Nico and Henry exchanged a look. “Do you remember seeing him that night?”
“Vaguely,” Henry said. “We’d been talking about him maybe working at the vineyard this summer and what that would mean if he was interested. I was messing with him a little bit, trying to make it sound worse than it was, but I could tell he was serious, you know?” Henry looked at Megan.
“Adam’s a good kid. If he told his dad about the vines, he didn’t mean any harm by it.”
“Fuck,” Nico said. “When I was that age, if I’d heard a secret from one of my parents or their friends that sounded even vaguely exciting, I’d have told everyone.” Nico waved a hand. “He’s a kid, Megan.”
“He feels responsible, and he doesn’t know what to think about his dad. Add that to hearing about the two of us—”
“Finally!” Toni said. “It’s about time. Megan, I’ll get details later.”
“No, you won’t.” Nico’s eyes were flat and humorless. “There will be no details.”
“Details.” Toni stared at her cousin and didn’t give an inch. “So many details. I will have blackmail material for yeeeeears.”
“As I was saying.” Megan tried to distract them. “Adam felt guilty and confused about his dad; then he felt like Nico was going to be angry at him if he found out and that might ruin Nico’s and my thing—”
“Thing?” he muttered. “What does that even mean?”
“Can we talk about that later?” Megan spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to explain why my son ran away.”
“He didn’t really run away; he came here,” Katherine said. “I’m glad he felt safe to do that.”
Baxter sat back in his armchair with his chin propped on his hand. “And this answers one very large and lingering question: Who knew about the vines and their importance? We’ve never been able to figure that out.”
“But what would Rodney do with grapevines?” Megan asked. “And there’s no way he would kill someone. Not even if he was desperate. He couldn’t hold his stomach if the kids got a cut when they were little. Completely freaked out by blood.”
Toni looked uncomfortable, but then, over the past week she always looked uncomfortable. “Megan, you have to see the connection.”
Maybe Megan was tired, but none of this was making sense. Rodney might work in agriculture, but he wasn’t a farmer, and no one he worked with— Ooooh.
“Angela Calvo?” Megan asked. “I admit I was suspicious before, but Katherine and her geologist friend confirmed her acreage isn’t the best for growing Poulsard.”
“The acreage we know about.” Nico shrugged. “Who’s to say she doesn’t have more we don’t know about? Calvo has bought up land all over the coast. We have to take a second look.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Megan was thinking about her kids. Yet another one of Dad’s girlfriends ended up being a bust. This time for criminal reasons. “And do you really think the woman I met for lunch a couple of weeks ago is capable of murder?”
“The second voice Val heard when she was examining the truck was a woman,” Katherine said. “There was a woman and a man before the victim was shot.”
“And you think that was Angela?” She turned to Katherine. “Angela that we had lunch with and talked about the kids and she ordered a fish salad?”
Katherine pursed her lips. “I never ruled out the possibility that she had sociopathic tendencies.”
“A recent study estimated that three to four percent of senior business leaders have sociopathic or psychopathic traits,” Baxter said. “Personally, I believe that’s low, but I don’t have data to back it up.”
“The woman is rich, beautiful, has real estate holdings and resorts,” Megan said. “Why on earth would she endanger all that to steal some rare grapevines?”
“Angela Calvo was engaged to Whit Fairfield, who we know was willing to murder to get Nico’s wine caves,” Toni said. “Even though he could easily afford to build his own. Some people just think the world is theirs for the taking.” She shifted and leaned forward. “Kid, I’m about done with your kicking. Get your butt out of there if you’re that cramped up.”
Henry rubbed her back. “It’s late. We should head home.”
“I want to get my hands on that woman,” Toni said. “I’d make her talk, and I wouldn’t be subtle about it.”
Katherine said, “I would bet Angela Calvo has some pretty impressive internal shields.”
“Can we bring Val along to her winery and have her read stuff there?” Megan asked.
“I think Sully said that he and Val were heading home tomorrow,” Henry said. “They’ve got to get back to Glimmer Lake.”
“Dammit.” Megan looked at Katherine. “Still nothing on your end?”
“I’ve been trying to focus on the victim’s face to see if I could discern any more details, but so far that hasn’t been successful. I spoke to Drew about where the truck was found, but nothing is coming to me.”
“And I’m shaking my walls and uprooting trees, but none of that is very helpful right now.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I called Rodney when we found Adam. I don’t think I want to call him again tonight. I want to think about all this first.”
“Agreed.” Nico put a hand on Megan’s shoulder. “You should take Adam home.”
“If I can wake him up.”
Katherine put her hand on Megan’s arm. “He can stay here tonight if he’d rather. He’s always welcome.”
Megan was at the end of her rope and overwhelmed by the love and generosity in Katherine’s calm gaze. She felt her internal walls start to crumple under the weight of the day, and tears came to her eyes.
Katherine quickly jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Megan as the tears came falling down. “Oh Megan.”
She clutched her friend hard and only started crying harder when she felt Toni’s arms and belly join the crowd. “I couldn’t do this without you girls.”
“Of course you can’t,” Toni said. “You let yourself be outnumbered by children, Atlanta. Rookie move. You need backup.”
Megan laughed through her tears, pulled away, and looked at the two best friends she’d ever had. “I’m serious. I love you girls so much. I cannot imagine my life without you.”
Katherine smiled. “My life is so much more interesting with you and Toni in it,” she said. “Friendship is the best experiment ever.”
“The guys are staring at us,” Toni said.
“Let them stare,” Megan said. “They’re just jealous.”
“That’s quite likely,” Katherine said. “Masculine displays of affection are often maligned or misunderstood in American culture.”
Nico was leaning against a wall, smiling at the three of them. “Shows what you know.” He waved at Henry. “Get over here, asshole.” Nico motioned toward Baxter. “You too, Professor. Bring it in.”