Corked by Cabernet (29 page)

“I know. I know. I hope I don’t scare him.” She pointed to Petie, who was totally absorbed with his toys.” Nikki had seen herself in the mirror and it wasn’t a pretty sight. There was a nice purple and black bruise under her eye on her right cheek and a small cut near her chin. She did look worse than she felt.

Ollie lay down at their feet, evidently exhausted after the five-minute walk.

“You won’t. I’m sorry I had to bring Petie today. Kathy at the day care center is sick, and so is her helper. I’m hoping he doesn’t catch it.”

“Me, too. You don’t have to be sorry that you brought him in. He’s always welcome here. I can take him down to my place and watch him. I’m lying low today,” Nikki said.

“I couldn’t do that to you. You need to rest.”

“I’m fine. It looks a lot worse than it is. Really. I’d love to have his company. Derek will be back tonight, and after yesterday, I want to catch up on some housework and take it easy. I know he loves
Thomas the Tank Engine
. I have all those DVDs for him at our house. I bought them to bribe you to let me have him for a few hours at a time.” She laughed. “Come on. Let me take him. I’ll make him some lunch. Oh, by the way, have you seen the Sansi family at all? I’d like to tell them good-bye.”

“They went into Yountville, except for Rich Higgins. He asked me for directions into the city because he said that he had a meeting and would be back this afternoon to head out with Hayden and her family. It’s good news about everything. I talked to Jonah, I mean Detective Robinson . . .” She blushed. “He said that he thinks he has the killers in custody. He’s working on proving it now. That must make you feel better. Jonah is a good guy. He’s worried about you, like we all are. He said something today about having security at your house.”

“I have it. His name is Ollie and he weighs as much as I do. Trust me, with him around, I feel safe. But if you’re nervous about me watching Petie after what happened . . .” She glanced down at the dog. “Or you’re worried about Ollie . . .”

“No. Not at all. I know Ollie is on it. He wouldn’t let anyone through the door who shouldn’t be there, and as far as Petie around the dog, I’ve seen how good Ollie is with him. I’m worried about you is all. I don’t want you to overdo.”

“I won’t. Promise.”

“Okay, then. If you’re sure. He’s all yours. But instead of walking back, why don’t you let me drive you down to the house. The kid comes with practically an entire bedroom.” She laughed.

“You don’t mind him riding in the back, do you?” Nikki asked, pointing to Ollie.

“No.” She waved a hand. “Not at all. Hey, you didn’t just come up here to see if you could play babysitter. You didn’t even know he was here with me,” Alyssa said.

“True, but I’m happy about that. I actually did come up for another reason. I was thinking about something. When Mr. Yamimoto checked in the other day, you processed that, right?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Did he have anything put in the safe? I’m actually helping out Robinson.”

Alyssa’s eyes grew wide.

“Yeah, I know, probably against my better judgment. And don’t tell him that I told you, even though it sounds like he’s been filling you in on some things, too.”

“Sort of. I asked about the job and he was kind of telling me what he could, but he didn’t mention you were helping him.”

“I figured. But I’ve been wracking my brain all morning and I know I’m missing something. I don’t think that Ruben Pearlman committed the murders. Maybe Juan Gonzales. Maybe. Since you checked Yamimoto in, I thought I’d ask and see if he had any special requests that seemed strange. I don’t know.” Nikki tossed her hands up. “Or did he place anything in the safe?”

Alyssa shook her head. “No. It was a normal check-in process. I thought it kind of strange that his wife, well, his girlfriend or whoever she was, stood back and didn’t speak. I thought it was a cultural thing. Maybe she was supposed to do that. Wait a minute. There is something about her, the girlfriend.”

“What?”

“You know what? Edna said something about her to me.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. She mentioned that the lady—in room twenty-three—brought down a large envelope and there was only one word printed on the front and it read SAFE, so Edna put it in the safe for her.”

“Dammit.”

“What?”

“Let’s get it out. I asked Edna myself if she’d met the woman or seen her, and she said no. But she obviously had.” Nikki shook her head. “I’m worried about Edna. Did you know that last week she locked herself out of her house, or thought she had? She didn’t remember that she kept a key under a potted plant near the front door. She mentioned to me that it might be time for her to leave the job.”

Alyssa scooped up Petie and they walked back to the safe. She glanced behind her. “I hope not, but I understand if she does.” Alyssa passed Petie to Nikki as she twisted the combo on the safe. “That’s so sad.”

“I know, but I’m not sure what to do. I’ll talk to Derek and see if we can figure something out. We should also talk to her family. She has to have some family close by.”

Alyssa nodded and opened the safe. Petie tugged at the ends of Nikki’s hair. “Hair,” he kept repeating.

Alyssa pulled out the envelope and pried Petie’s fingers from Nikki’s hair. “Here, I’ll hold him while you open it.”

Nikki tore open the envelope as they walked back to the front desk. She dumped the contents onto the desk. There it was—the elusive DVD.

“WHAT do you think is on that?” Alyssa asked as they drove the two minutes from the hotel back down to Nikki’s place.

“I don’t know. But whatever it is, it was important to Iwao or Mizuki. My guess is that it could have some answers that neither Robinson nor I have been able to find.”

“You’re really into helping him, huh?”

Did Nikki sense some jealousy? “No one wants Malveaux to be associated in any way with murder and I think he knows that I kind of keep tabs on things here. I’m always listening. You like him, don’t you?” Nikki noticed her shift a little in her seat. Petie was in the back, patting Ollie on the head and laughing.

