White Cloud Retreat (3 page)

The two brothers sat quietly in the
office of Pellino Brothers Vineyard while one of them, Dante, dialed the
special telephone number they’d been told to use if they ever needed to
privately contact Angelo Rossi at his office in Chicago.

“Hello. Rossi Exports and
Imports. May I help you?” the young female voice asked.

“Yes, my name is Dante
Pellino and I’m calling from the Pellino Brothers Vineyard in Oregon. Mr. Rossi
gave me this number to call if I ever needed to talk with him about a private
business matter. May I speak with him, please?”

“He’s pretty busy right
now. I don’t know if he can take your call, but since you’re calling on his
preferred line, I’m pretty sure he’ll want to talk to you. We don’t get many
calls on this line. I’ll put you on hold.”

“Hello, Dante,” a man with
a strong Italian accent said moments later. “Nice to hear from you. How are you
and your brother doing with my special vineyard out there in Oregon?”

“We’re doing fine, Mr.
Rossi. I’m calling from the vineyard and I have my brother, Luca, listening in
on the speaker phone. You told us to never call you at this number unless there
was a major problem here at the vineyard that we couldn’t handle.
Unfortunately, a serious situation has developed and we need your help and
advice.

“Not a problem, boys. I’m
glad you called. You know I have five million dollars of the Family’s money
tied up in that vineyard and I don’t want anything to go wrong. That’s why I
sent the two of you out to Oregon from Chicago to run it for me and protect the
Family’s investment. All the phony paperwork that’s been filed with the state
shows that the two of you are the sole and exclusive legal owners of the
vineyard. Neither I nor any of the Family members are shown as part owners of
the business. That’s the way we want it in case the FBI ever comes after our
assets. Given the popularity of wine in today’s market and the huge increase in
wine sales and prices, we’re convinced there are millions of dollars to be made
in the wine business. We want to be in on the ground floor of it so we can make
that kind money. Plus, it’s a completely legitimate business that helps us
unload some of the excess cash we generate from our business operations here in
Chicago, if you know what I mean. Now what’s this problem you referred to
that’s so important you had to call me on my special phone line?”

“Well, this is the
situation, Mr. Rossi. For the past few years the production results here at
Pellino Brothers Vineyard have far exceed our expectations. The total number of
cases of wine we’ve been able to produce and bottle per acre of vines is way
above the state and regional average. We’ve been able to do this because we’ve
been using a lot of pesticides and herbicides that have been banned for use by
the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA claims these chemicals can cause
cancer and pollute the ground water. Also, one of the banned herbicides we use,
called Dead Bang, can cause a disease in grape vines called brown leaf spot. If
any of this particular herbicide comes in contact with the leaves on the grape
vines, the leaves turn brown and the vine eventually dies. I’m sure you’re
aware that your company has been secretly providing those chemicals for us to
use for a number of years. In fact Rossi Trucking Company delivered thirty
fifty-five gallon drums to us just last week. I don’t know how you get the
stuff, but I’ll tell you this, it works like a miracle and it’s the main reason
the vineyard is doing so well.

“Here’s the problem we
wanted to discuss with you, Mr. Rossi. There’s another vineyard located across
the road from our vineyard called White Cloud Vineyard. It’s owned by some
Eastern spiritual guy who teaches Zen Buddhist and yoga stuff to people who
come to classes at a Retreat Center located in his vineyard. He goes by the
name of Zen Master Scott Monroe. He came to our place last week and accused us
of using Dead Bang to control the weeds in our vineyard. He claimed it drifted
across the road and contaminated his vineyard, which, by the way, is a fully
organic vineyard. He doesn’t allow the use of any type of herbicide, pesticide,
or fertilizer on his property. Naturally, we denied using Dead Bang and told
him his problems must be coming from some other source.

