Erica Spindler - Blood Vines

“I don’t know. I found these pictures after the detective left. But my guess is yes.”

“You look like him, Alex.”

He handed her the album. Alex studied the photo, heart in her throat. He was right. She did resemble him. What was it? She cocked her head. The chin. The broad forehead and widely spaced eyes.

Could he be her father? she wondered. Was it so far-fetched? If she’d been an infant when they married…

But why would he claim Dylan and not her? His reputation, maybe? A previous marriage that hadn’t yet officially ended?

“Seems there are still a lot of questions you need answered.”

“An understatement.”

“Have you eaten? We could go grab a bite?”

She hadn’t. All day, she realized. But she wanted to stay and go through the rest of the things in the trunk. She told him so.

“I could pick up some Chinese? Or a pizza? Unless you’d rather be alone?”

“No, stay. If you have the time.”

He said he did and they ordered pizza from a local place that specialized in New York-style, thin crust pies. While he went to pick up their food and a bottle of wine, Alex sifted through the remaining contents of the trunk.

At the very bottom, nestled in the folds of a baby blanket, Alex found a ring. She held it to the light. Unusual, lovely and delicate, it consisted of twisting strands of gold. Like writhing snakes.

Or grapevines, she realized, as she ran her finger over a small cluster of petite rubies.

“Got it!” Tim called as he let himself into the house a half an hour later. “Picked up a really nice bottle of zin. Dry Creek Valley old vine.”

“Perfect.” She slid the ring onto her pinky finger and got to her feet. “I’m starving.”

They ate in the kitchen over the pizza box, not bothering with plates but drinking from Riedel crystal, glasses specifically crafted to enhance an individual wine’s bouquet and flavor.

This wine, with its bold flavor and high alcohol content, instantly buoyed her with a false burst of energy and well-being. The tension flowed out of her and she held out her glass for a refill.

“Where’d that come from?” he asked, indicating the ring.

She glanced at her hand. “I found it in the trunk.”

“Different. May I see it?” She slipped it off and handed it to him. He turned it over in his fingers, then held it up to the light. “Did you see? It has an inscription.”

“I didn’t.” She took it from him, squinting to read it. “BOV-1984. I wonder what BOV stands for?”

“Initials maybe?”

“Not my mother’s. Maybe her husband’s? Maybe a gift from him?”

“Initials of the person who gave it to her? That’d be different.”

“Maybe it’s an acronym?”

“Works for me.” He downed the rest of his wine, then poured the last of the bottle in his glass. He held up the empty bottle. “That’s it! Bottle of vino, 1984. Must have been a really good year.”

“I hope you’re not planning to drive home.”

“Is that an invitation?”

“An observation.”

He leaned toward her, a familar gleam in his eyes. “What do you think, Alex?”

“That I have a lot of questions I still need answered,” she said, being deliberatively obtuse. “That maybe I should drive to Sonoma and see if I can get some answers.”

“Not that. What do you think about tonight?” He reached across the counter and caught her hand. “Maybe I should stay?”

“Please tell me you are not turning this into a booty call.”

“Give me some credit, Alex. I’m worried about you. I’m thinking you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Isn’t that sweet.” She leaned across the pizza box and kissed his cheek. “It’s total bullshit, but sweet.”

“It’s not. I care about you. I am worried. But if we happened to end up in the sack having wild, monkey sex, I wouldn’t complain.”

“You’re a pig. You know that?”

“I’m a guy, what do you expect? Besides, my motor’s still running from the other night. You left me hangin’.”

“Poor baby.” She grabbed her purse and dug out her wallet and twenty bucks. “This should cover my part of the pizza and wine.”

He gazed at the money a moment, then lifted his gaze to hers. “That’s a no, then?”

“It’s a no.”

He pocketed the twenty. “How about I check on you tomorrow?”

“Don’t bother. I’m planning a trip to wine country.”

Friday, February 19

8:10 A.M.

Reed filed into the interview room. He had arranged this early meeting with Tanner and Cal to go over what he’d learned from his visit with Alexandra Clarkson.

Tanner, he saw, had beat him there. She looked tired. “Hey, Babs. Bad night?”

“Long. Cakebread Cellars was having a tasting. My ex was there. Me, my ex and free wine are an explosive combination.”

“Fireworks?”

“Mmm.” She yawned and curved her hands around her venti-sized coffee. “But not necessarily the kind you’re thinking of.”

Before he could ask what kind she figured that was, Cal arrived. He carried a box from Tan’s Donuts.

“Sustenance,” she said. “Thank you, Jesus.”

Cal grinned. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never Lord and Savior.”

“She had a bad night,” Reed said. He opened the bakery box and peered inside. “What’d you get?”

“Glazed, filled, chocolate and plain.”

Tanner frowned. “No crullers?”

“Nope.”

“No bear claws?”

“Nope. Glazed, filled, chocolate and plain. If you’d wanted something else, you should’ve stopped yourself.”

“Kiss my ass, Cal.”

“Only if you kiss mine first.”

Reed polished off a pastry and grinned. “Okay, kids, how about we talk about my interview with Patsy Owens’s daughter?”

“I’d rather Tanner here kiss my ass, but-”

“But,” she jumped in, “knowing that’ll never happen, did Alexandra Owens have anything interesting to offer?”

“Name’s Clarkson now. The most interesting thing about the interview was what she didn’t have to offer. Clarkson has no memory of her brother or her years in Sonoma.”

“Bullshit,” Tanner offered, wiping a glob of raspberry filling from her mouth. “Her mother-”

“Wiped their lives of all evidence of their time in Sonoma, and Dylan.”

“Okay, that’s just weird.” Cal dunked a chunk of donut in his latte. “You believed her?”

“I did.”

“How old was she when Dylan disappeared?”

“Five.”

Tanner shook her head. “I remember my fifth birthday party and she forgot her brother? How could that be?”

“I wondered that myself.” Reed eyed the pastries, then went for a second. “I got in touch with the on-call shrink. He thought it could be a form of traumatic memory loss. Like what’s seen in post-traumatic stress disorder and repressed memory.”

Cal jumped in. “I worked a case a couple years ago that involved PTSD. The one where the kid witnessed his brother being shot to death right in front of their house. He was there, at the scene. Couldn’t recall what happened.”

“Exactly. Shrink said Clarkson’s memory loss would have been aided by her young age and her mother’s influence. Obviously, the former Patsy Sommer wanted her daughter to forget.”

Tanner drained her coffee. “Sorry, but that’s really fucked up.”

“No joke.” Reed crumpled his napkin, then sent it sailing toward the trash. “So here’s what we have. Patsy sees the article about Baby Doe. She wonders if it’s Dylan and calls me. Her call to me came in at three P.M. She leaves a message. Sometime later that day, she ingests a bottle of pills.”

Tanner leaned forward. “Why not wait for you to return her call?”