Mary made the now-familiar turn off the highway onto the road that led to the winery and to Bonnie’s house almost on auto-pilot. The children sat in the backseat, talking about their plans for Christmas break and what Santa might bring, but Mary barely heard them. Her mind was full of her discussions with Luke and Father D’Angelo. She slowed, however, as she passed Bonnie’s street. The house had the blinds drawn, giving it a solitary, almost sullen look. The big gate was closed and, for the first time, she noticed there was no sign proclaiming it as a dog-breeding business. Why? Wouldn’t Bonnie want the world to know where her beloved dogs lived and wouldn’t she welcome visitors? Perhaps it was some sort of zoning thing. No. The house next to Bonnie’s proudly displayed the picture of a paint horse, Warrior something, loudly advertising his services. If they could, so could Bonnie. She drove into the parking lot of the winery, lost in thought.
Naomi was in the parking lot watching a young man place a case of wine in the trunk of a silver Lexus. She was flanked by an older couple, both with clouds of expertly cut white hair, both expensively dressed, both beaming at Naomi as they climbed into their car. It wasn’t until they disappeared down the long drive that Naomi turned toward Mary and the children.
‘Kids. You can’t go in to see your mother for a while. She and Mr Bliss are busy.’
‘What are they doing?’ Ronaldo stopped trying to untangle Millie from the leash she’d managed to get caught around her legs in her rush to get out of the car.
‘Going over the books. Your mother will have to take some time off, and we need to make sure everything is in order.’
Dalia took the leash from Ronaldo and unwound the little dog, who immediately sat and stared at Naomi. ‘Of course things are in order. Mom doesn’t like it any other way.’
A flush spread across Naomi’s cheeks. ‘I’m sure they are. However, it’s always a good thing to double-check.’
Mary nodded. She’d spent more than one day cleaning up a mess someone had assumed was fine instead of checking. ‘How long do you think they’ll be?’
‘Oh, a half hour or so. I have some soft drinks. Would the children like one?’
The children looked at Mary with hopeful smiles that turned into bright beams as she nodded.
‘What may I offer you, Mary? Glass of wine? Coffee?’
‘Coffee sounds wonderful. Thank you.’
They followed Naomi into the tasting room and down the hall to her office. ‘Sit down.’ She motioned Mary to the chair beside her desk, and pointed the children to a small sofa on one side of the room. Millie she stared at for a moment. ‘I think I have one of Merlot’s dishes in this closet. I’ll get her some water.’
It was no time at all before everyone had a drink of some sort in front of them and had settled down to wait. Naomi handed the children a copy of a dog magazine and it took only a moment before they were engrossed in it, comparing Millie to other cockers and Sampson to other puppies. Naomi watched them for a few minutes, an expression on her face Mary found unreadable.
Finally, she pushed her coffee aside and leaned over the desk and stared at Mary, her voice low. ‘Are you all right?’
Mary nodded. ‘Still a little sore, but fine.’ News certainly did fly fast in this town. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but Naomi had given her an opening. She didn’t get a chance to use it. Naomi was in a talkative mood. Or was it nerves?
‘It’s terrible, what happened to Evan. He was a good person. I can’t believe someone would do something like that.’ She paused. There was the tiniest hint of a smile in her voice as she asked her next question. ‘Did you really fall off a box, looking for him?’
Try as hard as she might, Mary couldn’t repress the snort of disgust that escaped. Was there no one in this town who didn’t know about that dratted box? ‘Yes. I got worried when I found he wasn’t home or at his shop, but his car was in the parking lot behind it. I stood on the box to look in the window. I only had time to see him lying on the floor before it broke.’
Naomi’s mouth formed a soft ‘oh,’ as her eyes drifted up to the bandage on Mary’s head. ‘I just can’t believe it. Why would anyone want to … Cliff had enemies.’ She paused. ‘Maybe not exactly enemies, but he made a lot of people angry.’ Deep furrows showed in her brow and around her mouth that Mary hadn’t noticed before. The breath she took before she continued sounded a little ragged. ‘Evan … they were opposites in every way. I can’t see any connection.’