“We didn’t tell him that
we’d sprayed our entire vineyard with Dead Bang about a week before this guy
Scott showed up to complain. When we apply it we’re very careful to make sure
it doesn’t come in contact with any of our vines. However, it was very windy on
the day we sprayed Dead Bang on the weeds in our vineyard and I suppose some of
it could have been carried by the prevailing winds over onto his property and
contaminated his vines. He said some of his leaves had brown leaf spot on them
and it must have come from our vineyard because the only thing that could cause
brown leaf spot on his vines was Dead Bang. He told us that in ten days he was
going to report us to the Oregon Depart of Agriculture for using Dead Bang
unless we provided him with positive proof that we’ve destroyed any and all
banned chemicals located on the property. If he reports us as he’s threatened
to do and the State officials do tests and confirm that we’ve been using
illegal chemicals, they can shut down our vineyard operations without even
having to get a Court Order. If that happens, we won’t be allowed to harvest
any grapes from the vines in our vineyard for a minimum of three years and
perhaps even longer. It will put us out of business.

“The reason Luca and I are
calling you is to see if there’s any way you can help us stop this guy from
reporting us to the state agricultural officials. I don’t know, maybe some kind
of a financial payoff might work, but from what I hear, the Retreat Center is
rolling in money.”

“I’m glad you boys called.
You’re right. It does sound like it could be a real problem. Let me do this. I
have a business associate who works for me by the name of Guido who has special
ways of resolving business disputes like this one. I’ll have him fly out to
Portland tonight. He can rent a car and be at your vineyard sometime early
tomorrow morning. Be on the lookout for him. I’ll give him some special
instructions on how to deal with the problem. I want you to cooperate with him
and do whatever he asks you to do. Got it?”

“Yes, thanks, Mr. Rossi.
We knew you could help us make this problem go away.”

“We’re home,” Kelly said in a loud
voice as she and Lady walked through the door. Rebel walked over to Lady and
sniffed her, making sure she hadn’t been mistakenly given a treat that had been
meant for him.

“Missed you, Babe. I got
home late last night and slept in this morning. Thanks for the note,” he said.
“That’s a long time to spend at the coffee shop on a Sunday.”

“Yeah, well I had a lot to
do. What with Scott’s murder, we both know it will be a zoo there tomorrow. You
know how people love to come to the coffee shop to gossip when something out of
the ordinary happens in Cedar Bay, and Scott’s death definitely qualifies as
out of the ordinary. We’ll probably be jammed from the time we open until we
close. I did as much as I could ahead of time. Charlie’s great as a fry cook,
but I thought we might need some extra things if tomorrow’s going to be
anything like the day after Amber’s death and Jeff’s death. Profitable yes, but
also very exhausting,” she said, taking off her coat and putting it in the hall
closet. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you yet about Scott’s murder. Do you
have any suspects?”

“No, not yet. This has to
be one of the most frustrating cases I’ve ever been involved in. Rich and I
interviewed everyone who was at the crime scene as well as the priests and nuns
who live at the Center. Dave and Joe interviewed the rest of the people who
were at the Retreat Center and there wasn’t a single person who gave any of us
a clue or helped us with the case in any way. It appears that Scott was
universally liked, loved, respected, and idolized. I hope when I go people will
be that adoring of me, but given my line of work, I doubt if that will happen.”

“If it’s any consolation,
I’ll promise to be that adoring.”

“Thanks, Sweetheart, I
needed that. Now that we have that out of the way, what’s for dinner?”

“A vegetarian casserole.
Don’t stick your nose up like that. It will be very healthy for you and as much
stress as you’re under, you don’t need to eat a lot of heavy, meaty dishes. They’re
not good for you. Anyway, I made one for Luke Monroe and took it to him this
afternoon to express my condolences. Since I was already making one, I decided
to make two, so we could have one tonight.” She turned away from Mike, pretty
sure that the disapproving expression on his face was intended for her.

“You made a casserole for
Luke, took it out to him, and expressed your condolences. How very nice of you.
Kelly, how many times do we have to have this conversation? You are not the
sheriff. You are not supposed to try and solve my cases. I’m the sheriff and
the cases are mine. I admit that you were very lucky when you got involved in
Amber and Jeff’s murders and helped solve them, but please stay out of this
investigation. Scott was a guy who was loved by everyone and as of this moment,
there’s not even one viable suspect. Do we have an understanding regarding this
case?” he asked in a very low, stern voice.

