Ellen Crosby - The Riesling Retribution

I paused at Leland’s marker as I left the cemetery. Years ago my mother hid a fabulous diamond necklace given to one of her relatives by Marie Antoinette because she knew if my father got his hands on it he’d sell it, just like he’d sold all her other jewelry to fund his business ventures. I’d found the necklace two years ago, hidden in a barrel in the wine cellar. Eli got a third of the money from its sale and had blown his share. I used mine to pay for our expansion and putting in new vines.

Right after Leland died, a French live-in boyfriend had sweet-talked my bank in the south of France into letting him withdraw all my funds, claiming I needed the money because I was moving back to the States. As soon as I got home, I planned to call Blue Ridge Federal and check on my account.

Not that I thought Eli could pull off the same scam, but I knew he was desperate enough to try anything. Including cleaning me out.

I called Seth Hannah, the president of Blue Ridge Federal and an old family friend, the moment I walked through the front door. Like Leland, Seth was one of the Romeos and he used to play poker and hunt with my father. I’d long suspected Seth had a crush on my mother, as did so many men who were captivated by her beauty and indefinable French sense of style and allure.

“What can I do for you, darlin’?” he asked.

“Just checking my balance. I wasn’t sure if something cleared or not.” Or got cleared out.

I heard some clicks of a computer keyboard and he quoted a figure that matched the one I had.

“Happy to oblige, but you can do all this online, you know.”

“I know, but I wanted to ask you about something and I can’t get that from a computer.” I wondered if he heard the relief in my voice that we still had funds to talk about.

“What’s on your mind?”

“I just want to make sure that no one besides me has access to that account,” I said.

“Well, that’s how it’s set up, Lucie. Why’re you asking about this?”

I hesitated and Seth waited.

After a moment he said, “This wouldn’t be about your brother, would it?”

“Please don’t say anything to anyone, Seth. He came to me for a loan just now and I turned him down. He knows I’ve got a lot of cash in that account.”

There was a long pause. “It’s no secret your brother’s in a pretty deep financial hole, honey. You thinking he might try to cash a check of yours or something?”

“When we were growing up and Eli got a bad report card or a note about detention, he used to forge my parents’ signatures. He could copy either one of them and you couldn’t tell they weren’t genuine.”

“I see.” Seth cleared his throat. “Counterfeiting a check’s a serious crime, you know.”

I was sitting in the foyer in one of my mother’s toile-covered Queen Anne chairs staring at Leland’s bust of Thomas Jefferson. I leaned back and pinched the bridge of my nose. The house was even warmer than it had been this morning. Although the windows were open, I felt like I was suffocating.

“I know.”

“I will tell you this. We get our share of forged checks and I can’t tell you how many times the forger was a relative or someone who had access to the individual’s financial information,” he said. “If you don’t trust Eli, you’d do well to put things under lock and key.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust him—”

“Honey, you don’t have to beat around the bush with me. I know Eli’s a good man.” Seth made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “But who said, ‘I can resist anything but temptation’?”

“Everyone?”

This time he did laugh. “Look, I’ll put a note here in your file that you’re the only person authorized to handle transactions with this account. Will that settle you?”

“I guess so. I feel awful about this, you know. Eli didn’t actually do anything.”

“Better safe than sorry, Lucie. I’ve seen more people feuding over money than you can shake a stick at. You have no idea the stuff we’ve got here in folks’ safe-deposit boxes because relatives couldn’t come to an agreement over something. Hell, we even got an urn with someone’s ashes in the vault.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, ma’am. Whoever locks up for the night wishes him sweet dreams. Been doin’ that for going on sixteen years. We’ve gotten kind of attached to him.”

“I hope that never happens to us. Feuding, I mean.”

“Then talk to your brother. Get it out in the open.”

“I couldn’t. He’s already mad at me because I wouldn’t loan him money for his mortgage payment.”

“You want my opinion, honey?” I was going to get it, even if I didn’t. “I’ve known you and Eli and Mia since you were born. Your pa wasn’t always a straight shooter and it pains me to say that, but your mother was as rare and precious as a hothouse flower. She had more integrity in her little finger than most folks got in their whole body. If she were alive today, she’d be telling you to be square and honest with your brother.”

The lump in my throat made it hard to talk. “I know. Thanks, Seth.”

“You’re welcome.” He paused and I thought he was going to say good-bye or something else in parting. “By the way, any word on that body you found on your land?”

I sat up straight. He knew as well as I did it was too soon to know anything official. This was fishing to see what I’d tell him.

“Nope. Nothing.”

“Well, I sure hope…” He left the sentence unfinished.

I waited as though I expected him to tell me what he sure hoped, which was that Leland had nothing to do with it.

“Thanks for the advice, Seth. I appreciate it.”

“You all right, darlin’?”

“Don’t you worry about me. I can handle this.”

“Of course you can.” He backed off. “Look, Lucie, I want you to know that I’m in your corner whatever happens. If you ever need to talk or you have any questions, all you need to do is pick up the phone. I owe that to you children and the memory of your mother.”

He hung up and I wondered why he hadn’t mentioned anything about what he owed to the memory of my father.

Bobby returned to the villa at the end of the day while I was in my office filling out the endless tax forms we sent the government so they’d grant us the privilege of selling wine. Frankie showed up in the doorway and told me he was waiting in the tasting room.

She kept her voice low. “I have a feeling they’re done. The other cruisers and that crime scene van just left.”

“It only took them one day?”

“Guess so. Maybe you can ask him.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

Bobby’s shirt was soaked with perspiration and his hair was plastered to his head like he’d gone swimming.

“Can I get you something to drink?” I asked. “We’ve got bottled water and a few sodas in a cooler. They’re still cold.”

“Thanks, but I got my own cooler in the car.” He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, revealing a triangle of white skin at his hairline that contrasted with the rest of his sunburned face.

“I came by to let you know that we’re finished,” he said. “The crime scene tape will stay up for a few more days and we’re coming back to clear out the underbrush that’s nearby in case we missed something there.”

“You’ve removed the remains?” I asked. “Completely?”

He nodded.

“Did you find anything else besides the skull and that bone Bruja dug up?”

His smile was weary. “Sorry. I can’t say.”

“Well, could you identify him from just the skull, if that’s all you got?”

“That’s Junie’s department.”