Mary thought she could. There were a couple of possibilities and one, the more she thought about it, seemed distressingly possible. Dogs could be big business, at least in some circles, and that business, or some kind of business, was at the heart of all of this. John and Glen wanted the pet shop. Bad enough to kill Evan? She couldn’t make herself believe that, but someone had killed them both, and dogs and the business of dogs seemed to be at the heart of it. There was one question Naomi could answer that might help. Mary wasn’t in the least bit sure she would, but at least Mary could try. She stole a quick look at the children, who seemed absorbed in the dog magazine, put down her coffee cup and leaned across the desk, keeping her voice low.
‘I heard Bill was at the pet store right before it closed. Did he say anything to you?’
‘About what?’ The furrows across Naomi’s brow seemed to deepen and her eyes narrowed.
‘About Evan. I heard he seemed … nervous. Did Bill think he seemed all right?’
‘He didn’t say one way or the other. He wasn’t in Evan’s shop very long. We’re trying to take over the lease the flower shop has and, since Evan owns the building, we had to make sure he’d let us.’ She gave a soft laugh, probably at the look of surprise Mary was sure was on her face.
‘What do you want with a flower shop?’
‘Nothing.’
The laugh disappeared, replaced with a look of faint irritation. Why? Did Naomi dislike the idea that where Bill was and why he was there was a subject of discussion in town? If that was so, Mary could sympathize. However, it seemed a legitimate question.
‘It’s not the flower shop we want, it’s their space. We want to open a tasting room in town but haven’t openly talked about it because we’re not sure we can get the shop. It’s a great location. Right on the town square, facing the library. Everyone passes there. It should do very well. The flower shop, for whatever reason, isn’t. Bill’s been talking to Evan about taking over their lease. Evan wasn’t too excited about it. I don’t know why. He’s had some trouble getting his rent paid and if we went in, he knows … knew … oh, dear. I don’t know what’s going to happen now.’
‘Do you know that John Lavorino and Glen Manning are Evan’s only heirs? They’ve got everything, including Evan’s mother, so probably they’re the ones you need to talk to. You might want to wait a little, though. They have a lot of things to sort through.’
Naomi’s face said she hadn’t known. Her eyes widened, her chin lifted and something that might have been a smile grew. ‘John and Glen? From St Mark’s choir?’
Mary nodded.
‘Well.’ There was a speculative look on Naomi’s face, a smoothing of the worry wrinkles that had creased her brow. Worry, however, soon came back. ‘Are you sure?’
‘That’s what they told me. I think they were at the shop this morning. Someone put a note on the door, one bordered in black, saying the shop would re-open after the service, in time for Christmas shopping. I rather think John did that.’
Naomi laughed. Really laughed.
Mary wasn’t amused. ‘Is that good for you? Having John and Glen to deal with, I mean.’
‘Glen has always thought our opening a tasting room in town a good idea, and I don’t think he’d put up with consistently late rent payments for a minute.’ Her smile spread. ‘Yes, I think we can work out something with Glen.’ Again, her face changed, but this time the distress was different. ‘It sounds so callous to talk about our concerns when poor Evan …’
Mary nodded. ‘I know how you feel. It’s been a horrible week. First Cliff, then Evan.’
Naomi gave Mary one of the saddest smiles she’d ever seen. ‘But I’ll grieve for Evan.’
That was probably true. Naomi and a lot of other people. Evan had been well liked and respected, whereas Cliff … ‘Luke, from the library Luke …’ she paused and Naomi nodded, ‘… said he had one of your little poodle’s sons. Did you breed him, Merlot, a lot?’
‘Not as much as Bill would have liked. He sired two litters and, yes, Luke has one of the pups. He’s a good dog and looks a lot like his father.’ Her left eye twitched and her mouth pursed. ‘Luke calls him Fred.’
Mary wanted badly to laugh but thought she’d better not. Naomi might not appreciate that and she needed an answer to her next question. ‘How did you pick the females to breed with?’
