10
Jack McLachlan
I turn the five-hour drive to Chalice into a little more than four. When I arrive, I see Clyde standing outside the office building, waiting for me. “Jack, it’s been too long. I’m glad to have you here, but I’d be happier if it wasn’t under these circumstances.”
Clyde began working for my father at Chalice before I was born and now he works for me. I’ve known him my entire life, so I trust him. “I’m sorry I had to drag you out of bed in the middle of the night for this.”
“It goes with the territory, Clyde. The good, the bad, and the ugly. This just happens to be a dose of the bad and ugly at the same time.”
“The fire chief said he would be here at nine, so I expect him any minute.”
I’m anxious to see the burned area. “Can we go out to survey the damage?”
“Not until he’s finished inspecting it in the daylight. There were a lot of people working to put out the fire, so he doesn’t want any further contamination of the scene.”
That seems reasonable. I check my watch and see it is a quarter to nine. Paige has gotten my package by now and I have a few minutes before the fire inspector will arrive, so I try out our new means of communication.
I take out the phone meant only for Paige’s calls and dial her number. She must have had the phone in her hand because she answers on the first ring. “Good mornin’, Mr. Henry.”
“Good morning, Miss Beckett.”
“Are you wondering how I knew it was you?” I could hear the amusement in her voice.
“Could it possibly be because I’m the person who sent you the phone and I’m the only person with the number? Or because my name came up on the caller ID?”
She laughs. “None of the above.”
“No, huh?” Though I’d been in a hurry before leaving this morning, I had taken the time to program a personalized ringtone. “Maybe it was the ‘Talk Dirty to Me’ ringtone.”
“That’s the more likely reason.”
“Liked that, did you?”
“Very much so. You deserve extra points for that.”
So, she’s keeping score? “I was unaware of the extra point system. What does a personalized ringtone earn me, Miss Beckett?”
“I haven’t chosen a reward system yet, but I’ll let you know once I decide.”
She has another decision I am way more interested in than a points-and-reward system. “Please do. I might want to work harder on earning extra points if the reward is worth the work.”
“My prize is always worth the effort, Mr. Henry. Have you solved your problem at the vineyard yet?”
“Yes and no. There was a fire last night so the imminent danger is over, but I’m waiting for the fire inspector to come out so he can tell us what happened. I’ll be tied up with this mess most of the day. Since it’s a four- to five-hour drive, I won’t be back until late. I was hoping to get a rain check on our plans, possibly tomorrow?”
“Hmm, I’ll have to check my social calendar. It seems to be pretty full at the moment.” She hesitates. “Looks like I can work you in.”
I wonder if I’ll ever get used to her playfulness. “Same plan? Pick you up at ten?”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I see a vehicle coming up the drive and assume it’s the fire inspector. Good. He’s early. I’m ready to be done with this so I can get back to Avalon. Back to Paige. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
We end our call and I meet the inspector outside my office. He explains the evidence he’ll be collecting and how it’ll be used in the investigation. I follow him to the site and stay out of his way as he gathers the proof of someone trying to burn my vineyard.
Seeing the damage is painful, but I remind myself of how it could’ve been much worse if any of my people had been injured.
“I’m sending this evidence for testing because I have to, but I don’t need the results to tell you this was arson. There’s accelerant all over the scene, so you might want to be thinking about who your enemies are. They could try this again.”
I don’t have to think about it; I know who did this. “I’ll do that.”
I walk the investigator back to his car and then go into my office where Clyde is waiting to hear the verdict. He’s sitting in one of the chairs across from my desk, so I walk around and fall into an exhausted slump in my leather chair. “He said he didn’t need to see the results from the evidence to know it was arson.”
“Do you have any idea who would want to do something like that?”
We went back a long way, but I couldn’t tell Clyde about the knee-deep shit I’d gotten myself into, so I lie to the man I thought of as a second father. “No. You have any suspicions?”
“The only thing that pops into my head would be a competitor, but they wouldn’t have struck this early in the season or after a rain. That is amateur work.”
Or the work of a sociopath trying to get my attention.