A Sticky Situation (13 page)

Even as aggravated as I was with Jade, upon closer inspection the winery was still adorable. If I were being entirely honest I would have to admit I had harbored a hope that at a second glance Jade's execution of her idea would have been poorly managed. I wished that the good first impression it made had been purely based on novelty. That wasn't the case. If anything, the subtle details Jade had thought to include jumped out at me on this second visit.

I hadn't before noticed the way the bar rail and the upholstery tacks on the stools were a coordinating gleaming brass. Or the sparkling glassware on floor-to-ceiling shelves at the end of the tasting area. Jade had cards sitting on top of wooden wine barrels that suggested sap wine and cheese pairings as well as recipes calling for sap wine in the list of ingredients. I
had no idea Jade knew anything about cooking. She had never lifted a finger to prepare a meal at Greener Pastures.

I wandered around looking at things all over the shop while Jade rang up a line three deep. Her chatty and friendly manner seemed to be a hit just as much as her products were and her sales reflected it, from what I was overhearing when she announced the total for each customer.

If I were being big about things I would have to admit I could learn a thing or two about retail from Jade. If I managed to swallow my pride long enough I might work up the nerve to ask her for some tips for the sugarhouse shop.

“It looks like business is brisk. Congratulations,” I said.

“I haven't been in here alone even once all day. If this keeps up, the shop is going to turn a profit in the first year even if I take the renovation costs into account.”

“That's wonderful.” Only a couple of days in business was far too early to make that kind of prediction, if you asked me. But, if you asked me I would never have said a sap winery was an idea that made sense, so clearly I wasn't the expert. “You've been working some long hours.”

“That's what it takes to succeed in business. But I don't have to tell you that,” Jade said.

“It can be draining. You really have to do what you can to streamline the other parts of your life to make it all work.”

“Absolutely. I've been cutting back on the amount of time I spend exercising and have gotten my morning routine down to under an hour.” If Jade was spending less time on her appearance I couldn't tell. Every glossy hair was still hanging perfectly in place. The weak winter sunlight filtering through the windows bounced more radiantly off her face than it did off the stainless steel barrels holding sap wine. Even her eyelashes looked perky.

“It sounds like you are making a lot of sacrifices for your business.”

“I am. But I'm sure in the end it will all be worth it. Especially with the low cost of the raw materials for my finished product.”

“That's the reason I'm here.” I took a deep breath and braced myself for impact. “I need to talk to you about the sap.”

“What about it?” Jade crossed her arms across her chest and scowled.

“We need to reach some sort of understanding about how to make both our businesses work.”

“Are you trying to cheat me out of the sap from the family trees?”

“I'm not trying to cheat you out of anything. I'm just saying you've decided to base your business on using a resource already set aside for another purpose without even letting anyone know you were interested in it.”

“So what you're saying is that I should have asked your permission to start my own business?” Jade drummed her perfectly groomed nails on the gleaming
butcher-block counter. I thought about how hard all the tapping and drilling and dragging of hoses and buckets were on my own nails. Not to mention all the cold weather chapping my hands. I felt myself beginning to lose my temper.

“I'm saying the sap doesn't up and decide to jump out of the trees and into some buckets for you to use. It takes a lot of effort to have any sap to use for any purpose. You deciding to help yourself to enough of it to run a second business without asking is simply not okay.”

“The people collecting the sap are my family, too. There's no reason their effort should benefit your business more than mine.”

“You're missing the main point.”

“Which is?”

“I'm out there before anyone else drilling holes and tapping trees. I'm the one out on snowshoes at the crack of dawn checking miles of tubing for tangles and leaks. I'm the one making sure the sap remains at the right temperature to keep it from spoiling after it leaves the trees.” With each angry word I felt more and more like the Little Red Hen. By the time I paused to catch my breath I half expected feathers to sprout up all over my body.

“You don't do that stuff alone,” Jade said. If we were any younger I would have expected her to stick out her tongue at me.

“I may have the help of a lot of family members but
oddly enough, you're never one of them. If you want sap, go get your own.”

“You can't be serious. You know I'm not the outdoorsy type.”

“Then if you're not willing to pay for it you're not the sap-receiving type. And that's final.”

