Chapter 47
Brynn’s hands trembled as she poured herself a glass of iced tea. Adrenaline coursed through her. Of course! It all came to her. It made sense on one level—but not on other levels. David had the power to pull it all off, and he was certainly interested in Jewel. But why would he involve himself in this? That was the question. A man with a good business, wife, and family and, from the looks of things, an average guy.
Becky walked back into the kitchen and sat at the table. Brynn drank her iced tea, looking out over the field where the cows and Freckles were.
“Do you think the surveillance crew caught that conversation?” Becky asked.
“I’d hope so.” Brynn frowned. “I’ve been thinking about this. What would prompt David Reese to be involved in this? Family guy with a good business.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would he risk it? What would be the reason?”
“Don’t be naïve. Guys like that are a dime a dozen. Just because he looks like he’s an upstanding citizen doesn’t mean he is. Remember how he looked at us. He’s a lech, if nothing else. So he’s not all that great. Besides, it happens all the time. Pillars of the community, clergy, you name it. We’re talking about child porn here.”
Point taken. “Okay, I hear you. But why would he want the cow?”
“Who knows? He’s not up to any good, for sure.”
Brynn took a long sip of her sweet tea. “This tea is great. Did you make it?”
“Yes, I did. I thought about using your fresh mint, but I didn’t get a chance to go and pull some out of the garden.”
“I like it the way it is.”
A knock at the front door interrupted their conversation. Becky stood and left the room to go answer it.
“Come on in,” she said, then brought one of the FBI agents back into the room.
“Ms. MacAlister. We wanted to ease your concerns. We heard the conversation and are checking him out. How well do you know David Reese?”
“Not well. I met him at the fair this year. And I saw the fight.”
“Fight?” The agent’s head tilted.
“Yes, there’s was a young man who actually hit him at the fair. Roy. I don’t know his last name.”
“What was the fight about?”
Brynn explained the fight to him. He didn’t seem to be surprised or affected by it. He remained calm and cool as you’d expect from an FBI agent.
An FBI agent was in her home.
“I’m with the cybercrimes unit. We don’t see much of that kind of action,” he said. “But that’s good information to have.” He stood awkwardly in the kitchen, shifting his weight.
“Would you like a glass of iced tea?” Brynn asked.
“No thanks, I need to get back to my station. We wanted to let you know we’re watching and we saw and heard all of it.”
Brynn should feel better than she did. A sense of protection. But uneasiness sat in her guts. The FBI was watching her place. “Thank you. Do you know how much longer you’ll be here?”
He looked surprised. “We’ll stay until we figure this out.” He paused. “I know it’s unfortunate. We respect that and are trying to stay out of your way.”
Brynn’s stomach settled a bit. “Okay.”
The agent took his leave.
Brynn sat quietly and finished her tea. An ominous, prickly sensation swept through her. Was it because the FBI was here? Oh, calm down, Brynn; you’ve done nothing wrong. Okay, so you’ve got a little illegal imported cheese in the cellar. But that’s not what they were here about.
“Who’d have thought the FBI would take such an interest in this case?” Becky said.
“Cybercrime is an FBI issue. Especially when it involves entire communities.”
“If you think about it, it’s a wonder more of this stuff doesn’t happen. We’re all online. All of our important information is online. Banking. Taxes. Everything.”
“Right. I don’t like it. I’ve been considering going off the grid.”
“I get that. But what a pain that would be, right? I’ll stay online and take my chances. Change my password frequently.” She paused. “And I’ve no money, so who would want what I have?” Brynn laughed. “It’s funny because I’ve yet to make a profit. It’s just looks like we’re successful.”
“Well, I don’t even have that.” She grinned. “I never thought I’d think that was a good thing.”
Brynn knew her sister had it rough. After her husband died, there wasn’t much. Becky worked hard as a beautician and made decent money, but as she was a single mom, it never was enough and it certainly wasn’t secure.
But what Brynn was doing was risky, too. If the cheese business did not start to earn, she’d have to start again. She wanted to succeed, but there always seemed to be problems to keep her away from her business. Like Nancy’s death. Like the murder and accident and cybercrimes going on now. Her concussion didn’t help any of it. Sometimes when she closed her eyes at night she saw the whole scene over and over again in her mind’s eye. Wes on the floor, in pain. And all of the blood. Then blackness.
Who would’ve imagined a cheese contest would wind up with a half-crazed young man shooting an innocent man? Who knew she should have hired security? She would next year. If there was a next year. She’d poured more money into the cheese contest than she should have. How would they recoup their losses? She felt she needed to return the application fees to the contestants. It was the right thing to do.
In the meantime, there was work to accomplish. She’d only washed about half of the cheese in the cellar the other day before she’d gotten too tired.
“You want to help wash some cheese?” Brynn asked Becky.
“Sure. We can’t have dirty cheese.”
“Keeping the cheese clean is important,” Brynn said as she stood.
“I remember Granny Rose going on about it.”
“Remember the time a friend of hers died and she always said it was because she ate dirty cheese?”
Becky squinted her eyes. “I sort of remember it. But cheese is really like milk gone bad or something. It’s amazing more people don’t die from it.”
“No, it’s not milk gone bad. It’s milk transformed into something else. Food. With different flavors and nuance. People don’t die from it because cheesemakers are very careful, very clean. Well, at least most of us are. But you can bet the wrong mold on cheese would definitely kill someone.”
Every cheesemaker’s nightmare. Brynn shuddered and crossed herself. Just to be on the safe side.