Read Online Deadly Offer by Vicki Doudera - Free Book Online Page A

pulling out a glossy business card.
    “Perhaps I’m making you uncomfortable, talking business at this kind of a gathering.” He leaned toward her, and Darby smelled spearmint on his breath. “But in my thirty-odd years in real estate, I’ve found that absolutely any time is right for making deals.”
    He gave a smug smile and began weaving his way back through the small crowd and out the door. Darby shuddered and took another sip of her wine. No wonder Selena had chosen to sell the vineyard herself.
    The gathering seemed a bizarre mixture of a cocktail party and a wake, a chance for people to express their shock over Selena’s sudden death. Darby looked about for ET. She spotted him speaking with Andrea Contento and a tall, older man, and headed toward them.
    ET made introductions, and Darby looked into the vigorous and tanned face of the famous winemaker, Michael Contento. He was tall and fit, his hazel eyes the color of the grape leaves Darby had glimpsed growing in the fields. He grasped her hand and shook it, and the strength of his grip was that of a man half his age, which Darby guessed to be in the mid-seventies.
    “Damn shame about Selena,” he said. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”
    “I wish I had known her,” Darby confessed. “She must have had some very special qualities.”
    “Quite the accomplished grape grower, you know. She and Dan were putting out some fine wine. Her Pinots were getting a reputation in the state and beyond. Not to mention, she was a hell of a nice person.”
    ET nodded somberly. “Thank you, Professor Contento.”
    “Please, call me Michael. My teaching days are long gone—I’m lucky if I get a chance to read a whole book nowadays. This damn wine business keeps a man busy.”
    “Selena was busy as well, but always seemed to make time for fun,” commented Andrea. She gave a tiny smile. “We had some great parties here and at the vineyard. Christmas—Halloween—you name it. Selena liked practical jokes, too. One year on April Fools’ Day she made a special bottle of wine for Michael. Remember that, darling?”
    He grinned. “Changed the label on one of my own bottles and brought it to dinner. I tasted it and couldn’t believe how good the wine was. Little did I know I was drinking one of my own star Cabs.”
    “Cabernet Sauvignon,” Andrea explained. “The label was some thing atrocious, like “Dwarf’s Head” or something like that, with a horrible little drawing of a gnome sitting on a mushroom. You should have seen Michael’s expression when he tasted the wine!” She laughed and then immediately became quiet. “That’s what I will miss about her—that wonderful sense of humor.”
    The brief moment of lightheartedness evaporated as quickly as it had come. The Contentos hugged ET, murmured their sympathies, and moved away. Darby took another sip of her wine, deep in thought.
    ———
    From the crest of a hill overlooking Carson Creek Estate & Winery, Vivian Allen focused her binoculars on the old farmhouse. It was nearly eight p.m., but cars were still arriving, carrying people who entered the spacious kitchen to pay their respects to Selena Thompson’s brothers. She directed the powerful lenses toward a window and waited. Catching a glimpse of one of them would be helpful, but it wasn’t totally necessary. She pulled the photos from her jacket and scrutinized the images. The older one was Enrique; the younger, more fleshy-faced one, Carlos. She lingered on his photograph, committing his features to memory. Carlos is a photographer from San Francisco , she thought.
    Vivian ran through her plan once more in her head. Wait for the rest of the visitors to leave, and then head down to the farmhouse and meet Carlos. If she could get him to listen to her strategy, she just might have a chance. If …
    She shoved the binoculars back in the big pink shoulder bag that was draped over her shoulder. Timing was everything, and hopefully her time had