Smoldering Flames and Secrets Page 12

  “Sí, señorita?” the man said.

  Raina paused. It had been a long time since high school Spanish. There was no way she could ask questions about the murder investigation while fumbling her way through the language. If he was the same field hand, he must have known enough English to communicate with the wedding planner. After all, how was he able to move things for her if there was a language barrier?

  She pointed at the direction of the event center. “I need somebody to help me move some boxes. Twenty dollars? It’ll take less than fifteen minutes.”

  “Boxes?”

  Raina nodded. She held up her hands about two feet apart. “I need to move them up against the wall so my cousin can bring in more decorations for the party on Saturday. If you can’t do it, is there somebody else here that can help me?”

  The thought of probably losing twenty dollars got him to get up. “Where boxes?”

  Raina started toward the event center, waiting for him to follow along. Obviously, the man was fluent enough in English when it suited him. She pretended to rub the small of her back. “I hurt myself the last time I moved the boxes.” She gave him a sheepish smile.

  The man grunted. So much for small talk.

  She stopped and stuck out her hand. “My name is Raina Sun. What is your name?”

  He didn’t take her hand. “José.”

  Raina dropped it and kept walking. The name he gave might be his real name, but without his last name, she would be hard-pressed to identify him.

  They made the short journey to the event center without speaking another word. At the entrance, he hesitated. He was probably not allowed on the premises.

  “We go back door?” José asked.

  “Okay,” Raina said, waiting for him to lead the way.

  José followed the path on the right and meandered between the trees until they came to a stop at two double steel doors on the side of the building. Anyone coming and going from this exit wouldn’t be seen by anyone at the event center or the rolling lawns next to it. Was this how the murderer snuck the body out to the vineyard from the parking lot?

  José held the door out for Raina. She stepped through. It was some kind of storage and maintenance room. There was another door in the far wall. Before she could look around, José crossed the room, opened the interior door, and stuck his head through the gap. When the coast was cleared, he held the door and gestured for Raina to step through.

  She found herself in the large commercial kitchen that was used by the vendor contracted to provide meals for certain types of party events. The kitchen was empty, which meant the corporate retreat had box lunches delivered. José led the way through the kitchen and into the corridor that led to the main rooms.

  From here, Raina took over and led them to the small conference room assigned to the Wong wedding. Her cousin had paid the extra fee to store the wedding paraphernalia, so she didn’t have to stack things in her one-bedroom condo. Space was a luxury in San Francisco, but not so much here in Livermore.

  Raina unlocked the conference room and flipped on the lights. She let José in and closed the door behind him. Everything looked as it did when she was last here with her grandma.

  She gestured at the boxes on the conference table. “José, can you move them or stack them against the far wall?” This actually would make more work for them on the day of the wedding, but sometimes she had to break a few eggs to save the groom from being thrown in jail on his wedding day.

  José got busy moving the cardboard boxes. Raina pretended to count items in a nearby box. She let him work for a good five minutes until she saw him relaxing into the physical movements of the job.

  As he reached for another box, Raina said, “Bridget Harker was the one that told me you helped her move things around when she has events here. I’m glad she did because I wouldn’t be able to do this on my own today.”

  José stiffened and ducked his head, so the brim of his hat hid his face from view. He continued to move the boxes, but there was tension in every line of his body. He avoided making eye contact and kept moving like he was on autopilot.

  It didn’t look like he would relax back into the job again. Aw shucks. She came out too strong and spooked him. There was nothing she could do about it now. “Did you move anything big or bulky for Bridget last Friday evening or Saturday morning?”

  José dropped the box he was holding onto the floor. “Sorry.” He bent down and shoved the party favors back into the cardboard box. His hands shook.

  “They found a dead woman in the vineyard last Saturday morning. Do you know anything about this?”

  José glanced up and ducked his head again, but not fast enough. Raina saw the flash of fear in his eyes. He stood up and backed away from the box and Raina onto the other side of the conference table. “No sé. No sé.” He edged toward the door.

  Raina inched around the conference table to get closer to the man. She didn’t want him to take off running. “If you know anything, you need to tell the police. By not saying anything, they can charge you for being an accomplice. That means you helped kill the woman.”

  He fumbled for the door, opened it, and bolted.

  16

  Going Native

  Raina ran after him. The hallway was empty. She didn’t think he would go through the foyer in front of the building where even now she could hear the low murmur of conversation. The retreat attendees must be taking a break. She turned and went back the way they came—through the kitchen, through the maintenance room, and out through the metal doors. José was nowhere in sight.

  In front of her, approaching from the pathway, was Detective Carol Jean Wise. Her eyes widened at Raina’s sudden appearance.

  “Where did the man go? He knows something about the murder,” Raina said, spinning around to see behind her. The maintenance room was still empty.

  “What man?”

  “The Hispanic field hand. He had on a brown hat and muddy boots.” Even as the words left her mouth, Raina cringed. Probably every field hand in the winery shared the same description.

  “Nobody came through the doorway.”

