Corked by Cabernet

Nineteen

ROBINSON looked as disgusted as Nikki felt. He had to be thinking exactly what she was: how could this have happened right under their noses? He was in the room now with the investigation unit that consisted of himself, a crime scene investigator, another homicide detective, and a few other people-Nikki hadn’t a clue what their roles were, but she knew to stay out of their way.

Nikki leaned back against the wall outside the suite trying to remain calm and not conjure up that image of Mizuki dead. Nikki now felt confident that whoever had killed both Iwao and Mizuki was involved with the S.E.E. members. It hadn’t been a deranged killer loose on the wine train. Nope, the killer was right here at the hotel and in plain sight. Why would that person seek out Mizuki?

If the motive was clearer as to why Iwao had been murdered, then the motive as to why his mistress was now being zippered into a body bag would also become clearer. But as of now, Nikki hadn’t figured out any concrete motives.

She figured Mizuki had had information that might have led to the killer and the killer had also banked on that and silenced Mizuki before she had a chance to communicate her tale in her native tongue. That had to be why she’d been killed.

Once Nikki had found Mizuki and placed the 911 call, and the police had first arrived, an officer went down to the tasting room, where the fun was still going on. He’d informed them there had been a death and that all the members were to go to their suites until someone came by to interview them. They hadn’t a clue as to what had happened at that point. Nikki figured at least one of them would have some idea, because one of them had to be a killer.

The members were all accounted for, except for Simon and Marco. Where in the heck were those two, and what if something bad had happened to them? She picked at her nails and worried herself sick.

Robinson came around the corner. “We need to talk.”

“Okay.”

“Not here,” he replied. His face drawn and unsmiling, he grabbed her arm.

“Hey.”

“Hey, nothing. Come on.”

She wasn’t about to argue with him. They went down the stairs and headed to the café. No one was there and they went back into the kitchen, passing the hanging rack of pots and the professional gas stove and oven. He finally stopped in front of the wood fire oven, let go of her arm, and turned toward her. “I thought you were hiring security,” he said.

“You suggested it, but no, I haven’t had a chance. I didn’t think this psycho would kill someone else.”

“He did.”

“No kidding. Why am I getting the feeling that you’re blaming this on me? You’re the cop.” She put her hands on her hips.

He crossed his arms. “I’m not blaming you, Sands. But here’s the deal. You run this place, and from what you told me, you coordinated this whole event. Okay, so I got one dead guy on a train. I’ve been working every angle of this investigation on Yamimoto, talking to everyone I can who was on the train that might have seen something. Then I got the CSI people on the train, and I can tell you the train company isn’t too happy with having to shut down a train and lose business. I thought maybe I had some decent leads, thought there could be answers there. I put myself out and asked for a little help from a friend, and now the dead guy’s geisha winds up corked to death on the bathroom floor. What up?”

She made a face at him. “What up? I don’t know what up. I’ve done everything you asked me to do. I’ve looked, listened, and told you everything.” She didn’t like his tone at all. “What up? God, why don’t you tell me?”

He rubbed his face and blinked a few times. “Sorry, this is not going to go well back at the department. I gotta take the heat for it. I know I asked you to help and you’re not even a trained cop. Hell, if we could get some support from all the taxpayers’ money, that woman in there might not be dead. I could have had a detail on this place.”

“Detail?”

“Trained officers watching.”

“Oh.”

“Man, I really thought that Yamimoto’s death was isolated. I even suspected Mizuki of killing him.”

“You did?”

“Yes. What I haven’t been able to rectify is everyone’s whereabouts at the time of his death, which I’ve narrowed down to be between eight and nine that night.”

Robinson looked tired. “What do you know about this Juan Gonzales cat?”

