A Deadly Draught (24 page)

Jake stopped by to say hello in the early afternoon. I think he was astonished to see me where he had told me I ought to be. With the crush of people wanting to make purchases, Jake and I couldn’t find time to talk about Rafe or Bernie and their involvement in blowing my well. I invited him over later in the evening for after-dinner coffee. I hoped I would have a surprise for him then.

The last group of people left the grounds around three in the afternoon. My vendors reported more than a usual number of sales, too. Several more Saturdays selling this volume of beer, assuming I could produce more product, and I might hold off the wolf at the door until late September, when the other brewers and I would put together an Octoberfest, but that meant I’d be working day and night.

At four in the afternoon, I pulled my truck into a lane downhill from the brewery and waited for Ronald to show. He and I had agreed to present a united front to the culprits who drugged me, but after fifteen minutes of waiting for him, I decided to go it alone. He would show up soon.

I hiked up the hill, circled the buildings, and approached the operation from behind. This place was so different from mine. It shouted state-of-the-art brewing, whereas mine cried for paint and repairs. His buildings were painted white and trimmed with blue. A split rail fence enclosed the property. Gold-lettered signage provided visitors with information about hours of operation and the location of brewery, gift shop, and tasting cellar. I spied my target’s wheels parked at the end of the driveway. I used the door at the rear of the barn to enter the building.

The person I was seeking stood alone beside the bottling line, his back to me as I entered. I wondered where his buddy was. I fantasized about putting him in one of the vats and fermenting him along with a hearty stout. It would do the stout no good, but it would give me some satisfaction. He whirled around as my footsteps echoed on the concrete floor.

“You.”

“Where’s your partner?” His face looked pale in the afternoon light. Not so brave now without back-up, but then, I was without my back-up, too.

“So, is this what you meant by a relative that did some home brewing? Just how are you and Teddy related anyway?”

I watched as he swallowed, his large Adam’s apple working its way up his throat and back down. He picked up something from the floor and moved toward me. It looked like a short length of hose.

“Here I thought you were such a quick learner. I never suspected you knew it all before you came to me,” I said. I began to circle away from him, keeping my eyes on his hand holding the hose.
Reinforcements. Where was my back-up?

Before he could answer, the door linking the bottling area to storage opened, and another man appeared in the doorway, his figure backlit by the sunlight coming through the opening. It was too short to be Ronald. With that height and rotund belly, it could only be Teddy.

“What’s going on, Hera? What are you doing here?”

“I found her snooping around. She looked like she was up to something, Uncle Teddy.”

I saw Teddy take in the piece of hose in his nephew’s hand. “I don’t think so. Put down that hose, you idiot. Tell me what’s happening, and don’t lie to me.”

Brian dropped the hose to the floor, then hung his head and muttered something under his breath.

“Speak up.” Teddy pulled back his hand as if to hit him.

“Let him alone, Teddy. I think he’s too scared to say a word. I’ll tell you what I know.”

I quickly told Teddy about the slashed hose, the cut tire on Jeremiah’s bike, and the attack on me by Brian and an accomplice.

“You saw Brian before you passed out, but did you see the other fellow’s face?”

“There was something familiar about it, but I didn’t recognize him.”

Brian’s head came up, and he let out a snort of a laugh.

“You’re not so smart. It wasn’t a fella at all. It was a girl.”

*

I put the call in to Jake, knowing he would be furious that I had gone on a snooping expedition when he’d ordered me to stay put. He arrived at Teddy’s place only minutes after my call. Another sheriff’s car followed. The officer took away Brian. Teddy, Jake, and I talked in the tasting cellar.

“My sister’s kid. He was always a problem, but recently I thought he’d straightened himself out a bit. I guess I was wrong. Then the little bastard tries to blame the whole thing on me, saying it was my idea to make trouble at your place.” Teddy’s face got redder and fuller as he spoke. I worried that he was going to have a stroke.

“It’s okay. I know you wouldn’t have your hand in such a thing.” Jake’s face said he didn’t agree with my assessment.

“Let me tell you a story about Teddy.” I looked at Teddy for his permission. He knew what I was going to say. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded.

