Delia stood in front of Eli and Stuart, who had made themselves comfortable in the two desk chairs a few feet away from the actual desk in the front office. Theo and I had just entered the room in time to hear Clarence say he had completed the witness statements before rushing out of there and back to where his boss was undoubtedly waiting.
“Eli,” Delia said, “your father and I are dealing with an unfortunate situation so you’ll need to spend the night at Stuart’s house. I’ve already called his mother and she’s on her way. And behave yourself. Don’t give Mrs. Landrow any trouble. And don’t say anything that will scare Stuart’s little brother. And I don’t want to hear that the two of you traipsed all over the neighbors’ yards in Dresden. You hear me?”
Eli didn’t answer because Delia kept on talking. “We’ve got to hurry. I need you to run upstairs, take your overnight bag and put in a clean T-shirt, shorts, socks, and a change of underwear. Take you PJs and your toothbrush as well. I’ll check your bag when you get downstairs. Now hurry up, the both of you.”
“We haven’t even had lunch, yet,” he replied. Then he looked at Stuart. “Do you have any good stuff at your house?”
The exasperation in Delia’s voice was hard to miss. “I’m sure the two of you will be fed once you get over there. Now, please, get a move on.”
Stuart stood but didn’t budge. “Did you tell my mother about the dead body? Mr. Lick . . . whatever his name is.”
Delia took a breath and articulated every word as if she was in an elocution class. “I explained we had a situation at the winery since the sheriff’s office is looking into a man’s unfortunate death on our premises.” Then she moved so close to Eli that I imagined he could feel her breath on his face. “Not a word out of you, especially the word murder. None of us knows what really happened. Not until the sheriff’s office completes its investigation.”
“Okay. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I found a situation behind the wine cases.”
“Move it,” Delia said. “And don’t be such a smart mouth.”
Theo shrugged and gave me a funny look as Delia and the boys left the building. “I’m not sure she even knew we were in here.”
“I think she’s still trying to process what’s going on. Either that or figure out how to spin the news at their tawny port wine release next Saturday. I’ll tell you this much, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Eli and Stuart knew more than what they said. Especially about what they might have overheard when the men were yelling. And while we can’t be a hundred percent positive, I’d bet money the men were Emerson Boyd and the now-late Frank Liguori. Drat. I should have asked Eli if he noticed anyone else in the storage area with his father.”
“Too late now. Besides, I’m sure Henry will provide Deputy Hickman with that information.”
“Unless he has something to hide.”
“Well, no sense standing around here. I’ve got to get back to the tasting room before Don pitches a fit.”
“Tasting room? Oh my gosh. I blew out of Two Witches without saying a word to anyone.”
I was behind the wheel of my car in a matter of seconds and on the road in record time. Once I got to the Grey Egret, Theo opened the passenger door but didn’t budge. “What do you say you stop over here after work and we can piece more of this mess together? Or should I call it a situation?”
“I had all I could do not to laugh when Delia said that.”
“Same here. Listen, Don and I have plenty of burgers and we can throw them on the grill. So, what do you say?”
“He won’t mind on such late notice?”
“He’d mind if I didn’t ask you. Besides, someone has to give an imitation of Grizzly Gary’s expression when he saw us.”
“Great. I’ll have Fred make us a salad, and if we’ve got any leftover cookies, I’ll bring them, too.”
“You might as well bring Charlie while you’re at it. It gives Isolde something to fixate on instead of getting in our faces while we cook. That long cat hair flies all over the place.”
“Charlie will love it. Catch you later.”
Five minutes later, I was back in our tasting room apologizing to everyone for leaving suddenly.
“That was one heck of a vanishing act,” Cammy said when I caught up to her in the kitchen, “but when we saw those two miscreants at your table, we figured something was up. What did they do this time? Mess up something in Henry’s winery and run for cover over here?”
“Not exactly. They found another dead body. This time in the production building behind the cases of their new tawny port. And not any old dead body. It was Frank Liguori, the regional manager for Libations.”
“Holy cannoli. Recently dead?”
“Um, yeah, I think so, but I didn’t get close enough to have a look. Henry and his wife Delia blocked my view.”
“Did they mention blood? A gunshot wound? A stab wound? Blue lips and foam on the mouth? Ligature marks on the neck—”
“How many crime novels have you been reading? And no, they didn’t say a word. In fact, neither did Eli or Stuart. Darn it. I should have asked them. Now it’s too late. I won’t know anything until the coroner releases a preliminary report, and by that time it’ll be all over the news.”
