Plum Gone: A Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mystery (Sonoma Wine Country Cozy Mysteries Book 2) Read Free Page A

silent while Emma slowly exhaled.
    “Emma,” Piers demanded. “Are you there?”
    “OK,” she finally said. “Yeah. Santiago Gomez. I was just talking about him. Listen, Piers,” she rushed to add. “I haven’t had time to talk to Steve about that lawsuit yet. In fact, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to…”
    Piers cut her off. “I know you’re not going to be able to talk to Steve about dropping the Gomez lawsuit,” he said. “Gomez is dead. The police just called. They found his body. With a knife through his throat.”
    “Oh my goodness,” Emma whispered. The blood was retreating from her ears in loud whoshes and her heart still beat staccato. It’s OK. She tried to calm herself. Everyone’s OK. Everyone meaning Harry, Julie and Piers.
    Suddenly, Emma remembered the sirens. Barely an hour before. Sirens heading north out of town.
    “Where?” she asked.
    “That’s the point,” Piers replied. “Gomez’s cousin found the body on Curt Randall’s ranch this morning. A quarter of a mile from the road. The police have already identified the murder weapon hidden under a tarp in Curt’s garage. Now,” he continued, “thanks to Steve’s self-serving lawsuit, the police believe Curt had a motive to kill Gomez. They’re holding him for murder. Of course, Curt’s madder than blazes. Not to mention that he’s my client and he’s innocent.”
    Piers paused, apparently waiting for Emma to sympathize with his outrage. When she didn’t, he added, “Emma, a young Mexican is dead and a broken-spirited, eighty-eight-year-old innocent man has just been led away in handcuffs. Now don’t you wish you’d convinced that fool boss of yours to stop making trouble and drop that trumped up lawsuit?”

Chapter 2: Saturday Afternoon – Second Thoughts
 
     
    By the time Emma returned to the restaurant, Jack had already heard about the murder. Bad news traveled fast in Blissburg.
    Maureen Tompkins, the police chief’s wife, was seated at their table, her spikey, red-haired head dipped in close to Jack’s.
    “Harry’s fine,” Emma replied to Jack’s questioning look as she sat down next to Maureen. “Piers was calling about all those sirens we heard an hour ago.”
    Maureen nodded knowingly. “I just told Jack all about it.” Suddenly her dark, penciled-in eyebrows shot up. “Of course! Piers is Curt Randall’s lawyer.” She studied Emma’s face for a second. “You know that the old man’s been arrested for murder?”
    “Piers said they found the murder weapon hidden in Curt Randall’s garage,” Emma shrugged.
    Maureen’s eyes narrowed. “The Mexican’s throat was slit. With a pruning knife. The kind they used in the old days. The Chief says it has a very distinctive elk horn hand…”
    Maureen clapped her hand over her mouth. “You didn’t hear that, right? About the murder weapon.”
    Emma and Jack shook their heads. Emma knew it wasn’t the first time Maureen’s big mouth had gotten the better of her. She wasn’t knicknamed “Loose Lips” for nothing.
    “I didn’t hear a thing,” said Emma.
    “Hear what?” Jack said.
    “Thank goodness for that!” Maureen exclaimed, patting her heart with her hand. “Top secret,” she added. “The Chief would kill me if…” She took a deep breath and exhaled. Like someone who had just dodged a bullet. She stood up. “I gotta go.”
    Emma glanced at Jack and rolled her eyes. Then she frowned. “I can’t believe it, Jack. The victim is Santiago Gomez. The Mexican worker who is – I should say was – suing Curt Randall for unfair labor practices. He’s our client at the free legal clinic. Gomez’s cousin found his body this morning at the ranch. Now they’re holding Randall for murder.”
    “I just saw Curt,” Jack replied.
    In less than a year living in Blissburg, the East Coast transplant seemed to have met just about everyone within a thirty mile radius of the Blissburg plaza.
    “Hard to believe he murdered someone,” Jack