Corked by Cabernet by Michele Scott Page B

quite a resemblance to the dead man.
    “Is this your son? Jen?” Nikki made a motion like she were rocking a baby. She pointed to Iwao, then Mizuki, then this man she called Jen.
    Mizuki eyes grew big. “No Mrs. Yamimoto!”
    Then it hit. Mizuki was not married to Iwao. Now things were coming together. She did look too young to be this Jen’s mother, but he was obviously Iwao’s son, and if Nikki had it right, she wanted her to contact him. He should know that his father had been murdered. But what was this about Sierra Sansi?
    “Mizuki. What about Sierra?”
    Mizuki did a few more clicks on the computer screen, and there in a photo stood an unhappy, stern-looking Iwao, and this Jen hugging Sierra and planting a big kiss on her cheek.

Nine

    AFTER leaving Mizuki’s suite, Nikki sprinted back to the house. What did this new information mean? Things were already getting messy and she knew she’d have to befriend Sierra for some answers. Did Mizuki think Sierra was connected to Iwao’s murder? Sierra had found him initially, but she didn’t strike Nikki as a brutal killer at all.
    She stopped halfway to the house, breathing hard. The night air was crisp, and with only a sliver of a moon in the sky, stars twinkled like diamonds. She ran regularly but the day was catching up with her. Bending over with her hands on knees to catch her breath, she was caught off guard when she looked up. What the . . . Who was in her house? All the lights were on, blazing like headlights on a semi, and she’d been caught in them. Again—what the . . . She knew she’d only left the porch and family room lights on. Oh, no. What if Derek had somehow caught wind of all this and come home? No. That would be impossible. His flight was out of San Francisco at nine. Well, it’s true the murder had already gone down and they were being questioned around that time. Maybe Robinson had called him, or even Simon. He’d probably be pacing the floor and worried sick that she hadn’t shown up yet.
    She picked up her pace again until she reached the front door and hesitated slightly before opening it. There was a killer on the loose. But it was highly unlikely he or she would turn on all the lights in the house. Plus, even though Ollie didn’t have a mean bone in his body, the sight of him was pretty intimidating. The UPS guy still didn’t believe that he was harmless. What the hell. She walked through the door and immediately knew that it wasn’t Derek awaiting her. She recognized the woodsy scent of Allure by Chanel.
    It was Simon, of course, accompanied by Marco.
    “Oh, Bellissima, where have you been?” Marco rushed to her and held out a brandy snifter.
    “I see you two haven’t wasted any time getting comfortable.”
    “We knew you’d have the good stuff,” Simon said.
    “Give me a break. That mansion you live in has bottles worth thousands in the cellar, not to mention you could have gone into the warehouse for a nice bottle of wine.”
    “Sure, Snow White. Do you really think my mommy dearest left us the key to the cellar? And besides, we weren’t about to head into the warehouse with some bogeyman in the hood.”
    She rolled her eyes at him. Simon did have a point about his mother, Patrice. When the boys’ father died, she inherited the home and the boys inherited the winery. Patrice was not exactly mother of the year by any stretch of the imagination, and since Nikki had first arrived at the winery, she’d done what she could to chase her away. Eventually Nikki won that battle and Patrice was currently residing in Greece. Simon and Marco promptly took over the big house on the hill, while Derek remained in the ranch style he’d built by using the frame from an original barn that stood on the property.
    Nikki eyed Ollie standing over his dog dish, ground beef in his bowl. “I see they tempted you with the good stuff, huh, Cujo? Nice going, letting the riffraff in.”
    “He seemed hungry,” Simon said and sneezed. “I just