“Where were you?”
Collin arched his brow and lifted his eyes upward, almost making her laugh. “Between what hours, Carter?”
“Ten and two in the morning?”
She snorted. “In bed like most people who live in the valley who aren’t working hospitality that night.”
“You didn’t go out?”
“Not during those hours. I’d been out to dinner with Collin and two of his friends.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Guichos Tacos. Saw a couple of other folks there, too.”
“That unregistered food truck on the south side of town?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. No way was she going to comment on the other thing. Food trucks like Guichos, ones that fed locals at reasonable prices, were a battleground between those who embraced economic diversity and those who wanted a dozen new Michelin-star restaurants.
“What time did you get home?”
“Nine. A little after. I went to bed straightaway.”
“You didn’t go out again?”
“It would be hard to go out again when I was in bed asleep.”
“And you didn’t hear or see anything in the vineyard? Don’t you have a window that looks out that direction?”
“I do. But again, it would be hard to see anything in the field when my curtains were drawn andI was asleep.”
Collin grinned and held up his phone again. She read the message but wasn’t sure if she was supposed to volunteer the comment or if it was a heads-up as to what was coming.
“I understand there’s no CCTV out by your house or the vineyard.”
Ah, a heads-up.
With her eyes on the response Collin had prepped for her, she answered. “There isn’t. But as you saw, it’s impossible to drive out to the vineyard from Sundaram. From my house, you’d have to go out the main gate, where there is CCTV, then circle back on the connector road. If you’re thinking I killed Kurt somewhere, loaded his body into a vehicle, then dumped it inthe vineyard between ten and two last night, you’ll have to think again.”
Carter paused. He must have put a hand over the receiver as all they heard were muffled voices before he returned twenty seconds later.
“Thank you. We’ll be in touch.”
She disconnected the call, then set her phone on the dryer. “Well, that was exciting.”
“That was annoying. Any reason they’d focus on you?” Collin asked, irritation deepening his voice. The tone raised the hair on her arms, as if each little filament was seeking him out.
She made a face. “Even less reason than they had for Justin. I knew Kurt, but we weren’t overly friendly. He dated someone on our waitstaff, so we’d occasionally see him around, but we didn’t spend any time together.” She paused. “I’m a little slow to this game, but is it weird that my name has cropped up in two murders in the past week? I don’t think Napa has ever hadanymurders like these, and now there’s two and I’m being questioned about both.”
Any hope she had of Collin reassuring her died when his lips curled in and he frowned the tiniest bit.
“I don’t like it either,” he said. “I also don’t like that people from your past keep cropping up.”
She cocked her head. “People from my past?”
“Justin and Kurt, but also Trish and Derek. Not to mention Derek was giving you a hard time.”
“I don’t know what to tell you about Derek, but as for Trish, people come and go from Napa all the time. And given that I went to school here for five years, it’s not unusual for me to know folks moving home. Usually, people who left because they hated it but now realize it’s not a bad place to live.”
