Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,34
knew who she’d be talking to.
Ruben Montenegro was one of Nico’s peers, a skilled farmer and vineyard manager from an old Portuguese farming family who’d graduated from the same viticulture program Nico had at Central Coast State. They’d gone to high school together, and Nico had a lot of respect for Ruben even though the man had taken a job managing Fairfield vineyards two years before.
Toni spotted Ruben on the far side of the back patio at the Depot. He stood and waved her over.
“Toni!” He smiled and held out a hand. “You look great. It’s been a long time.”
“You too.”
He did look great. His dark brown hair was salt and pepper at the temples, but it looked good on him. He was clean-shaven and handsome. His collared shirt was open at the neck, and his sleeves were rolled up, showing off muscled forearms.
Toni sat across from him. “I don’t think I’ve seen you since your mom brought her Cadillac in.”
He smiled. “God, she loves that car, and it’s so old.”
“You tell her to hold on to that old girl. It’s a classic again. People are starting to look for them.” Ruben’s mom had acquired a 1977 Cadillac El Dorado with ridiculously low mileage and brought it to Toni to get it checked out. “It’s worth its weight just for the chrome and leather.”
Ruben laughed. “I ordered a couple of glasses of the Fairfield claret. You know I gotta show off a little.”
“I can have a sip, but I’m on a medication right now, so that’s all.” She waved her hand. “It’s no biggie, but I don’t want my mom to give me crap, you know?”
“I know how that goes.” Ruben reached for the two glasses as the waitress returned and ordered a cheese plate for them to share. He waited for the server to retreat before he asked, “So Nico said you had some questions about Fairfield? What’s up? You become a detective in your spare time or something?”
“I mean… kind of?” Toni shrugged. “It’s more personal. I’m just feeling some way about it because he was murdered right behind my house I guess. I don’t know.”
Ruben raised his eyebrows. “I mean… the police aren’t seriously looking at Nico, are they?”
“Oh yeah. They’re serious. Everyone knows they didn’t like each other, and Fairfield land borders Dusi land.”
Ruben waved a hand. “It was all stupid shit.”
“Tell the police that,” Toni said. “I think he’s their main suspect at this point. All the people who hated Fairfield, and it seems like they’re only looking at Nico.”
“Well…” Ruben shrugged. “Can you blame them? You know I respect Nico a lot, but the guy can go off half-cocked.”
“When someone is harassing him? Of course he can.”
“Nico blamed Whit for everything though. It was kind of overboard, Toni.”
“Was it though? I’m not asking you to talk shit about your ex-boss—”
“I mean, Fairfield’s still my boss. Or his estate is.” Ruben shrugged. “As far as I’ve been told by the lawyers, nothing has really changed. Whoever owns his estate owns the winery too.”
“So business as usual for you guys?”
Ruben smiled. “I mean, Whit won’t be butting in, which isn’t all bad, but other than that, all the same.”
“Oh.” Toni tried to get a read on Ruben, but his walls were pretty dense. There was something though… “So was he pretty intrusive?”
“Oh, not that bad. I mean, he was okay, but he really didn’t know much about wine.”
Ruben was holding back on something. There was a lot more going on between him and Fairfield than he was letting on. The tension emanating from him had gone way, way up. It was enough to make Toni’s skin itch.
“But you’re still in charge over there, right?”
Maybe Ruben had reason to get rid of his boss too. Even though they had a seemingly amicable relationship.
“Oh yeah. If anything, I’m probably busier now, but I’m sure they’ll eventually hire some kind of business manager and I’ll have to give my reports to them or something. Long term, I imagine whoever controls everything—”
“Any idea who that is?”
“None.” Ruben shook his head. “We weren’t buddies. He was a decent boss. Paid well. He could be a pain in the ass about the vineyard, but if I put my foot down, he listened.”
Toni didn’t sense anything untrue about that. “Huh. Good to know.”
“But we didn’t talk about personal stuff. I don’t think he had any kids, so it’s not like there are heirs. He came from money, so maybe his parents? A sibling?