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“But Jacob Channing inherited Channing Vineyards.”
“Yeah, sure. I guess. Look, I don’t really know. I heard that he and his sister inherited the business, and that he bought her out. Lowballed her, the rumor goes. I guess she needed the money. It sounds like Jacob, but really, it’s all just gossip and I don’t really pay attention. Like I said, ancient history. Who cares?”
Nikki wasn’t going to be derailed. “So no one thought you and Owen Duval were a couple?”
“Other than Owen? Of course not. And if they did, they were wrong.” She shook her head.
“So what about Owen’s friends? Guys who hung out with him. You said he didn’t have a lot. But there had to be some.”
“I don’t know!” she snapped, then seemed to collect herself. “I-I can’t come up with anybody. He’s still around, right? I heard he came back to Savannah, though God knows why. Maybe you should ask him.”
“Mom!” Kelsey’s voice echoed through the house, and Ashley closed her eyes for a second, as if she were fighting a headache as little footsteps pounded down the hallway. “Zeke’s sticking his tongue out at me.”
“Just a sec!” Ashley yelled back. “See what I have to deal with?”
“But he’s also spitting!” Kelsey burst into the room, Zeke a step behind.
“School can’t come fast enough,” Ashley admitted. Then said to Nikki, “We’re done here,” and ushered her out the front door, as if glad for any excuse to get rid of the reporter and her prying questions.
Something wasn’t right there.
Didn’t make sense.
She paused at the second building and thought about checking with Ashley’s husband, but the van was no longer parked where it had been and when Nikki rapped on the entrance to the building, she got no response. Instead she saw Ashley stepping out onto the back patio.
“Do I have to call the police?” she yelled. “That would be a little awkward, don’t you think, you being married to a cop and all?” She’d lit a fresh cigarette and dropped a pair of reflective sunglasses over the bridge of her nose.
No reason to push it, Nikki thought.
At least not yet.
But she definitely wanted to talk to Owen Duval, now more than ever.
She climbed into her Honda and checked the messages on her phone. One from Reed saying he’d be late and a second from Millie, which said only: Call me!
Nikki did, through the hands-free device in her car. “Hey, it’s Nikki,” she said, driving away from the house, the smell of the sea still lingering.
“Have you heard?” Millie asked in a rush. “They found another body.”
“What? Another body?” Her mind raced but before she could ask a question, Millie went on.
“Just this afternoon. A small one, a kid, up at Black Bear Lake. A fisherman came across it.”
“Is it Rose Duval?” Nikki asked, her mind racing. Was it possible the third Duval girl had been found? She drove past the construction site, this time flagged through without having to stop.
“No one knows yet. I just heard this through my source at the department. I thought Reed might have told you.”
“I told you, he’s tight-lipped,” she said, irritated that he couldn’t confide in her. A dozen questions came to mind.
“Where on Black Bear Lake? Who found it? They were fishing up there? Was the body in the water?”
“Whoa. Slow down. I don’t know much. My source just gave me the quick info and I thought you’d want to know. Metzger’s already on it.”
“That’s a surprise,” she said sarcastically as she turned toward the bridge.
“I know. I think he feels you breathing down his neck.”
He should, Nikki thought, but kept it to herself. “What else?”