“Teddy loves beer. You can visit here any time of the day or night and find him wandering his brew house, taking in its smells and sounds. But what I didn’t know until one evening, as I was walking the hills between his place and mine, was that Teddy is a true romantic about the history of brewing in this area. I found him sitting next to the old hop house now burned to the ground. Can I tell him what you said, Teddy?” He stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor. All I could see of his face was the top of his bald head. He gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“He said, ‘Too bad mold got the hops and wiped them out as a crop around here. Wouldn’t it be great to make a brew like the old days using local hops?’ Then he added in true Teddy fashion, ‘Oh, not that you could make any money doing it. Too risky. Mold might hit again, but it would be great. Those were the days.’ So you see, our Teddy might be a bull of a business competitor, but he’s honorable.”

Teddy’s face got red again, but this time I thought it was from blushing. He cleared his throat and spoke.

“Find out who was behind what Brian did. I know he wasn’t in this alone. He’s not that smart. He’s a follower. Someone must have been paying him.”

“I’m following Hera home, then I’ll be visiting Brian’s accomplice.”

“I want to come with you,” I said.

“This is official police business. I can’t have you with me when I make an arrest.” Jake walked with me to the lane where I parked my truck.

“I want to see the expression on her face and hear her try to wiggle out of this one.”

“She’ll clam up around you. I’ll apply some pressure.”

“Be careful what kind of pressure you apply.”

“Jealous?” He placed his hand on my chin and pulled my face nearer his. “Go home. I’ll arrest Cory and tell you all about her exploits when I stop by. It might be a little later than we planned.” His lips touched mine, and we drew closer together. Soon, not even one of the gnats buzzing around our heads could have fit between us.

“So you’re not mad at me anymore?”

“No, but I’m sure, given your propensity for not doing what you’re told, I will be again, probably sooner than later.”

He twisted me around to face my truck, patted my ass, and walked off into the fading light. I watched him go, admiring the way his uniform pants cupped the muscles of his buttocks. Then I remembered.

“What about Rafe?”

“Later.”

*

What about Ronald? He’d failed me, hadn’t showed when he agreed to help. Everything turned out fine, but what if Teddy hadn’t appeared when he did? Would Brian have used that hose on me?

As darkness set in, the breeze from the north picked up. It felt like a storm was brewing. This time, I thought I could smell rain in the air, but I’d imagined that before, and the winds tossed us nothing but dust. I paced my living room, waiting for Jake to appear. When I heard a vehicle in the drive, I rushed to the window. Mammoth raindrops hit the panes with enough force to rattle the glass. I could just make out Jake’s SUV through a sheet of water driven almost horizontally against the house. Jake banged on the door, then opened and closed it quickly to keep out the storm.

“This looks real bad. Maybe we should be waiting it out in your basement,” he said, but just as soon as the words left his mouth, all was quiet. The storm retreated with as little warning as when it arrived. A light rain continued to fall, but the wind subsided. Just another false alarm. I poured coffee, and we sat down together on the couch.

“Cory admitted she and Brian tried to scare you last night, but she said it was only a prank. She said Stanley recommended it. I guess he doesn’t like you.” He looked at me, and we both laughed.

“When I asked her about the slashed hose and the bicycle tire, she looked genuinely puzzled. Brian may have accomplished those deeds on his own or maybe under Stanley’s supervision.” He relaxed into the couch and slipped his arm around my shoulder.

“Stanley, that impotent jerk, playing adolescent games with me. What did I ever do to him?”

Jake let go a short laugh. “Let’s see. Maybe your influence over Michael. Neither Cory nor Stanley was happy Michael held you in such regard. Although he’s out of the picture now, Stanley carries a grudge. I think he wanted to leave his calling card in your brewery. I’ll find him, and then we’ll have a little talk. As for Brian, Teddy bailed him out minutes after we slapped him in jail.”

“I feel kind of sorry for him. I’d rather spend my time in a cell than be in debt to my Uncle Teddy, who’ll probably keep Brian busy in the brewery for no pay. Then there’ll be Teddy’s nagging at him all day. And Cory?”

“Jail also, but I think she’s trying to get someone to bail her out. She couldn’t locate Stanley. Isn’t that a big surprise? So she was considering calling Michael.”

