Page 26 of A Winter of Discontent for Henry Milch
“I felt like I needed someone on my side.”
And we were definitely cheaper than a lawyer.
“They can’t possibly think I’d kill someone and leave the body in front of my own business!”
“If it was Sheriff Crocker I’d say yes, absolutely. Detective Lehmann is a lot smarter, though. Did he ask why you’re here so early?”
“He did.”
I waited a moment. She didn’t elaborate. Instead, she said, “Oh look at those cheeks! I just want to pinch them.”
Thankfully, she meant the baby.
“Why are you here so early?” I asked.
“Oh, sorry. I had a client meeting to talk about a wedding. We do summer weddings. Set up tables outside or use the barn if the weather’s bad. They didn’t show up. I mean, maybe they were early and saw a corpse in front of door and ran for the hills. I don’t know. I’ll have to call them.”
“What time did you get here?”
“Eight.”
“And what time did you close last night?”
“Seven.”
“So, the body was dumped here sometime between then.”
“Well, no. We close at seven, but we don’t always leave right away. I think we left closer to eight.”
I went over to the door and bent down close to the floor so I could get a better look at Bobbie. The emotion on her face was fear, terror really. It was disturbing, so I tried not to think about it and focused on details. What was I seeing? Her eyeswere open and bloodshot. There were tiny red specks all over her face—though they might have been there before. She wasn’t wearing makeup. There were a couple of scratches on her neck. Her parka was open, and underneath she wore pajamas.
The bottoms were a solid blue, so I hadn’t realized what they were when I’d seen her outside. The top was printed with cartoon sheep jumping around. Counting sheep. Get it? The pajamas had guest starred onDawson’s CreekandAlly McBeal. I’d tried to get a pair, but they were way out of a barista’s budget. How did Roberta pay for?—
Maybe that wasn’t the important point right now. The important thing here was that she’d been ready for bed or even in bed when she was killed, meaning it was likely she was killed in her home and brought to the winery to implicate Melanie. I changed my mind about something.
Melanie was back to poking at my sister. Really, it was a bit much. I cleared my throat. “No offense, but it does kind of make sense that you’d dump her body here if you killed her.”
“Whose side are on?”
“Yours. But we need to think this through. It looks like she was killed in her home and then dumped here to implicate you. Which is stupid because you wouldn’t do that. But that makes it smart. Making it look like someone is trying to implicate you would be smart because it makes you look innocent.”
“Is that what Detective Lehmann thinks?”
“Possibly. He asked where you were last night?”
“He did. I was in bed. Alone. My husband and I split a few years ago. He was one of the other three friends.”
“Who was the third friend?”
“Eddie Wilton. A close friend of ours. He died in a hiking accident. His parents inherited his portion of the winery. They’re like silent investors now.”
“So, they stand to lose as much as you if Bobbie was successful?”
“But she wasn’t going to win. Not after what you found out.”
“True. Did Lehmann ask when the last time you saw Bobbie was?”
“He did, yeah, um… I’ve seen her around. Main Street Café a couple of times. Bensons. That’s about it. How do you think she died?”