Naomi’s eyes widened in surprise and the hint of a smile returned. ‘I didn’t. They picked us.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Merlot was in a lot of local shows. He was a finished champion and had three Best in Show wins. His pedigree was impeccable. People with female poodles contacted us and inquired about breeding.’ She looked around the room, seemingly lost until her eyes stopped on the picture of the little dog she’d taken from Cliff’s apartment. ‘Cliff had been badgering me to stand him, but this place takes all my time and energy. Standing a dog like Merlot takes a facility, a lot of time and a whole lot of paperwork. I didn’t want to get into it.’
‘Then, why did you?’
‘Bill, of course.’
There was more than a trace of bitterness in Naomi’s voice.
Sympathy and a deep sadness, but no surprise filled Mary at Naomi’s statement. ‘What did you do?’
‘I didn’t do anything. Bill and Cliff worked out a deal with Bonnie. Well, with Todd. Bonnie, of course, did all the work. It didn’t last long.’
A start went through Mary. She hadn’t expected that. ‘What kind of a deal?’
‘We rented her barn. You know, the old one at the back of her property. Cliff was supposed to take care of the bitches who came in for breeding and do all the paperwork. We paid for the improvements, such as they were, and we put in the gate between the vineyard and their yard. That was so one of us could get over there without having to go around, but I don’t think it was ever used. We bred him with exactly two bitches and the whole thing came to an end.’
‘Why?’
‘For the reason I wanted nothing to do with it. I told Bill, but would he listen? Bonnie was busy with her dogs. She hadn’t bought that new stud dog yet, but she was looking around. I think the only reason she agreed was because she got all those kennels and things for free. Cliff, of course, made a mess of everything he touched. He never helped clean or feed. He was only there when the female dogs were brought in, but so was I. The only reason I let Merlot stay while the females were there was because of Bonnie. I wouldn’t have trusted him to Cliff’s care for one minute. He didn’t do one thing right. It didn’t take long before Bonnie got fed up and put an end to it, much to my relief and Bill’s fury. That happened shortly before Merlot was stolen. We didn’t make a dime on that deal, but Cliff made a couple of months’ rent. I didn’t even get a puppy.’ The bitterness in her voice intensified and a tear appeared in the corner of one eye. Naomi roughly rubbed it away.
‘What do Bonnie and Todd use the barn for now?’ Mary’s mind whirled. Could it be … evidently not. Naomi’s next statement knocked her burgeoning idea to pieces.
‘I was told they dismantled all the kennels we built and use the barn for storage for the hardware store. When Bonnie bought that new dog, I thought she might use the barn for visiting females. Her kennel building isn’t very big, but no. She always said it was too far from the house.’ Naomi shrugged as if she didn’t agree. Mary thought she didn’t care, either. ‘I guess it hasn’t been a problem. I don’t think she’s had a booking so far. She wants a lot of money to stud that dog.’
Mary had a lot more questions formulating, twisting and turning around in her brain, but they weren’t going to get asked right now.
Millie started to whine.
‘I think she has to go outside.’ Dalia picked up the little dog’s leash and started to her feet. ‘I’ll take her.’
‘I’ll take her.’ Ronaldo got up as well and reached toward his sister’s hand.
‘We’ll all take her.’ Mary pushed back her chair and stood for a moment, making sure her leg was securely under her. ‘Give me her leash while you two pick up your cans and put that magazine back where it belongs.’ Millie’s whine got louder. She started to dance a little and looked at Mary as if to say, ‘I need to go now.’
Naomi scooped up the empty cans and grabbed the magazine. ‘Go ahead. Take her out the big French doors and turn to the right. Go down the hill a little way and you’ll see a sign that says “Visiting dogs.” She can go there.’
Mary nodded, tightened up on the dog’s leash and told the children in her strictest middle-schoolteacher’s voice, ‘Don’t leave my side,’ and started down the hall toward the spot the dog needed fairly urgently.
‘Thank you,’ she threw over her shoulder toward Naomi, but she had already gone back into her office. Mary heard the click of the door as she followed the dog toward the grass and relief.