“Final? You're joking. You know you'll never be able to stay mad about this. By the time we wake up tomorrow morning you'll be back to sneaking out quietly so you don't wake me up on your way out to check the trees.”

“I won't be there in the morning. I've rented the apartment above Stems and Hems and I am moving in tonight.” With that I hurried out the door before I calmed down and changed my mind.

*   *   *

“You want me to help you to move?” Graham's voice came through the phone loud and clear.

“I thought you might be happy to hear I'm getting my own place. After all, it means you can visit without running into Hazel.”

“Well, that certainly has its advantages but I thought you loved living at home. Aren't you going to miss everyone?”

“I won't miss Jade or Hazel.”

“What did your family say?”

“I haven't told them yet.” I was still working up the nerve. I had phoned Graham from the car, sitting in a
parking space in front of the winery. “I'll do it as soon as I get home.”

“What time do you need me?”

“Does that mean you'll help me move?”

“Unless there is another exotic animal outbreak in Sugar Grove or the surrounding countryside, I can be there in a couple of hours.” Graham rang off and I thought about how to break the news to the family. The only thing I could decide to do was to procrastinate so I headed to the police station to fill Lowell in on what I had learned.

Myra was in her customary place at her desk, yakking on the phone. From the sounds of things she was making a hair appointment with Shirley, the owner of the local salon, for a cut and color. She looked up from her desk where she was playing solitaire with actual cards instead of on the computer.

I tried to slip past her but she shook her head so hard her wagging jowls knocked the phone from its spot between her ear and her shoulder. She jabbed a pudgy, well-manicured finger at the visitor seat in front of her desk.

I looked at Lowell's closed office door and figured it was easier just to wait than to tangle with Myra. I sat and stared at the center of my palm, racking my brain for what my mother had once told me about the lines on my palm and my destiny. Nothing came to mind before
Myra finished her call and turned the full intensity of her interest on me.

“So, are you pregnant?” Myra leaned across the desk and scanned me up and down with her gaze like there was something in my face that would serve as a pregnancy test. As accustomed as I was to Myra's prying, I was still thrown off-balance by the question.

“Why would you ask me a thing like that?”

“Because you've rented Priscilla's apartment. I assumed your grandparents kicked you out for blighting the family name.” Myra pushed a box of tissues across the desk at me like she was expecting me to break down any second.

“I am not pregnant and they did not kick me out. My grandparents don't even know I am moving out yet.”

“Yes they do. Lowell's on the phone with your grandmother right now. You've made quite the stir.”

“How did they hear?”

“I don't know that part. I just know your grandmother rang up asking to speak to Lowell. When I said he was busy on the Spooner Duffy case she said it was an emergency of the current sort and asked me to get him.”

“And you asked what sort of emergency, I suppose?”

“Of course I did. She told me you were moving out to Priscilla's and I put her through to Lowell immediately.”

“And your first thought was that I was pregnant?”

“Why else would you leave?” Before I could answer, Lowell's office door popped open and my godfather stood in the threshold. From the staccato motions he
was making with his hand he didn't look happy to see me. I jumped up and hurried to his office. Even an aggravated Lowell was easier to handle than a curious Myra. He shoved the door firmly in place and sat behind his desk.

“What's this I hear from your grandmother about you running away from home?”

“How did you hear about it so fast?”

“Jade told Hazel and Hazel told your grandmother. Olive called here all dithered up. What do you have to say for yourself?” Lowell ran a broad hand through his thick gray hair.

“I wish I could have broken the news to them in my own time. But Jade always was a tattletale.” I took a deep breath. “I don't like sharing a room with Jade because she's a slob. Now that she's started the winery it isn't like when we were kids and she was just here for a visit. But it's more than that. I've been thinking for quite a while about how it's time for me to strike out on my own.”

“I see.” Lowell drummed his fingers on the desk. “So you aren't moving out in a huff?”

“Is that what you heard?”

“Your mother says Jade told Hazel you were angry at everyone because you were forced to share your space with your cousin and had decided there wasn't room enough for the both of you at Greener Pastures.”

“I know there is always room for me at Greener Pastures. But right now I don't think that's what is best for me. I'm ready to try something new. It's past time.”

“Do you want me to call your grandmother and smooth things over a bit for you before you head home?”

