“Which psycho?”
“You know more than one?”
“Bo Hayes. Roy Leland. Jerry Knight.”
“Jez didn’t mess with your damn wine. Who are the other two?”
“Bo lives to the north, and he doesn’t agree with the concept of property lines. We’ve had a number of run-ins over the years. He’s the type of man who believes in settling disputes with his fists, or what’s left of them—two of his fingers got blown off by a pipe bomb long before I moved here.”
“A pipe bomb? Was he in the military?”
“Not that I know of—he just builds that shit for fun.”
Okay, that probably did qualify him as a psycho, but a dumb one. Would he have the finesse to carry out the subtle sabotage of Nolan’s business?
“And Roy?”
“Roy and his wife own the Silver Hollow Vineyard, and Teo used to work for him. Since Teo quit and began working for me, Roy’s talked trash about Dionysus to anyone who’ll listen.”
“Why’d Teo quit?”
“Overworked and underpaid. Staff turnover was insane—every time he got a person trained to do the job, they’d up and leave, never to be seen again. Plus Roy’s a mean drunk.”
“So he’s an asshole. But there’s a difference between talking trash and physical sabotage.”
“True, but Marielle thought she saw him snooping around late one night a couple of months ago.”
Okay, not helping with the anger issues. “Why was Marielle here late one night?”
“Painting a feature wall in the guest cottage.” Nolan ran a finger down my cheek. “My little green-eyed monster.”
“Marielle could have lied to cover up her guilt.”
“But why would she sabotage Dionysus? She wants to get paid. We have a contract.”
“She also wants your attention. Trust me, I know how her mind works. My mom was the same, and every time she decided my dad was too focused on work, she’d act out. One time, she called in a bomb threat to his office.”
Nolan’s eyes saucered. “Are you serious?”
“Yup. The cops traced the call, and Uncle Porter came over to yell at her. You know, when I was little, I used to dream of finding out I was secretly adopted.”
“Do you know for sure that you weren’t?”
“Dad did a DNA test. No dice.”
“He thought your mom cheated?”
I shrugged. “My parents are both tall. Mom’s five feet eleven, and Dad’s five feet ten, six feet with lifts in his shoes. And when I was ten, I just stopped growing, so they took me to the hospital for tests because I didn’t fit with their image or whatever. It was only later that I found out chronic stress in childhood can mess with your growth hormones.”
“The doctor didn’t check that?”
“I mean, he asked if I was stressed about anything, but Mom was sitting next to me, so I had to say no.”
Nolan pulled me into a hug. “I’m tempted to bottle all that over-sulphured wine and ship it to them.”
“Tricky—they’re not at home right now. They had to move out while their house gets fumigated. Did you know you can buy termites on the internet?”
“Tell me you didn’t…?”