“Of course we do,” she
said, mentally crossing her fingers behind her back, “but what about the person
who kept calling him on his cell phone and then hanging up? I’d think whoever
did that might qualify as a suspect.”

“What are you talking
about?”

She told him about the
conversation she’d had with Luke. “And what about the fact that a lot of women
found Scott pretty desirable, even though he told me he was celibate. Might
want to follow up and see if any of them was a little too attracted to him and
became frustrated when their adoration wasn’t being returned. And what about
the estrangement between him and his brother? Did you know about that?”

“All right, I give. Sit
down and tell me everything you’ve learned.”

After she’d finished
relating her conversation with Luke, Mike called his deputy. “Rich, first thing
in the morning I want you to call the Retreat Center and find out from Scott’s
brother what phone company Scott used as a service provider for his cell phone.
Once you’ve found that out, call the company and tell them we need to have a
record of all the incoming calls on his cell phone for the past month. I put
his phone in the evidence locker last night. You’ve got a key. Evidently Scott
had a lot of hang-up calls recently. It’s a long shot, but considering we don’t
have anything else to go on at this point, we need to try it. I also want you
to find out from his brother, Luke, where the two of them grew up. Get as much
early childhood and family background information as you can from him.”

He was quiet while he
listened to Rich. “I think I need to look into Scott’s background. That’s
always a good place to start. Maybe somebody from his hometown knows
something.” He ran his hand over his face in frustration. “Right now we’re just
taking potshots at anything that moves, looking for something. See you
tomorrow,” he said as he ended the call.

“Well Miss Crime Solver,”
he said turning towards Kelly with a smile on his face, “do you have any more
brilliant thoughts regarding my case? And I almost forgot. I got about ten
hang-up calls today. Was that you?”

“Of course not. You know
I’d leave a message. Probably somebody kept plugging in the wrong number. Don’t
be nasty, but yes, now that you mention it, I do have a few thoughts. Many
people think Zen is some kind of a weird Eastern religion and generally
speaking, they don’t trust Eastern religions or practices. There’s a church
group that comes to the coffee shop every Tuesday at lunchtime after their
weekly Bible study meeting. They’re pretty much fire and brimstone Christian
believers. I wonder if they’d have any thoughts on who might hate a Zen Master
enough to kill him.”

“I’d like to tell you not
to get involved. I’d like you to stick to what you know best, cooking and yes,
there are a lot of things I’d like you to do and not do, but I know that’s not
going to happen. I’m sure you’re already thinking about the Tuesday group and
what you might find out from them. I’m not happy about you interfering, but
yes, I would like to know what you find out.”

“Got it, Sheriff. You’ll
be the first to know and maybe if we shared whatever information either of us
gets, we could solve this case faster.”

“We, and I repeat the word
we, are not going to solve this case. I am going to solve this case. If you
know something that might help me solve my case, I would appreciate it. Is that
understood?”

“Yes, sir,” she said
sarcastically. “Since that’s understood, time to eat. By the way, the wedding’s
less than three weeks away. A little less heavy food might be good for both of
us. Remember, all eyes will be on us.”

You’re wrong,
he thought
. All eyes
will be on you, not on a middle-aged man with a receding hairline who carries
about ten pounds too many on his body. They’ll be looking at your beautiful
black hair, porcelain–like complexion, and a figure women twenty years your
junior would kill for. No, Kelly, I’m simply an addendum to you, but a mighty
happy addendum. Just be careful this time if you feel compelled to do a little
investigating on your own. Now that I’ve found you, I don’t want to lose you!

*****

The man dressed in loose yoga pants,
a sweater, and a jacket, looked around the vineyard where he was standing and
at the White Cloud Retreat Center located a short distance away. Guess Scott’s
sorry now he got mad at me for pruning the vines a little shorter than he
liked. The dumb vines will grow just fine no matter how I prune them. Probably
not many vines where he is now, so he’ll just have to find something else to
criticize. He had to go. There was no way I was going to be the Zen Master as
long as he stayed here. It’s a good thing I don’t take my medications any more.
Zen Masters probably shouldn’t be taking antipsychotic medications. I never
needed that stuff anyway. Rest In Peace Mr. Big Shot Zen Master.