  “I’m not making this up. This man has information. I think he might have carried the body from the parking lot to the vineyard for the killer for twenty dollars.”

  Detective Wise pulled out her cell phone. She called the winery owner and asked him to round up his staff at the processing area. She apologized for the inconvenience but she had to talk to them again about the murder investigation, and it couldn’t wait.

  When she hung up, she glared at Raina. “Tell me what’s going on here. You have fifteen minutes before we go in and talk to the staff.”

  Raina took a deep breath and told the detective what happened with José. “And then he bolted. I didn’t think he would go through the front with the business retreat going on, so I came back this way. But if you didn’t see him, then he must have gone another direction.”

  “And why are you talking to him about the murder investigation?”

  Raina hesitated. She didn’t want to step on the detective’s toes. Better to pretend to be a nosy busybody. After all, while annoying, a busybody was harmless. “My grandma gets bored in retirement, so I help her play detective.” Blaming Po Po probably wouldn’t sit well with her grandma, but she wasn’t here to contradict Raina.

  Detective Wise stared at her for a long moment as if assessing her. “What else have you found out?”

  Raina told her everything. The friendship between Arianna Cobb and Bridget Harker. Jason Cobb’s obsession with his wife and her new lover. While she spoke, the detective didn’t take any notes. Either she had a good memory, or Raina was covering old ground for her. It didn’t matter. It felt good to share all the same.

  “The killer has to be Bridget,” Raina said. “She kept quiet about her relationship to Arianna and Jason this entire time. I know she had no reason to reveal this information to me, but we had spoken about the murder in passing. Even something as simple a
s saying the victim was a friend would have looked less suspicious than total silence.”

  Detective Wise nodded and gestured for Raina to keep going.

  “And she was more upset about the negative reviews on social media for her business than the death of a close friend. This isn’t normal. Shouldn’t family and friends come first before money?” Raina asked.

  “Not necessarily for some people.”

  “But they spent time together twice a week at the yoga studio and then afterwards at Starbucks. You can’t do this regularly without feeling something for the other person.”

  Detective Wise waited until Raina ran out of steam. “Who do you think is Arianna Cobb’s lover?”

  Raina blinked. Now, this was a little tricky. Should she protect Smith? The two detectives seemed to have an antagonistic relationship, but the information was pertinent to the case. “I think it is Detective Bradley Smith.”

  Detective Wise’s jaw dropped. She pulled herself together in the next heartbeat. “This explains a lot.”

  Raina waited, hoping Detective Wise would volunteer information of her own. When it was obvious that none was forthcoming, she asked, “Who do you think is the killer?”

  Detective Wise raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t a slumber party where we take turns sharing secrets. It’s a one-way street. Now let’s go see if you can identify José from among the staff.”

  The detective turned and marched toward the process area. Raina trotted to keep up with her. For someone as equally height challenged as Raina, the detective covered a lot of ground.

  During the ten-minute walk, Raina couldn’t help but feel like she was duped. All the other detectives she had encountered had shared information with her, albeit reluctantly. With Detective Wise, the stoic expression was like a stone wall. Raina couldn’t read her, which she found irritating. And the detective seemed to zero in on Smith’s interest in the murder investigation. Did she have a secret vendetta against Smith?

  Raina didn’t know what to think. From her dealings with her hometown police force and through Matthew’s stories, she knew cops were just as human as anyone else and not above jealousy, envy, passion, and all the rainbow of emotions. Could Raina trust Detective Wise? At least she knew where things stood with Smith.

  Hal and his employees were waiting for them inside the steel corrugated agricultural shed in the process area. The three roll-up doors were wide open, and Raina could see several gator carts parked inside. His employees’ expression ranged from boredom to nervousness and excitement.

  The winery owner scowled at Detective Wise and Raina. “We’ll have to make this quick. We have to get back to trimming the grapes. And my event manager has to check in on the business retreat at the event center. We don’t have time to sit here for hours like the first time you were here.”

  Raina was surprised at his tone. Gone was the friendly farmer she’d spoken with a few days ago. Maybe the stress of finding a dead body in his winery was too disruptive.

  “It’ll just take a few minutes, Hal,” Detective Wise said. She gestured at Raina. “Miss Sun here spoke to a man named José. He ran off when she mentioned the murder in passing. She thinks he could provide us with a clue. Do you have anybody here named José?”

  The crowd shifted, and three Hispanic men stepped forward. All three of them had a variation of the dusty brown hat, dark tanned skin, and deeply lined face.

  Raina shook her head. One was too tall, one was too short, and one was too old. She was starting to feel like Goldilocks. “It’s not them.”

  Detective Wise sighed. “I want everyone to form a straight line and face us,” she said, raising her voice.

  The employees shuffled about and formed a line that was more crooked than straight, but everyone’s face was visible. The air thickened with dust kicked up by the movements and tension.

  Detective Wise pointed at the left side. “Miss Sun, start over there and walk down the line. Tell me if anyone resembles the man you spoke with.”

