Ellen Crosby - The Sauvignon Secret

When he pulled out the bottle I saw the label: California Sauvignon Blanc. I must have looked startled because Dominique said, “What’s wrong, Lucie? Would you prefer something else? Un verre de rouge ?”

“No, thanks; white’s fine.”

Why had that spooked me? Dominique knew nothing about my own bottle of wine being found next to Paul Noble’s body, nothing about the Mandrake Society or Charles’s setup, and what I’d been up to in California. Maybe it was just the coincidence and my nerves about the impending meeting with Charles.

“Jasmine will be out in a minute,” Dominique said as the waiter filled three of the glasses. “She and Gilles are taking care of an emergency for a retirement party we’ve got here tonight. The two of them have been running around like children with their heads cut off.”

“Oh, gosh, in that case don’t bother her. I just wanted to give you the latest ticket sales information to make sure we agree on numbers and go over the menu one more time. Frankie told me you changed two dishes because some things weren’t available anymore from a couple of the farmers.”

“That’s right,” she said, “but we could have discussed this over the phone, you know. Not that I’m not glad to see the two of you.”

“I know, but we’re meeting Charles Thiessman at five for a quick drink. He wanted to hear about the California trip since he’s the one who arranged Pépé’s talk, then he’s got to dash off to D.C.”

Dominique’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why didn’t you wait until tomorrow when you’ll have more time to talk? We’re buying heaps of vegetables from Juliette’s garden. She told me they’re both planning to be at the dinner, especially because Pépé will still be in town. How odd that Charles didn’t mention it.”

I avoided looking at Pépé. Obviously he’d found time to call Juliette and let her know he’d postponed his trip home to Paris.

“I’m sure it slipped his mind.” My grandfather calmly picked up his wine and drank. “Juliette’s always been the one to take care of their social calendar. Charles probably forgot.”

Dominique flipped open an overstuffed planner and pulled her cigarettes out of a pocket. “I suppose you’re right. She’s terribly organized but he seems a bit … not there sometimes.”

It didn’t take long to go over the dinner plans. My cousin was born with an ambitious list of goals to accomplish right out of the womb, and she’d remained an overachieving perfectionist ever since. She and I had finally found a way to work well together professionally—the Inn catered all the vineyard’s parties and events—once I learned that getting her to relinquish control or delegate responsibility was probably a tougher sell than if Moses had asked God to reconsider one of the commandments. What surprised me was that she seemed to have ceded some of her power to Jasmine. I’d thought blood was blood and I’d be the first one she’d trust, but Jasmine must have done a hell of a job impressing Dominique to pull that off.

She was stubbing a cigarette butt into an ashtray when the waiter led Charles to our table. He was dressed country-club casual: kelly green Bermuda shorts, pink polo shirt, and boat shoes with no socks, so I guessed he’d need to go home to change before driving into D.C. for his fancy party. He really did expect this to be a quick-and-dirty chat.

For a moment he looked nonplussed to see the three of us sitting there, but Dominique jumped up and set the empty wine bottle and cooler on a tray.

“Please, have a seat. I was just leaving.” She picked up her planner and slid the ashtray onto the tray. “Luc and Lucie told me they were expecting you, Charles. How nice to see you again. Please, all of you, order whatever you want; it’s on the house. Thomas, will you take care of everyone and get them drinks? Oh, and Charles, I’ll see you and Juliette tomorrow at the One-Hundred-Mile dinner, of course.”

Charles clearly had no idea what she was talking about, but he put on a game face and nodded. “We’ll try to drop by for a bit if we can.”

Dominique froze until she caught my wink and didn’t-we-tell-you look. “Please do,” she said.

Charles sat down and we ordered—sparkling water for Charles and me, another glass of white wine for Pépé.

“I heard about your talk at the Grove, Luc,” Charles said. “Bravo. You got kudos from everyone. Tough crowd to impress.”

“You’re very kind.”

“Not at all. I mean it.” Charles smiled and leaned back in his seat, crossing one leg over the other, a foot ticking back and forth like an overwound clock. “And, Lucie, I heard you made a deal with Brooke Hennessey. Sounds like everything went well.”

“Checking up on us, I see?” I smiled back at him.

“I would be derelict in my duty if I didn’t make sure it all worked out, wouldn’t I?”

Thomas appeared with our drinks and vanished.

“I suppose you would.”

Charles squeezed the lime from the rim of his glass into his fizzy water and said, without looking up, “Well, I’m glad you both had a good time.”

“What happened, Charles?”

He picked up his glass. “What are you talking about?”

“What happened that you no longer seem interested in knowing whether Teddy Fargo is really Theo Graf? Or whether there were black roses growing at Rose Hill Vineyard?”

His smile was tolerant, almost patronizing. “How astute of you to pick up on that. The day before yesterday Teddy Fargo was shot to death in a warehouse in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Apparently a drug deal that went bad. I guess he moved on to the lifestyle of better living through chemicals.” He rattled the ice cubes in his glass. “What a pity.”

Neither Pépé nor I saw that one coming. I was speechless.

“So were there any?” Charles asked in a friendly tone.

Game, set, and match to him. What a bastard, not to say a word about Fargo’s death until now. “Pardon? Were there any what?”

“Black roses. Were there black roses at his vineyard?”

“No,” I said, “there weren’t.”

He finished off his drink in one long gulp. “It doesn’t matter. It was still Theo. I know it was.”

He stood up. “Thanks for your time. I hope you both had a good trip. I guess we’re done here. Luc, see you on your next visit to the States. Or maybe Juliette and I will hop over to Paris sometime in the fall and we’ll get together there. She missed seeing you when we were there over the winter, but I seem to recall that you were in Russia.”

“Forgive me.” I pulled the envelope with the photos out of my purse and set it on the table. “But we’re not exactly done.”

“Sit down, Charles,” Pépé said. “Please.”

Charles’s eyes went immediately to the envelope. He looked at Pépé and me with the high-strung wariness of a cornered animal sensing a predator. “Juliette’s waiting. I hope this won’t take long.”

He made a fuss about sitting down again, but at least he sat. Looking back, I’m pretty sure he already knew the ground had shifted, that the secret pact of silence he had enforced for so many decades was beginning to implode from the weight of years of guilt just when he’d almost gotten away with it for good. His eyes kept flicking to the envelope. I picked it up.

“Now that Theo Graf, or Teddy Fargo, is dead,” I said, “you’re the only one left who knows about the Mandrake Society.”

A long pause while Charles assessed what cards I might be holding, if this was perhaps a colossal bluff. Finally he said in a cool, dry voice, “That’s not entirely true. Now the two of you know about it as well.”

It sounded faintly like a threat.

“While I was out in California,” I said, “I found out that Mel Racine’s wine vault was for sale down in Half Moon Bay, so I dropped by to see it.”