Of Merlot & Murder (A Tangled Vines Mystery) (19 page)

“No. I never got the chance.”

“You understand this all gives you a stellar motive for killing the
woman, right?” Jackson asked. “Can you give me a decent
…
confirmable
…
alibi, Monique? Or do I add opportunity to your résumé?”

She gave him a very pretty pout, but he continued to glower at her.
Finally she relented. “Oh, all right. Philippe and I went to dinner at a friend’s home in Smithville Friday night. We were there from six-thirty until almost eleven.”

“Yes. Philippe mentioned that you had a dinner meeting with your lawyer.” It wasn’t exactly what the man had said, but Jackson thought he’d do a little more bluffing and see what popped up. And by the look on her face, he was doing just fine. “Does Alain have any idea what you and his brother are up to?”

“I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, come on, darlin’.” Jackson folded his arms, leaned down on the table, and gave her a conspiring wink. “Philippe already gave us the bare bones of the plan. Though I have to say, I’m a bit surprised that Alain’s own brother would be involved with something like this, aren’t you, Jim?”

“Downright shocked. Poor Alain won’t know what hit him.”

Monique narrowed her eyes and gave the deputy a look that Jackson was sure would wither a lesser man. “Bah! Poor Alain, indeed. He doesn’t care about me or the vineyard. All he wants is to go back to France.” She turned back to Jackson, a pleading tone in
her voice. “Philippe loves me and wants to help me make something
of importance here. We can be happy together as soon as I can get a divorce.”

“And, of course, steal the vineyard away from Alain,” Jim added.

That seemed to be the last straw for Monique, and she gave them both a mutinous stare. “I have nothing more to say. I will have Philippe give you the name and number of my lawyer. You can call him for confirmation.”

nineteen

It was after four
when Elise finally finished up her day and left the greenhouse for the main residence. She’d heard rather than
seen Ross come home a while ago, but since her lunch date with C.C., her burning need to tell Ross about her morning chat with Toby
had waned. It could wait until later. Besides, she was more interested in what her grandmother was planning for Monday night dinner.

She hadn’t heard from Jackson, but that didn’t mean much. He was buried in the two recent homicide cases, and probably up to his eyeballs in work. When she’d tried his cell earlier, she’d gotten his voicemail and left a message. He’d call her back when he came up for air.

In the meantime, a girl’s gotta eat. And if I waited on Jackson Landry, I’d no doubt starve.

“Hey, Gram,” she said as she came through the back door and found Abigail leaning on the counter, writing out what looked to be a grocery list.

Abigail looked up and smiled. “Well, hello, sweet girl. You knocking off for the day?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Elise set her purse down on the counter and leaned in from the opposite side. “Got a few more of the hybrids in the ground today. Put them out in the south quadrant where we planted that last batch. I think they’re gonna do real well there. The first group has already just about doubled in size.”

“That’s good news,” Abigail replied absently and continued to work on her list.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“I’m out of a few things that I need for dinner, so I thought I’d make out a list and head into the H-E-B.” Abigail looked up and speared her with a suspicious glance. “Why?”

Elise laughed. “I was just wondering what you were cookin’ up for dinner.” She batted her eyelashes innocently. “And if you might be makin’ enough for company.”

At her grandmother’s hopeful look, Elise realized she was thinking about Jackson and what had happened at dinner the previous evening. Elise went on quickly to clarify. “Jax is probably gonna be late, and I didn’t really feel like going home and cooking something for just me.”

As Abigail’s disappointment was evident, Elise reached out and laid a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry, Gram. He may have his nose out of joint for the moment, but you know Jax won’t stay away for long. After last night’s debacle, he just needs some space.”

Her grandmother patted her hand and nodded. “Oh, I know, honey-pie. I just hate the way he left, is all. I tell you, I love his parents dearly, I do, but they’ve never really had much time for that boy. Bein’ so caught up in their diggin’ for artifacts and the like. He may not be our blood kin, but he’s still kin all the same. It just breaks my heart to think that he might be doubting that right now.”

“No matter what he says, deep down he knows that,” Elise replied, then wiggled her eyebrows to lighten the mood. “Now, about that dinner
…
”

Abigail chuckled and shook her head. “Of course you can stay. Madison’s eating with friends in town, but you know I usually
make plenty, and you’re always welcome. But I need to get a move on
, get to the store and back.”

“I could run into town for you. That way you won’t have to wait to get started.”

