He reached over and brushed the sleeve of my jacket with the back of his hand.
“After what I found out last night, I may not have a choice.”
“I thought you were playing poker last night.”
“I was. Harlan and Ali Jennings’s stable manager got up the game for a bunch of guys. He’s got an apartment above one of the barns. Ali came back from riding with Tommy Asher’s brother while we were playing. You could hear ’em a mile away. Guess they didn’t realize the windows were open and we were there.”
“Simon deWolfe went riding with Alison Jennings?”
“They hunt together. Simon rides with the Goose Creek Hunt now, along with Ali and Mick Dunne.”
“What were they talking about?”
“What else? Harlan and Tommy Asher.” Quinn shrugged. “Ali was completely flipped out about the money that’s gone. Simon was trying to calm her down. He told her she needs to keep her head, stay calm. Same with Harlan. Panicking is just going to make things worse for everybody.”
“What did Ali say when she heard that?”
“She sure didn’t calm down, I can tell you that. They parked their money with Asher, too. She sounded hysterical. Blames your friend Rebecca for everything.”
“I don’t think Ali can be—” I began.
“Can be what?”
“Nothing.”
A sudden gust of wind showered blossoms around us like we were inside a snow globe. I didn’t want to get into Harlan and Rebecca’s affair with Quinn.
He picked up a flower and held it between his fingers. “Can’t be objective about the woman her husband was screwing?”
My cheeks turned red. “That’s vulgar.”
“Aha. Then it is true?”
I looked away.
“Lucie,” he said, “I’m a guy. Sorry I’m not all touchy-feely, but I’ve heard the rumors about Harlan. Your friend was one good-looking babe who happened to be working for someone Harlan does business with. You didn’t tell me anything I wouldn’t have found out in a day or two over coffee at the General Store.”
“I didn’t tell you anything at all.”
“Aw, come on. Lighten up.” He put his arm around me and pulled me to him. “You know me. I don’t mean to be crude, but the fact that they were, uh, having an affair just makes it worse. People trusted Harlan. Now they don’t—or won’t until they get their money back.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder and breathed in his clean, outdoors smell and a hint of whatever detergent he used to wash his clothes.
“What if they don’t get it back?” I asked.
“I watched that press conference. Asher says he’s good for it.”
“Uh-huh.”
He pulled away from me. “What’s ‘uh-huh’ supposed to mean? You were Rebecca’s friend. You got insider information?”
“Nothing I know for sure.”
“Join the club. Nobody seems to know anything for sure. What do you think you don’t know?”
“I don’t think Rebecca stole the money Tommy Asher says she did. She’s a convenient scapegoat because she’s not around anymore.”
“Then who did steal it?” He watched me.
“Maybe there wasn’t any to steal.”
Quinn smashed the blossom he’d been holding between his fingers. “If that’s true, then you’re telling me it was all smoke and mirrors?”
“I don’t know for sure,” I repeated. “But I think that’s one possibility.”
“Jesus H. Christ, Lucie. Then nobody’s gonna get anything back.”
“Maybe not.”
We sat in silence.
“Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve had all the bad news I can take for one day.”
On the drive back to the winery he said, “I think your theory’s way off base about there not being any money. I told you what Simon told Ali last night. All everyone has to do is keep their head and it’ll work out. Simon ought to know what’s going on inside his brother’s firm. He would have told Ali the truth.”
“Quinn—”
“No offense, Lucie, but you said yourself you were just speculating. I’m not so naïve I don’t believe people are going to lose money by the time this shakes out. But hell, the market giveth and the market taketh away. Tommy Asher’s not God, though people have been acting like he was. Now he’s just human.”
“I don’t think—”
“Can we drop this, please?”
I saw the unmistakable message in his eyes. Go no further. I nodded and we finished the rest of the drive without speaking. How many people I cared about were going to lose money because they trusted Harlan and Tommy Asher?
It seemed to me the body count was still climbing.
Kit called when I got home just after five o’clock. I peeled off my sweatshirt and threw it on the toile-covered Queen Anne chair in the foyer. Across the room, Leland’s bust of Thomas Jefferson looked out from a lighted alcove. Jefferson knew what it was like to be broke. It was part of the reason he sold his personal library to the Library of Congress. He’d needed the money.
“The only thing harder than tracking you down,” Kit said, “is figuring out who’s lying and whose telling the truth at Asher Investments. Didn’t you owe me a phone call after you talked to the cops yesterday?”
I rubbed my forehead where it had begun to ache between my eyes.
“Yesterday got a little complicated.”
“I heard. David Wildman talked to your new friend Summer Lowe. You remember David? My Podland cubicle mate?”
A small shiver ran down my spine. Summer made it clear she didn’t want anyone to know we’d spoken together in the Capitol. How had a reporter from the
“What’s he doing? Following me around?” I didn’t mean to snap at her.
“Not on purpose, he isn’t.” Kit sounded surprised at the rebuke. “But every time he finds a new piece of the puzzle, the seat’s still warm because you were just there. In fact, you seem to be the connecting link to all of it.”
“Is that so?”
“Apparently it is.”
“Has David had any luck putting the pieces together?”
“Ask him yourself. He’s dying to meet you.”
“You could choose another expression.”
“What? Oh … sorry.” She paused. “He’s up in New York talking to people all day tomorrow. How about the three of us get together on Saturday? I’ll drag him out to Atoka and bring him by the vineyard. Maybe first thing in the morning?”
“Uh …”
“What?”
“It might be better if we didn’t meet here,” I said.
“Sure.” She sounded puzzled. “Why?”
“I think someone besides David might be following me. Why make it easy for them?”
“Good God, are you serious?”
“’Fraid so.” I told her about last night’s car chase after I left the Hill but left out the part about sleeping with a gun.