“He’s different and he did some business outside of the S.E.E. members with Iwao.” She didn’t want to tell him that it was Simon who’d initially provided her with this information. “He and Iwao did some king-fu-type movie together that Juan helped produce and distribute in the States and Mexico. But I don’t think the deal benefited Juan much. Actually this evening at the wine tasting, he made no bones to me about his feelings toward Iwao, and they were not exactly positive. Then he clammed up. Even got angry at me when I tried to pry.” She told him about getting the call from Derek and how it had interrupted her from further pursuing a discussion with Juan, but that she noticed him talking to Ruben Pearlman and they looked to be tight.

He nodded. “Good. That’s confirmation of what I’ve learned. There is a connection between the three of them. After you told me what Pearlman told you on the hike about his being involved in media and music production, I checked him out. I made some calls. Looks likeYamimoto, Pearlman, and Gonzales did that movie venture that bombed together, and Yamimoto took more money from these guys than he needed. Looks to me like Yamimoto was stealing money from them. I don’t have the full scoop yet, but I’m bringing them both in for a little talk. Any idea if either one of them went missing while this tasting event went down?”

“No. Is that when you think she was killed?” Again she couldn’t help thinking about Simon and Marco. Had they seen something and had the killer taken them out, too? That was too horrible even to consider. Damn, where were they?

“I think she was killed earlier this afternoon.”

“That would be far more feasible. It could have happened when we were setting up the tasting.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Here I was on the premises and this went down, right after I interviewed her. Or tried to.” Detective Robinson looked understandably distraught and angry.

“Did she give you anything that you could go on or even understand?”

“Nothing. She gave you more by showing you those photos of Yamimoto, his nephew, and Sierra Sansi. I tried to ask her about that and she acted like a deer caught in the headlights.”

“That could also be an angle to explore-Sierra and the nephew. Something isn’t kosher there.”

He nodded. “Yeah. You think you can talk to her?”

“I could try. I’ve hardly seen her at all since she found Iwao. Didn’t you interview her?”

“I did,” Robinson replied. “She was pretty shaky last night and I haven’t had a chance to talk to her today. It might be easier for her to talk to you than me.” He picked up the long pizza handle next to the oven and twirled one end of it. “Whoever did this wanted to be sure Mizuki wouldn’t be able to tell us anything else. This killer is cunning. He’s laughing at us right now, and this is the second time with the cork in the mouth. That’s some type of signature or symbol. My guess is it represents something you’ve already mentioned-put a cork in it.”

“He? You think the killer is a man?” Nikki asked.

“I do. Take Yamimoto first. The guy was taken out by slicing his throat. He had to have been jumped from behind and by someone strong. The cut is clean. I’ve talked with the medical examiner and she agrees with me. Then you have this killing here with the mistress. Granted, she was a petite thing, but the killer stabbed her with a corkscrew. Here’s the thing with that, again-you need strength and either he got lucky and hit the heart muscle or he knew exactly how to hit it. The cork is the icing on the cake for him to taunt us with.”

“It makes sense. So, you’re narrowing in on Gonzales and Pearlman?”

“I’m checking their background right now, and I’ll be questioning them personally again. I think they could even be in cahoots.”

“What about Kurt Kensington? Maybe he’s deranged enough that he thinks he could get away with it.” Nikki crossed her arms.

“You’re right. Everything I have so far on someone like him would be only circumstantial evidence. Maybe he’s a pro of some sort and knows it’s hard to build a case based on circumstances. This is a tough one, and now we have some serious safety issues. I need to talk with Alan Sansi. I can’t make him shut down his workshop for the week, but I’ll suggest it again. The problem is that I need these folks to stay around here. I can’t have them leaving Napa and going back home. Not until I’ve thoroughly interviewed them and checked them out.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Let me see what I can do about having an officer here at the winery. If there is a police presence, it should deter this guy from killing again. But something tells me he won’t. He’s done his job. He killed Yamimoto for one reason, which I will figure out, and he killed the mistress to make sure that if she knew anything at all, she couldn’t tell anyone.”

Nikki wondered. Robinson’s reasoning made sense. She hoped he was right that whoever had committed these murders was finished.

But Robinson had been wrong before.