*Belle looked up to see Mac standing by the end of the bar in the Emerald Barrel. She sent him a smile and held up a finger as she continued speaking into the phone. He nodded and leaned against the old wooden bar.
Her mother had been transferred yesterday to the local hospital. Belle had only got back from the city late last night and she’d had to come straight in to the restaurant.
She’d put off calling Dante again, preferring to see him in person. The awards were tonight. He’d be there.
She almost cringed at herself. She was nervous, that’s why she hadn’t already gone over to see him and instead had let herself get snaffled in to work.
Had it really only been four days since everything went to hell in a handbasket? It felt like a lifetime.
She finished the call and moved over to where Mac stood.
“What do I owe this pleasure to?”
He sent her a crooked smile. “I’m waiting for your dad and Jack.” He nodded at her. “And you. There’s something I need to discuss with you all regarding the vandalism.”
Belle’s eyes widened. “You want a coffee?” Belle grabbed the portafilter and started to make it. She spoke over her shoulder. “You’ve got some information?”
She glanced over to see her father and brother come through the door and added two extra cups to the bench.
May as well make them some before they ask.
She set the coffees down, with milk and sugar beside them. They could sort that out themselves.
They all looked at Mac expectantly. He sipped his coffee and closed his eyes.
“You always make a good drop.” He cracked an eye. “Almost as good as Cat’s.”
Belle laughed. “If that’s the comparison I’m getting, I’m running with it.”
Everyone raved about Cat van Alden’s coffee at the cupcake shop. Or rather, now it was Cat Hart. She and rock-star boyfriend Zac had married in a small, private ceremony only last autumn.
Mac sighed when he saw their patience levels were decreasing. “What I’m going to suggest may make you angry, but please bear with me, okay?”
Her father’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded. They’d all known Mac his entire life. The whole town trusted him and his sense of fairness and justice.
He took a deep breath. “I would like your permission to fingerprint Mrs Davis.”
Belle blinked, then went to speak.
Nope. She had nothing.
Jack looked equally as shocked as she felt. Her father’s face morphed through shock, anger, and rejection. Then he let out the biggest laugh she’d ever heard him release.
He slapped Mac on the shoulder. Tears ran down his face and he wiped at them, shaking his head.
“You had me there for a moment, boy.”
Mac’s mouth twisted in what Belle assumed was supposed to pass for a smile.
“The problem is, I wasn’t joking.”
The smiles fell from their faces, one by one. No one spoke. It was so quiet Belle could hear the tick of the small clock she kept on the front reception podium, metres away.
“Why?” she asked.
Mac looked at her, seemingly grateful for the opening. “We found what we expected—Jack’s, your dad’s, and your fingerprints all over the vat shed. There were several others on some equipment that matched up with Hayden and Rob, but they weren’t on the vats in question.”
Belle nodded for him to keep going. Hayden and Rob had worked for them for years.
“But there was one set that showed up again and again. Smaller prints. On the sides of the two vats, on the ladder, in the office on the chair that Mrs Davis sits in.”
Belle’s gut tumbled. Surely it was a coincidence?
No one else sat in that chair. Her father liked to keep it especially for her mother. It was an office chair, but a swanky leather version, in the softest butter yellow. Her mother’s favourite colour.
She looked at her father and brother. They looked as worried as she felt.
“It’s not possible,” her father whispered, frowning.
“There’s simply no other leads. Nothing. No motive, no suspects.”
Belle bit her lip. “If you do it, then at least she can be ruled out. Right, Dad?”
Her father nodded slowly. “I guess. She’s coming home today. I pick her up from the hospital at ten.”
She’d improved daily, Doctor Farrell confirming once he’d seen her yesterday and read her file that, unless something happened, she could come home this morning.
“I can go with you if you like? Then I can process the prints while she gets settled at home,” Mac said.
*
Belle leaned over to kiss her mother’s cheek. Her mother sat in the chair beside the bed, dressed and waiting for them, looking happy when they all came in the door. Her father and Mac followed the doctor into the room, her dad having signed off on the paperwork when they arrived. Jack perched on the edge of the bed.
“The wine awards are on tonight,” he said.
Jem looked over at her son and sent him a happy smile. “That’s nice, dear.”
Belle tried to gauge her mother’s mood. She’d improved a little after the deterioration the night in the national park had brought, but the good days where she could carry a lucid conversation were becoming fewer.
It broke Belle’s heart. It was the result of the series of small strokes she’d suffered a few years ago. Vascular dementia was insidious, stealing a little more each day of the person she’d known and loved as her mother her entire life.
Mum would hate this.
