Page 27 of A Little Bit Whiskey
“Congratulations,” Tamsyn said. “Give my best to Bennett.”
Aton’s wife had graduated with Tamsyn. She’d been a quiet girl. Smart, pretty, but not popular because she lived on the wrong side of the tracks, and she’d been poor. Dirt poor. So poor that her parents often had to send her to school with bread and butter for lunch. That was it. Tamsyn knew what it was like to be on the outs with the entire town and did her best to be kind to Bennett. It was nice to see her and Aton carving out a little piece of happiness for themselves.
“So, you two are a couple now.” Aton smiled. “That’s causing quite the stir in this town. Sorry about Tiffany. I filled her in on the facts. She shouldn’t have treated you that way. Personally, I’m happy for the two of you. Now, what can I start you off with?”
“How about a bottle of Eliza Jane’s newest blend and pair that with this cheese platter.” Noir tapped the menu.
“That’s perfect,” Aton said. “That wine is selling like bananas. Everyone is raving about it.”
“That’s good to know.” Noir set his menu aside and stared at Tamsyn with adoring eyes.
She would never tire of the way Noir treated her with kindness and respect.
“I have to admit it’s weird having Anna be so nice to me and she’s even being agreeable to my mom,” Noir said.
The front door opened and Noir’s father strolled inside. He didn’t bother making small talk with Tiffany; he marched right over to Noir’s table. “Sorry to interrupt your dinner.” His dad pulled out a chair and made himself comfortable. “We need to talk.”
“It’s never good when you start a conversation like that,” Noir said.
“Should I excuse myself?” Tamsyn asked. Sometimes his family could come in hot and anyone involved with their children needed to know when to exit gracefully. A skill Tamsyn had yet to master.
“Nope. This involves you, unfortunately.” Carter let out a long breath.
Aton stepped up to the table with a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Oh. Hello, Mr. River. Shall I get you a glass?”
“Yes, please,” Carter said. “I’m going to need a bit of alcohol.”
“I’ll be right back.” Aton set the two glasses down, along with the bottle and scurried off.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Noir asked. “If it’s so important, why didn’t you have us come home?”
“I’d like to know that too.” Tamsyn fiddled with her napkin. The last time Carter River needed to down some alcohol where she had been concerned, was when she’d accused Weezer of killing her mother. That had been one hell of a chat. One that ended with Tamsyn understanding more about her mom than she wanted to.
“I didn’t want to risk anything being in a text string.” Carter reached across the table, snagging the wine and corkscrew, opening the bottle himself.
“Oh, no, sir. Let me do that for you,” Aton said as he set the third glass on the table.
“No worries, Aton. I’ve got it.” Carter poured most of the bottle into the wineglasses. “Thanks.” Carter was mostly a patient man. He could wait for the right opportunity to do almost anything. The sense of urgency palpating from his skin was completely unnerving, and it took a lot to rattle Tamsyn.
Aton was a good waiter and knew when it was time to disappear, and he did just that.
“I’m going to talk, and you two are going to listen.” Carter turned his attention to Tamsyn. “Especially you. When I’m finished, we’ll go over the legalities of everything.”
“Dad—”
“Quiet, son.” Carter took a hearty sip. “You remember how we installed a new security system last year?”
Noir nodded.
“Well, someone tampered with it. I know this because one of the cameras on west side of the vineyard was disabled a couple of days ago. I wasn’t sure if it was a glitch or something else.”
“What do you mean, disabled? And how do you know someone tampered with it?” Tamsyn found it difficult to shut off the cop side of her brain. A hazard of the job.
Carter ran a hand over his face. “At first, it seemed like something happened to the camera. That it just went offline, as if it had malfunctioned, so I had a new one installed and everything is up and running. But something didn’t sit right with me or the company that runs the security at the winery.”
“What did you find?” Tamsyn leaned forward.
“The system isn’t overly complicated. It’s a bunch of motion sensors that once tripped, activate the cameras that only record once motion is detected. Because the wind can set those suckers off, we check them, then allow the system to tape over them. We got notice that one went off. Shortly after, it went offline, but when we checked the video, we didn’t see anything. However, because the company concluded neither the camera nor sensors were defective, they did a deep dive and found footage of a trespasser on the winery.”