“I do. I think I could like this guy a lot. He’s different, but not in a bad way, and he’s been through a lot of stuff, which makes me think he can understand what I’m going through and what Petie is going through.”

“Please be careful, though.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m not going to jump into anything. You know that my first priority is my son and his health. But I have to say that Jonah is fine to look at, so if he wants to take me to dinner every so often, you know, to get to know me a little better, I don’t think I’ll protest.” She smiled.

“And I would agree with that. All of it. You need to get out and he is a good guy.” Nikki wondered if Robinson had told Alyssa about his wife and child yet. Maybe the perfect match had been made between them. Robinson could definitely understand heartache and pain. He would be good for Alyssa and she would be good for him.

They pulled up in front of Nikki’s place. Alyssa carried a tired Petie inside for Nikki. Ollie followed them into the house.

“Hey, this is good timing. I can get some work done up at the hotel. I think he’s going to go to sleep. Where should I put him?”

Nikki had his big bag. “Do you have blankets in here?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, let’s put him in the guest room. There’s nothing he can get into in there if he wakes up. It’s pretty sterile.” Nikki pulled out Petie’s blankies and put them down on the carpet. Alyssa laid him down and spread some more blankets on top of him. He started to protest, but Alyssa kept rubbing his back and shushing him.

A moment later, Nikki took over while Alyssa quietly slipped out. Rubbing the baby’s back and watching him sleep were as close as Nikki had come to bliss in a long time. Petie’s face looked so sweet and innocent—completely serene. She couldn’t fathom what this child had already been through in his young life and what he had yet to face, or what his mother was facing with him. A sense of protection came over her, watching him, and she wished she could give him her own heart.

After what the doctor had told her last night, and being here with Petie, Nikki knew that, without a doubt, she wanted to be a mother. To live here in the ranch house, help grow grapes, make wine, and have children with Derek. There couldn’t be a better life. Domestication at its finest.

Thinking about being a wife and mother, she remembered the laundry that needed folding out in the garage. She also had to watch that DVD. She reluctantly lifted herself up and headed out to the garage, where she thought she’d fold all the clothes while watching whatever was on the DVD. The clothes had sat in the dryer too long and had wrinkled up quite a bit. She decided to run them through the dryer for another few minutes and went back in the house, where she first peered in on a sleeping Petie, then grabbed a water and sat down to watch what Mizuki had found important enough to stow away in the safe.

What Nikki saw caught her off guard. She thought the DVD Iwao had tried to hand over to Alan had something to do with Sierra. But it didn’t.

It did, however, have everything to do with his other daughter—Hayden. Nikki now understood why he kept insisting Alan watch it. If he had, she doubted that Hayden Sansi would be getting married anytime soon. Especially to Rich Higgins.

WHY wasn’t Robinson answering his phone? Nikki paced back and forth. He had the wrong men in his interrogation room. This was her third attempt to reach him in the last ten minutes, and she was getting desperate. Ollie stood and followed her, whining away. He knew she was troubled. Instead of letting the poor animal remain stressed out, she got him a doggie bone from the kitchen and then went out to the garage to call Robinson again. She didn’t need Ollie waking up Petie. And this way she could kill two birds with one stone and take the clothes out of the dryer as she called.

She sighed with relief when she heard Robinson’s voice. “Where have you been?”

“Nikki? You sound like my wife. If I had one. I was interviewing Gonzales again. I think he might crack. Why? What’s up?”

“Neither Gonzales nor Pearlman did this. But I know who did and why.”

“You do?”

“Yes. It’s Rich Higgins.”

“The publisher? Hayden Sansi’s fiancé?”

“Yes. It is and I have evidence here.” She went into her bedroom and took the note out of her nightstand drawer. She’d put it there after getting back from her run. It all made sense now. She reread it to herself while Robinson was on the other end of the phone.
Keep the party for yourself this time. I’m done dealing with you.

“I’m walking to my car as we speak. Start filling me in.”

“Okay. Remember how I brought up this DVD thing with you a few times? How the first day of the program, I saw Alan and Iwao arguing and that Iwao was trying to get him to take the DVD, and he refused?”

“Yes. I remember. The only DVD we ever found in any of Iwao or Mizuki’s things was the soap opera she had.”

“Right. There was another one. I knew there had to be. I have it, and on it are meetings between Iwao and Rich Higgins. On the outside of the DVD there are three dates written—the dates of the meetings. The first is right after his mother died. It’s in Iwao Yamimoto’s office, I think. It must be Japan, and I’m sure from the way the footage is shot that Higgins had no idea he was on camera.”

“Keep it coming.”

Nikki could hear his keys jangling.

“In it they’re talking about Yamimoto buying out Inspiritus and making it a subsidiary of his publishing house, VisionScope, which is located in Canada.”

“What does this have to do with the murders, Sands?”

“Just listen. I’m getting there. The first meeting goes nice and everything is kosher between them, kind of setting the stage for things to come. Then about three months later, Higgins is back in Yamimoto’s office. In this one, Higgins is raising the bar on how much he wants Iwao to pay for the company, and Iwao is saying that he wants Higgins to convince Alan Sansi to do worldwide major events. And to promote VisionScope. Higgins tells him that Alan would never do that. He’s not into commercialism at all. Mind you that Hayden and Higgins have been engaged at this point for a few months. I asked Hayden on the hike the other day how long they’d been engaged. She said almost a year. All of this took place last year. Higgins then tells Iwao he wants out. He says he can’t sell because of pressure the family will put on him and the loyalty Alan felt toward his mother. He tells him that he’s had second thoughts. So, Iwao ups the ante and offers him another three million dollars on top of the twenty million he’d already offered him.”