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

Zee hopped to it. “You got it, boss.”

Once Sun had cell service again, she checked in with Anita. “How’s it going with Mrs. Fairborn?”

“That woman has a very active imagination.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we publish her confessions and make money off of them?”

“No.”

“Boss,” she said, pleading, “this one has aliens.”

“No way.” She cupped her hand over her phone. “Send it to me as soon as she’s finished.” Reading Mrs. Fairborn’s confessions had become the highlight of their day. She’d once confessed to stealing a pool noodle and using it in a bank robbery that led to a night of debauchery with a male stripper named Chad. The problem was she never explained how the pool noodle played into the bank robbery.

Either way, the woman had missed her calling.

“You got it, boss,” Anita said with a giggle. “Also, Las Vegas PD called. They found the truck and the owner. It was reported stolen from a hotel in Trinidad on Friday. The owner was traveling and slept through the whole thing.”

“Surveillance?”

“All the hotel got was a black-clad male, medium build, who could steal a truck in under sixty seconds.”

“They targeted it for the Texas plates to throw us off.” She looked over at Levi. “Well, most of us.”

He winked at her. Winked! She could only take so much of that man.

“Are you worried about him?” she asked Levi after she hung up.

“Which one?”

“Either, I guess. Both.”

“Then yes.”

They’d made it back to the main road, so his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel eased a little.

“How are you to drive?”

“Fine.”

“Are you certain?”

“Don’t I look fine?”

He did indeed. “It’s just, if you need to take something for the pain, I can take over.”

“I don’t need to take anything for the pain.”

“I could’ve sworn I smelled whiskey earlier.”

He smirked. “I could’ve sworn I smelled wine.”

“Damn. Really? I’ve had a lot of coffee since last night.” Her experiment with Quincy was the gift that kept on giving.

“Unless your coffee was made with fermented grapes, I’d say the wine is still in your system.”

That was disturbing.

Just like she had with Hailey, Sun considered not telling Levi about her visit with Wynn, but part of her really wanted to see his reaction. To gauge it. She steeled herself and said, “I wasn’t going to tell you this until I had more information, but I went to see your uncle Wynn yesterday.”

He was so much better at the poker thing than she was. Instead of reacting at all, he stilled and kept his gaze laser-locked on the road. The only indication he even heard her was when the muscle in his jaw jumped under the pressure of his bite.

“He says he killed your uncle Kubrick.”

Nothing.

“Which is funny, since you told me you did it.”

Zip.

“Then again, half the town has confessed to that killing.”

Zero.

“Including Jimmy.”

That got him. He turned to her in surprise. “Jimmy?”

“Mind telling me why half the town is confessing to a fifteen-year-old murder?”

“My nephew, Jimmy?”

“The one and only.”

He cursed and turned away from her. “They’re all lying.”

“Including Wynn? The DNA test came back with a match. Wynn Ravinder.”

He looked down in confusion, then said, “That’s not possible.”

“DNA tests don’t lie.”

“But people do.”

“You have another explanation?”

“I already gave it to you. I killed him.” His tone was razor-sharp when he added, “He’s playing you.”

Sun looked out the window. “The evidence says otherwise. He’s requested to be moved to Santa Fe. The DA is getting it done as we speak.”

As though that answered everything, he leaned his head back, the barest hint of a smile lining his mouth. “Of course.”

“He also says he knows who Kubrick’s accomplice was,” she added, her stomach clenching at the thought. “Auri’s biological father.”

The stunned expression he turned on her made her take a mental step back. “Is that what this is about?” His reaction was genuine. Nobody was that good.

“He’s going to sign a full confession,” she said, testing him further, “and tell me who the accomplice was in exchange for the move.”

Her phone rang, the sound just sharp enough to cut through the tension.

“Hey, Quince,” she said, thankful for the interruption.

“You aren’t going to believe this.”

She sat up straighter and put him on speakerphone. “Try me.”

“Guess who got paroled a couple of weeks ago. And there’s no way this is a coincidence, boss.”

It took her a sec, but then it dawned on her. “No way.”

“Yep. Matthew Kent. Elliot’s father.”





16


Caller reported a suspicious man carrying