some photos of the historical wall, which showed the pictures of the winery’s history. I saw the familiar photo that Violet had pointed out to me of her and Theo’s father, the elder Mr. Russo.
“Man, they were both lookers back in their day, huh?” I commented as I pointed to the photo of the old photograph.
Molly laughed. “Yeah, from what I hear, old Mr. Russo had as many girls chasing after him in his day as Theo does now. But when Mr. Russo’s wife died not long after Theo was born, he never remarried. He was heartbroken over her loss. I’ve heard that he dated around a little bit, because everyone pressured him to move on. He even dated Violet for a bit. But in the end, no one could ever replace his first wife, and he decided not to try. He poured his whole life into the winery and into Theo.”
I shook my head sadly as I looked down at the picture. “He looks like a nice guy. It’s too bad he had to go through so much sadness. I bet he would’ve made a good husband if he had remarried.”
“Yeah,” Scott said. “But maybe if he had remarried his winery wouldn’t have been so successful. He really poured his heart and soul into it. What a legacy he left for Theo.”
I chuckled. “Now you sound like Violet. Every time I talk to her, she’s ranting about Mr. Russo and the legacy he left behind. I think she still might not be completely over him.”
Molly laughed. “I think you’re right. It was a little ridiculous that she thought she was going to get him anyway. She was fifteen years older than him. Seems like a bit of a stretch when there were so many younger women chasing after him. But she was tenacious, and she did get him to date her for a while. Never could seal the deal though.”
“Sometimes she acts like she’s still trying to seal it,” Scott said with a roll of his eyes. “Look at how many of these photos she’s in. She’s always down at that tasting room. She spends the majority of her free time there, like she expects Mr. Russo to come back from the dead, waltz in, and see that she’s been waiting for him all these years. It’s a wonder her liver hasn’t failed with all the wine she drinks.”
“She does seem to be there more often than not,” I agreed. I decided not to rehash the fact that she’d accused Josie of putting something in Caitlin’s drink that day. No one seemed to think that shaky old Violet was a reliable witness, but I wondered if she’d seen anything else that day that might be helpful. I didn’t think anyone had interviewed her too seriously. The cops were all afraid of setting off her anxiety, so they went way too light on the questions with her.
I wondered if somehow I could get her to talk. Maybe I could lure her to my pie shop and ply her with chocolate pie to get her to spill the beans on anything else she might have seen. If anyone could tell us about the employees, it would be Violet. But I didn’t want to mention in front of Todd the idea of talking to her. He was still angry at her for her role in implicating Josie, so I tucked away the idea of talking to Violet. Maybe later I would talk to her on my own, if the four of us here couldn’t manage to figure anything out.
&nb
sp; We reviewed photos for about fifteen more minutes, but all that remained were pictures of smiling customers, and then outdoor pictures of the grapevines. I finally admitted defeat and sank back into my chair.
“I think we should call it a night. I’m exhausted, and there doesn’t seem to be anything here.”
“I hate to say that I agree with you,” Molly said. “But what are our next steps? Since there’s nothing helpful in the photos here, what do we do?”
“What if we all head down to the tasting room together?” Scott asked. “We could spend a couple hours there tomorrow evening, having a tasting and observing the employees. Maybe if we’re all there looking around together, something will spark an idea on what might’ve happened.”
We all agreed that it was as good an idea as any, so I cleaned up our wine glasses and we all headed home. But I couldn’t keep myself from feeling like a bit of a failure. I had known better than to expect to find a blazingly obvious clue in Todd’s photos. Still, I had hoped. How could I not hope? The image of Theo’s pleading eyes in that interrogation room had embedded itself deep in my mind.
I had to find a way to help him. Our group’s little rendezvous at the tasting room tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I would have loved nothing more than to spend the entire next day playing detective. But I’d already had the pie shop closed more days than open since my grand opening, and I figured I should probably make an effort at having a normal day of business.
Besides, Molly and Scott couldn’t meet me at the tasting room until the afternoon, so any investigating I did in the morning would have to have been done on my own, or with just Todd. I wasn’t interested in spending a bunch of alone time with Todd, and I figured it was better to wait until we could all get together, anyway.
I closed down the pie shop as quickly as I could that afternoon, not even bothering to finish cleaning up all the dishes. I figured I’d come back later or come in extra early in the morning. That wasn’t my usual style, but I just couldn’t wait to get down to the winery and start investigating. I knew it wasn’t likely that one of the tasting room employees would jump out as the guilty party who’d been helping to steal money from the city and kill off Caitlin, but a girl could hope, right? Maybe there would at least be a clue that would point me in the right direction.
When I got to the winery, I left Sprinkles outside in the shade with a pile of dog treats and his favorite chew toy. He gave me a wounded look, but I shook my head at him.
“You know I’d bring you in if I could, but it’s against the rules. Bark if you need anything, but you should be busy for a while with those treats.”
When I went inside, Todd was already there. He was sitting at the far right side of the tasting room with several small wine glasses in front of him. It looked like he’d already had a full tasting, because all but one of the glasses was empty. I rushed over to him.
“Hey, I hope you haven’t been waiting long,” I said, and then gestured to his tasting glasses. “Why didn’t you just order a full glass?”
Todd shrugged. “I’ve been here about an hour. I don’t have much to do in this town other than investigate Caitlin’s murder, so I decided to come on down here and see if I could get a head start on observing the staff. But all I’ve observed so far is that they’re jerks who let some customers order wine by the glass and not others.”
As he spoke, he gestured toward the other end of the bar. I followed his gaze, and saw to my surprise that Violet and Grams were sitting on the other end of the bar, both with large, full glasses of wine in front of them. My eyes widened. I had been so focused on Todd when I walked in that I hadn’t seen them. They must not have seen me, either. Their backs were turned toward me, and they looked like they were lost in some sort of deep discussion.
