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

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“But if Seabright is so off-grid, will Eli be okay? What if he’s out here alone?”

An unconcerned smile spread across his face. “That kid could weather a winter in the Siberian tundra. Seabright taught him everything he knows.” He thought a moment, then asked, “Do you think the attempt on Seabright’s life has anything to do with Eli?”

She’d wondered that, too. “I have no clue. We certainly can’t rule it out, though what one has to do with the other is lost on me. How do you know him?”

“Seabright? He’d come into the bar sometimes and we got to talking. On top of everything else, he’s a certified electrician and did a few odd jobs at the distillery for me. Got to know him a bit. He’d bring Eli around every so often.”

She ticked off the man’s attributes on her fingers. “So he was in Special Forces, is a certified electrician, lives off the land, and does odd jobs for distilleries and secret government agencies. A true jack-of-all-trades. How did Elliot even end up with him?”

Levi studied the road, if one could call it that, his expression a mixture of concern and contemplation.

“The fact that your friend is a mercenary does shed a new light on things. I just can’t fathom how. Or why.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” The truck dipped as they traveled over a large pothole and Levi’s jaw flexed in response.

“Can I do anything?” she asked.

He glanced over at her in surprise. “I think you’re capable of just about anything.”

A grin widened her mouth before she reined it in. “I meant to help. This is clearly painful for you.”

“Ah. Open the glovebox.”

She did, assuming there’d be a bottle of painkillers inside, but she only saw registration and maintenance papers and an insurance card.

“Underneath the manual.”

She lifted the truck manual and felt around until she pulled out an envelope.

“You can take that home with you. Keep it safe. It would make me feel better.”

“What is it?”

“My will.”

The deadpan she graced him with only made him laugh. In turn, he winced again, much to her delight. “Hey, you asked.”

“Are you planning on dying soon?”

“No, but plans change.” He said it with such finality, it stopped her from probing further, and they rode in silence after that.

She folded the envelope in half and stuffed it in her bag. It made sense that he’d have a will. He was now worth a small fortune. And the fact that he didn’t trust his family hardly surprised her, but why give it to her? Why not just leave it with his lawyer?

After a thousand years of solitude, Sun started singing “Oklahoma” in her head just to give it something else to do besides think about the man sitting next to her. The case—or cases, depending—gave her a headache. The possibilities were simply too vast, and until they dug deeper, there was no sense in speculating. She needed more solid evidence to form an official opinion.

They pulled up to a cabin Sun hadn’t known existed. No sign of a burned-out mobile home in sight. Not that she knew all of the small hunting cabins in the area, but this one was actually pretty nice. The exterior well-maintained and any fire hazards kept far away from the main dwelling.

“Is this Walden’s place?”

“Used to be. He built a hunting cabin but told me once he never used it and was thinking about selling. That was years ago. So either Seabright bought it from him or he’s renting from whomever did.”

After the team took up position, Quincy on the southeast corner and Zee on the northwest, Sun and Levi took the stairs to the porch. Sun stood to one side, and knocked. When they got no response, she knocked again. “Sheriff’s office. We need to talk to Eli about his uncle. Is he in?”

Still nothing. She tested the doorknob. Despite having three dead bolts, the front door was unlocked. She glanced back at Levi in question.

He shook his head. “He’d never leave it unlocked.”

A tingling sensation raced up her spine. She drew her weapon and eased inside. Small for a house but rather large for a hunting cabin, the interior was bright and airy with finished walls and a loft on one side. Large windows allowed for natural light to filter in through the trees when it could and solid furnishings graced a corner here and there.

“Eli?” Sun said, crisscrossing one foot in front of the other, her duty weapon in both hands at her side. “Your uncle Keith has been injured. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

She came to a small room under the loft. It was filled with the usual plethora of weapons one would expect to find in a hunter’s cabin, but it also had a TV and an Xbox that ran on a generator next to an outbuilding. There was also a small desk and a bookshelf lined with books. Fiction mostly, both kid and adult, but several textbooks as well on every subject from history and English to science and algebra.

“Has Seabright been homeschooling him?” Sun asked.

Levi’s expression would suggest he was just as surprised.

One of the books sat open on the desk with a pencil and notebook beside it. Elliot, or Eli, seemed to be working his way through Algebra Two. “Not bad,” Sun said, checking over his work.

Sun went to the back door and let Zee in. “Nothing, boss.”