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.

NIKKI knew that the members were in their rooms. Some had already been interviewed. She had to finesse those member applications that Hayden told her about on the hike out of Hayden’s hands and now was the time to do it.

She knocked on Hayden’s door. Rich answered. “Hi, Nikki.” He shook his head. “We can’t believe this. Hayden and I are shocked.”

“Have the police already spoken with you?” she asked, figuring they had because she doubted Robinson would allow anyone who was a part of the S.E.E. group to spend any time with another member or facilitator until after they’d been questioned.

“Yes. It’s really unbelievable. First Mr. Yamimoto and now his… ” Rich fumbled for the appropriate term. “His other half.”

That was a delicate way of putting it.

“Would you like to come in?” he asked. “We were having a glass of wine, trying to digest this.”

“Sure. Thanks. That would be nice.”

Nikki entered the king suite. Like all the rooms at the hotel, this one was nothing short of pure elegance. It was a two-bedroom suite and had a fireplace, as all of them did. The room had been painted a soft peach hue, and candles were lit on the end tables. Maybe she’d interrupted something. Hayden was curled up n one of the chairs, wineglass in hand.

She turned as Nikki came in and looked about as tired as Nikki felt. “Hi, Nikki. Rich and I were sitting here talking about what happened with Mizuki and how horrid all this is. Even my father is completely shaken and nothing shakes him up.” Hayden took a sip of the red wine. She’d changed clothes since the wine-tasting event, where she’d had on an argyle-type vest over a white button-down and a nice pair of pressed jeans. Now she wore a pair of gray pajama bottoms and a T-shirt that read SANSI KNOWS THE WAY.

Rich still had on his khakis and button-down. The two of them defined yuppiedom from the nineties.

“Here, Nikki.” Rich handed her a glass of wine and sat down on the edge of the fireplace. “Have a seat.” He pointed to the empty chair next to Hayden.