Corked by Cabernet (14 page)

Everyone made it to the turnaround point, and fortunately, it had turned out to be an amazing day—clear and crisp, which helped on the hike, keeping everyone from getting overheated. Nikki had been concerned about Ruben Pearlman on the hike up. He’d appeared pretty out of shape.

At the turnaround, waiting for everyone was a picnic lunch that a catering company had prepared. They’d brought the food up ahead of the hikers and a group of waiters were now handing out the lunches to them.

While Nikki planted herself on a boulder and ate a veggie sandwich, Hayden moved and gravitated toward her fiancé, Rich. Now there was a man Nikki needed to talk to. Really she needed to talk to all of them, but what if she could get ahold of those applications each of them had filled out? Could be worthwhile. She had to figure out how to do it. She could go straight to Robinson and tell him about them. He’d get a search warrant or whatever they needed to collect classified material. Were those applications even classified? It wasn’t as if Alan Sansi was a psychiatrist or doctor of some sort. There had to be a way and she’d find it.

Hayden Sansi had filled her with tons of food for fodder, from the Sierra-Jen-Iwao connection and the way Iwao manipulated his way into this group, to information about Rich and his mother and Inspiritus. But the coup was the applications. There were answers there. Nikki knew there had to be. There were lots of answers she’d already learned. The problem was figuring how to fit them into the questions and put it all together. Once she accomplished that, the last piece would appear—the one that revealed to her who had murdered Iwao Yamimoto.

WHEN the group made it back to the winery at about two o’clock, they were all given an hour break before the afternoon “dream board” session would begin. Nikki wasn’t quite sure what this dream board session consisted of, but Simon and Marco were excited about it.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s where we put our wants and desires in every aspect of our lives onto a poster board, frame it, and there you have it. The universe grabs hold and everything you put out there manifests itself in its own way,” Simon said, walking with Nikki toward the hotel, where she wanted to check on things with Alyssa.

Marco had gone ahead to make sure the room where the dream board thing was supposed to take place was set up properly.

“Sounds great. But guess what I need you to manifest? A killer. You two lovebirds were too busy sharing each other’s dreams and visions to chat with the suspects while on that hike, and that was not our deal.”

“Hush your mouth, Snow White. While you were busy digging deep into everyone’s life, and not for the reasons we’re here for—”

“Uh-uh-uh. Let me correct you there, my friend. You may be here for other reasons, but not me.”

“As I was saying.” He crossed his arms and kept walking. “You didn’t notice that I had a little talk with Juan Gonzales and he is an interesting guy.”

“Really? Look at you. Good boy.” She had not noticed Simon talking with Juan, but she’d been wrapped up, first with Ruben and then Hayden. “What did you find out?”

“That Juan produces low-budget movies and usually makes them down in Mexico. Foreign film stuff.”

“That is kind of interesting.” Nikki remembered that Jen Sansi and Sierra met on a movie set, and that Sierra’s father was the one to help her get involved in that. Was there a connection between any of them and Juan, and if so, what?

“You think that is good. Check this. Juan and Iwao did a movie together, set in Japan. One of those kung-fu types. Juan still distributes the DVD. He said that it didn’t do too well in the States, but in Mexico and Japan it’s done a decent job.”

“Now we’re talking,” Nikki said. “This is good stuff. You’re right.”

Simon clucked his tongue. “I know.”

Nikki had to think all of this through, but there were streams of connections here with some of these people and they were outside of the S.E.E. group themselves and she couldn’t help thinking those connections were what might have gotten Iwao killed.

“What else did you find out from him?” Nikki asked.

“What more do you want?”

“Like how did the business go down between Iwao and Juan? Were they still on good terms before, you know . . .”

Simon sliced his finger across his neck.

“Yes, before Iwao was murdered. Do you have to be so crass?”

“I’m not crass, Snow White. I’m honest, and that’s what we all should be.”

No comment.

“I’m sorry but that’s all I’ve got. It’s not so easy to drag personal info out of people, you know.”

Nikki never seemed to have that problem. “You’re getting the knack of it, though. Good for you. Okay, keep snooping. I appreciate the work, Watson.”

“You’re high, Sherlock.”

“I wish,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows. She socked him in the shoulder. “Not really. Stay the course.” She touched the side of his right eye. “Keep on the lookout.” Then she touched his ear. “And keep on listening. I have a question for you.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“The application process that you went through to become a S.E.E. member—can you tell me a little bit about that?”

“You thinking of joining us?”

“No. But I do know that Hayden Sansi keeps all of those applications and even has them on hand here at the workshop.”

“How do you know that and what are you thinking?” Simon asked.

“She told me herself. I’m thinking that there could be some answers in those applications.”

“How do you figure? You don’t think someone is going to write in their application, ‘I have a tendency to think homicidal thoughts and may act on them.’”