“Think it’s related to Davis Brewer’s murder?”
“I’m not sure how, but I do know one thing—Frank was the same man Lizzie saw in here this past Thursday. The one who retrieved his missing baseball cap. Only it wasn’t missing. He threw it out his car window after having a verbal exchange with Henry days before. Something about his refusal regarding the tawny port. Lizzie overheard snippets of the conversation between Frank and a woman he was with.”
“Let me guess. Libations wanted an exclusive release and sale.”
“Yeah. Seems that way. After work Theo, Don and I will put our heads together. By the way, I told Bradley about Steven Trobert and he thought it was funny. Then again, he hasn’t met Catherine, so the clock is still ticking as far as I’m concerned.”
“Hey, do you want the crew to know about Frank? They’ll be curious as to why you bolted out of here.”
“We can both let them know in between customers at our tables. Speaking of which, I probably should get back out there.”
“Same deal here as soon as I’m done loading the dishwasher.”
The remainder of the afternoon flew by, and in fact, I had to gobble my turkey and cheese sandwich on the run because we were so crowded. Then, just as it got close to closing time, Godfrey phoned.
“You’re not going to believe this, Norrie, but my office was called to consult on the Brewer murder. Well, not my office per se, but our office, the Experiment Station.”
“I thought it was pretty clear-cut. You know, the maggots, the flesh flies, those dermy beetles . . .”
“Dermistid.”
“Yeah, them.”
“The PMI was already established.”
“The what?”
“Sorry, the postmortem interval. The minimum amount of time someone has been dead.”
“Then what? What else is there?”
“Something rather telling. The body housed more than one insect species. And not indicative of the wooded area where it was found. It seems Mr. Brewer’s corpse was riddled with grape leafhoppers in various stages of decay.”
“Ew.”
“Indeed. The Cicadellidae is infamous for puncturing grape leaves and sucking out the contents. And not just the nymphs, the adults as well. Pesky little vampires if a vineyard doesn’t treat the area.”
“Um, so you’re saying Brewer’s body came from a vineyard? That he was killed in a vineyard and then dumped in the woods?”
“That’s precisely what my department is trying to ascertain.”
“Yeesh. There’s like a zillion vineyards on this lake, not to mention the mom-and-pop backyard ones.”
“That may be the case, but only a handful of vineyards seem to be plagued by the Cicadellidae this summer. Either they slacked off on their pesticide treatment or failed to remove the basal leaves and/or lateral shoots. Then again, they might have tried a pesticide that wasn’t as effective.”
“Who? Who? Do you know which vineyards?”
“We know of three of them. And if one of their grape leafhoppers turns out to be the same type of leafhopper found on the deceased, that would most likely . . .”
“Most likely what? How many darned leafhoppers are there?”
I could hear Godfrey inhale as he proceeded to give Wikipedia a run for its money. “The Erythroneura is most commonly found on Concord and Niagara grapes while the E. bistrata is known to plague Vinifera and hybrids. That doesn’t discount the E. tricinta, the E. vulnerata and the E. vitris, all of which can wreak havoc on commercial grapes.”
“So you’re telling me you don’t know yet.”
“I’m telling you my department has just begun its investigative study.”
“Well, tell them to hurry up.”
“The insects were in various stages of decay. It’s not that simple.”
“Can you at least divulge which vineyards have the pestilence problem? I mean, it can’t be a state secret, can it?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. These matters are confidential. If word got out that, say, one particular winery had a problem with vineyard pests, consumers may be less likely to purchase their wines for fear the grapes weren’t as good a quality as grapes grown from an unaffected vineyard.”
“Can you give me a hint?”
“Honestly, Norrie, you’re terrible. That information can only be released to the Ontario and Yates County Sheriff’s Offices. When it becomes available. But that doesn’t stop you from using your own powers of deduction.”
“Meaning?”
“Think about it. If Brewer was murdered in a vineyard, it would make sense it had to be one that used his workers. Go from there.”
“Oh my gosh, Godfrey. I could kiss you.” Yikes, I can’t believe that came out of my mouth.
“I accept your thank-you. Keep me posted. Maybe coffee or something this week.”
“You’ve got a deal.”