Ivan Curic wore a linen jacket over an open-collared white shirt. He smiled across the desk at Max and said, “I didn’t want things to end this way. Billy Ray tried to stop the best thing that could happen to this town, but he did not deserve to be shot like that. No sir.”
“Where were you this morning?” Max asked.
Ivan squinted his eyes and said, “Let’s see. I showed a house on Maple Street and got my ad ready for next week’s paper. Then I went to check out some land near Rockcliffe Point.”
“Rockcliffe Point?” Max said. “Why did you go there?”
“For the resort company. In case Billy Ray still wouldn’t sell. If that was the case, I would show them Rockcliffe Point and give them a plan B.”
“I thought the resort had to be built on Billy Ray’s land or nowhere,” Max said.
“You never know,” Ivan said. “You gotta be ready for change in this business. That’s how you make it big. You always have a plan B in your pocket.”
“How much of this resort deal are you a part of ?”
Ivan sat and thought a bit. “I’m not in on the action, if that’s what you mean. I’m just trying to help the company. Of course, I plan to buy some land of my own before it’s built. The resort, I mean. Everybody should. Land values will shoot through the roof here. The resort is just the beginning. It will bring new business, new people moving in. You mark my words. Lots of people are going to get rich from it.”
“People like you.”
“I hope so. But it won’t be just me. This kind of thing can help all of us.”
“Tell me about the land you went to look at today.”
“I got out of town just when that storm broke. Now that was a storm, wasn’t it? I haven’t seen one like that since I was a kid. The rain was so heavy, I had to pull over to the side of the road until it stopped. When it let up I started to drive again. I passed Henry on his way into town and honked at him. I guess he didn’t see me, because he kept going.”
“What time was that?” Max asked.
“I’m guessing twelve, maybe twelve thirty,” Ivan said. “Like I said, the rain had let up some. So I went to look at a place down the lake. Then, on the way back, I thought about Billy Ray and what he was doing to this town. It made me darn mad. Soon’s I got to my office I got a call from Seth, who gave me an idea. Maybe we should all go and talk to Billy Ray together. At least we could say we tried. So I started calling people who I knew were fed up with him and his tricks. I called Ben, Ryan and Sam. Seth and Brenda were already in. I said that we should do what good citizens always do. And that’s try and settle things ourselves instead of bothering Chief Benson about it.”
Ivan watched Max, waiting for a smile of thanks for calling her Chief. When he didn’t get one, he went back to talking.
“We decided to let Billy Ray know how we felt about what he was doing to the town,” Ivan said.
“You own a .22?” Max asked.
“Used to. Had it stolen during all those break-ins a couple of years ago.”
“Did you report the theft?”
Ivan shook his head. “The gun was old, not worth much. It had been my dad’s. Can’t remember the last time I shot it.”
“Where did you go to look at land for the resort?”
“I told you. Down the lake at the Point.” He waved to the east. “Just to have a plan B in hand.”
Max sent Ivan back to the others. Then she called Henry Wojak to her office. “Were you out near the Point today?” she asked.
“Cruised out that way before noon,” he said. “Just checking things out. That storm hit on the way back to town. Got so bad I pulled over to wait it out. Kept the radio on in case I got a call. But I didn’t.”
“You see anybody in your travels?”
Henry nodded. “Passed Billy Ray leaving Tim Hortons. Darn fool drove right through the storm.”
“Notice anything else?”
“Sammy Little was there at Tim Hortons. Saw his truck outside. And Ryan Kelly. His fancy sports car was parked there too.”
Max said, “Send Kelly in.”
Ryan Kelly made sure everyone in town knew how much he gave up to move to Port Ainslie and start his career as a winemaker. He had been a stock trader in Toronto with a big house in town and a farm in the country. His wife had been a top fashion model. He gave it up, he told everyone, to buy land north of town and grow grapes for wine.
As much as he liked the idea, his wife did not. In fact, she hated it, and they soon divorced. That was five years ago. Since then Ryan seemed to be making a success of his winery. People who knew about such things said his wines were sure to become famous in a few years.