After a moment, Abigail nodded. “Works for me. And there’s nothing too complicated on this list, so you shouldn’t have any problems.”

Elise rolled her eyes and fisted her hands on her hips. “Come on,
Gram. I have a master’s degree in horticulture. I think I can navigate a grocery list.” At Abigail’s skeptical look, Elise held out a hand and made a ‘gimme’ gesture with her fingers. “Hand it over.”

With a comical and inflated sigh, her grandmother complied. “Okay, but make it snappy, kiddo. I’ve got cookin’ to do.”

“You got it.”

Grabbing her purse and keys, Elise headed for the car. Twenty minutes later, she was in the produce section at the H-E-B looking for organic broccoli, of all things. It seemed that her Gram was big on organic fruits and veggies these days.

It took her longer than she’d figured, but she finally found everything on the list, and soon she was checking out and schlepping her purchases out to the parking lot.

As her little sports car came into view, she could see from a distance that there was something tucked under the windshield wiper on the driver’s side. The closer she got, the more it looked like a flyer of some kind.

She’d never understand why folks found it helpful to paper an entire parking lot of cars with ads for this or that. As far as she was concerned, it was nothing but an annoyance and just something else to dispose of. Of course, it looked like hers was the only vehicle in her section to get the treatment. But still.

Depositing the groceries in the passenger seat, she went around to the driver’s side. Before climbing behind the wheel, she jerked the folded piece of paper loose and tossed it to the floorboard of the car. Planning to throw it out when she got back to the vineyard, she promptly forgot about it.

That is, until she pulled in at the residence and turned off the engine.

Glancing down, something about the flyer caught her interest. For some reason, it didn’t look like your average, everyday flyer any more. Reaching down, she picked it up, unfolded it, and froze.

No, this was definitely
not
a flyer or an advertisement. This was something much more disturbing. Large, irregular letters had been cut randomly from magazine pages and glued onto a plain piece of paper. It was like something right out of a movie script. She read its message over twice as the first icy fingers of fear took hold.

POKING AROUND WHERE YOU SHOULDN’T

BACK OFF BEFORE YOU GET HURT OR WORSE

Seriously? What had she done to deserve this? Poking around in what? She’d stopped in to chat with Toby this morning, but that was the only thing she could pinpoint deserving of this kind of threat—and she wasn’t even sure
that
qualified.

She and the others had only been asking subtle questions, unless you counted Ross’s heavy-handed interrogation of Alain Toussaint over the weekend. But why single her out? And how would they know she’d be at the H-E-B at that specific time?

Unless they’d been following her or staking her out.

Through the nibbling of fear, anger made its way to the surface, and she began to simmer.

How dare they
…
whoever they were?

Her mind went crazy with scenarios before she realized that she was jumping to incredible conclusions she had no way to confirm. The note didn’t have her name on it anywhere—nothing to indicate it had anything to do with her at all—or the murder investigations, for that matter. Maybe it was just a prank. It was possible, right?

Climbing out of the car, she scanned the driveway and area surrounding the house before she caught herself. Shaking her head, she stuffed the note into her purse and went around to retrieve the groceries. What exactly was she looking for? Did she think that whoever had left the threatening note would follow her right up to her mother’s doorstep?

I’m such a moron.

In any case, she wasn’t going to worry about it. Maybe she’d run up to Ross’s after dinner—kill two birds. She could fill him in on what Toby had to say this morning, and also see what he thought about this stupid note.

As it turned out, Ross and Caroline, along with their two boys
were in the kitchen with Abigail and Laura when she walked
through the door. Evidently Caleb was feeling better after being ill the night before, as both boys looked to be in high spirits.

“Auntie El!” Caleb and Ethan shouted her name in unison and just about tackled her to the ground when she entered the room.

“
Auntie El, Auntie El,
” Ross mimicked them in a pretty good imitation of the Wicked Witch of the West, and had the boys groaning.

“We just watched that movie again last night,” Caroline explained. “Ross continues to insist that the witch is horrible and scary, but the boys aren’t impressed.”

“Nah.” Ethan made a face. “She’s not scary at all.”

Not to be left out, Caleb chimed in. “Yeah. She’s green and
bor-ing
.” He shook his head. “But I don’t like the monkeys.”

Elise set the groceries on the counter and ruffled Caleb’s hair. “I don’t like them either, pal. I think they’re way scarier than the witch.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked up at her with huge, cornflower-blue eyes
and swallowed hard. “And they gotts wings,” he whispered. “And they
can fly and chase a guy and stuff.”