“Thanks, but I think standing on my own two feet includes taking care of things like this, too.”

“So asking for backup is not why you dropped in to see me?”

“Not at all. I will admit I was procrastinating delivering the news a bit but really, I wanted to fill you in on what I've been finding out about Spooner and the money.”

“I hope it's more than I have.” The deep lines between Lowell's eyebrows etched even deeper into his forehead. I wished my news were more illuminating.

“I'm not sure that you're going to want to hear what I found.”

“Not liking to hear things is a policeman's lot. What have you got?” Lowell dragged a pad toward himself and grabbed a pencil.

“I'm sure it's not news that Spooner was a bit of a ladies' man.” I paused while he nodded. “Did you know he was having an affair with Karen Brewer?”

“I knew the chief's marriage broke up fairly soon after the investigation into the missing money took place. I always thought it had more to do with Karen being offended at the questions Preston had to ask her about the theft.”

“Jim Parnell spotted them locked together in a telling embrace at the town hall and when I talked to Karen myself she said the affair was what caused the divorce.”

“And you think Preston might have been involved in what happened to Spooner?”

“I don't think anything about what happened to Spooner. I'm only interested in whether or not Spooner took the money, remember?”

“Good. Is there anyone else you aren't asking yourself about whether or not they were involved in Spooner's death?”

“I'm not asking myself if Mitch's father or mother could have done it.” As much as I didn't want to I relayed what I had heard from Sarah in the church nursery about the note and Gary Reynolds's response to it. Lowell stopped writing and gave me his complete attention.

“This is really going to make Mitch uncomfortable.”

“I know.” Mitch and I had spent a lot of time making each other uncomfortable over the better part of a year. You know how teachers often live in towns outside of the school district where they teach? I think police officers should have a similar rule about dating. They ought not do it in the town where they are authorized to issue tickets and arrest citizens.

“You didn't bring this to me to get back at Mitch for all the citations, did you?”

“Of course not. Do you think I want to interact with Mitch any more than is unavoidable in a town this size?” Mitch and I had reached an uneasy truce and I hated to think about doing anything to reignite any bad feelings between us.

“I hope not. I hope part of your interest in getting an apartment is your relationship with Graham. If that's the case, keeping Mitch as far out of your life as possible would be wise.”

“Are you going to repeat any of this conversation to my mother?”

“No, you have my word whatever you say will remain between us.”

“Okay then. You yourself know what it's like trying to conduct a relationship with all the family watching. And now with Hazel doing her best to make Graham another notch in her cane it has become impossible.” Lowell and my mother had been romantically involved for some time and it had not been easy for them, either, to carve out the privacy necessary for a relationship to flourish.

“If I didn't have a place of my own for your mother and me to go to for some alone time our relationship wouldn't stand a chance.”

“Exactly. It's time to act like any other normal adult woman and be able to have guests and visits with those guests as I see fit without so much oversight.”

“Enough said. Anyone else you think may be worth hearing about?”

“Karen Brewer had some worrisome things to say about her ex, Preston.”

“She mentioned as much to me when I had some questions about Spooner's death.”

“You talked to Karen, too?”

“Of course I did. I'm investigating a suspicious death. Letting you poke around about the missing money was not my way of shirking my duties.” Lowell raised his voice a bit, which surprised me. We've always had a great relationship and I had to assume he was feeling stressed if he felt inclined to yell.

“I shouldn't have sounded surprised. And I shouldn't have made it sound like you weren't doing your job. I just got caught up in my own importance.”

“It's okay. And I suppose speaking to Karen could have left you wondering about how much the Sugar Grove Police Department actually wanted this case solved.”

“I did think Preston was less vigilant than he should have been but he couldn't have known that Spooner was dead, could he?” I kept my eyes fixed on Lowell's face. He took his time answering, which I understood to be a sign of inner turmoil.

“You stick to the money angle. If Preston had anything to do with Spooner's death I don't want you involved in the investigation in any way. It would possibly weaken any case I could build and it will probably put you in harm's way. So is that all of it?”

“Well, I was kind of wondering if Tansey reacted so badly to the news about Spooner's body being found because she was the one who hid it.”

“I hate to say it but I thought of that, too. I can't think of a thing Tansey wouldn't do if she thought it was best for Knowlton and that would include murder.”