A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) by Darynda Jones

“Nancy, don’t make me do this.” She brought out her phone. “I’ve recorded this whole conversation. You’ll be arrested.”

“Then arrest me. I can’t quit.” Her expression was one of both fear and desperation. It suddenly made sense.

“Who else has you in their pocket?”

Her fingers tightened around her glass. “Someone a lot scarier than you.”

“You just told me you hadn’t altered any other tests.”

“I haven’t.” She stepped closer, pleading. “I swear to God, Sun. He just—I just do a couple of side jobs for him from time to time. Off the books. That’s all.”

What kind of side jobs would a lab rat in forensics do? “Who?”

Wetness gathered between her lashes. “If I tell you, I’ll be dead by morning.”

“I can protect you.”

She scoffed. “You can’t even protect yourself.”

“Nancy, you’re putting me in a very bad position.”

She put her glass down. “You do what you have to do, Sunshine.”

One thing was for certain. She was going to have to look into Nancy’s situation further. But for now … “I want the analysis you falsified destroyed immediately.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Then you and I are going to talk.” Sun walked up to her and lowered her voice, hopefully hampering anyone who might be listening. “And just for the record, I can be scary, too.”

Nancy nodded again, her hands twisting into knots.

Sun texted her parents to let them know she would be late getting to the hospital the next morning. Auri was getting out and she needed them there. They wanted to keep Cruz another couple of days, much to Auri’s distress.

She stepped out of her cruiser into the blinding light of the New Mexico sun. She’d gotten exactly three seconds of sleep, which could explain her vampiric aversion to the bright orb in the sky.

“What’s wrong?” Quincy asked her.

“It’s daylight.”

Quincy scanned the blue above them. “I believe this is the kind of daylight they call broad.”

She ran through every scenario possible last night about why Levi kept the truth from her. The law enforcement officer in her came to one disturbing conclusion: he was in on it from the beginning. But if so, why? And what happened?

He was just a kid, himself. Well, young anyway. He was only twenty when it happened. Had Kubrick tricked him into helping with the abduction somehow? If so, what event led to their falling out and subsequent fight to the death? And what in the bloody heck did Wynn have to do with any of it? Had he been involved as well? Was it a family affair?

Her brain had swelled in her skull with all the questions rolling around in there. On a quest for answers, she and Quincy found themselves at the state pen in Santa Fe. The DA had pulled it off. He’d gotten Wynn Ravinder transferred to New Mexico, and he’d done it in record time.

“I think I should go this one alone,” she said to Quince. “Wynn may talk more openly to me if you aren’t there.”

“That’s what you get for thinking, boss.”

She shook her head. “Don’t make me pull rank.”

“Don’t make me pull hair. It’s not very manly but it’s effective.”

They were shown to an office with stacks of files as tall as Quincy on the desk.

“He just came in last night,” an intake specialist said, rifling through the items on his desk for a file. He found what he was looking for and sat at his computer.

“Yes. Wynn Ravinder. He has quite the record.” He gave them a thorough inspection. “This must be really important to have gotten him transferred this fast,” he said, fishing.

“It is,” she said, not biting.

“I’ll have the sergeant bring him up.”

She tugged at the collar of her uniform as they waited in a small room much like the one in Arizona, only New Mexico clearly didn’t have quite the money they did. The metal table had been painted about a hundred times, each layer showing a different shade of the same neutral colors.

“Apple,” Wynn said when they brought him in. He eyed Quincy, then returned his attention to Sun. “You got my message.”

“Nope. No message.”

He seemed surprised. “Then why are you here so soon?”

“Questions.”

“Lots of questions,” Quincy added.

Suspicion narrowed his lids. “That’s going to have to wait. You have to get to Ravinder.”

She frowned. “You are Ravinder.”

“I’m not the Ravinder. I’m not Levi.”

She’d always found it fascinating how all the other Ravinders called Levi by their last name.

“Did you get my message or not?”

“No,” she said. The edge in his voice alarmed her, but she needed to stay focused. “Look, we got you transferred to get answers. It’s time to pay up.”

“That can wait. You need to get to him immediately. I thought that was why you were here.”

“I have a feeling you’re going to be getting a message soon, as well. From Nancy Danforth?” She stood and leaned over the table. “You lied.”

“Nancy?” he asked. He sat back in his chair, his silence confirmation.