  Raina swallowed. Weren’t they supposed to have a two-way mirror when they did a lineup? Was she painting a target on her back for doing this? It was a good thing nobody on the staff was a suspect. Before she could take a step forward, footsteps crunched from behind her. She spun around.

  “What’s going on here? Did I miss anything fun?” Po Po stepped into the building.

  Raina smiled. Hallelujah. Her grandma was back to her normal self. Her silver pixie cut was spiked around her head. The pink streaks made it resemble a striped lollipop. Definitely more appetizing than Raina’s curly black one. Her grandma wore black leggings with a loose flowing peasant top. Dangling from her fingertips was the strap of a cowboy hat. And not just any cowboy hat, but a Stetson. This was probably her grandma’s version of going native on a farm.

  Detective Wise glowered at her grandma. “Police business. Please wait for your granddaughter at the event center until she’s done.”

  “Po Po, come here,” Raina said. “You shouldn’t be in the sun like this. Going back and forth is just going to get your blood pressure soaring again.”

  Her grandma got the hint. She pretended to wipe the sweat off her brow. “Yeah, I’m feeling a little faint.” She staggered forward and leaned against the back of a gator cart next to Hal, fanning herself with the cowboy hat.

  Raina wanted to snicker. Gold Springs was much hotter than the Bay Area. There wasn’t even a bead of sweat on her grandma’s forehead. She made a mental note to tell Po Po to wipe the wide grin from her face the next time she pretended to be faint from the heat.

  Detective Wise frowned but didn’t say anything else. She probably realized it wasn’t worth the fight.

  Raina turned back to the employees. A couple of them studied their shoes. A few of them had naked fear on their faces as if they didn’t quite understand what was going on. She apologized to them silently for putting them through this ordeal. She paced down the line, bypassing the women, in less than three minutes. She turned around and shook her head. “He’s not here.”

  Detective Wise glanced at Hal. “Is anyone missing?”

  Hal’s gaze shifted from face to face. He stepped up to the silver-haired José, and they had a quiet discussion. He turned back to the detective. “Pedro Martinez is missing.”

  Hal dismissed his employees, and they went back to their task. “Will the three of you be here for long?” The tone wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t friendly either.

  Detective Wise shrugged. “Just a few more minutes. I want to take a look at the crime scene again.”

  “Well, you know the way out.” Hal turned and followed his staff, leaving the three of them in the metal building.

  Once the winery owner was out of earshot, Raina said, “Now do you believe me? This Pedro pretended to be José because he didn’t want to give me his real name. I wonder if he’ll even come back to work.”

  “Why did you think he has anything to do with the murder?” Detective Wise asked.

  Po Po’s gaze swiveled back-and-forth between the two of them like she was watching a tennis match. She didn’t say anything because she probably knew Raina would explain the whole situation to her later.

  “Bridget told me that Pedro moved stuff for her to earn extra money whenever she’s hosting an event here at the winery. So he could have moved something to the grapevines without anyone even questioning her. I mean the body could be rolled up in a carpet for all we know. She would only have to say it was part of the photo shoot.” Even as the words tumbled away in her mouth, Raina felt it in her gut that she was on the right path.

  “It makes total sense,” Po Po said. “Bridget might be a tall woman, but she’s a scrawny little thing. There’s not enough muscle tone on her to move a cardboard box, especially in those heels. And she is attractive, so why wouldn’t a man want to help her?”

  “And Jason wouldn’t be able to come and go without somebody questioning what he was doing here,” Raina added.

  “So Smith was taki
ng care of his dad during Arianna’s disappearance?” Detective Wise asked.

  Raina nodded. “He showed me a snapshot of his boarding pass and luggage tags. Why anyone would take a photo of these items was beyond me, but I saw them with my own eyes.”

  “Unless he was trying to set up his alibi,” Detective Wise said.

  Raina studied the detective. “Are you being biased here, Detective? I don’t know if you and Smith have any kind of history, but the photograph is good enough for me.”

  Detective Wise raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad it got your approval, Miss Sun. Maybe the next time you should call Miss Marple to see if she needs an assistant?” The detective didn’t wait for Raina’s response and strode out.

  “Who jammed a stick up her—”

  “Po Po!”

  Her grandma shrugged. “Your explanation sounds good enough for me. Now what’s the plan to get Bridget to confess? I want to see that detective’s face when we show her the proof.”

  Raina groaned. It wasn’t their job to bring in the killer. And quite frankly, when push came to shove, she was a little chicken butt. She didn’t want to have anything to do with taking the killer head-on. “Let’s talk about it later after we get out of here.”

  She wanted to put in a call with Matthew to see how he was doing and to get his take on the situation. After all, he was ten times the detective of anyone on this case.

  17

  Jealous Much?

  As Raina and Po Po made their way to the parking lot by the event center, Raina apologized for her behavior yesterday and told her grandma everything that had happened since they last spoke.

  “I don’t understand the motive here,” Po Po said. “Why would Bridget kill Arianna?”

  “Well, it’s not over Jason since Bridget introduced the couple,” Raina said. She frowned, mulling over a thought.

  “What is it?” Po Po asked.