“Oh, don’t take it personally. That’s Violet, and she practically owns a barstool here. The employees make an exception for her, but only her. And that other woman is actually my grandma. I don’t know what she’s doing here, but I better go say hello. I’ll be right back.”
Todd made a face. “Your grandma hangs out with the crazy old lady who ran into Caitlin’s body after she fell over dead in the street?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Violet’s not my favorite person either, but Grams is forcing me to be nice to her. She says it’s been hard on the old woman to go through this whole ordeal, and that it’s making her anxiety act up. Don’t worry, I’ll be right back. I just have to say hello. If I don’t, Grams will bring Violet over here to say hello. Would you rather that?”
Todd made another face. “I guess not. But hurry. I’m anxious to start working on this murder case.”
“I’ll be quick,” I promised, and then made my way down to the other end of the room.
As I approached Grams and Violet, Grams’ face lit up. Violet gave me a nasty glare, but I smiled sweetly at her just to irritate her.
“Izzy!” Grams said. “What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t even see you walk in. Why don’t you pull up a stool and join us? I had no idea you were coming out today.”
She glanced at her watch, a slight look of concern creasing her features. “As a matter fact, shouldn’t you still be at the pie shop?”
“I closed a bit early today. I had plans to meet friends here, and the last hour at the pie shop is usually pretty slow anyway.”
The scowl on Violet’s face deepened. “You’re meeting friends here? Is that Todd guy your friend?”
Violet and Grams both looked over at Todd, and I glanced back at him as well. He gave a small wave when he saw us looking at him, and Grams and I both waved back. Violet did not.
“Why are you associating with the likes of him?” Violet hissed. Then she turned to Grams. “I swear, Agnes. You know I love you dearly, and we’ve been through thick and thin together. I don’t mean to question your granddaughter’s senses, but you must admit that that young man isn’t the best choice of company. He’s likely in on Caitlin’s murder, even if he himself didn’t actually put the poison in Caitlin’s drink.” She turned to look at me. “Izzy, really. You shouldn’t be associating with him. He’s dangerous and has bad morals.”
I looked at Grams for support, but she only shrugged at me as if to say “What can you do? Violet is Violet, and she’s always a little crazy.”
So I turned to Violet myself. I would have really gone off on her if Grams hadn’t been there. But Grams’ earlier admonitions to take it easy on Violet were still ringing in my ears, so I restrained myself as much as I could.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’ll associate with whomever I choose. Besides, haven’t you heard? Theo has been arrested. Mitch himself made the arrest, and Theo has been charged with the murder. I highly doubt that Todd was colluding with Theo, so if it’s true that Theo committed the murder, then Todd is probably innocent.” I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly.
Violet’s face paled, which surprised me. Had she really not heard about Theo’s arrest yet? It had been the hottest gossip in town today. But from Violet’s reaction, it was almost as though she hadn’t known.
When she did speak, however, she was nodding her head slowly. Her hands and her voice both shook. “I know. I heard. And it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! There’s no way Theo committed that murder. Didn’t anyone listen to me when I said I saw Josie putting something in Caitlin’s drink? It’s like no one cares about real evidence anymore! Besides, if Theo did do something wrong, it’s only because he was heartbroken over his mother’s death, and didn’t have a good womanly influence in his life. His father did not raise him to be a thief, and he especially didn’t raise him to be a murderer. My guess is that Josie and Todd worked together to kill Caitlin, and now they’re trying to pass the blame off on Theo.”
I said nothing as Violet ranted, which seemed to irritate her. She continued ranting in an even higher-pitched voice.
“Such a sad state of things! If Mitch would o
nly believe me, and see the truth of things, then Theo wouldn’t have been arrested. Why would someone crunch up a pill and put it in someone’s drink behind their back like Josie did, unless they were doing something wrong? This whole thing is a setup, I tell you! Josie and Todd are just trying to get away with murder!”
Violet’s shaking was growing worse with every passing second, and Grams was giving me a warning look. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and instead made my way back to my seat without another word to Violet. I wanted to give Grams an earful about how she wasn’t really helping Violet by letting the woman continue to avoid the truth of the matter. Theo had been arrested, and while I didn’t think he was guilty, I didn’t think that shouting about Josie and Todd was going to help things much. Violet should take her own advice to me and stay out of this investigation altogether.
Todd raised an eyebrow as I once again sat down beside him. “What was that all about?”
I shook my head. “Nothing exciting. Just Violet being her usual crazy self. She gets on my nerves so much, but my grandma is friends with her and forces me to be nice to her.”
Todd chewed on his lower lip and looked over at Violet. I wondered what he was thinking. I wondered if it was possible that Josie had poisoned Caitlin’s drink after all. Sure, she hadn’t had any poison in that pill bottle I stole from her. But as far as I knew Mitch hadn’t completed a search of her hotel room yet. What if there was poison in there? What if she’d had poison on her, but had gotten rid of it all because she knew she might be searched? Could I still completely discount the Josie theory? Maybe, for the time being, I should tell Mitch that I wanted to press charges against her, just so that she’d be forced to stay in jail. All of the suspicion seemed to have been taken off of her now that Theo had been accused. But if Theo was innocent, I couldn’t completely write off the possibility that Josie might still be guilty.
I didn’t exactly want to voice all of this to Todd. He was convinced of Josie’s innocence, and all I would do by implying that Josie might be guilty was make Todd angry. I didn’t want to make Todd angry right now, so I kept my mouth shut. I needed his help. He might have clues in his photographs still, or he might be able to see something in the tasting room employees that I would miss. I decided for the moment to keep the focus on Violet and her craziness, and not mention Josie.
