“Did you ever wonder who started those rumors?” Lucy asked softly.
“Who cares?”
“For the record, I think my aunt might have fired up that gossip.”
“It’s almost impossible to believe Sara Sheridan murdered Brinker,” Beth whispered, sounding a little awed.
“I had a hard time believing it, too, at first, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Sara really did kill Brinker. I think he returned to Summer River in secret to carry out his revenge. Sara was his first target. But she was waiting for him. She had set a trap of some sort. He didn’t take into account all that yoga and wood chopping. The physical activity made her a very strong woman.”
“All these years I thought he was dead in a drug deal, and all the time he was in your aunt’s fireplace.”
“Did you kill Nolan Kelly?” Lucy asked.
“He came to me the day after Brinker’s body was discovered.” Beth was composed once more. “The fact that Sara had made a point of putting the newspaper with the Scorecard Rapist headlines into the fireplace along with the body had him terrified. He was afraid that she had found some of the videos. He searched the place, but when he couldn’t find anything, he came up with the scheme to burn down the whole house.”
“Why was he concerned about the videos?”
Beth snorted. “Because he starred in one of them. Brinker secretly filmed Nolan bragging about how he could get some high-end designer drugs for the parties as well as pot and cocaine. Afterward, Brinker showed Nolan the video and warned him that if he ever decided to spill his guts to the cops, Brinker would give the video to the police.”
“The video was blackmail material in case Brinker ever wanted to use it against Kelly.”
“Yes,” Beth said.
“I still don’t understand why you killed Kelly.”
“Don’t you get it? He got scared after you found Brinker’s body. I was scared, too. We were both afraid that the cops would reopen the investigation. I knew that if that happened, Nolan would be questioned because half the town was aware of his history as the local pot dealer. Nolan was weak. I knew that if the police came down hard on him, he would break in a second.”
“And give you up as the supplier,” Lucy said. “If they got that far, the cops might also figure out that you were the one who filmed the rapes.”
“At the very least, the scandal would have ruined my career as a winemaker. I couldn’t let Kelly destroy everything I’ve worked for all these years.”
“Did Brinker make a video of you, too?”
“Yes, it showed me laughing about the rapes,” Beth said, back in anxiety mode. “But I knew he would never use it against me. It was just for fun.”
“Right. Still, the fact that it existed and might turn up when I packed Sara’s things made an excellent reason to go ahead and burn down the house. Nolan told you of his plan to torch Sara’s place. You went there that night, shot him and then set the fire yourself.”
“You got it.”
Lucy drove around a curve. The Colfax Winery came into view.
“Drive around the back to the employee parking lot,” Beth ordered. “No one will see your car there.”
Lucy looked at the empty visitors’ lot. “Where are the tourists?”
“The winery is closed today because of a family emergency. Haven’t you heard? The lovely Mrs. Colfax is in intensive care. The staff was sent home.”
“You shot her, didn’t you? It wasn’t Warner. It was you.”
“I wanted to make sure she was dead, but I heard Cecil’s car in the drive and I didn’t dare fire another shot. I knew he would hear it. I had to get away.”
Lucy drove slowly around to the back of the Mediterranean villa. Mentally, she ran through her limited options. She considered ramming the car head-on into one of the buildings in a low-speed crash, but the impact might cause Beth to pull the trigger, whether she intended to or not. The nose of the gun was less than two feet away. Beth could not miss at that distance.
47
Someone’s got her,” Mason said.
He was standing in the nearly deserted parking lot at Harper Ranch Park. He had his phone crushed to his ear. He was holding Lucy’s busted phone and a sheet of paper with a weird-looking family tree in his other hand.
“Son of a bitch,” Deke said softly.
“Lucy was here at the park but she never got back to the inn. Car’s gone. I found her phone. Deke, she figured it out. She’s got Beth Crosby’s name circled on the damn tree.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Deke said. “But we need to think about this before we go charging over some damn cliff. Why would anyone grab Lucy? The merger offer will soon be off the table. Dillon has to know that. It’s all going to fall apart.”
“She wasn’t kidnapped because of the shares.” Mason looked down at the heavily circled square that contained Beth’s name. “This is personal. It has been from the start.”
“But if we’re right about Cecil Dillon—”
“I don’t think he’s the one who grabbed her.” Mason climbed into his car and fired up the engine. “He’s a rare bird in the crime world, a long-range strategist. I can’t see him grabbing Lucy at a public park. No, Beth is the one who took Lucy, I’m sure of it.”
“But why?”
“A mix of revenge and panic and a lack of impulse control.”
“Bad combination. Where are they headed?”
“Colfax Winery. Beth’s out for revenge. She’s obsessed, and she’s panicking. She’ll head there. It’s her world—her creation. She’ll want to destroy it before she makes a run for it. Probably plans to use Lucy as a hostage. Call Whitaker and tell him what’s going on.”
He ended the call and concentrated on his driving. If he got to the winery in time—he would get there in time—he would be dealing with a classic hostage situation. He needed help from someone who knew the winery. He made another call.
Quinn answered on the second ring. “Fletcher? What the hell do you want now?”
Mason told him.
48
You moved on after Brinker, didn’t you?” Lucy said. She couldn’t think of anything else to do except keep talking. “You found another abusive male to love and admire, Warner Colfax. What happened? Did he turn on you, too?”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Beth said. “I never loved Warner Colfax. But we had a deal. I’m making the Colfax name a legend in the wine world, and how does he repay me? He plans to betray me.”