Belle tried to push sad thoughts from her head. This was Jack’s time to shine, and hopefully their mother would remember long enough to enjoy a cup of tea and cake to celebrate, regardless of how Jack fared.
Jack took her hands in his and couldn’t keep the grin from his face.
“We’re watching them here in the Crossing. Jonathan from Happy Valley is hosting a dinner.”
Jem’s eyes grew round in happy surprise. “That sounds like fun.” A frown marred her forehead for a moment. “What is it for again?”
Jack’s smile tightened a little. “The wine awards. I entered the international wine contest. With the Mourvèdre. The winners are going to be announced tonight.”
The wine name brightened her mother’s eyes. Recognition flared and she sat forward, gripping Jack’s fingers.
“Did we win?”
We?
She looked at her husband, excited. “Callum. Did Jack and I win the contest?”
Chills doused Belle’s spine in an icy rush.
Jem kissed Jack’s hands, so tightly holding her own. “I knew you had to add something to it. You showed me the sample. I remember you said it needed more sulphur.”
Belle gasped. How on earth had she remembered something like that?
“Mum, that was months ago. Last summer.”
Jem looked confused for a moment, then shook her head and smiled. “I fixed it for you. I put some in. I saw the bags. I fixed it,” she repeated, her smile fading as she looked around the people gathered in the room.
Jack’s mouth moved. He couldn’t seem to speak. They didn’t use powdered sulphur in the wine anymore. Jack had invested in the gas, making it much easier for him to calculate. The bags that had been dumped in it had been excess stock, used for cleaning only.
Belle ignored the roiling of her stomach and leaned over and took her mother’s hands from Jack.
“Yes, Mum. You did. You helped so much. Thank you.”
Belle glanced at the others, tears stinging her eyes. She blinked quickly and kept the wide smile on her face, not wanting her mother to see and become worried.
Murmured agreement spread around the room. Belle wanted to curl in a ball in the corner and not come out.
How would they be able to trust her now? She’d latched on to something Jack had said months ago, and it had triggered an action. They’d have to lock the shed when Adelaide wasn’t around to keep an eye on her, something they’d never had to do in the past. Sure, they rolled down the massive roller door that faced the driveway at night, but they never locked the rear access door that led to the house.
Belle closed her eyes and grimaced.
Somehow Jem had slipped past their notice and managed to dump kilograms of sulphur into the vats.
Dammit.
She leaned forward and kissed her mother’s cheek. It couldn’t be helped. What was done, was done. Financially and emotionally, the toll was huge.
But the knowledge that some random person hadn’t deliberately tried to ruin their business helped.
“Do you want me to go ahead?” Mac’s quiet question to her father caught her attention.
Jem looked up at the unfamiliar voice. “Oh, hello. Are you a policeman?”
Mac smiled sadly and nodded. Belle’s heart twisted. Her mother had loved Mac and his brothers, who’d often hung around with Jack.
“Yes, Mrs Davis. I just came by to say hello.”
Belle breathed a sigh of relief. He was such a thoughtful person. Kind. Considerate. Qualities getting rarer, seemingly each year.
Her father touched Mac’s forearm and shook his head. “I think we have our answer.”
Mac nodded. “I’ll head out then and add this to the report.”
Jem looked at Belle’s hands still holding her own. She looked up into Belle’s face and smiled.
“Hello, dear. You look just like my Isabel, but older. Are you her cousin?” Jem frowned, confused. “What was your name again?”
Belle bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment to draw strength.
She didn’t think she’d ever get used to the times her mother didn’t recognise her. It hurt too much.
Jack leaned forward to kiss Jem’s cheek, taking her attention. “We’ve come to take you home! You’re all better now.” He stood up and grabbed the bag sitting beside Jem’s chair.
Her father took his wife’s hand. She smiled beatifically up at him, still so obviously in love with her husband. Belle thanked the stars that she still recognised him. Her father patted her hand and led her out of the hospital room and into the noticeably aging hallway.
Belle followed them at a short distance as they made their way toward her dad’s car. She wrapped her arms around herself, cold despite the warmth in the air.
The one person she needed right now was Dante. Seeing his wide smile, the happy glint in his eyes when he looked up and saw her, the massive hug she knew he’d fold her in without thought—that’s what she needed.
He’d always been there. Her constant; her shadow, who had her back no matter what. She’d never needed to turn around to know he was there to catch her.
And she’d almost thrown it all away.
On top of everything that had happened with her mother and the revelation Mac had exposed, it was all too much. The tears she’d tried so hard to suppress in her mother’s hospital room hit.
She leaned against the concrete block wall leading to the car park and slid down it to wrap her arms around her knees. Shudders shook her body with the force of her tears. Her teeth chattered.
Belle buried her face in her knees and cried.