I paused and thought about what I was going to say next with caution.

“You still think Ronald is guilty of his father’s murder?”

He withdrew his arm from around me and sat up, his eyes darkened with suspicion.

“What do you know?”

I told him about Ronald’s trip to the city with Deni and his return here after Jake left last night.

“Where is he now? You’d better tell me, Hera.”

Instead, I told him Ronald’s story about the shovel, the strange words his father uttered when they met, and my suspicions about Ronald’s parentage. Jake wasn’t happy that I had kept the story from him, but he relaxed again as I recited my tale.

“It’s about time you leveled with me. You have such loyalty to the Ramford family, I find it hard to trust you. Now that everything is out in the open, I can deal with the situation.”

I smiled and mentally crossed my fingers. Of course, I hadn’t told him about how Ronald failed to show up at Teddy’s after he promised to help me.

I was quick to add, “Anyone could have gotten hold of that shovel. Ronald left it behind, so it was there when the murderer met Mr. Ramford that night.”

Jake’s cell phone rang. He answered and listened while playing with one of the curls that escaped my ponytail.

“What?” There was a note of disbelief and anger in his voice. He got off the couch and moved to the window. He flipped the cell shut, turned and looked at me with disappointment in his eyes.

“Ronald’s van ran off the thruway heading north out of the city.”

I clapped my hands across my mouth in shock. “Oh, no. Is he all right?”

“He’s in a Kingston hospital with a broken clavicle. Deni wasn’t with him. He sent a message to you.”

“Oh.”

“He said to tell you he’s sorry he didn’t show up today at Teddy’s. What the hell is going on?”

I told him. When I finished, he stood at the window, a bolt of lightening ripping apart the night sky. I waited for another flash to follow, but the storm rode away beyond the western hills.

“I’ve got suspects to question.” He walked to the door and paused with his hand on the knob, then turned and looked at me.

“Just so you won’t worry, your friend Rafe never killed anybody. Bernie admitted he made up the story and gave the victim a cut of the blackmail money to keep his mouth shut. Then, when Rafe left for the United States, it took Bernie a while to track him down and begin hitting him up for cash again. Rafe got tired of the charade, decided to stop paying and to come clean with the authorities in England on the murder. I contacted them, and there was no report of a murder. All these years, he’s been paying for a crime he didn’t commit.”

He settled his hat on his head, straightened it, and looked at me with hard eyes. “You’ve lied to me all along about one thing and another, Hera. All your lies were to protect the Ramford family, and that hurt me, but I think it’s hurt you more.”

He touched the brim of his hat. “I’ll be going now. ‘Night.”

I gulped and dug my nails into the palms of my hands. I thought I’d never see him again.

*

But I did see him, and sooner than I expected. I couldn’t sleep Tuesday morning, so I was in my brew barn, my steps weaving in and out of the barley sacks, vats, and fermenter, calculating how much longer I could stay in business. Supplying water to Rafe and to Michael out of the old well was no longer an option for me, and the other well couldn’t handle the demand from all three operations. I was back to where I started before I opened the additional well. I sang the same refrain—water, now more limited than before, and still no money. I was counting on Saturday tastings to both sell my product and create public demand for my beers.

Rafe no longer paid blackmail to Bernie, but that didn’t mean I could hit him up for a loan. The last time I saw him, I turned my back on him, damning him for his relationship with Bernie and what it had done to me. Wasn’t I in the same situation with my connections to the Ramford family? I couldn’t blame Jake for how he felt about my defense of them, especially when I shaved the truth so many times on their behalf.

I heard the fire whistle blow, then waited for the warning sounds of the fire engines to see what direction they would take out of town. The sirens got louder, so I ran out of the barn, shaded my eyes against the sun, and saw black smoke and flames rising from behind the ridge separating Ramford’s place from mine.

I started up the path to the crest of the hill. When I got to the highest part, I could see the barn and outbuildings of the Ramford brewery in flames. The house, which stood some distance from the other structures, was not yet affected, but it soon could be, depending upon the direction of the wind. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the air, and the house roof lifted off the walls, shingles and splintered wood flying skyward and then cascading to the ground in flaming waves of debris.