“Of course not. But a lot of times when you read between the lines, you can see some issues standing out. What did the applications consist of?”

“We answered a ton of questions about why we wanted to be involved, our background, all of that. Each answer we filled in was almost a page, sometimes more.”

Nikki nodded. “That’s what I’m talking about. Have to get ahold of those applications and see if I can find a clue of sorts.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I’m not sure.” She shook her head. “This is one of those things I’ll have to think on. Right now, I have to see how Alyssa is doing, holding down the fort, and I really should try and get ahold of your brother.”

“Oh boy, I wouldn’t want to have that conversation.”

“I’m not exactly looking forward to it myself.”

“Good luck. I’m going to go prop up my feet and relax a little before I start dreaming some more. I think I’ll go rest my weary head on one of the tables in the spa, maybe get one of the girls to rub my temples. It’s hard work being a snoop. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Yeah, you better go and get those temples rubbed,” she replied. Where did he come from? But she loved him all the same. She couldn’t imagine life without him getting on every last one of her nerves.

 

 

NIKKI was surprised not to find Alyssa at the front desk, and the reception phone hooked up to one ring on the voicemail. Something was wrong. Alyssa never took off. She was one of the most responsible people she knew. Her sixth sense kicked in. She dialed Alyssa’s cell phone number and it also went immediately to voicemail. What was going on? While Nikki was pacing back and forth, trying to think of what to do, the phone rang. She picked up immediately before it could go to voicemail.

“Malveaux Spa and Winery. How may I help you?”

“Nikki?”

It was Alyssa. “Oh my gosh, where are you? I’m at the front desk and you’re not here. Is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry. I had to go. It’s Petie. We’re at the hospital.”

NIKKI sat next to Alyssa in the treatment room inside the hospital, holding her hand and watching Petie get a cast wrapped around his arm while a nurse demonstrated talking Elmo for the tyke. Thank God he’d only broken his arm. When Nikki had heard the words “hospital” and “Petie,” she’d thought the worst. But the little guy had apparently been playing on the jungle gym when another toddler decided to be malicious, as toddlers can be, and pushed him off. That toddler had been punished with a time-out, but Nikki would still like to bend him over her knee. Petie wound up landing wrong and making a clean break in his arm. However, with his condition, he needed to be monitored and looked after with a bit more care than the average child.

“Thank you for coming. I’m sorry I had to take off suddenly and leave the hotel.”

“Please don’t be sorry. He comes first. The hotel is fine. You know that. Most of the guests were with us anyway, and those who weren’t would have found help if they needed it. I’m just happy Petie is going to be okay. How are you?” Nikki realized that this had to be stressful for Alyssa, even though there was relief that her child was not hurt worse than he was. Alyssa and this baby had been through more than enough, and any hiccup along the way had to be hard to deal with.

“I’m okay. I really am. Look at him. He’s so precious.”

Petie was laughing his head off at Elmo, while the doctor wrapped the cast. “Yes he is.”

“How about you? How are you with all the craziness at the hotel? I haven’t even talked to you about last night’s murder. I heard about it this morning from one of the members. He brought down a suitcase that didn’t belong to him, he said. I forgot about it with all of this. I stored it in the back room.”

“Oh. That shouldn’t be a problem. Did anyone else come down and claim it?”

Alyssa shook her head. “No.”

“Who brought it down?” Nikki asked.

“Cute guy. I don’t know, maybe thirty, in good shape. Dark hair, on the tall side, and lean build. Nice guy, kind of weird, though, because he wouldn’t look me in the eyes, and that always gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

Nikki figured Alyssa was talking about Kurt Kensington. She’d checked him in yesterday and noticed the same thing. He was either busy fiddling with his hands, looking down, or looking away. “Well, do you know who the suitcase belongs to?”

“He didn’t say. After he left, I pulled back the cover on the plastic info card and it read IWAO YAMIMOTO.”

Nikki sat up ramrod straight. “Yamimoto? You sure?”

“Don’t think I’d forget a name like that.”

“Iwao Yamimoto was the man who was murdered last night.”

“Oh. I didn’t know. Oh, my God!” Alyssa replied.

The doctor looked up at them.

Nikki lowered her voice. “Yeah. I think that must have been Kurt Kensington, one of the S.E.E. members, who brought down the suitcase. What I want to know is, why did he have Iwao’s suitcase and why did he only bring it down this morning?”

BY the time Nikki made it back to the winery, the dream board session was in full force inside the meeting room. Round tables had been brought into the room, which already contained sofas, a fireplace, and books that served as the winery’s library. It was the oldest room besides the mansion on the property and was the room that the rest of the hotel had been built around. Derek and Simon’s dad had built this separate room outside of his home so he could boast about having a private library. He’d had it constructed in that same Italian style that the now surrounding hotel and spa had been done in and it used to double as a party room.