Seven Sisters - Earlene Fowler [48]
“Where did you get these?” I asked.
She ducked her head. Her hair lay flat and soft today, a deep red/brown merlot color. Without her spikes, she appeared younger, more vulnerable. Her kohl-lined gray eyes glowed with fear. “It was in Bliss’s suitcase. I admit I was snooping, and she’ll never forgive me if she finds out, but she’s been so upset, and I’ve been worried sick. She won’t talk to me, and so I went to Sam, and he says he feels like she’s holding something back from him, too. I have to put it back before she gets off duty at three, but I had to show it to somebody. I’m so afraid this somehow will make the police think Cappy had a reason to kill Giles.”
I studied the note, then the gravestone rubbing. “Do you have any idea of the significance of these flowers?,” I asked.
“No,” she said, rubbing her eyes, smearing her makeup.
This would not look good for Cappy if the sheriff’s detectives saw it. Bliss’s question about the importance of job versus family made sense now. “Did you show it to Sam?”
She shook her head no.
“Good, don’t. He doesn’t need to be pulled deeper into this.” I chewed on my bottom lip. To be honest, I wish she hadn’t shown it to me.
Tears welled up in her pale eyes. “Oh, Benni, I’m so sorry to drag you into this. It puts you in an awkward position, but I didn’t know where else to turn. I thought about going to my mom, but she and Cappy have such a prickly relationship that I don’t know what this would set off. I swear, everyone in my family hates each other.” She put her face in her hands and started crying softly. I led her to a chair and sat down next to her, rubbing her back like you would comfort a small child.
“It’s okay,” I lied. “We’ll figure something out.”
I went over to my desk and ran both sheets through my fax machine, making myself passable copies, then handed the originals back to her. I stuck my copies in the pocket of my jeans. “But, JJ, the reality is that someone did kill Giles, and sooner or later the sheriff’s department will figure out who.”
She raised her tear-stained face and looked at me with such trust that I felt like crying myself. “What should we do?”
I sat back down beside her. “Let’s take it one step at a time. It appears from Giles’s note that he knew something about your grandmother that he thought he could use to blackmail her. We need to find out what that is.”
She settled back in the office chair, folding her hands in her lap like a child trying to behave. “I know a few things, Benni, but Susa and Moonie left Seven Sisters before Bliss and I were even a year old. We came back for occasional visits, maybe three in my whole childhood, so there’s a lot that’s happened in the family that Bliss and I don’t know about.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
“Great-Aunt Cappy and Great-Aunt Etta have been fighting over the trust fund since Etta started the winery. Cappy didn’t mind it when Etta’s wine was a hobby. She even seemed proud of Etta’s blue ribbons, but when Etta started wanting money for the winery and it came at the cost of Cappy’s horses, there were fireworks.”
“When did Giles come into the picture?”
“Arcadia met Giles at some wine dinner up in Napa Valley. It was apparently love at first sight for my cousin, and they got married three months later at a huge affair at his father’s estate. About a year or so later I started hearing through Susa’s conversations with Cappy that Giles was making noise about merging the wineries.”
“How did Etta feel about that?”
“I think she was all right with it. All Etta wants is to be left alone to make her wine. It’s more than a job for her. It’s like a calling or something. She’s obsessed with making the perfect bottle of wine.”
“Sort of like producing a champion race horse,” I commented, thinking how much alike the two sisters were. “So where does your great-aunt Willow fit into this?”
“Ever since Arcadia’s parents died when she was nine, Great-Aunt Willow has tried to compensate by treating Arcadia like