Wine, Dine and Christmas Crimes by Maria Grazia Swan

Author:Maria Grazia Swan [Swan, Maria Grazia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Baker Girls, Romance, Murder, Psychic Medium, christmas, Phoenix, Arizona
Publisher: Echo Canyon Press
Published: 2019-08-15T22:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

TEN O’CLOCK, HE’D said. Like a boss? Not really. I had no clue what to make of the whole scenario. But I was ready.

By nine forty-five I had everything on Brenda’s list nicely stacked by her back door ready for pick-up. 80 percent I’d found in her pantry. Apparently Brenda was getting ready to do some serious cooking down at the ranch. The other 20 percent had consisted of her personal items and dog food.

As I dried my hair earlier on, it had dawned on me that Tristan never did explain why or who wanted me at the Tucson property. “There's got to be a morning after” had been silently shouting at my subconscious from the minute I opened my eyes. Ah, the irony of the combination, water in my eyes and the theme song from The Poseidon Adventure in my head forced me to think about Ana Martin, The Nest drowning victim, that and subsequently the wasted day at the police station.

Brenda had cunningly texted about seeing me soon and being in a hurry to do something. It was a preemptive strike against my chance to grill her about the drive ahead and above all, the driver.

The smell of conspiracy filled the Monday morning air as Tristan’s black SUV backed up the driveway. When he spotted me out there his smile was a mix of surprise and...dare I call it joy? Nooo, according to Kassandra and her last Tarot reading, I shouldn’t project stuff like that. Projection or not, he seemed happy to see me and the pile of stuff next to me. There.

“Hey, Fiat, looks like you’re ready to go. Okay if we grab some coffee down the road?” He easily loaded the two boxes filled with pantry items. The boxes were the ones Brenda always recycled, but Tristan didn’t know that, the better to let him believe I was super organized.

“Coffee sounds terrific. Let me get my stuff and lock up.” Fifteen minutes later we were on the 51 heading toward Interstate 10. “I feel like I’m playing hooky.”

“Did you ever do that?” he asked.

“Couldn’t.” I shrugged, “I’m from a small town where everybody knows everyone. The only time my sister and I decided to skip school it started to rain really bad, and the only place we could go and hide was either church or the train station. We picked the train station, by the time we made it there we were soaking wet, and the woman minding the newspaper stand called our mother. I’ll spare you the details.”

He chuckled between sips of coffee. “Oh, girl, I’m so glad you’re going with me, the road can get tedious after a while.”

“How often do you go to the ranch?”

“I will need to make bi-weekly trips until it’s up and running, but then only every few months. I don’t want to bore you with details. The goal is for the place to be self-supporting in about 2 years. We have a big dedication planned for after the holidays. As soon as we set the date, I’ll let you know so you can save the day.

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