Elise gave an exaggerated shudder and had him giggling. As she did, the threatening note she thought she’d stuffed deep into her purse dropped out onto the floor, and Caleb bent to pick it up.

“What’s this, Auntie El? Did you do art today for work?” he asked. “We do art in kindi-garden.”

“Um
…
no, honey. It’s not my art.” Grabbing it from him, she folded it up, intending to put it back, but she wasn’t fast enough and Ross nipped it from her fingers.

“Exactly what do we have here, Auntie El?” he asked, before unfolding the paper. His eyebrows shot up as he read. Looking up, he trained a hard stare in her direction. “El? What’s this all about? Where did you get this?”

Abigail came around the counter and took the note out of his hands. After reading it, she, too, gave Elise a steely look. “Yes, baby girl. Do tell. Where did this come from?”

Elise blinked several times and looked back and forth between them. The thought briefly crossed her mind of trying to pass it off as nothing or make something up, but how in God’s name did she do
that
? In the end, she came clean. “I found it underneath the windshield wiper on my car when I came out of the store. I thought it was an advertisement or some kind of flyer at first. I didn’t even look at it until I got back here.”

Reading the note over Abigail’s shoulder, a disgusted look crossed
Caroline’s face. “Why on earth would someone do that? Leave some
thing so sinister and upsetting for a person to find?”

“And
have
you been poking around in something you shouldn’t?”
Abigail asked, repeating the note’s sentiments. “Maybe something you’ve been told to stay out of?”

“No,” she replied with a straight face, though her tone was colored with guilt. She glanced at Ross, who made a point of looking everywhere but directly at her.

“Come on, boys,” Caroline said in the uncomfortable lull. “Let’s go into the living room and play some video games for a while before dinner.” She wisely herded them out of the kitchen. Elise strongly suspected that her sister-in-law wanted to escape the coming conversation as well.

“Okay, spill it, you two,” Laura demanded. “What’s going on here
? Elise Brianna? What have you done?”

“Me?” Elise squeaked. “Why do you assume I’ve done something wrong? How is it that I’m always the one who automatically gets the blame for every little thing?” She gestured toward the note still in her grandmother’s hand. “Maybe this is just someone’s idea of a prank.”

“Yeah. All we’ve been doing is keeping an ear to the ground and an eye out for anything unusual,” Ross added, though Elise thought his comment was anything but helpful.

“What do you mean
we
? The two of you? Or have you dragged Madison and C.C. into whatever you’ve been doing as well?” Laura asked with a frown. “And watching and listening for what?”

“Are you talking about these murder investigations?” Abigail narrowed her eyes and drilled them both with a hard stare. “Have you two been poking around in Jackson’s business again?”

“No!” Elise and Ross answered in unison but only ended up sounding more guilty.

“Oh, Elise.” Laura shook her head, disappointment etched on her face. “I thought you’d learned your lesson after what happened during the summer. Poking around in your uncle’s murder investigation almost got you killed.”

“Yes, but—”

“Now, we’re all real proud of the way you handled yourself during that frightening experience, baby girl,” Abigail said, cutting her off. “You didn’t panic. You used your head and saved the day. But if you think there wasn’t a healthy amount of dumb luck involved, you’re just foolin’ yourself. And I know you’re not a fool. That fiasco over the summer could’ve gone the other direction lickety-split. That’s why you need to stay out of these investigations Jackson’s got goin’ on.”

“In El’s defense,” Ross said, holding up a finger to emphasis his
point. “She was just trying to make certain that you were in the clear
where Divia Larson’s death was concerned, Gram.”

Elise’s mouth dropped open, and she slapped her hands on her hips. “In
my
defense? How about
we
were just trying to clear Gram? You’ve been neck-deep in that plan from the start, pal.”

Abigail turned and pointed at him. “And you should’ve known better, anyway, Ross Alexander. If it wasn’t for your sister here keep
ing that cool head under fire, you could’ve been in big trouble during that last showdown with your uncle’s killer. She saved your bacon,
mister. Besides, I don’t need you two nitwits messin’ around and tryin’ to clear me for anything. Jackson will make sure I’m covered.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down, both of you.” Ross put up both hands in surrender. “
We
were just trying to clear Gram,” he said to Elise, before turning to Abigail. “And you’re right, Gram. I should’ve known better.” He gestured to the threatening note. “But we really haven’t done anything worthy of this kind of retaliation, so I find the whole thing kind of baffling.”