Crush - Alan Jacobson [31]
“Yeah.” Doesn’t come close to summing it up, but that’s good enough for now.
“That was you?” Dixon snapped her fingers. “With the state senator—”
“Yes again.” Vail waved her hand. She wasn’t sure if she was waving it to get off the topic or to . . . get off the topic. “So yeah, it’s possible the UNSUB heard something and freaked, like you said. But there’s the issue of the other body we dug out of that collapsed wine cave that was missing the toenail. So I don’t think that’s what we’re looking at here.”
“The choking, crushing injury is pretty violent. That could be a sign of anger.”
Vail considered that. “True. Let’s wait and see what your coroner tells us about the other body. Then we can make some additional judgments, build on our profile. Right now, with just two vics, it’s hard to be accurate in our conclusions. I can only tell you what it looks like, but the odds of me being wrong are higher with so few bodies. We need more bodies, more behavior, to evaluate.” Vail shook her head. “That didn’t come out right. I’m not wishing we had more bodies—”
“I know what you meant,” Dixon said.
“I can draw one conclusion with reasonable certainty. We’re dealing with an organized offender. Intelligent and potentially socially adept. Since there were no defensive wounds, it appears he was able to co-opt his victim in such a way that she doesn’t see him as a threat. In other words, he was capable of emotionally disarming her so she’d go along with him until he could strike. If she had any objections, he successfully neutralized them.”
Dixon’s phone began vibrating on her belt. She flipped it open and listened a moment. “Okay, meet me over there.”
She closed the phone and turned to Vail. “Warrant’s ready. Clerk is delivering it to Silver Ridge.”
VAIL AND DIXON arrived at the winery a moment ahead of the law clerk, who handed over the warrant in the parking lot.
“You sure we’re going to need that?” Vail asked. “We’re not talking about protected information.”
“Not personally. But it’s proprietary information important to Silver Ridge’s business. A place like this is going to want to protect its guest list. Eventually, they’d turn it over. But this makes it a whole lot faster and easier.”
As they got out of the car, Vail sighed and shook her head. “This is where my vacation started. And ended.”
“How so?”
“We were first on the scene, so to speak. We were on the tour and pairings dinner.”
“How’d you score a Silver Ridge tour? Pretty exclusive. And expensive.”
“It’s both. Robby’s got a friend here who’s got connections.”
“Nice friend to have.”
They took the warrant into the main building, walked through the large, windowed tasting room with low-hanging fiber-optic lights, and asked for the administration office. After Dixon badged the secretary, they were handed off to the wine sales manager.
A tall woman with chic black-rimmed glasses, she leaned back in her chair and appraised Vail and Dixon.
“I take it you’re not here to join our wine club.”
Vail glanced at the placard on the woman’s desk. “Thanks, Catherine. Perhaps another time. We would, however, like a copy of your guest list, specifically those people who’ve purchased tickets for wine cave tours or the wine-pairing dinners during the past five years.”
Catherine removed her glasses and studied Vail’s face. “You were here the other night, when Miguel found—”
“The dead body, yes,” Vail said. “I don’t know why, but wherever I go, violence seems to follow me. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.”
Catherine gave her a look Vail took to be somewhat hostile.
“So,” Dixon said. “Your guest list. We’ll also need a list of all your employees going back ten years.”
Catherine thinned her lips into a tense smile. “That’s not going to happen. I’m sure our customers don’t want their names ending up in some police file associated with a murder investigation—”
“I thought you might say that,” Dixon said. “So I had this prepared. Just for you.” Dixon grinned politely, then handed over the warrant as if it was a gift certificate.
But, of course, it wasn’t. The woman