His wines might have been doing well, but Kelly had spent a lot of money to get where he was. Most of the money to start the winery had been borrowed. It was an open secret that Chateau Milford Wines was deeply in debt. Someday the wines might make Kelly rich, but that day was years away. Until then, Kelly’s bank and friends who had loaned him cash owned more of his winery than he did.
None of this seemed to bother Kelly. At forty-four years of age, he drove an expensive sports car around town and lived well. To the people in small-town Port Ainslie, he was a very calm and cool guy. Until now. Sitting across from Max, he did not look calm and cool. He looked nervous and upset.
“Where were you this morning?” Max asked Kelly when he sat down.
“Let me see,” Kelly said. He looked at the ceiling as he spoke. “I opened the shop at nine and set up some wines for tasting. I talked with the staff and set up displays. Then I went for a drive.”
“A drive?”
“It was a nice day. Before the storm hit.”
“What time did you leave the store?”
“Half an hour before noon. Maybe more.”
“Where did you drive to?”
“Tim Hortons on the highway.”
“Why?”
It was a simple question, but Kelly looked as though it was a hard one to answer. “I bought some coffee and a box of donuts.” He shifted in his chair. “The strange thing is…” He hesitated. Then he said, “Billy Ray was there. He was getting ready to leave just as I arrived. Left in the middle of that storm. He didn’t care. He never cared about anything.”
“Did you two talk?” Max said.
“I asked if he had changed his mind and might sell his land,” Kelly said. “He said, Hell, no. And nobody’s making me. I’m going back to sit in the garage with my shotgun as long as it takes. Nobody’s getting my land, at any price. He had an extra-large coffee with him. He said he would stay there until the people who wanted his land gave up trying. He said they could take their big plans somewhere else. I believed him. I met Sam Little inside the shop and told him what Billy Ray had told me. I said Sammy should tell Henry or you that Billy Ray might do something dumb.”
“Where did you go with your coffee and donuts?”
Max liked to ask questions from out of nowhere. Sometimes you got an answer you didn’t expect. Like this time.
Kelly thought for a moment. Then he said, “Down the lake a mile or two.”
“Which way?”
“Pardon?”
Max bit off each word. “Which way did you go with your donuts and coffee?”
“East,” he said. “I went east.”
“To Rockcliffe Point?”
Kelly looked surprised. “Yes…Yes, down that way.”
Max asked whom the coffee and donuts were for.
Sweat showed on Ryan’s brow. “A friend.”
“Who is she?”
Ryan grew tense. “She’s, uh…”
“Married?”
“No…not quite.”
“What does that mean?”
“She is kind of married, but she lives alone…”
“Deborah Edwards? Billy Ray’s soon-to-be-ex-wife? Is that where you went with coffee, donuts and…?” She left other words hanging in the air and waited for Ryan to speak.
Ryan bit his lower lip. He slumped in his chair.
“Look, Ryan,” Max said. “If you want to fool with someone’s wife, that is your business. I don’t care. Just tell me the truth.”
Kelly nodded to her.
“So you have donuts and coffee with the soon-to-be-ex-Mrs. Billy Ray Edwards,” Max said. “Then what?”
Kelly folded his hands in his lap and sat up straight. “I came back through town on my way to the vineyard. I wanted to check on the vines after the storm. I was worried it might have damaged the crop. Ivan called me at the vineyard and said I should come back to town. He said we would all meet to talk about Billy Ray and what to do with him.”
“And you went to meet with them?”
“Yes.”
“What time did you get there?”
“Sometime after two. They had started talking by the time I arrived.”
“What about?”
“They agreed that Billy Ray would spoil things for the town. Ivan said we should have it out with that rascal right now. That’s how he put it. We should all go down there now and have it out with him. Talk to him all together. Who will come with me? I said I would go, but first I had to do some work at the store. I needed to check the stock, that sort of thing. So I said I would meet them all at Billy Ray’s. I spent more time at the store than I thought I would. When I got to Billy Ray’s, I met you there.”
Max stared at Ryan. Had Billy Ray been jealous about Deborah, even more than a year after she left him? How would Billy Ray have felt about her and Ryan mixed up in a romance? She wanted to think about that. For now, she had heard all she needed to hear from Ryan Kelly. “Tell Margie to send in Sam Little,” she said. “And go have a strong coffee. You look like you could use one.”