know. Not for sure.” Danny squirmed in his seat.
“Truth,” Toni said. “But there’s something else.”
“I don’t know for sure,” he said. “I just, I mean I’m wondering if…” His voice dropped to near-imperceptible levels. “…maybe my cousin knows something. About Marissa, I mean. He knew about me and Fairfield. I think maybe he even told Fairfield about me. How I needed money and all.”
“Your cousin?” Drew asked. “Who’s your cousin, Danny?”
“Ruben Montenegro,” Toni said. She didn’t know how she’d forgotten. Maybe she just didn’t put it together because Ruben was so much older than Danny. They were nowhere close in school. Ruben was Nico’s age, and Danny was in his twenties. “Your mom and Ruben’s mom are sisters, right?”
“Oldest and youngest.” Danny traced circles on the table. “Our moms don’t really get along, but when I wanted to get in the wine business, I went to talk to Ruben and he told me to go talk to Nico. Said Nico might give me a job or something.”
Was it Ruben all along?
Had Ruben killed Fairfield? Why?
Had Ruben beat up Marissa? How had he kept her quiet?
Drew was taking furious notes. “Did Ruben beat up Marissa Dusi?”
“I don’t know for sure.”
Drew glanced at Toni.
“That’s the truth,” Toni said. “But I’m getting all sorts of doubt all over the place. He’s not sure of much right now.”
All this was making Danny’s lawyer very nervous. Her emotional signature was like a pinball. “Detective Bisset, I don’t know who your consultant is, but I’d like to pause this interview to speak with my client—”
“No, I need to tell them.” Danny wasn’t finished talking. “I don’t know… I mean, he might go after her at this other place, you know?”
Drew turned to the uniformed officer in the room. “Get over to Hillside Rehab, and call the front desk right now. Tell them their security needs to be on alert. Park a cruiser in front until I can get there.”
“You got it.” The officer hightailed it out of the room, but Danny had more to say.
“See, I don’t know if Nico knows, but there’s a thing on that land that Ruben’s boss wanted to buy. And Ruben’s dad, he knew about it because he helped that weird old man build it.”
“We know about the caves,” Toni said.
“Okay.” Danny nodded. “So the story is, our grandpa was a bricklayer, and he helped build it and he told Ruben about it. He was already dead when I was born, so I didn’t hear it, but after Fairfield hired me to… you know.”
“Sabotage the Dusi winery?” Drew offered.
“Yeah.” Danny shrugged. “After he called me, I went to Ruben because I knew the guy was Ruben’s boss and all.” Danny kept his eyes on the table. “And Ruben told me about it, and he said that his boss needed that land and we were gonna help him get it, and if we did that, he’d have a better job for me at Fairfield’s place. Something with the wine and not just, like, fixing the tractors and keeping the equipment going, you know? I’d really learn about making wine.”
“So Ruben told Fairfield about the caves in the creekside land,” Toni said. “Then Ruben told Fairfield you needed fast cash.” What a dick! Who would hang their younger cousin out to dry for a piece of shit like Whit Fairfield?
Drew said, “And Fairfield hired you to sabotage Nico’s winery so he’d lose money.”
“Not like the whole winery, you know?” Danny said. “Just enough that Fairfield could offer him a bunch of money at the end of the season and he’d sell that piece of land. No one was supposed to get hurt. I told Ruben and Fairfield that I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt someone.”
“Did Ruben kill Fairfield?” Drew asked. “Is that where the blood came from? Whit Fairfield was beat up pretty bad before he was shot.”
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what to think.” Danny gripped a handful of his hair. “Did he borrow my truck? Yes.”
Toni and Drew exchanged a look. “Okay, when?”
“Ruben’s not that kind of guy,” Danny said. “Sure, he has a temper, but that’s why he doesn’t have a gun. He’s never owned one. He used to joke about it. Joke about how he’d end up in jail with his temper if he ever bought a gun.”
Toni’s gauges were swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Danny didn’t want to believe Ruben was guilty, but there was something giving the man a walloping sense