Page 50

“Oh, it’s fine,” I said hastily and got to my feet. “I need to be at work soon anyway. Thank you so much for telling me all that.”

She gave me a small squeeze of the hand, then opened the door and headed back to the front office.

I picked up my purse and went out through a side door I noticed as I left the meeting room. When I got to the car, I stood there for a few minutes, thinking furiously.

Diane was there, too.

Simply playing chauffeur to her mother-in-law? Nell had said Meg was ninety, and although Hazel had still been driving herself at that age, a lot of people didn’t. It wasn’t so strange that Diane would have been the one to take Meg on her various errands, especially anything at Sacred Heart, since I knew Diane volunteered there a lot.

I was still standing there, pondering, when Diane Lindley pulled into the parking lot, driving a silver Lexus SUV.

Speak of the devil.

“Lorelei,” she said as she got out of the vehicle. Her tone was warm and friendly, exactly as it should have been, but I still found myself narrowing my eyes for a moment. “What a coincidence! I was just dropping off some paperwork for Father Esteban. How’re you holding up?”

“I’m fine,” I replied. My tone was remarkably even, all things considered. “I dropped by to talk to Nell.”

Diane’s smile wavered. “Oh!” she said brightly. “About what?”

“Just to give my condolences properly,” I lied. “She was so upset at the reception that I felt as if I’d barely been able to say anything meaningful.”

“That was kind of you,” Diane replied. “Nell does tend to take things hard.” Now the smile was back, warm and easy. “I heard about the break-in at Copper State Cellars. That’s just awful. I hope nothing was taken?”

Nothing except my peace of mind.

“No, they didn’t get anything,” I told her.

“Oh, thank goodness.” She paused there for a second or two, although the friendly smile was still firmly in place. “You know, Lorelei, I don’t want to overstep, but I think you should be careful. This whole situation is really troubling. You’re new to town, and you don’t have a lot of people to watch your back. Whoever is doing all this seems to have something specifically against your bar. Maybe you should consider taking some time off and getting away for a few days.”

Somehow, I managed to put on a smile of my own. “That’s very kind of you. I’ll think about it.”

“Please do.” She gave me a motherly pat on the arm, although I didn’t think my own mother had ever touched me like that. We’d never been a very demonstrative family. “And if you need anything at all, just call me.”

Then she headed toward the office, a manila envelope I hadn’t noticed before in her left hand.

Take some time off and get away for a few days.

It was the sort of thing a friend might say. On the other hand, it was also the kind of thing someone would say if they wanted me out of the way.

Frowning, I got in the Mercedes and drove over to Copper State Cellars.

Wes Lindley showed up around two-thirty with the replacement door. I greeted him pleasantly, mostly because my suspicions about him were just that — suspicions, nothing more. I certainly didn’t have anything close to concrete evidence.

And besides, we really needed to get that new side door installed. I hated thinking about how a sheet of plywood was the only thing protecting all our stock and equipment.

Because it was slow, I stopped to watch Wes work. He smiled at me and said, “I should have this done in an hour. It’ll be a lot more secure than what you used to have. Also, I’m going to add a brace on the inside for after hours. That should keep out anyone who doesn’t have a good reason to come in. The shop next door had already called me about the same thing,” he added. “The whole block’s spooked. Can’t say I blame them.”

“Spooked” maybe wasn’t the word I would have chosen, but I understood what he meant. I managed to smile back at him, although I wouldn’t have wanted to take bets on what my face was actually doing right then.

Mack was hanging out at the end of the bar. When Wes went out to his truck to fetch a tool he didn’t have with him, the ghost caught my eye and gave a small shake of his head, basically telling me that he still couldn’t tell me whether he thought Wes was the culprit.

A lot of good that did me.

Marco came in late that day because he had a sommelier exam to take. Not that it would have mattered, because things were so quiet that I could have handled the place on my own with maybe a little backup from Roz, who was currently in the office, working on her interminable accounting. Just as I’d feared, the murder had slowed foot traffic…and I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any better until the killer was safely behind bars.

Around five-thirty, Father Frank appeared on his barstool. Funny how ghosts could look tired in the same way people could look tired, but his usually cheerful face seemed to droop, and I wished I could pour him a glass of red to cheer him up.

Marco was across the room tending to our only customers, a couple I guessed were tourists from Phoenix, judging by their T-shirts and shorts, clothing that was definitely inadequate for the cool day outside, so I figured it was safe to lean in close to Father Frank and murmur,